Where do I start with a business website?

[Elkie]

Hi, I want to create a website to advertise my business but have absolutely no idea where to start! I gather I have to get a hosting company & a domain name but it's all so confusing. The choice of companies out there is vast & I don't know where to go or how to set the ball rolling. I only need a small website, nothing fancy & not necessarily with an online checkout but I am a graphic designer so I'd like to design something nice if possible (I've seen some places have quite dull templates!).

Can anyone offer me some advice on what to do next? :redface:

 

[BlazeWHMJames]

Well basically you need to find a suitable webhosting company to host your website obviously it beeds to be reliable so your site up 24/7 then you need to purchase a domain for you company. If you need help with finding a suitable host obviously I'm going to recommend my self at BlazeWHM give us a visit and check us out or give me a pm

 

[hongman]

Blaze covered it, but to expand:

1. Secure a domain name. There are loads of sites you can buy domain names from, personally I use 123-reg and GoDaddy, and they are both ok. GoDaddy is my preferred as they have better features (which you probably dont need to care about right now)

2. Web Hosting space. Again, lots to choose from. If you are going to use webmail, look for someone who offers free webmail access (so you can have me[at]mycompany.com) instead of using a free one.

3. Design. If you are a graphics designer, anyone building sites worth their salt will be able to take a template/design and any other ideas you have in something like Photoshop, and build accordingly - it may even save you money (depending on who does it) as they then dont have to think up and do the design aspect of it.

I can recommend specific companies for you if you wish, which are in no way affiliated to me, but of which I have experience dealing with personally (I run an IT Consultancy business, done this countless times).

 

[Experienced IT guy]

I would buy a web site from a local designer. Make sure your site is in your name and you have access and rights to all artwork used.

Ensure that SEO (search engine optimisation) is used from the start. There is not a need to learn the finer points of html or anything like that: If the web site looks nice, converys your message and loads quickly, has a facility for you to add content without going back to the designer then that part of the job is done.

What is a contininuing task is ensuring poeple you want can find your site. Here is a guide to free SEO tools

http://www.ava.co.uk/support/faq/si...eryone/free-seo-tools-to-get-you-started.aspx

Hope this helps

 

[rshosting]

I would suggest you to get your website ready with the help of good cms such as Joomla or wordpress.

Take a look at our affordable shared web hosting plans at http://www.rshosting.co.uk/cpanel-web-hosting

You will be able to start your website with our lowest plan. If you already have a domain then you can just start with the hosting, else you can also register domain name along with hosting package.

Further you can install wordpress or Joomla with just a few clicks with the help of auto-installers avaialble from our control panel.

Both joomla and wordpress have many free business templates available on web, and searching one will result your website to be extremely profesional, effective to visitors and moreover something that is extremely easy to get setup in minimum time..

 

[Elkie]

Thanks, the advice you've given is very helpful but is it better to find a UK based web host or does it not matter? What about the companies that offer hosting & domain names? I'm on a Mac by the way & have iWeb to design websites (if I go down the "design your own" route!) will that make any difference to which host I go with?

 

[Baz Watkins]

As everyone else had said, getting a web host and domain name is fairly straight forward. If you don't want the hassle, most website desigers these day will source the domain and web hosting for you, but will want to add a little to the price to make it worthwhile.

For the domain name go with either 123-reg or 1and1, and then choose whether you want a .com or .co.uk. If you can afford the .com then go with that (about £18 for 2 years), but the co.uk (£6.00 for 2 years) will be fine.

If you are not bothered about who you host with as long as its cheap, I'd go Siteground, they're US derived, but a bloody cheap, maybe the cheapest around for the quality of service they offer, which is high.

If you want a UK host, there's plenty of them around, but you will pay anywhere from £30 to £100 a year, so shop around for a good deal. Once again a web designer would be happy to do this for you, if they are not already an affiliate of one company or another.

As for the website itself, if you want a nice clean, functional site, that is simple to manage, go with Wordpress or Joomla. Both can be built on a budget, but still be prepared to pay £200 to £500 depending on the designer and the level of specification you want.

In the past I have done a 4 page Joomla site for as little as £200, but to be honest they are basic, but once again if you shop around, you can get quite a lot for a few bucks. Like everything else though, spend more to get more. £300 to £500 would get you something nice and easy to manage.

