Here at Sizzle, we're focused solely on providing quality web design services to small businesses in Manchester. And that's exactly what we did for Read Associates. A true Mancunian crew (well Greater Manchester technically), the Salford-based team specialises in office partitioning and refurbishments, giving small businesses the kind of overhauls which bring their day-to-day work up to a modern standard... Very similar to our own business goals, except we always prefer work which doesn't involve heavy lifting!

Their new website can be checked out at ReadAssociates.com and features a wide range of wonderous dynamic features, from gallery functionality through to portfolio pages and a Content Management System, with an enquiry form giving visitors the ability to easily contact the business without having to email or call. And, of course, this is all backed up by a sleek graphical design from our award-winning in-house design crew.

For the best web design in Manchester, contact the gang here at Sizzle today - We've got mad skills!

We're back in the office here at Sizzle after a long, hard Easter spent basking in Manchester's glorious sunshine and catching up on our beauty sleep. We're well-rested, pumped-up, and ready to get cracking, providing the best web design services in Manchester. We've a new sales team member on board (the lovely Janet), a new internal project management system, and a fresh jar of super-strength coffee (ideal for hardcore web development grinds).

In tech news, we've been happy to hear about the EU making a full investigation into Phorm, the very sneaky and somehow-not-totally-illegal technology designed to inject targeted adverts into home users' web browsing. You can read more about Phorm on its Wikipedia entry.

There's also been a fair amount of hubbub over Confiker, the mysterious worm (a network-propagating type of computer program) which, it seems, is up to something mysterious. But we can't tell exactly what, since everything it does is majorly obfuscated. Its end package could be anything from mass-website-hacking through to less harmful (but still annoying) popup advertisements. Spooky stuff!

And finally, it seems we've dropped a couple of places in our bid for the elusive 'web design manchester' search engine ranking. Google works in mysterious ways, so it might be a while before we can figure out exactly what's happened, but we're working on it! Not that it's necessarily the end of the world - the site's getting more visitors than ever recently!

Our latest project for Amara Heating has now gone live, and can be seen at www.amaraheating.co.uk! This straightfoward site for the Bolton-based central heating installers was built solely to draw in leads, using our award-winning web design, graphic design and Search Engine Optimisation skills to create a highly-optimised page for Pay Per Click campaigns. Strategic use of Google Adwords and Analytics has given us the ability to fine-tune the PPC campaign, ensuring the minimum-possible Cost Per Conversion, giving the campaign the ability to draw in customers at an ever-decreasing cost.

If you run a small business and are looking for guidance through the mysterious world of online marketing, get in touch with us today on 0808 1433300. We'd love to hear from you!

We're happy to announce the completion of one of our biggest projects to date: The New Indian Ocean Website! Featuring an incredibly comprehensive set of features and functionalities, it's an all-encompassing bells-and-whistles bit of work featuring, but not limited to:

• Polls, giving visitors the ability to vote on issues relating to the business
• Newsletter functionality, letting visitors easily subscribe to the latest goings-on at the restaurant
• Image galleries featuring user-uploaded content
• User login and registration functionality with confirmation emails
• Online booking, giving users the ability to book tables directly through the site
• Recipe database with commenting ability
• News and blog functionality, ensuring that visitors remain up-to-date on the latest news
• Calendar of events providing quick links to every item, with full descriptions and photographs, along with reminders for logged-in users

..The Indian Ocean is the North West's best Indian restaurant, so it only seemed fitting that they were provided with an appropriately awesome website!

Congratulations to the Sizzle members involved in the completion of this project! You've done us proud.

You can check out the new, sleek site at http://www.indianoceanonline.co.uk

When we're not only cranking out the best website designs in Manchester or obsessing over our website Twitter feed integration, we love a bit of the ol' gaming here at Sizzle. Xbox 360s, PS3s, high spec PCs, we love the lot. But for some of us here, the Nintendo DS Lite has a special place in our heart. Basically, we believe it's the best handheld console that has ever existed! Small and perfectly formed (a bit like our Manchester web design studio) with a wealth of awesome pick-up-and-play games ranging from casual grandma-friendly learning games through to pistol-wielding shoot-em-ups (not that we'd ever condone the latter), the DS is pretty much the perfect mobile entertainment device.

Today Nintendo released the newest version of the DS console in the UK, the stupendously-named "DSi". It's the same as our beloved DS Lites, except it's a bit smaller, with completely superflous camera functionality and could-possibly-be-awesome downloading abilities. But it's hard to avoid the feeling that we're perhaps being duped somewhat. Yeah, the DSi looks nice and yeah, it's smaller and shinier and we're probably going to test one, but is it worth it? And we're not sure it is! There's no GBA slot any more so we won't be able to play all our favourite Gameboy classics like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, classic Mario Bros and Rhythm Tekungo in between building websites, and the camera is poor at best - your average mobile phone has much superior photo-taking abilities. And while the downloading tech might be useful in the future, right now it's pretty much useless.

Like everyone else we've met in the Manchester web design industry, we're suckers for new gadgets, so it's gonna be hard to resist, especially useful for the bus or train ride in to work. But until the price drops a little or Nintendo makes something truly awesome, we'll stick with our lovely Lites. And if you're a fellow DS fan and interested in joining us for a gaming session - you're welcome to swing by the offices, and we'll gladly whup you at Mario Kart!