In more detail…
Domain name registration
One way of understanding domain names and website hosting is to draw parallels with the physical world. Think of your website as representing your organisation, the domain name as the address of your building, and the website hosting as the building itself.
Your choice of domain name should be memorable, easy to type, and unique. Ideally, it should reflect your organisation’s name, and the shorter the better. Download our FREE Guide to choosing a domain name (registration required) for information on choosing a good name, checking whether your choice is available, and tools that can help if your mind goes blank.
We will support you in registering your domain name with a well-established and reliable company. This service is part of the Hassle-Free Package.
Organising website hosting
We will support you in setting up your website hosting with the company that registered your domain name. They will provide space on a web server for your website, which your visitors can then access 24 hours per day. It is important that the server is available at all times and can cope with many simultaneous visitors to your website. We have used our chosen company for a number of years, and found them to provide reliable hosting with excellent customer service at competitive prices.
Their entry-level hosting service includes 5GB of data storage, 20Gb of data transfer each month, 100 email addresses such as admin@yourdomain.co.uk, a weekly backup of all of your website data, and statistics for how many visitors are accessing your website.
We would arrange hosting as part of the Hassle-Free Package. We can also develop a new website on hosting you already own, but it does need to have some minimum requirements for functionality.
Designing the style and structure
The first time someone visits your website, they will make an instant decision whether to explore it further or to leave, based on the design. So it needs to look good, and enable visitors to find out about your activities and key messages quickly and easily.
Good website design is part computer programming, part graphic design, but mostly research. We suggest you look at the websites of similar organisations, indeed any websites, and see what you like and what works, and what you don’t like and what doesn’t work.
We will have an initial discussion about your organisation and what you want from your website. Don’t worry if you are not sure about colour scheme or layout, as we can help you formulate design ideas. It is very helpful if you can provide most of your website content and any images before the design stage. We advise that your website is rich in content, as it is the most important aspect of your site. If you would like help with creating the content, it would happen at this point. We will then put together a draft design for your approval.
Our Hassle-Free Package includes design of a website with up to five pages. As part of our Bespoke Service, we can also refresh the design of an existing website.
Building the site
Once we have received feedback on our draft design, and your approval, we will build the site. When the build is nearing completion, we will upload it to a password-protected test website for comment. Once the new site has been approved, we will make it live.
Our Hassle-Free Package includes building a website with up to five pages. As part of our Bespoke Service, we can also add content and functionality to an existing website.
Registering the site with search engines
It is no good having a well-designed and content-rich website if no-one can find it, so you want your site to appear high on search engine results. We will incorporate what you consider to be key search phrases in the design, and will register your website with the major search engines like Google.
This basic service is part of the Hassle-Free Package. As part of our Bespoke Service, we also offer a more in-depth search engine optimisation service.
Website management and training
Your website will come with an easy-to-use Content Management System (CMS), which will enable you to update its content whenever you want. But we don’t assume that you will take this on without some support.
As part of the Hassle-Free Package, we provide a step-by-step guide to help you manage your new website, and one hour of our time per month for three months to make minor updates.
After the three months are over, we will charge for updates at our normal hourly rate. As part of our Bespoke Service, we can provide an ongoing support and maintenance service, if you need it, and personal training in how to manage your website.
Developing content
The content is the most important aspect of your website. It will engage (or put off!) your visitors, and will help your website appear higher in search engine results. It is helpful if most of the website text is provided in advance of the design stage, as this is where there is often a delay in website development.
We know that this is not always possible, so we also offer a service where we turn raw material about your organisation into text for your website. You would need to help us to understand your organisation, and what you are aiming for in terms of writing style and pages. Note that you do still need to provide the raw material. Costs would be higher if it is provided as hard copy rather than in electronic format.
This service would be an add-on to the Hassle-Free Package. As part of our Bespoke Service, we can also produce content for a new or existing website.
We can recommend a photographer if you would like professionally-produced images on your website.
Your next steps
Please contact us to discuss your requirements. We offer a free short consultation, and you may find our FREE guide A website brief in 8½ chapters (registration required) helpful in thinking about what you need. Once we understand your requirements, we will provide you with a free estimate.
ahoy@websitesahoy.co.uk
01392 491877 or 07794 505707