This week we launched our new help section – getting started online. It features simple 1 minute answers to complicated questions about getting started online.
We understand that running your business is more than a full time job – and that setting up online can seem complicated at best of the times. That is why we have provided short, no-nonsense answers to all the big questions you may have.
Enjoy!
Responsive design, AMP pages, Web Apps, Progressive Web Apps, SEO and optimization, Schema, content writing, Social Networks, Pagespeed, blogs and vlogs. Confusing right?
What are they and do you really need them on your site?
Here’s a simple explanation of each feature to help you decide.
Responsive design means that your website adapts to fit the size of your screen. It allows your site to be viewed from any device from a large desktop PC to a tiny Smartphone. Essential
All websites should have been search engine optimized (SEO) by your developer from the go. This allows Google to understand your web pages, helping your site rank well in search. Essential
Schema is an advanced SEO technique that should be used by your developer to mark up your code from the go. Essential
Page load speeds are a big deal – users abandon slow websites, and Google factors in speed when ranking your site. Essential
If you want to rank well in search, you should have unique, informative and well-written content on your website covering your main selling points and products. Find out why content writing is important. Essential
Like content writing, blogging can increase your reach, and bring new users to your site. You should blog if you have useful content to share. For example product guides, events, latest news, industry commentary. Essential
If your business uses them, social networks should integrated on your site. Add follow links and like boxes to your site to attract new followers. Share buttons help to increase your reach. You can also add feeds such as your Twitter stream or Instagram photos directly into your website. Essential
The following are only beneficial in the circumstances outline below.
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are a very simplified version of your web pages for Mobile users only that load almost instantly when opened on the phone. AMP can help boost your visits from mobile users.
Generating AMP versions of your key articles is not essential, but can be beneficial if your website is slow loading, or your users are in an area of poor internet connection. Nice to have
A website can reach anyone, anywhere, on any device (phone, tablet, PC, even smart TV) – but only when they are online.
Native Smartphone apps are available offline, have an home screen icon to act as a daily reminder to the user that the app is there, and allow the App owner to send push notifications (alerts) to the user to generate interest and market products. But native apps are only available to Smartphone users who have downloaded the App.
PWA combines the wide reach of websites with the visibility, push notifications and offline availability of Native Apps.
Think of a PWA as an App version of your website that can be installed anywhere – Smartphone, tablet or PC. It is available offline, and you can send push notifications to users, for example every time you launch an product, publish a new post, or have a special offer on. Powerful stuff!
Consider PWA like having an extra marketing channel. It has extra set-up and running costs. To take advantage of PWA, you need to be sending regular push notifications to generate interest. A useful extra channel
Vlogs are videos shared regularly on your website – like a blog on film. They help you reach and relate to your audience, growing your follower base.
Consider making a Vlog part of your marketing strategy only if you have something interesting to do or say and have the time and resources to produce good quality video. Certain circumstances
Choosing the right features for your website will play a big part in your success.
If you have any doubts at all, ask our experienced team to guide you to the right choices quickly and efficiently so you can get on with running your business.
A web hosting is where your website is physically stored. Always let your development team choose the web host for the following reasons:
If you are happy with your existing web host, there is no need to change.
I would only change if your have found a better cheaper option, or your are experiencing problems such as downtime, or your website is running slow.
I have worked with them all at some point in the past and have mainly positive things to say:
Choosing the right hosting company will ensure your website runs quickly and continuously without downtime.
Our experienced team is here to guide you to the right choices quickly and efficiently so you can get on with running your business.
Themeforest alone has thousands of website templates and themes – some are superb, the majority good, others are poor. So how do you pick a good website template for your project?
As the best websites come from a collaboration between business owners and the web designer(s), I recommend one of the following approaches:
Either way IT’S A WIN WIN: you get a template to your liking but the designer always picks the final template, giving the getting the assurance of a reliable template suitable for your project.
If you choose the a website template, always consult a professional who can help you make the right decisions.
Our experienced team can guide you to the right choices quickly and efficiently so you can get on with running your business.
When building a new website, there are two options for getting the look you want: using an off-the-shelf template or asking your web agency to build a customized design.
Off-the-shelf templates or themes are cheaper and quicker to set up, but lack the customization, flexibility, branding and originality of a fully customized site. They are also bulky and notoriously slow.
Either route has its pros and cons. The right choice for your website comes down to budget and company image.
Themeforest is a great place to find a theme. Always check with your developer before purchasing a theme – some themes look great, but under the surface and they have serious flaws.
| Website templates | Customized design | |
|---|---|---|
| Set-up time | Quick | Medium |
| Branding | Restrictive | Complete control |
| Layout and design options | Restrictive | Complete flexibility and control |
| Unique | No – other websites that look the same | Your website is unique |
| Costs | Cheap | Can be more expensive |
If you choose the a website template or a custom design, always consult a professional designer who can help you make the right decisions.
Our experienced team is here to guide you to the right choices quickly and efficiently so you can get on with running your business.
A web designer can build websites and eCommerce using a CMS and usually optimize the site for search for search. A web developer can usually do all this and much more.*
Consequently hiring a web developer is more expensive than a web designer.
If your project is standard, get a good web designer will get the job done. For advanced projects with programming and customizations, hire a developer.
| Web designer | Web developer | |
|---|---|---|
| Websites built | CMS | CMS, hand-coded, web applications, advanced customizations, plugins |
| Programming languages | HTML, CSS, Javascript | HTML, CSS, Javascript as well as PHP, Javascript libraries (jQuery, Angular, React, Vue), Ajax, MySQLi |
| Other skills | Graphic design, SEO, web marketing | Graphic design, SEO, web marketing |
Your site’s success hinges on the ability of the development team you hire. Make sure they have advanced knowledge and a track record of delivering great looking websites with a proven results.
