The 3 steps to owning a website

The question I get most from potential clients is : What exactly do I need to have a website.

To break it down, these are the steps to having a website from zero to hero..

This is a very basic and general breakdown of what one needs to own a website, for more info please contact me with any questions you have.

dordogne-design-starting-a-website

1] A catchy domain name that is somewhat relevant to what your new website will be about, for example if you offer “Welding” services in the Dordogne, then a name like dordogneweldingservices.com would be a lot better than williamthewelder.com – There are a lot of domain extensions to choose from, for example .com, .info, .org etc.. personally I [still ] prefer the .com –

A domain name will cost you about $15/ Euro a year.

note: some hosting companies offer a FREE domain when purchasing a hosting package. I strongly recommend you do NOT choose a domain name that you want to use as your primary / main domain name. I also recommend seperating your domain name seperate from your hosting – for example purchase your domain name from example 1and1 and your hosting from for example InMotionHosting.

 
2] Now you have a domain name, you will need to find a Hosting Company to host your website – There are tons to choose from, i strongly suggest you using a company that can be reached 24 / 7 by phone / chat and email –

Price of hosting just a single site can vary from 60 Euro – 100 Euro a year

 
3] Now you have a domain and hosting, you can get started with your site. You can either do this yourself, or you can have a web designer do it for you. Personally I would strongly using a platform such as WordPress that can be designed / changed on the fly from anywhere with an internet connection, no software needed

Now you have a website, you will have to work hard and spend time to make sure that if someone is looking for a welder in the Dordogne, that your site comes up preferably on the 1st page of the search engine.

Why Having a Free Business Website is a Bad Idea and very unprofessional

As the saying goes, “The best things in life are free..” however there are a few exceptions to this rule, and one of them is definitely using a so called “Free Website” to promote your business.

Dordogne Design - free

Would you give a potential client a ripped piece of paper with your details written on it, and call it a business card? – If so, continue using a Free Website.

Let’s be honest, if it was a good idea, everyone would be using one. If you are serious about your business, then don’t use a Free Website service.

Remember any professional website can and should at least pay for itself, which means it’s free, and if you spend time on it, it can even make you money.

Here are quite a few reasons why you should never use a Free Website to promote your business.

  • Unprofessional web address
    Believe it or not, but the name of a business website is very important, and can either attract customers, or turn them away.
    If you are looking for a business online, which one of these are you more likely to contact – www.mybusiness.com OR www.mybusiness.freewebsiteforever.com –

 

  • Terrible for search engines
    Search engines do NOT like mass produced Free Websites, so you are already losing potential customers, costing you money, now suddenly your Free Website is not so Free anymore..
    You will very rarely, if ever see a Free Website with a half decent ranking.

 

  • You can’t run advertisements or make money
    The money they are making from using your site as an advertising platform, is money you could be making yourself with more professional and relevant advertising.  EVERY [paid] website can easily pay for itself.. making it in theory free as well.

 

  • Irrelevant advertisements on your website
    Just ask yourself, is there anything more annoying than getting bombarded with completely irrelevant advertising? If I am looking for a plumber or electrician, I do not expect or want to be offered Russian Brides or Viagra 

 

  • They can sell your information
    Remember that these services need to make money somehow to remain in the business. A good rule of thumb is if you are not paying for it, then you are the product.
    These companies find other ways to make money such as selling your email address, personal information, and your website address to other companies. Their terms and conditions which no one really reads provide them total legal immunity.

 

  • Low credibility among your users
    When your site is hosted on a free service, your users will feel less inclined to trust it. If users are not comfortable sharing their information, then it will kill the whole purpose of you creating a website.

 

  • You will be targeted with email offers
    Your details will be sold to third parties, that is how they make their money.. expect more.. lots more Spam

 

  • No branded email
    Bob@hotmail.com is not the same as info@yourbusiness.com – using a free email address is not very professional. By all means use a Free email address, we actually recommend it, however  use a domain email to give to your customers, and have the emails forwarded to the Free service for backups.

Theses are just a few reasons why you should never use a “Free Website” to promote your business, for a lot more reasons check out 36 Reasons Why Having a “Free Website” is a Bad Idea

Remember, EVERY website should be able to at least pay for itself [ hosting, domain names etc. ]  and if taken seriously can make you a nice bit of pocket money, all while improving your website, reputation or business.

Contact us for more info about getting the most out of your site. 

 

 

Why you should use WordPress

6 reasons why WordPress should be used for your website

Guide to finding a good web designer

Finding the right web designer for you and your business can be a very daunting task

Complete WordPress Web Design Course

 

Learning WordPress

 

1 on 1 Complete WordPress Web Design Course
incl. domain and hosting, database and email setup, FTP setup, installing WP, adding Theme / plugins, designing site, maintaining / promoting site.

