Getting Online
On this page you can read our Mini Guide to Getting Online. The guide tells you about the main things you should consider when you are thinking about having a website. It is written for people who are not familiar with all the jargon used by webdesigners, but we think also people who do know all about XHTML, hosting and control panels will find the leaflet useful.
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The two most important things to consider when you are thinking about having a website are:
- The purpose of your website
This might sound obvious, but all too often a website has been built before the reasons for having a website have been given some thought. So, what are your main reasons for having a website? Do you mainly want to be contactable? Is your aim to create a portfolio of your work, or are you hoping to sell your work as well? A good way of defining the purpose of your site can be to write a short mission statement.
- Your audience
Without knowing who your audience is it will be difficult to create the right image. Who are the people you hope will visit your website? What will they be hoping to find? And what sort of website do you want them to visit?
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After you have considered your reasons for having a website and defined who your audience is you can start thinking about the design and content of your site:
- Design
You will probably already have some ideas about the design of your website. You may already have a house style on which you would like the design to be based, or maybe you know existing websites which you feel are well designed. Before we start designing your web site we will ask you about your ideas for the design. But don't worry if you have too little or too much ideas, as the information about your reasons for having a website and your audience are often enough to come up various designs.
- Texts and images
You will need to provide us with the texts and images you want to go on your website. Although it is possible to do this after the design of the site has been done, it is usually better to do this beforehand. The texts, for instance, should determine which sections and sub pages are included on the site.
You do not have to edit images yourself, but we will not edit texts, unless we come across an obvious spelling or grammar error.
Also, don't underestimate the importance of well written texts: content is king.
Based on the above information we will start the design process by making a couple of designs as image files. This way you can see exactly what your site would look like online, while it is still easy to make changes to the design. When the initial designs have been done we will also be able to give you a quote for each individual design.
When you're happy with the design and the quote we could start the building work. While your site is being built we will regularly upload the work in progress to a special page on the Easy Openings website, so that you can see how things are going at any time.
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- Costs
How much an Easy Openings web site costs mainly depends on the size and complexity of the site and it is therefore difficult to give an estimate beforehand. But to give you an idea, for a professional website with five sections and about ten sub pages we would normally charge between £450 and £600. This would include:
- The building of the site.
- Hosting for the first year.
- A domain name for two years.
- A limited amount of maintenance (we will make up to five reasonably small changes free of charge).
You will also get full access to your website's 'control panel' from where you can, among others, manage your website, set up e-mail accounts and look at web statistics. As your host, we will give you clear guidance on how to use the control panel and also function as your personal help desk.
We feel our prices are competitive and would encourage you to shop around. Contact various companies, tell them what you have in mind and ask how much it would cost.
- Payment
We would ask for a first installment to be paid when we start building the site. A second installment would need to be paid once the site is up and running.
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There's quite a lot to setting up a website and chances are that the above information has brought up more questions then it answered. But we hope that the information was clear and that it will help you getting the most out of your website. If you have any more queries, do contact us. Consultation is free and we're always happy discuss your ideas.
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- Browser
A web browser is an application or program that is installed on your computer and enables you to view pages on the Internet. The most used browser is Microsoft Internet Explorer. Another popular browser is Firefox.
The term browser is also sometimes used to describe people who look at websites on the Internet.
- Domain name
A domain name, or URL, is a unique address where people can find your website. For example, our domain name is easyopenings.co.uk.
Domain names cost about £10 per year and are included in the price we will quote you (it's not a hidden extra). We can help you choose a domain name and will register it for you.
- Hosting
Your website will need to be stored on a computer system known as a web server. This server is continuously connected to the internet, making it possible for people to visit your site at any time. This is known as hosting.
Hosting is included in the price of our websites for one year. Thereafter we would charge an annual fee of £40.
- Maintenance
Most websites need to be kept up to date after they have been built; texts might need to be changed, images might need to be replaced, or maybe a whole new section needs to be added to the site. We happily make up to five reasonably small changes to any site we have built, free of charge. And we don't mind too much if a some extra work needs to be done. However, if a lot of maintenance is required then an hourly rate of £20 would apply.
An alternative for having us maintaining your website is to learn how to make changes yourself. Maintaining a website isn't necessarily very complicated. If you are good with computers and interested in web design then it is something you should consider. All our websites are hand-coded, which will make it relatively easy for you to see where you can make changes and which parts of the coding should be left alone. In most cases all you will need is a simple text editor such as Notepad or Wordpad.
- HTML and XHTML
HTML is short for HyperText Markup Language. This is the name of the language which is used to create a webpage.
XHTML stands for Extensible HyperText Markup Language and is the successor to HTML. It is more or less a cleaner version of traditional HTML.
- FTP
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a method of transferring files from a computer to your website (and visa versa). It's much like copying and pasting.
- Search engines
Search engines are websites used by people browsing the internet to find other websites. Google is by far the most popular search engine, but there are others, such as Yahoo and MSN.
Search engines visit websites and store keywords used on websites. When someone enters a keyword into a search engine it should present a list with websites using that keyword. For instance, entering 'BBC' should get you to the BBC website and entering 'Easy Openings' should get you to our site.
- Search Engine Optimalisation (SEO)
A terrible term. The purpose of search engine optimalisation (SEO) is to reach a top position in the search results of leading search engines such as Google. Webdesigners do this in a variety of ways: for instance by ensuring that the content of a website is structured correctly and logically, by writing texts that contain relevant keywords and by setting up links to your website. In particular the links are important; the more links to your site the better. And links from a popular website (a website that get lots of visitors) have more weight than websites that aren't that popular.
You can forget the term SEO, but you should think about getting links to your website - it will help people finding your site.
- Control panel
The control panel is where a website is administered. You use the control panel to upload webpages, to set up e-mail accounts, to view statics about how many visitors your website gets and well, much more. When we host your website we will give you clear guidance on how to access and use your control panel.
- Web statistics
Web statistics give you information about the number of visitors your website gets.
Finally, remember that consultation is free. If there is anything you would like to ask, please feel free to contact us via this website or on telephone number 01603 618185.
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