What makes a Good Website?

What should you look for when planning a website? Well we all know that tastes vary, but what doesnt vary are the basic rules of good website design:

1.) Clean Design. It is important to make sure that your website is not too busy, and things are laid out in a logical and easy to read manner.

2.) The website must be easy to navigate. If you dont have the navigation clearly visable, and in an obvious location, then your website visitors might get fraustrated and leave.

3.) You must be contactable. We often hear of people complaining about not getting any interest from their website. 9 times out of 10, when we look at their website, we discover that they dont have their contact details prominently displayed. This is super important, dont make your customers work too hard to contact you as they probably will just move on to your competitor.

4.) Make your website memorable. If your website looks just like all the other websites in your field, then why will people remember you? Make your website stand out from the crowd.

 

I want an attractive website...

DesignsOnline.co.uk hate ugly websites too. We love building beautiful websites, and would love to build one for you.

Take a look at our portfolio and you will see that we are the right company for you.

How to find a good hosting company

There are several factors to take in to consideration. Where the company you want to host with are based, what type of hosting account do you require: Windows hosting, Linux hosting, Cold Fusion hosting etc...

Why does it matter where the hosting company is located? Well if the company hosting your website is in America, then you will probably only be able to get support from them durring American working hours, often in the early hours of the morning for us when we want to be sleeping. Also Google and other search engines take in to consideration the physical location of the web server that your website is hosted on, and it assumes that if the website is in Ammerica your intended audience must be mostly Aemricans. Some people have found themselves not listed in the UK search results, because their websoite is hosted abroad.

What is their support and customer service like? If you choose a hosting company that is too big, then they are likely to just think of you as a number. They may not be so keen to keep you happy and answer your support questions as quickly as some of the smaller companies. A simple test to give you an idea of the companies willingness to support their customers, is to call their support line and see if they answer it, before you think about taking out their hosting.

We can recommend reliable and affordable hosting companies. Contact us for details.

How to choose a good domain name

Factors to think about when choosing a Domain name for a website. If your company is not a large well branded household name, then people are unlikely to be searching for your company name. If the company name is available as a domian name then you should by all means register it. You can then point it to your website as an additional domain name. However the main domian name for your website needs to include the main keywords that people are likely to be searching for. For example your southend on Sea Window cleaning company might be called "Splash and Sparkle" and you might register the domain name "Splashandsparkle.co.uk" however this tells Google nothing about your services. Nor would anyone see it and think that looks like a website about window cleaning...

On the other hand if you use the keywords that people are likely to be searching for in the domain name, then you will rank better in Google and people are more likly to select you from a list as they know staright away what your website is about. So for example a better domain name for the above company would be "Southend-Window-cleaners.co.uk". Then when someone goes to Google and searches for "Southend Window Cleaners", Google will know that your website matches what they are looking for, and you will be listed higher. Also anyone looking at the list of websites, maybe a wikipedia website might be in the list explaining to all the people that come from another planet what window cleaning is. There might be a website selling window cleaning materials, and one called "Splashandsparkle.co.uk", then there is your website: "Southend-Window-Cleaners.co.uk". Will there be any doubt in the minds of the people searching what your website is about, and what service you are offering? No. Which website will they choose? Most likely yours because it matches what they are looking for. Provided that you have your company name on your website some where, then if anyone searches for your company name in Google, they are still going to find your website anyway.

Try to avoid going for a domain name that is too long, people wont remember it, and they wont want to have to type it all in.

Can you redesign my existing website?

Yes we can. If you are happy with the text on your website (or some of it anyway) and just want to update the look and feel of the website to something a little more modern, we can help.

If you already have a clear idea of what you require then we can work to your breif. If on the other hand, you know that it needs updating, but dont really know what to do with it, then we can offer design suggestions and create a fresh new look for your website.