Do you need a website from a company based in Northern Ireland?
Well look no further.
Ebony media is here to take care of everything from start to finish or at least to walk you through some simple steps.
1 Why do I need a website for my business?
You may have a brick-and-mortar store that people walk into and so you think a website is surplus to requirement.
So some basic human theory that translates into a lot of web development and design:
People are lazy
Why is that relevant?
If someone wants a sandwich, they will more often than not google it and see where’s closest.
Meaning your competitors could be hoovering up your customers as they have a google map spot and an attractive website that has good user experience.
Everything is online these days and a butcher who has an actual menu and cart for the customer to use will always get more business than the one who has a form “enter details for a quote”.
So a website is not only essential, but one with effective user engagement and ease of use too.
2 How much does it cost to make a mobile website?
Included in the price, always.
If a web developer or agency tries to charge you for making it look good on mobile then walk away.
There’s no excuse for a site not to be mobile responsive AND good on tablets (which can be overlooked more than you think).
3 Do I need a website host?
Your website needs a “host” to be live. There are different versions of hosting but it’s best for you to have the domain name (website address) in your possession even if your web designer hosts it for you.
This is critical, we have had a couple of clients who come to us after they have been handcuffed to a useless web developer because the web developer owns the domain name. If the agency/developer buys the website address in the design process and doesn’t put it in your name or something to that effect in a contract, you are relying on their honesty if you want to go elsewhere.
You own the domain name and when people search that address, it redirects to the site at it’s hosted address because the domain name and the numbered IP address where the site actually is, are kept at two different locations.
You pay for the domain name and that domain name registrar charges you a yearly fee to keep ownership of it, usually $10 -$15 per year.
In English that means when you search for deliciousdonuts.com you are not taken directly to the site.
One of many servers will take your request, find what the actual address of the site it and redirect you to it.
So to purchase the domain name yourself gives you full control of it and if you fall out with your current website agency (it happens more often than you think) then you can have your site moved and you retain control and ownership of the website name deliciousdonuts.com
Though you would have to get the site copied/moved, it’s not an overly difficult or expensive task even if the previous, undesirable website agency is not co-operative. Especially if it’s a wordpress site, I could have a wordpress site re-hosted in less than an hour.
4 Should I use wordpress?
There are considerations – but most often yes.
Websites run on various languages which you shouldn’t waste your time reading up on unless you’re a web developer.
Basically you can’t really go wrong with wordpress. A fresh coded site is great but you will have to pay the developer for a lot of basic changes. Whereas wordpress has access to countless plugins which you can install over a cup of coffee and a youtube tutorial.
We would advise not taking this decision yourself and there are times we would make a fresh coded site. It’s all dependant on the user needs.
5 How to get my website get ranked on google?
Oh boy, SEO……..
(Search engine optimisation)
Yes you can get your website ranked on the first page of google but it will take time, patience and effort.
We write about good SEO practices here but here are some quick tips:
Write a blog on your site. You’re not a professional writer? Doesn’t matter, start typing.
Use H1 tags and good URLs
H1 tags are “headings” and it depends on your platform as to how to do this, it’s not complicated.
URLs should be relevant so make sure your blog page of “how to brew coffee” is written that way. For example “yourwebsite.com/how-to-brew-coffee” instead of “yourwebsite.com/how-to-brew”.
This helps search engines understand what the page is about.
Don’t keyword stuff. Don’t shove loads of keywords at the bottom of the page to get google’s attention, they don’t like that and your site will be penalised!
Make your site fast. When we launch a client’s site, we make sure it’s as fast as possible and set up correctly for SEO. Google likes faster pages and it reduces your bounce rate(how often people just leave your site as soon as they’ve entered it) because it’s slow.
All this can be a little overwhelming, if you want some help we can take care of it all for you.
Just enter your details here for a no-obligation chat.