Web design and advertising
for small businesses
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Web Design & Hosting Information
Why would I want a web site?
A web site is a promotional/marketing tool that allows you to promote your business, hobbies and interests to a world wide audience. The Internet became popular in 1984 and since that time it has become the first point of reference for most people when they are looking for a product, service or for information on a myriad of subjects. A web site is available for viewing 24 hrs per day 365 days of the year, information can be acquired, and products or services purchased at a time convenient to the public.
The cost of buying a web presence is economical due to the fact that hundreds of pages of information or products can be effectively "advertised" and are continually advertised without the need to buy costly advertising space in newspapers, periodicals, journals and directories like the "Yellow Pages".
How do I do SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)?
Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site. SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.
SEO is one of those areas that many businesses charge a fortune for, and they will often cheat to get your ranking high for a very short period of time. It is also often made out to be more complicated than it actually is, but that is possibly because many businesses who offer SEO services do not fully understand it.
Generally, we recommend building an optimized web site, as the underlying code is looked at by google. As well as getting links to your site from other sites, the content that is displayed to visitors is important, eg google will rank you more highly if you have links to other useful web sites.
SEO is all about what google considers to be a relevant site when somebody types a search into google, and google has now developed to become very accurate at getting the right search results, hence it is the content of your site (what the visitor sees plus underlying code) that will affect how high your ranking is because this is what matters to the person doing the search.
There are a number of ways that a site can be optimized for search engines (ie google), both visibly and in the code of your web pages, eg the words you want to be found with have to appear as often as possible. I would also recommend getting as many links to your site as possible.
You can set up a google adwords campaign- you pay a small fee (eg 50p) per click through and your listing is displayed on the right hand side of the google search results. We do find that these work well with our clients and we can manage this for you.
Do I need to buy a domain name and hosting?
Yes. You will need a domain name and you will need hosting for your web site. We can provide and set up these for you. The cost of hosting including a domain name are in addition to the cost of web design.
A web site is a promotional/marketing tool that allows you to promote your business, hobbies and interests to a world wide audience. The Internet became popular in 1984 and since that time it has become the first point of reference for most people when they are looking for a product, service or for information on a myriad of subjects. A web site is available for viewing 24 hrs per day 365 days of the year, information can be acquired, and products or services purchased at a time convenient to the public.
The cost of buying a web presence is economical due to the fact that hundreds of pages of information or products can be effectively "advertised" and are continually advertised without the need to buy costly advertising space in newspapers, periodicals, journals and directories like the "Yellow Pages".
How do I do SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)?
Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user. It is common practice for Internet users to not click through pages and pages of search results, so where a site ranks in a search is essential for directing more traffic toward the site. SEO helps to ensure that a site is accessible to a search engine and improves the chances that the site will be found by the search engine.
SEO is one of those areas that many businesses charge a fortune for, and they will often cheat to get your ranking high for a very short period of time. It is also often made out to be more complicated than it actually is, but that is possibly because many businesses who offer SEO services do not fully understand it.
Generally, we recommend building an optimized web site, as the underlying code is looked at by google. As well as getting links to your site from other sites, the content that is displayed to visitors is important, eg google will rank you more highly if you have links to other useful web sites.
SEO is all about what google considers to be a relevant site when somebody types a search into google, and google has now developed to become very accurate at getting the right search results, hence it is the content of your site (what the visitor sees plus underlying code) that will affect how high your ranking is because this is what matters to the person doing the search.
There are a number of ways that a site can be optimized for search engines (ie google), both visibly and in the code of your web pages, eg the words you want to be found with have to appear as often as possible. I would also recommend getting as many links to your site as possible.
You can set up a google adwords campaign- you pay a small fee (eg 50p) per click through and your listing is displayed on the right hand side of the google search results. We do find that these work well with our clients and we can manage this for you.
Do I need to buy a domain name and hosting?
Yes. You will need a domain name and you will need hosting for your web site. We can provide and set up these for you. The cost of hosting including a domain name are in addition to the cost of web design.