WordPress is the extremely popular platform that is used for 23.3% of the top 10 million websites as of January 2015 [ source ]

Dordogne Design offers this 1 on 1 Complete WordPress Web Design Course. This course is in person, not online or over the phone. The course can be done at your home or at my office.
The course consists of 10 topics, each lasting a minimum of an hour each, that can be arranged to fit your schedule. This is NOT a rush course, and after this course you will certainly be able to design websites using WordPress

0] – FREE Consult – Choosing your hosting and domain needs

1] – database and email setup
– FTP setup

2] – Uploading WordPress
– Activating WordPress
– Adding and Changing WP Theme
– Adding “must have” Plugins

3] – Explaining “Pages” / “Posts” / “Categories” etc.
– Creating Categories, changing the Permalink structure, and designating the Home Page and Blog Page
– Creating full Page Structure [ for example Home – About – Prices – Contact etc. ]
– Creating a “Contact Us” form
– Making minor changes to the Theme [ for example the Color, font type / size etc ]

4] – Focus solely on the “Home Page” layout

5] – Focus on remaining “Pages”

6] – Focus on “Posts” [ why, where and when to use posts over pages or vice versa ]

7] – Complete Search Engine Optimization of the site

8] – Preparing you to “Problem Solve” most issues that will hopefully never happen [ for example .maintenance jam, plugin issues etc..

9] – Getting the most out of your site using Social Media AND ways to make money from your site [ for example Google, Amazon etc. ]

10] –  Answering / Explaining all un-answered questions.

The price of this course is just 800 Euro, considering most website developers [ incl. myself ] charge a lot more to design a website, this is an excellent deal. Learn how to design while designing your own site… and possibly others in the future.

Google and Mobile friendly websites

Google is updating its search algorithms to favour websites that work well on mobile devices.

Sections of sites owned by the European Union, the BBC and Wikipedia currently fail the search giant’s Mobile Friendly Test developer tool.

“Mobile friendliness” will affect how prominently websites appear in Google search results pages from 21 April.

Criteria includes text size, the amount of space between links and whether the content fits across a mobile screen.

A Google representative said mobile friendliness was “one of many” factors used by the search engine to rank results, but in a blog post the company said it would have “a significant impact” on search results.
“As people increasingly search on their mobile devices, we want to make sure they can find content that’s not only relevant and timely, but also easy to read and interact with on smaller mobile screens,” the representative said.

Google is also offering developer tools for making websites compliant with the mobile-friendly guidelines.
Kevin Dallas, chief product officer at global payment processor Worldpay eCommerce, welcomed the changes.

“This move by Google should send a message to companies whose websites are poorly configured for smartphone users that optimising for mobile is no longer a matter of choice,” he said.

“This is particularly relevant for online retailers.”

The BBC said that while its bbc.co.uk domain failed the test, mobile users would soon be automatically redirected to a mobile version of the site, m.bbc.co.uk, which did pass the test, and was responsive, meaning it should adapt to fit the device on which it is being accessed.

The EU and Wikipedia have also been contacted by the BBC for comment.

The European Union’s home page appears to be the only part of its site to currently fail the test.

Google clashed with the EU last week when European Union competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager announced a complaint had been filed against Google over alleged anti-competitive behaviour.

Google has denied the allegations, which include promoting links to its own shopping services above those of rivals.

Pay Per Result Search Engine Listing

Dordogne Design SEO

Dordogne Design is pleased to announce that we have just lauched 3 new Pay Per Result (PPR) packages.
This means that if Dordogne Design designs your website, you can make use of PPR, which means you only pay if your site reaches the agreed result… here’s an example of how it works…

You tell us what keyword(s) you would like your site to be high on the search rankings, and Dordogne Design will use 100% ethical seo methods to get your site on the top pages, and the good news is, if we don’t get you the agreed results, you don’t pay anything… that’s correct, you only pay if we reach the agreed result.

We offer 3 PPR packages, that work as followed:

Package #1 €500,- we will get your site listed on page 1 – 4 … this means that as soon as your site reaches at least page 4, we have reached our agreed result and you then pay us our fee.

Package #2 €900,- choose this package and only pay us once we get your site listed on page 1 or 2 of Google ( or any other Search Engine of choice)

Package #3 €1500,- No guarantees we can do it, but you only pay us if we get your site listed on the first page of your choice of search engine using your choice of keywords.

We do not make any promises we cannot keep, but at least you get to keep your money until we deliver the results.

The above prices do not include the actual designing of the website