|
General
Introduction
What will my
web site consist of? How much will it cost? - The answer to
these question is "It all depends on what you require and what
your budget allows." We will custom-design your Internet
solution to accommodate the unique requirements of your
particular organisation. Normally, the cost of a website,
consisting of a number of web pages, will be established after
the planning process. Our standard charge is £55 per page
depending with the size of your site. The cost is subject to
the complexity of the site, the graphics that are involved in
its development as well as other variables and factors which
will surface and be discussed during the planning stage.
An average commercial site can comprise
of
between 15-20 web pages, while a small organisation will usually
require a site with 5-10 web pages. Sites normally contain a
Home Page, About Us Page, Contacts Page and Feedback Forms,
again this being dictated by the nature of the business and your
wishes.
As a standard, our website will include:
|
Page design & layout |
|
Illustrations, image maps and
photographs |
|
Logos, banners and navigation
tool bars |
|
Bullets, bars, buttons and
backgrounds |
|
Special type styles, fonts and
faces |
|
Additional optional design
features include: |
Animation - image, slide
shows, flash, swish, etc.
|
Online questionnaire /
e-form / feedback document, etc.
|
Visitor monitoring devices,
other utilities, etc.
|
Web page design is a complex
combination of HTML language, design, graphic manipulation and
marketing. It is not simple, as some would make out. It requires
planning and consultation.
Top
p
Design
Thought about a colour scheme?
We will build you an
outstanding site which is aesthetically pleasing, functional,
interactive, provides value, is easy to navigate and loads
quickly. Your site should be "fresh", so that visitors are
compelled to bookmark it and return often to find new and
updated content. Images and graphical elements should be
integrated to be appealing to the viewer and optimised for fast
browser downloading. As all our clients needs vary, each website is quoted on an individual basis.
Site
Marketing
Compared to the cost of press advertising
and printed promotional materials, running a website gives you
excellent value for your hard-earned money. If initially you can
only afford to invest in a small website with basic design
features, this does not present a problem, as we can incorporate
additional pages and features at a later date.
More fascinating, however, is
the unique flexibility that comes with marketing your products
and services on the World Wide Web. Unlike printed materials,
you can change and update the content of your web site whenever
you want.
So What Makes A Great Web Site?
These suggestions will help
you understand some of the requirements that contribute to a
well designed, appealing and successful website. Together they
can be used as the basis for a plan of action.
Make Your Visitors Feel
Welcome
A successful website is one that
makes your visitors feel welcome. By making your site
"customer orientated" not "company orientated", you
acknowledge the visitor's presence and empower the visitor to
willingly participate.
Have A Well Organized Home
Page
A home page should not only be your
"front door" or "shop window," but should also provide a
"table of contents" to your site. It should provide an
opportunity for your visitors to become customers by gently
guiding them along the sales path.
Make It Easy to Navigate Your
Site
Make options available so that your
visitors can move easily between pages. Provide an explanation
of where the link will take them. Make it easy to explore your
site, yet always have access to home and featured pages
readily available. Navigation tool bars and other linking
icons and graphics should always have text alternatives.
Actively Involve Your
Visitors
A successful website actively
involves the visitor in meaningful interactive activities.
Provide two-way e-mail, forms and other interactive features.
Feedback is essential! This also gives the customer a sense of
participation and allows them to be part of the process. Link
visitors to specific key people in your company, rather than
some anonymous "companyname @ wherever". The great appeal of
the Internet over most types of media is this unique
interactive feature. Use It!
Virtual Communities with Your
Customers and Suppliers
Successful websites use community
effectively. Be a responsible net citizen and understand the
total community of your wesite. It goes beyond the
traditional customer relationship of advertising. Carve out a
lead role in that community.
Top
p
Administration &
Maintenance
Maintaining a web site and
keeping the content 'fresh' for returning visitors can be a time
consuming process. Additionally, as the standards for Internet
protocol are continually revised with the increasing advances in
technology, it is important to keep abreast of, and be
knowledgeable in, these new developments. If you don't want to
worry about HTML coding, updates, enhancements, general
positioning review and content changes let us administer and
take care of your site for you, leaving you free to run your
business!
Click
here for our basic maintenance fees.
If you need further assistance, please contact us.
Hosting, Servers & Domain Name
Registration
Questions & Answers
Your web site needs to be on a fast web
server that is close to the Internet's backbone and connected
with large, fast, redundant connections. The servers should be
reliable with a minimum of down time for repair and maintenance,
and operational at an optimum level 24 hours a day, seven days a
week.
The web server should be
accessible for updates and changes to the sites content anytime
of the day or week and expert technical assistance should be
readily available should the need arise. We have close alliances
with reliable, professional hosting and service providers that
meet the above test. We can recommend one of these providers and
deal directly with them to get you on-line fast.
Basic services offered by a
service provider should include the following:
-
Internet Dial-Up Accounts (separate
from the hosting services).
-
Secured Server
-
Email accounts
-
Various hosting packages geared to your
specific needs
Statistics should be available to assist
your company track online trends and develop future marketing
strategies. These can include (but are not limited to):
-
the number of visitors,
-
their origin,
-
the time of day they visited,
-
and which pages were visited.
If you are unsure about what
is meant by a domain name, we have provided answers to some of
the more commonly asked questions click
here.
Promoting &
Positioning
Having a web site is not enough. It is
important to continually promote your site to reach your
selected target audience and the growing millions of online
users worldwide who use a varying degree of Internet search
tools. As the Internet grows and more web sites are available,
how your site can be found becomes the most important aspect.
In our approach we:
-
Develop keywords and descriptions in
consultation with you, the client.
-
Keep the highest level of communication
with you, the client.
-
Ensure we are results oriented – your
money will be well spent.
For our clients' web sites we offer FREE
first-time generic submission to the five major Internet search
engines & directories. Advanced promotional programs such as
site promotion, doorway page development, banner ads, reciprocal
links, search engine positioning, position monitoring, site
positioning enhancement and upgrade, etc. are also available.
Please contact us for more information
Top
p
Some things you
need to think about:
The Purpose of your
website - normally it will be to tell the world who you are,
where you are and what you do. but unless it is a general
interest site you will have specific themes that you will wish
to emphasise - think about these.
Your potential
audience - this will depend on its purpose, friends and
family, the business community or people with the same
interests. There are also some technical issues. Not all of your
visitors will have the high speed access provided by broad band
nor will they all use the same screen resolutions on their
monitors
Design issues -
you should think about the image you wish to create which ought
to reflect your business or organisation.
Keep it simple
make it easy to read
leave plenty of "white space" - not necessarily white - it gives
the site a more professional look and feel
use photographs
sparingly - they make pages longer to down load
some moving graphics can
make the site more interesting but to many detract from the
important stuff
Top
p
|