Introduction
Featured in this video is Paul Levy from bestofthebay.co.uk, an online directory for local businesses in North Wales. He has joined us here at thetalkies.co.uk to discuss his views and information on the best of the bay website, also he shares with us some tips and advice for other website owners and directory owners.
Description
Paul Levy was interviewed about his online directory for local North Wales businesses, bestofthebay.co.uk, he told us about the website itself and how it is an online database which is focused on businesses around Colwyn Bay. He told us that many people have looked up all sorts of companies on the website, featuring unusual ones such as Glan Clwyd Hospital. So it sounds as though the website brings in visitors from all different areas with all different needs. He told us that they have created web directories for other areas of North Wales, and they then decided to open up a directory for Colwyn Bay as there must be some good businesses. And it’s to be focused on the best areas and the best businesses within Colwyn Bay, hence bestofthebay.co.uk. He also told us that there are some very popular areas of the website. Two of the main areas are the link to the Colwyn Bay Football Club, and there is also a live webcam feed from the office focusing on the streets of Colwyn Bay, which updates every minute, which has also been another popular concept of the directory.
Partial Transcript
The Talkies: “So Paul, can you just explain briefly about the best of the bay?”
Paul: “The best of the bay is an Internet web directory which is dedicated to Colwyn Bay. The idea goes back about 4 years to 2005 when, basically we specialise in Internet web solutions. We do websites, successful web directories for other towns, Llandudno and other parts of North Wales. So we thought why don’t we do one for Colwyn Bay after all, this is where we are. A lot of our business we found was coming from completely different areas. It was coming from Prestatyn, Bangor, a lot of websites have been other network activities, with different network organisations. So we thought why not do something for Colwyn Bay. There must be some good businesses in Colwyn Bay, in fact there are probably one or two really good businesses. So we thought we must do something and it’s called “Best of the Bay” and we’ll focus on all of the good things which are in Colwyn Bay, and all the positive things. From then its really grown from strength to strength we’ve offered it as a free service, because we believe in a free model. As far as the internet goes more and more things are becoming free I suppose it’s like Google. It offers most of its stuff for free, apart from the advertising. Best of the Bay has some advertising on the side, which does help run the server costs, and also makes a little bit of profit for us.”
The Talkies: “So apart from it being free, why should visitors choose to use your directory?”
Paul: “Well, as we know everybody uses Google as a first force of call, and throughout search engine optimisation techniques and methods. You’ll find that this things on our business, our actual site, and it does actually appear on the first page of Google. Lets say someones looking for something very simple, lets say a painter and decorator in Colwyn Bay. They type that into Google, and a lists on one of our sites is very likely to come up. From there hopefully they can find what they want, and they have a choice of people they can choose from, and help to keep the business local. Which is a great thing nowadays, trying to trade locally and thinking of the environment, keeping the number of miles everybody travels down. So it works well from that point of view.”
The Talkies: “I understand you have a speech tonight. Would you like to say something about that?
Paul: “I do yeah, I’m doing a presentation to whats known as “The Bay of Colwyn Business Network” it’s a new organisation. It’s also giving it’s searches for free, it’s dedicated to try and improve business in Colwyn Bay, so were all in the same place, and really we decided to join forces, join resources and I’m going in to explain to some of the members. I think there’s going to be around 100 people there representing 80 businesses I believe. So it’s a very good opportunity to explain about “Best of the Bay” and also to get across some of our services and how we could help people. Thats what it’s all about.”
