As you have probably noticed by now our new website has launched - read on to find out why we made the change and to learn about all of the new features that you can take full advantage of.

We are proud to have had such a trouble-free launch for our new website; we are very excited to show you the culmination of all our efforts. Our new website is more in tune with current online trends and is a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the old website, which was over five years old!

The new website was designed from the ground up to provide a much smoother and more pleasant experience on mobile devices. In fact every page will now adapt its formatting and layout seamlessly to your device and screen size. This was extremely important to us when designing the new site, as our analytics show that more people now access our website using smartphones and tablets than from desktop and laptop computers.

Hopefully the changes will encourage more repeat visits from you, our readers, as you can access our information more easily, on a wide range of devices, when you need to, whenever it is most convenient for you.

The new design also improves our website search engine optimisation, making sure our clients rank highly on Google searches. This should increase online exposure for our member businesses and generate a lot more interest and enquiries for them.

We hope that you will find the new format and layout a lot easier to navigate as well. We have gone for a more streamlined approach and a cleaner design, using more colour for clarity. We also realised that images are of paramount importance when promoting our clients, events and offers; accordingly we have improved how we display images, providing a better photo viewing experience on devices of all kinds.

We have also tidied up the sidebars on our features and articles (which now display below the main content of the page, if your screen is narrow such as on a phone), and adjusted where we place banners and sponsorships, again to improve your experience across different devices and screen sizes.

You will hopefully find the aesthetic and layout changes more visually pleasing too!

The navigation bar across the top of every page should now be a lot clearer and more obvious than before. Its colourful buttons will let you zip between the various sections of our website easily, without hiding information in pop-up menus as previously. For example you can now reach our index of blogs with a single click/tap on the 'News and Updates' button, instead of two clicks/taps like before.

The buttons across our navigation bar are, in order:

Business Guide - This is the directory of our client businesses, by category, with all of the information you need to learn about their products and services, get in touch with them, and read testimonial reviews by satisfied customers. The Business Guide has always been the main focus of our website, allowing readers like you to connect with our client businesses, and find exactly the products and services you are searching for locally. The new design of our website makes it more obvious that the business directory is our primary focus by listing it first.

A-Z Businesses - our directory of client businesses sorted alphabetically, so that if you know which business you are looking for, you can find them very easily. Each client has their own feature page with full contact information, a map, profile, social media links, reviews, news, events, offers and downloads. Alternatively you can search for a business using the magnifying glass icon to the top right of each page.

What's On - our renowned event guide, promoting all kinds of Guernsey events, from those hosted or run by our clients, to charitable events and local community gatherings. We need your help to keep this up to date, so please let us know if you are running an event that you would like us to promote - for free! If you are a local business and not a client yet, please consider becoming a member of thebestof Guernsey if you would like us to promote your events too.

Offers - we promote offers for our clients which you can take advantage of for big savings on the usual price. Leave a review for a Guernsey business and be in with a chance of winning £100 to spend with a great local business. If you don't want to miss the latest offers then please click the 'sign up for offers' button to be notified of offers direct to your email inbox.

About thebestof - learn all about us!

Join Us - click this button to read the comprehensive list of benefits you will get if you sign up to our website as a community member. This includes free entry into our regular prize draws, exclusive member offers, the ability to add reviews to our website, and to submit your events directly to our guide, and much more. As a member you can access your profile to view all of your submitted reviews and manage any events you have submitted.

News and Updates - click this to read our blogs about local events, our clients, plus our own updates like this blog you are reading!

Community Guide - lots of local information, from what the weather is like to contact details for local charities, clubs, associations, and more.

Recommend a Business - give us a review for a local business you would like to promote and give your encouragement to. Join our large community of satisfied customers, who have submitted over 18,000 reviews to date.

Add a comment below, or on our social media, to let us know what you think of our new website - hopefully you love it! Also if you think you have a Five Star business then apply now on our website to become a member of thebestof Guernsey, by clicking the banner on our homepage. Visit our new website's homepage at www.thebestofguernsey.co.uk.