Why do I need a website

Can you seriously remember the last time you pulled out a big fat phone-book to look for a local service? I can't!

To be honest, I do everything online. I search for services, products recommendations and movie reviews using my computer or my mobile phone. I order my DVD's and find new music online. When I'm looking for a new local hairdresser I find myself looking for it on the web. I even found myself a vegetarian parmesan-style cheese online that I now religiously order every couple of weeks.

And that's pretty much why I love the web. It seems to make it much more possible for a less hierarchical interaction of people, companies and organisations.

Even if you're 'only' a one-person operation a good website to promote your business or your art can be invaluable.

It's like the business card or portfolio that can be continuously updated. Your customers and friends can recommend you by simply emailing your website link to their contacts, or even just by verbally recommending you with the assurance that people will always find your information online being totally current.

faq

A few things to consider when thinking about a website

What is SEO and do I need it?

In plain language SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is making sure that you get the key elements of your web pages right for the way different search engines look at your content. Google, Bing and Yahoo (to only name 3 popular search engines) will look at your website and evaluate the quality of its pages and this will affect your position in the natural search pages.

The key to using the search engines effectively is to develop an understanding about the type of keywords and phrases used by your customers.

Using the Drupal Content Management System you can be sure... Read more

Background / Code

We build all of our sites using Drupal, a "free and open-source content management system (CMS) and content management framework (CMF) written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public Licence. It is used as a back-end system for at least 2.1% of all websites worldwide ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and government sites including whitehouse.govand data.gov.uk. It is also used for knowledge management and business collaboration." (*Source http://en.wikipedia.org/Wiki/Drupal) Read more

Design

What is the best web design?

In our opinion, the best web design is the stuff that helps your customer to find the information they need straight away without looking at endless flashy pages. The sites we like are the ones that are so user friendly you don't actually even notice how easy it is to get around and find the stuff you are looking for.

Usability and accessibility are key elements for all of our sites. We want our sites to be easy to use (for your customers) and easy to update (for you). Read more

Think of your own user experience on the web.

Try to think about the information that you often find the most useful when looking for a business/product, service or event.

Some of the most common things we look for are:

Up to date contact details (including an easy to use web contact form so you can just post something from where ever you are without having to start up your email client, or WebMail) Read more

A professional website is a valuable tool.

Depending on what you do and what your needs are you might be thinking right now "well, I don't really need that much, a template website will do", only to realise months later, that what you have been trying to fit your business in doesn't really suit you or your business, and its simply to inflexible to fit your needs.

The great thing is that you don’t have to settle for a website you cannot control.

All our sites for example use a content management system (Drupal CMS) and once we show you how it works you won't want to... Read more