 

[Baz Watkins]

Just make sure your web host can handle the system you build your website with. Most will have no issue with Wordpress or Joomla, as they are pretty common. As for other systems, a quick phone call to a company you like the look off will quickly answer your question.

Building the website your self is great if a little timeconsuming and confusing till you understand things. Paying a designer will let you bypass all that, and if they use a content management system (Wordpress and Joomla are CMS's), they will usually show you how to manage any changes you want, so you can update your website as and when you want.

Thanks, the advice you've given is very helpful but is it better to find a UK based web host or does it not matter? What about the companies that offer hosting & domain names? I'm on a Mac by the way & have iWeb to design websites (if I go down the "design your own" route!) will that make any difference to which host I go with?

 

[Paul Norman]

Stop.

The first thing you need to do is to establish what you want to achieve with your website, how it will fit into your marketing and branding mix, what outcome you would like to achieve, and how much budget you are therefore prepared to invest in the project. Include in your planning design matters, and functionality

If the budget is sufficient, you then need to approach some professional website design and build company or companies, and work up with them a plan, a contract and a cost!

If you feel you cannot do step one, a decent company will work with you on that before you are committed to a price.

If, after your planning and thinking, you decide you would not risk any budget on a website, don't.

 

[Experienced IT guy]

Thanks, the advice you've given is very helpful but is it better to find a UK based web host or does it not matter? What about the companies that offer hosting & domain names? I'm on a Mac by the way & have iWeb to design websites (if I go down the "design your own" route!) will that make any difference to which host I go with?

Theoretically it does not matter: if you have a dot co dot uk extension, then the search engines (google) consider you a UK company and give you a better ranking locally (the UK). There is a feeling that hosting outside the UK can have a negative impact. Its not justified by Google statements at the moment- this may not be true in the future. What does have an impact is the speed of your site and if the host is half way around the world, this will have a negative effect on your ranking. A fast local (uk based host is best).

Traditionally companies use one ISP to host the "domain records" (these tell the world where your site is) and another to host the actual site. This means that if you have a copy of your site and you are unhappy with your host, you are free to move. There is no penalty for doing this because the domain records (a sort of postcode lookup) are copied automatically everwhere.

Cheapest is not allways best, there are some young companies out there that offer good value - better value than older ones.

If you browse this site you will find 3rd party endorsements for a few good hosts.

Hope this helps

 

[DPOM]

Hi, I want to create a website to advertise my business but have absolutely no idea where to start! I gather I have to get a hosting company & a domain name but it's all so confusing. The choice of companies out there is vast & I don't know where to go or how to set the ball rolling. I only need a small website, nothing fancy & not necessarily with an online checkout but I am a graphic designer so I'd like to design something nice if possible (I've seen some places have quite dull templates!).

Can anyone offer me some advice on what to do next? :redface:

You could always give us a try

www.rentawebuk.com

 

[DotNetWebs]

I would buy a web site from a local designer. Make sure your site is in your name and you have access and rights to all artwork used. ...

Agreed, All other things being equal I would advise buying from a local designer.

Regards

Dotty

 

[Deleted member 119645]

Try and find a hosting company that with their package give you a free url registration with their package. Also check out sites such as Hotukdeals for cheap hosting deals, some as cheap as £5 for the year.

 

[ebevington]

Not sure if you are still looking for some help on this but if you are then I can offer you some good cheap web hosting and if you would like to design a web site I could then code it for you which would cut your costs down or I could design and also code it for you as well. My prices are very good so if you want to have a chat about it please PM or email me at [email protected]

Thanks,
Emma

 

[DesignerNick]

If you are using a designer then ensure that the hosting and the domain name is fully in your name. Use an established web host such as 34sp or Vidahost.

Make sure everything like that is in your name if you use a designer, there have been a few times I have had to chase up previous designers / go to nominet to dispute a domain

 

[RX Host]

To most of my clients I usually recommend using WordPress as it has a lower learning curve than Joomla.

A UK domain and UK host will help your site in local search results in Google and should also ensure your site loads fast.