If you are looking for independent advice and a quote, contact us here:
* This post is aimed at website owners and aims to give a simple understanding of the similarities and differences be designers and developers so site stakeholders can make informed decisions. For the purpose of this post I am referring to front-end developers.
There are tons of free do-it-yourself website builders allowing ordinary folk to build their own website with little experience. Wix and Weebly are the market leaders in drag-drop website design.
Here is how you can decide whether to use a website builder or hire a professional.
Website builders are made to look super easy in Youtube videos, but it is never really that easy. If you go the DIY route, many templates rely heavily on stunning photos. So make sure you have lots of great photos and know how to crop them to size.
Realistically, if your project or business requires results, I would not touch website builders with a barge pole – trust your site to professionals who have been doing the job for years.
If you are going the DIY route, we have put the answers to all the most important questions in our getting started blog and here is are reviews of the leading drag-drop packages.
Alternatively, let us build a beautiful professional website that will exceed all of your expectations and deliver concrete results.
Contact us for a free consultation and quote for your new website.
Most, but not all websites are built with a CMS. Read on to find out if you need a CMS and how to pick the right one.
A CMS or Content Management System is a software commonly used to build websites.
All CMS come with an easy-to-use admin interface where you can add and edit website content and products.
CMS also have hundreds of useful add-ons (often referred to as plugins or extensions) that allow you to add new functionality to your site such as social buttons, shopping cart, improve your SEO, speed up your site add a gallery etc.
Your choice of CMS is largely determined by the type of website you require (eCommerce or standard website) and where you will target.
I would group standard website CMS into two categories:
Choosing the right CMS will make your life soooooo much easier.
If you have any doubts, ask our experienced team to guide you to the right choices quickly and efficiently so you can get on with running your business.
For practical purposes, most websites can be split into 3 general groups – websites, eCommerce (where products can be purchased), and web apps.
So what type of website do you need:
A CMS is the software commonly used to build websites. All CMS come with an easy to use admin interface where you can add and edit your website content.
Here’s how to choose the right CMS for your website.
Most eCommerce sites are built using an eCommerce-specific CMS such as Shopify, Woocommerce, Prestashop or Magento.
If your project is particularly non-standard and requires extreme customizations, an eCommerce site can be built from scratch or with a framework (i.e. without a CMS) by a specialized web developer.
Choosing the right type of website for your business is something you really want to get right first time. I’ve lost count of the number of businesses who have had to rebuild their site adding on an eCommerce.
If you have doubts, our experienced team will guide you to the right choices quickly and efficiently so you can get on with running your business.
Choosing the right domain extension is so easy, and yet so many new businesses get it wrong. It is one of the first decisions you will be faced with – and affects your SEO and branding: so getting it right will pays dividends.
Here is how to choose the best domain extension for your website.
Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) for example .co.uk for the United Kingdom are domain extensions created specifically for websites targeting the corresponding country. They are the best way to show users and search engines where your site originates. All things being equal, yoursite.co.uk will rank higher in the UK than yoursite.com.
General Top Level Domains (gTLD) are not country specific. .com, .net, .co and .org are the most popular. All things being equal, yoursite.com and yoursite.net rank equally well worldwide – as is confirmed in Google’s guidelines.
Here’s the simple rule of thumb:
Use a general domain to rank well world wide. Use a country code domain to target and rank well in a specific country.
Now lets look at the different permutations of this.
A country level domain is the best choice when your website is targeted to just one country. For example, a .it domain is best used for Italian websites targeting the Italian market.
Why? From a search engine point of view, a .it domain is ranked higher than a comparable general domain website in Italy.
A general domain is the ideal for business wanting good visibility around the world but without the budget and resources to invest in a language website for each country.
Why? From an SEO point of view, general domains are your solid all rounder that will perform reasonably well in every country.
Disadvantages – in a specific country, general domains do not rank as well as the country domain. So we do not recommend this approach for big business who want to target a specific country.
If you have international ambitions, purchase both your country level and general domain. If you only have 1 site, ask your developer to set up a redirect from one the country to the general level domain.
Why? Having both domains in the bag shows a strong sense of branding, and keeps your options open for international expansion at a later date. Anyone typing yoursite.it will be taken automatically to the yoursite.com and you will not lose clients. It also avoids businesses snapping up your yoursite.com and selling it back to you at hefty price.
Recommended for: small businesses without the resource to manage two separate websites.
Put your local language website on the country level domain e.g..it for Italian, and your English website on the general domain.
Why? You have the best chance to rank your language website in the country of origin, whilst the English language site on the general domain will rank well internationally.
Recommended for: medium sized business with resources and budget to maintain and market 2+ websites. As a rule of thumb, a business should have at least one person dedicated full time to each local language website.
Global brands such as Apple, HSBC and Starbucks all have regional websites on the corresponding country level domains for each country they operate. They use the .com to direct customers to their country-level domain.
Why? This is the best solution to rank well in each country. It also allows customization of each website to local tastes.
Recommended for: multinational companies with the resources and budget to run and market a website in each country.
Choosing the best domain extension can bring a flood of new customers through your doors. Our experienced, international team will guide you to the right choices quickly and efficiently so you can get on with running your business.
Your domain name is a fundamental part of your branding and will also influence your SEO. It is how thousands of customers will find you online.
The choice of domain name depends on if whether you already have an established company name or not.
Choosing the right domain name helps customers find you. Our experienced, international team will guide you to the right choices quickly and efficiently so you can get on with running your business.
(Owner Juicing for Health)
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