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Post by trappa on Apr 14, 2010 8:59:23 GMT 1
Hi. Creating a website is not something ive done yet, ive never really thought it necessary until now. Ive had a good look at a lot of yours and their is some cracking sites, real professional looking sites may i add. I was also looking for the links as to who did them - "mr site" etc. Who would you lot advise me to go with? Please take into account im a one man band and funds are always stretched. Thanks in advance trappa
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Post by ezkill on Apr 14, 2010 9:21:57 GMT 1
i expect you'll get loads of good advice, but have a look at this; www.krystal.co.ukbuild it yourself, use their templates etc, and cheap it may not be exactly what you want, you have to decide on what it is that you are looking to achieve, a presence on the web or the ultimate professional image, or somewhere in between, all according to budget really i'd be interested in seeing the replies, as it's something i've been thinking about
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Post by nick on Apr 14, 2010 10:46:04 GMT 1
Well my advice is pay a professional to do it. I know you can build your own, but you are portraying to be a pro. so act it and show it. Really it should be accounted for in your business plan and budget before starting up. Using a pro should remove spelling mistakes, same looking websites, SEO, yes these are skills you may learn, but you are a pest controller. My site started as a 3 pager in 2004, cost about £500 then was worth every penny I spent on it. But I expect the above will annoy people and I'll get the comments of it only cost me £xx or less.
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Post by ezkill on Apr 14, 2010 11:13:56 GMT 1
Nick, i was looking at your site before i replied; www.rpcwildlife.co.uk/and have to say it is very professional looking, in fact it is a professional web site very user friendly, easy to navigate round, easy to find what your looking for, all in all, a great tool for converting potential customers into customers but as people can see from other web sites it is clear that all some people want is a presence. horses for courses whether your reply annoys anyone doesn't matter Nick, your point is valid, and justified by your website
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furdy
Esteemed Member
Posts: 46
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Post by furdy on Apr 14, 2010 11:14:38 GMT 1
I'm just building a site for myself and I would agree with Nick.....
Pay someone to do it for you if you can afford it......What you do yourself will never come close to the results a web designer will achieve.
If you want to build your own and are going to whatever anyone says read plenty about site building BEFORE you start.
You need to make it search engine friendly and there is a little more to it than filling it with keywords. Try and avoid drop down menus as they are harder for engines to crawl. Links to other pages in your site should be text links in a natural order if possible.
Dont link via images as the spiders that crawl your site wont recognise them. Make your web copy user friendly before search engine friendly and make it interesting. I have heard rumours of pages needing to be a minimum of 250 words long in order to be indexed by search engines.
Good luck mate.....there will be plenty of head scratching and late nights.
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Post by tbf on Apr 14, 2010 14:50:34 GMT 1
What you do yourself will never come close to the results a web designer will achieve. Hmmm! open to debate... You need to make it search engine friendly and there is a little more to it than filling it with keywords. Try and avoid drop down menus as they are harder for engines to crawl. Links to other pages in your site should be text links in a natural order if possible. Hmmm! Not entirely true I have heard rumours of pages needing to be a minimum of 250 words long in order to be indexed by search engines. Hmmm! You heard wrong. Good luck mate.....there will be plenty of head scratching and late nights. I agree ;D
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furdy
Esteemed Member
Posts: 46
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Post by furdy on Apr 14, 2010 18:03:08 GMT 1
Illustrates my point well..... There is so much info available.......but which of it is right and which is wrong....... For us mere mortals its enough to drive you mad..... Get a Pro to build the site for you.....or TBF.....whoever happens to be closest at the time......
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Post by tbf on Apr 14, 2010 18:06:28 GMT 1
For someone new to site building, i do agree there is a mass of bullshit out there and you can spend a long time getting things wrong.
But if you find things work out ok for you, then stick with it, simples!
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Post by castlepest on Apr 15, 2010 15:30:06 GMT 1
trappa, email this fella, sean.cooper@onetenmedia.co.uk he is a friend of mine builds websites part time and really knows his stuff re website building and he is competitive. DIY site building can be as hard or easy as you make it but proper site building software makes it easier the big drawback is cost and you have to learn the software first. Then there is content, graphics, photos etc.
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Post by eradicator on Apr 15, 2010 19:16:53 GMT 1
we use www.names.co.uk/hosting.html we may not have the best site in the world but it works for us, we get between 550 -1250 hits a week on our site, i think most is from abroad and we get a lot of turned round quotes for our main business. we can alter our own site as and when we want, it was cheap and easy to build and i have no prior knowledge of web building, i have shown this site to many a person that would never dream of building their own and they have done the same as me and have not looked back. In our business we need to change pics etc most weeks and if we had to pay for someone else to do that for us we would spend a fortune. The advantage we have, is that if we get stuck there is someone at the end of a phone that talks us through the problem for as long as it takes and it costs no more, also they talk to you as a person and not a muppett.
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Post by tbf on Apr 15, 2010 19:49:22 GMT 1
550 - 1250 hits?
Does this mean unique visitors, or "hits"?
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Post by eradicator on Apr 15, 2010 20:12:14 GMT 1
all i know is our counter rises by that amount each week i presume that it is the number of people that views our site as per the counter on view to any visitor, but no doubt you will enlighten me as to which it is as you know more about these things than me. Please also remember that i am not talking local pest control visits cos we don't do that much any more, even though a lot of our pestie inquiries do come in after the customer has visited our site,
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Post by tbf on Apr 15, 2010 20:26:49 GMT 1
Ah i see, the hit counter on your site!
Its reading 13,323 at the moment, i presume that this has been counting since you first started your site?
How long has your site been going? You can then work out a yearly count, monthly etc...
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Post by eradicator on Apr 15, 2010 20:58:49 GMT 1
counter has been on there for 24 weeks as below but the numbers only started to rise after we had a conversation a while back and i changed a few things within the host company, and so as you will see the numbers really only started in week 14 these numbers are the true readings from the counter. thats all i know in fact i had i wrong cos i only went by memory the highest was 1217 not 1250 (now i will stand in the corner for ten minutes) this week so far i have had 604 (averages out at a decent 532.96 a week so far quite where .96 of a visit comes from i dont know but it is an average remember) week 24 560 week 23 814 week 22 1033 week 21 418 week 20 454 week 19 1217 week 18 514 week 17 415 week 46 336 week 15 420 week 14 1166 week 13 225 week 12 536 week 11 237 week 10 355 week 9 272 week 8 419 week 7 341 week 6 243 week 5 616 week 4 120
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Post by tbf on Apr 15, 2010 21:24:38 GMT 1
If you would like to monitor your site in more depth, look into google anylitics
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