Building a Website

[Cornish Knocker]

I'm planning starting a small business and want a decent website, that can be found via Google searches etc. I can build one myself with one of these website builder programme thingies, but that is where my knowledge ends.

Can anyone suggest a good firm that provide the whole package i.e a website builder, hosting, etc., etc. I have seen one or two advertised on the TV, like 1&1 and I know Vistaprint do them as well, but they seem quite expensive for what I need. Don't need anything fancy, but something that can be found easily enough on the net.

So if anyone has any knowledge or experience would be grateful to hear from you.

Many thanks :thumb:

 

[RobWalker]

what are you looking to do exactly? google rankings can be very expensive to achieve and maintain, there might be better ways.

 

[oldbloke]

1&1 host my email and one of my webpages. Never used their software to build it so can't say how good it is, but I think they have "make a shop" facilities in there.
Not sure if their pricing is good or not either.

There seem to be web designers on every 3rd street corner round here, one of them I know is good but he's not cheap.

 

[Titch]

I have built and had a few online shops over the years. Google is not an easy master . My cousin makes sites , how much budget do you have ?
Which cart are you using ?
If you want to pm me and discuss options for self build you can. And read up on Google webmaster tools

 

[TRXnMe]

Another vote for 1&1, I had a site with them for some time, cheap, reliable and with a bit of PHP / SQL knowledge easy to use as well.

They could have moved on since then, some of the coding was being automated when I had my site, that was around 5 years ago.

 

[Kinleycat]

I used moonfruit it's hosted in the uk, I think 1 and 1 is hosted in the u.s.

 

[ryanshelton]

PM Robster on here. He has done numerous sites including http://www.eastcoastsweepservices.co.uk/ http://bmsexterior.net/ and more recently www.chilstonbrewers.co.uk which is still work in progress.

:

 

[oldbloke]

I used moonfruit it's hosted in the uk, I think 1 and 1 is hosted in the u.s.

I was under the impression 1&1 is in Germany, but that could just be the European branch of a US company for all I know

 

[naturals]

I'd recommend 123reg - I use them for hosting and for domain name registration and have done so for around 10 years. I've never had any complaints - the technical support is excellent when you need it.

Regarding building the website, have a look at Wordpress and Woocommerce. If you have a basic level of IT knowledge and some imagination on the design side you can build an impressive looking site in no time. There are loads of YouTube videos on every aspect if you need help. Just be prepared to put a little time in so that it doesn't look too much like a standard template and you'll be fine.

 

[Jeltz]

I used moonfruit it's hosted in the uk, I think 1 and 1 is hosted in the u.s.

I was under the impression 1&1 is in Germany, but that could just be the European branch of a US company for all I know

well their email server is imap.1und1.de

 

[Robsta]

If your looking for good hosts then 3ix are cheap also 123 reg.
Then you want a free web program like wordpress or joomla.
Unless you actually want it coding from scratch which is where it gets expensive.

Word press is the easiest to use but joomla is more advanced it all depends on how much you will be updating them.

They both have Shopping Cart plugins

http://demo.fabthemes.com/viper/

Wordpress and joomla have some nice free templates to install and also have great plugins.

http://www.3ix.com

Excite Plan - 40,000mb (40GB) Space - 100gb Bandwidth
US$1 | UK£0.70 | AU$1.42 | €0.83 | SG$1.66
No domain name included cost $12.00 Annually

Extra Plan - 150,000mb (150GB) Space - UNLIMITED Bandwidth
US$3 | UK£2 | AU$4 | €2.48 | SG$4.98
No domain name included cost $33.00 Annually

Expert Plan - 300,000mb (300GB) Space - FREE Domain - UNLIMITED Bandwidth
US$5 | UK£3.25 | AU$6.71 | €4.13 | SG$8.30

Free Domain Registration on selected payment terms $55.00 Annually

Then all you need is an FTP program to upload the wordpress or joomla program.

As long as you can change a little bit of coding you will be fine, if you need help give me shout.

I'm more of a graphics man myself the websites i have done are with programs Joomla or Wordpress and just altered them to the person specifications.

http://www.nglettings.com/
http://bmsexterior.net/
http://www.eastcoastsweepservices.co.uk/
http://www.chilstonbrewers.co.uk

 

[Bopper]

I have a bit of knowledge, but it depends on a lot of things! Money, maintenance, login etc..If its just a to show products an no sale it would be possible for yourself to do? There are loads of free templates out there, its pretty easy to edit PHP etc when you have the basics...