As others have said make sure the domains is registered with your details, or you won't be the registered owner.

There are some services that offer unlimited webspace and bandwidth. I would tend to advise you to avoid these as some of them badly oversell their servers which will cause you slow load times and possibly downtime.

Try and contact any ppotential host with some technical questions. You want to see how long their support team takes to answer and how comprehensive their reply is. Some hosts will mainly provide support by email so why not test their ability to speak in jargon free English too?

We usually take care of everything for a new client from design/coding/integration with wordpress to setting up hosting and giving them a domain for free.

If you still need any help or advice getting set up please do not hesitate to ask.

 

[ClicProject]

So you want a website to promote your business, some very important things to remember:

Getting the website built is only the first step!
You will need to promote your website. Just because it exists does not mean you will get any visitors.

Website promotion is an ongoing process and it can get quite expensive. You can attract visitors with SEO (search engine optimization), Pay per click ads such as Adwords, with social media, offline promotion, banner ads on related sites... the list goes on.

You need to establish some business objectives for your site: Who do you want to attract to the site? How many new clients do you need to make the project worthwhile?

I would advise that you contact a local company with a track record of successful websites and online promotion, who you can meet with face to face that can guide you through this process.

Of course, you can do it yourself, but its going to be months of reading, head scratching, hair pulling, mistakes and frustration before you get decent results.

 

[NextPoint]

A lot of the technical side has already been suggested here, but I thought to say that even before you start thinking about website design, templates and CMS or e-commerce systems, you should identify:

* What your goals are.
* How the website is to benefit your business.
* Your critical requirements.
* Your fancy requirements.

The last two points in here are what many people often get wrong. Knowing what your critical requirements are allows you to:

* Reduce your time to launch the website.
* Reduce your costs.

This is especially handy to know when you need to get your website online quickly and/or when you have a limited budget - it is better to have something that does the important bits well than to have something does everything not so well.

The fancy bits are those that can be activated later, but aren't critical to the website achieving the goals set.

Hope that's of use to you.

 

[4success]

Hi, I want to create a website to advertise my business but have absolutely no idea where to start! I gather I have to get a hosting company & a domain name but it's all so confusing. The choice of companies out there is vast & I don't know where to go or how to set the ball rolling. I only need a small website, nothing fancy & not necessarily with an online checkout but I am a graphic designer so I'd like to design something nice if possible (I've seen some places have quite dull templates!).

Can anyone offer me some advice on what to do next? :redface:

Hi Elkie
The first step is to Identify the key benefit your service gives to your customers
(use Google's free keyword tool)
Then choose a domain registrar to buy the domains you want (your name; company name and key benefit names) both .co.uk & .com (especially if you hope to create passive income from online sales) so you can control your brand
Then choose a Cpanel based hosting company so you can get professional emails like me (at) mybusiness.com The hosting company should be separate from the registrar to protect you from them holding you to ransom with a crap server or when they go bust. Hosting is not essential if you just want to interact with customers via facebook.

Google likes to see sites evolve so it is best to start with wordpress.org blog on your own site and gradually add frills after the site is profitable.
Some sites are dull, like Google & Facebook - for the very good reason that is what works because flash does not create cash.
Learn more about marketing.

 

[nikky12]

Well you may try

Outsourcing the work or check search engines there are free tools and templets available to change the look and feel of your website completely.

 

[jamespdavid]

nice information

 

[psoutinho]

Hi
I've just read an interesting article on the Real Business website Designing a website - 15 expert tips that might help.

Paula

 

[Wordfruit]

Since you're a graphic designer, I'm guessing it might be useful for you to do much of this yourself. Of course, if you're employing someone for the job, then trust is key, but still if you do get someone else to build it, I suggest you register the domain and sort the hosting yourself, so you have control of your files.

 

[pickaweb]

Hi,
If you are starting out I recommend just getting the domain name, web hosting and a website builder.

You can easily create a website and maintain it yourself.

That would be the cheapest option.

Go for a simple solution first and after you can always get a custom designed website.

 

[Digital Ark]

Easy option is to go to an organisation or individual who can supply a complete service i.e. web design (based on your brief), domain and web hosting. This takes away the stress and stops you having to become a web expert so you can concentrate on your business.