What is E-Commerce?
E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. E-commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as Business-to-business or B2B.
E-Commerce allows visitors to access your web site, and go through a virtual catalog of your products / services online. When a visitor wants to buy something he/she likes, they "add" it to their virtual shopping basket. Items in the shopping basket can be added or deleted, and when they are ready to checkout they head to the virtual checkout counter, which has the complete total, and will ask them for their name, address etc. and method of payment (usually via credit card). Once they have entered all this information (which is being transmitted securely) they then just wait for delivery. Your business will be sent an email to tell you about the order and you ship the goods to the customer.
8 Reasons Why Really Good Web Sites Fail
A professionally designed web site is only as good as the business it is promoting. If you have not received enough orders to cover the cost of your web design, then here is where the problem may lie...
1. There is not enough choice- the customer is looking for a green biscuit tin, but you only sell red ones.. that won't go in their kitchen!
2. Your prices are too high. Try to keep in line with your competitors
3. There is not enough information displayed about each product, or images that clearly show your product
4. Your business should be contactable by phone, mail or email. Many potential customers like to contact you before placing an order.
5. Your web site has not been advertised- if nobody knows about it then it won't be found. As well as online advertising, you should include your web site details in your printed literature wherever possible
6. You need to remind visitors about your site. From experience, we have found that around 10% of visitors become customers, but only if you collect their details and keep in touch!
7. You need to have a reason for potential customers to visit your site over competitors, ie a unique selling point. For example, faster service or free delivery
8. The SEO information has not been set correctly for your site. Your keywords should contain a list of the products/services you sell- no more, no less. Many web designers, such as ourselves, include this as part of the web design process, but it is worth checking.
Can I move my site from/to another web design company?
If you have an existing site with another business, then you can transfer your domain name (web site address) to us providing that the business you are with allow this. We would generally redesign your site for a very small fee so that we can optimize it for google.
Should you choose to move your web site from us to another host, we will transfer your domain name to the new host until the next renewal date for the domain. The new business can then take over that domain name.
E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. E-commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as Business-to-business or B2B.
E-Commerce allows visitors to access your web site, and go through a virtual catalog of your products / services online. When a visitor wants to buy something he/she likes, they "add" it to their virtual shopping basket. Items in the shopping basket can be added or deleted, and when they are ready to checkout they head to the virtual checkout counter, which has the complete total, and will ask them for their name, address etc. and method of payment (usually via credit card). Once they have entered all this information (which is being transmitted securely) they then just wait for delivery. Your business will be sent an email to tell you about the order and you ship the goods to the customer.
8 Reasons Why Really Good Web Sites Fail
A professionally designed web site is only as good as the business it is promoting. If you have not received enough orders to cover the cost of your web design, then here is where the problem may lie...
1. There is not enough choice- the customer is looking for a green biscuit tin, but you only sell red ones.. that won't go in their kitchen!
2. Your prices are too high. Try to keep in line with your competitors
3. There is not enough information displayed about each product, or images that clearly show your product
4. Your business should be contactable by phone, mail or email. Many potential customers like to contact you before placing an order.
5. Your web site has not been advertised- if nobody knows about it then it won't be found. As well as online advertising, you should include your web site details in your printed literature wherever possible
6. You need to remind visitors about your site. From experience, we have found that around 10% of visitors become customers, but only if you collect their details and keep in touch!
7. You need to have a reason for potential customers to visit your site over competitors, ie a unique selling point. For example, faster service or free delivery
8. The SEO information has not been set correctly for your site. Your keywords should contain a list of the products/services you sell- no more, no less. Many web designers, such as ourselves, include this as part of the web design process, but it is worth checking.
Can I move my site from/to another web design company?
If you have an existing site with another business, then you can transfer your domain name (web site address) to us providing that the business you are with allow this. We would generally redesign your site for a very small fee so that we can optimize it for google.
Should you choose to move your web site from us to another host, we will transfer your domain name to the new host until the next renewal date for the domain. The new business can then take over that domain name.