I think its like £6 a yr for a .com domain name even cheaper for a co.uk, plus server space up to £50 a year depending on what package!

If you think your up to it i would download xampp and put it one a spare comp...this will give you some experience on writing PHP etc.


Richard

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

I used moonfruit it's hosted in the uk, I think 1 and 1 is hosted in the u.s.

I was under the impression 1&1 is in Germany, but that could just be the European branch of a US company for all I know

well their email server is imap.1und1.de

The laws governing privacy and security for your website will be determined by whichever country it is hosted in, and I believe that German web security & privacy laws are much better than those of the US or UK. I know some German-based web hosts and email providers specifically route traffic outside the USA because of the security risks associated with sending data through American servers. So a German company is likely to be preferable to a British or American one on that front.

 

[oldbloke]

Then all you need is an FTP program to upload the wordpress or joomla program.

FTP's been built into Windows since forever - unless they've taken it out in recent versions. It's in Vista.
Most browsers understand ftp: addresses too - ISTR being able to drag'n'drop using IE

 

[Cornish Knocker]

Thanks all for the replies, some great detailed info. I now need to sit in a darkened room and trawl through it all and see what I can come up with.

To give a bit more info, my budget is the less I spend the better. It is only a small part time business, with probably little profit in it, at least for quite a while to start with, so I need to work out the best way to proceed and as yet I'm undecided whether to go for it or not. After a couple of pints I'm all for it, come the morning, I'm not so sure.

Thanks again to all, much appreciated.

 

[peteoc]

if you need a basic website with just a couple of pages then this is a cheap option, when you start to add automated stuff it starts to get expensive.

I do the scripting behind websites as my designs look like someone dropped a pie, stood on it a few thousand times and then took a photo. I am not cheap either but I am willing to offer advice free of charge :)

If you can give a brief outline of what you want on the site and functionality wise what you want on there such as a shopping cart, email sending etc then I can give you a rough figure you're looking at.

Alternatively if you want real dirt cheap then there are websites where you can put your requirements on and people bid for the work - be warned certain eastern countries are crap and require you to be very specific on everything otherwise if you leave it up to interpretation you'll get the dogs dinner back.

 

[Maysie]

I use 1&1 for my company website and emails. Its a pretty basic website and uses their really basic package. The website was not one of their standard templates though as it was made specifically for me.
I would say that 1&1 are fine unless you have any problems, then I have found them very unhelpful and impossible to get communicate with. Their costs are pretty reasonable though when compared with others. The package I have does not allow Joomla websites to run though, so be aware that all things that should be simple are not always so straightforward!

If you plan to have an online 'shop' then I would suggest you get someone to do it for you, unless you are pretty familiar with what you are doing, as people wont have much confidence in a glitchy, poorly made website. Just my opinion. They will also have a good idea of which hosting package will suit you best etc.

If you dont know of anyone, then an advert on the pinboard of your local IT college should have 'cheap' offers flooding in in minutes.

 

[Robsta]

http://www.wix.com/

free websites with ads or they do a small business one witout ads for about £99 a year dead east to update as well

 

[stuey]

Have a look at www.create.net

I've had an ecommerce site with them for 5 years or so. Dead easy, wysiwyg, point and click and reliable. Really good tech support, uk based, should you need it.

Basic package with no shop is 2.99 a month I seem to recall.

Google search optimisation takes a week or so to kick in but it is very good. Doesn't cost any extra. Has kept me between positions 1 and 3 on the first page since I signed up with them.

 

[tim_n]

regarding google search engine rankings.

They are not expensive, they are free.

To get to the 'top' of the listings you need to make sure:

Your content is clear, easy for the spider to index.
Your content is updated regularly.
You only use content that is specific to your site.
Other sites that are similar in content/context link to you, these links are higher value to the spider if you are not linking back to them - it's seen as a recommendation instead of a reciprocal link - especially ones that have a much higher google page rank than you.
You use unique terms in your specialist area.

There are many free tools to help you optimise them. Google offers a statistics system called analytics and webmaster tools - get both of them, they're free and incredibly helpful.
Review what pages are used most frequently on your site and make sure you follow your market.

If you want to spend money on adwords, look around for free codes (you can get up to £50 worth occasionally) but be aware it's very expensive for little return imho and it's a short term fix to publicity.