Having a website for your business to serve as the digital shop window is a must-have for any business serious about digital marketing. There are numerous ways to build a website and all will work to a greater or lesser degree, however, to use the shop window analogy, you want to position your shop close to where the most people are going to look through the window, which means your site has to be visible. On the digital high street, it won’t matter how good your deals are if you’re stuck in a virtual back alley!
Web Design or Website Design – What is it?
Web design, also referred to as website design, are, at their simplest, terms used to describe the process of creating and maintaining websites.
A well built website is fast, SEO friendly and easy to use. Users need to be able to find their way around and get what they want intuitively and with as few clicks as possible an with as little delay as possible.
The site needs to be attractive, ‘on brand’ but still usable. So it’s a balancing act between making the website look as special as the business deserves, but not so much that the visual splendour makes it slow to load and as such likely to result in the user becoming impatient and leaving early.
Mobile Friendly Web Design
In recent years, the number of people accessing the internet via a variety of mobile devices (phones & tablets etc) overtook those using desktop devices for their browsing, so a modern website has to be mobile friendly.
For example, you’ll notice that this website looks a little different on your mobile than it does on a PC. The menu system compresses and the content is moved around to better accommodate smaller screens oriented in ‘portrait’ format.
Video headers are either replaced with static images or don’t automatically play on loading in order to save the user from having to wait the extra time for video assets to download on slower 3G and 4G signals as well as not wasting their valuable mobile data allowance on frivolous video content.
Mobile Friendly webs design is a must, so it’s important that your website dynamically adjusts how it works in order to best accommodate a massive array of different device types and screen sizes.
Web Design By Ninja Dropbear
I can build you a brand new website quickly and cost effectively and have you up and running in no time.
I typically use a ‘WordPress’ framework as it’s the overwhelmingly dominant platform on the internet, used by small businesses and multi-national corporations alike.
Additionally, WordPress isn’t owned by anyone and you’re free to use it whenever, wherever and however you please. If you’re considering using Wix, Squarespace or similar ‘easy build’ platforms, look at who ultimately owns the platform and you’ll realise that ‘your’ website isn’t really yours and once you come up against the limitations of the platform you’ll either have to accept what you’re given, or rebuild your website again on a different CMS. Which statistically is more likely to be WordPress in any case!
My approach is to keep it simple. The hardest part of having a WordPress website is getting started and that’s where I come in.
Having had a chat about your site and what you need from it, I can build it offline and once you’re happy with it, we can begin the process of getting it onto the internet.
First of all you’ll need to buy a domain name (the address – like ninjadropbear.com for example) and the hosting (renting space on the internet to keep your site).
I’ll help you buy both of these as opposed to buying it for you. The reason being is that the purchaser of a domain and of the hosting has control over them. It’s your business and your website so it needs to be you in control not me. I’m aware of cases where developers held clients over a barrel because they registered the domain for their client, have the passwords and as such have total control over their client’s domain. I’m not that guy!
Once you’ve got somewhere to put your site and a name to hang over the door, adding the WordPress install is straightforward.
You’ll need an SSL Certificate (which will be free from the hosts I recommend for you) and this will need to be applied so your site address will begin https (not http) and show the ‘padlock’ to indicate a secure site.
Once we’re at this point you’ll have a live site and I’ll show you how to add your own content to it. I’ll also go through some basic SEO best practice to help you understand how to make the content more likely to rank in search engines.
You’ll need a Google Local Listing. You may already have one, but if not, I’ll set that up for you and explain how to use it.
I’ll integrate your site with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools and, if you like, go through these with you (these are a little more technical, but I’m happy to explain them if you’re interested).
From there, it’s over to you!
Can I get ongoing support?
If you need a little help from time to time, I’m always happy to have a quick chat with you if you need a refresher, advice, or something fixing.
If you have a problem and I can log-in and solve it in 5 minutes flat, or give you a talk through on a possible solution, I’m not going to charge for that (unless you want to buy me a beer). If it’s a bigger job, however, then we might have to talk about a cost, but I’m not here to rip anyone off!
Should you wish to make changes to your site, add functionality etc then that’s also something I’m happy to discuss a budget.
If creating content is something you’d rather me do for you rather than writing your own blogs etc, then feel free to ask me about providing an ongoing copywriting service.
Get in touch to get the ball rolling and find out how I can help you and your business, giving you more time to do what you do best.