Advice required on creating a website

geek84

Hi Folks

A friend of mine and myself are thinking to creating awebsite to advertise our tuition services. We teach Maths and English up to GCSE level.

We have never created a website before and were hoping thatsomeone would be kind enough to offer advice as to the content and colourscheme that we could have on our website. We would also need advice on how to register the website name, how togenerate the maximum possible visitors to our site, together with aim of makingour website appear towards the top of a ‘Google search’.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

InsideInsurance

Content/ colour scheme: You can have whatever you want

Register website domain: Go to 123-reg.co.uk and you can buy it

SEM/ SEO: google both these terms to learn about marketing and specifically optimising your position in search engine rankings

Home made websites tend to look just like that and for any form of "business" generally not something that is to be recommended. That said if your funds are very limited then you are best off looking at using a free content management system like Wordpress (many webhosts have one click install for Wordpress and others) and then get/ buy a design that you like (normally under £100, many are free) and install that rather than trying to design your own.

The downside of the above of cause is that the templates, particularly the free ones, are used by hundreds if not tens of thousands of other sites and so your site does look professional but also not very individual.

geek84

Hi paulsaxby

I didn't know you could tout for business on this sute/

You sure you're not breaking any rules?

Browntoa

they are

so is the post above Pauls

nedsheridan

its also worth setting up a facebook and twitter page for your marketing. i believe google uses social signals increasingly, to determine site rankings. theres lots of other factors but this is a major one.

scaredofdebt

Work out what keywords your potential customers will use, if you search for "Google keyword tool" that will help.

For example, if you are based in Bristol, the domain https://www.tuitionbristol.com might be a good one.

Using similar techniques I've got a new domain that is only two weeks old that is #1 on Google for my chosen keywords.

Good luck!

droopsnoot

I know from TV adverts that 1&1 offer a customisable website template that offers an easy way to create a website for non-techies. I don't know how good it is. It's certainly possible to spend a lot of time optimising your site for SEO, and you might be better off finding a local expert and paying them a small amount to do that for you, so you can concentrate on what you do.

I'm not saying it isn't possible to do it yourself, or even that you shouldn't do that, but sometimes it's easy to run away with that idea and forget that it's just a means to an end.

simplydevine05

I would advise against 1&1. I looked into them and discovered an alarming number of poor reviews. Bad customer services, files not backed up, servers going down, the servers weren't backed up either. I'm glad I stayed clear. I use ekmpowershop. I pay £23.99 a month so it's not the cheapest but I cannot fault them yet. I wanted a company I can stay with for a long time so I can either use their templates (which are really flexible) or get it designed for you. Hope this helps.

mrsyardbroom

Would you consider making your own website without using someone else's templates? You'd need web editing software. I buy my domains from LCN and they're hosted by Orchard.

mildred1978

mrsyardbroom wrote: »

Would you consider making your own website without using someone else's templates? You'd need web editing software. I buy my domains from LCN and they're hosted by Orchard.

The OP isn't very 'capable' I'm afraid, in this regard or any other.

In over 2 years of posting on this site he's never found the "thanks" button, or wondered what it does.

I'm not convinced he's even qualified to tutor/CRB checked etc.

gibson123

I am not in the least bit techy, but made myself a free website using webs.com. I don't look for it to generate business, only to share details of my holiday home with friends and family and track with the calendar who is going out and when (there are only so many times in your life you can say, yes there are hair straighteners and the no 4 bus passes the bottom of the street).

I could upgrade it quite cheaply to do what you want it to do. Also Google does free workshops all over the country on how to get your website noticed.

http://www.googleworkshop.co.uk/

I would have a facebook page because you will of course be targeting teenagers, you can post pictures and testimonials and set up a group.