Making a website......

j88kln

Hi,

I am looking at making a website for my dads family run business as a present for christmas.

I do not have any experience in making websites or even what hosting company to use.

It will only be for a year to see if it helps his business and if it is successful then we will keep it going indefinitely.

We will be looking to do this on a budget (I am not sure how much it could cost)

any help on this is really appreciated.

regards

Andy

Mr_Toad

j88kln wrote: »

Hi,

I am looking at making a website for my dads family run business as a present for christmas.

I do not have any experience in making websites or even what hosting company to use.

It will only be for a year to see if it helps his business and if it is successful then we will keep it going indefinitely.

We will be looking to do this on a budget (I am not sure how much it could cost)

any help on this is really appreciated.

regards

Andy

It's a really nice thought but fraught with pitfalls.

Your lack of experience is a serious drawback.

With all due respect you could end up producing something that customers take one look at and think 'I'm having nothing to do with this lot' :eek:

First impressions count and some homemade, badly laid out or cheap looking website will put people off faster than you can imagine. It doesn't matter how good your Father and his business are if they never get the chance to show people.

If you can produce something really good that stands out and screams quality then fine but if it was easy a good web developer would be cheap but it isn't and they aren't.

wallbash

Will totally disagree. Keep the web site really basic, its for information only.
In fact go for a free site, see if it generates any response.

j88kln

thanks for both replies.

firstly, the website is for his own business which is a pest control business. The website would have a profile of my father, an overview of the services he offers (moles, rats, mice etc) a few testimonials from clients, and various other bits of information.

it is only a local business that is advertised by word of mouth. I am wanting this website so that people can look him up on the internet and he can hopefully grow his business a little bit, I am not after him taking his business world wide.

with the website he can then advertise on local facebook pages and have a website that people can see and contact him on.

secondly, I have looked at lots of free ones but there are lots of ads on them and I was hoping to find one where there are no ads as I believe they can put people off going onto the page.

I am very greatful for your replies and any more help is much appreciated.

are there any well known website building pages/ web hosting pages that are recommended?

regards

Andy

Sparhawke

Rather than tell you how difficult it is to do as many here are wanting to say I will go the opposite route and tell you what you want to know.

It is not hard at all to make a small website with more information on it than you can get on a newspaper advertisement at a fraction of the price and one can pretty much be set up in minutes if all you want are pages of opening times, prices and a small blog page and things of that nature.

You can get a .uk from namecheap for less than £7 and the hosting for a about £2 a month and with that you get one of the best registrars around and as they are based in California you will have to use dollars, but just put some money in paypal.

Having a website such as this will allow you to have a small advert in the paper as you usually do I suppose but also allow you to go into far more detail and maybe even sell products from your page.

I would recommend getting wordpress as it is free and many of the plug-ins are too such as google maps, shopping software and other things.

You can probably put something together yourself for less than £50 for the year and then build on it from there, but rather than buy an expensive domain name I would recommend trying to create one that would mean something to people searching for it, such as 'londonpestcontrol.com' or something, not johnnyboyscontrolservices.com

I previously built a very simple website for a friend doing this and it took me an hour to set up and type out; all you do is brainstorm what pages you want and then create them. Make it more flashy later on if you wish but do not go with free websites, you will not have full control, they look cheap and if they go and decide to delete you then that is it.

Flash graphics are not necessary for a pest control website and would make me think there was something wrong if building a site was all you were interested in. Don't waste your money on a designer

wallbash

secondly, I have looked at lots of free ones but there are lots of ads on them and I was hoping to find one where there are no ads as I believe they can put people off going onto the page.

I 'believe' google has ads, seems to work for them.

but do not go with free websites, you will not have full control, they look cheap and if they go and decide to delete you then that is it.

Some free sites have been around for years with no problems.
'Look Cheap' matter of opinion.

digp

Ghost_Nebula wrote: »

I think you might be underestimating how difficult it is to make a website. What about making him a facebook page for his business instead?

r u a web site designer?

Sparhawke

wallbash wrote: »

I 'believe' google has ads, seems to work for them.
Some free sites have been around for years with no problems.
'Look Cheap' matter of opinion.

Googles business model IS adverts, and they do it so that it is not a problem, you know where the adverts are. What these 'freebie' sites do is give you a name such as 'billybobsbaitshop.freebiewebsite.com and that looks like you don't give a damn enough to pay £50 to get a dedicated host (also a problem is banners plastered with "YOU TOO CAN GET A WEBSITE LIKE THIS ONE FOR FREE!!!" all over it).Seriously, it seriously shouts the message that squatters live there and you might never get your items if you send them money.

Also, these free sites can shut you down whenever they want, even if you have spent years building a site up and though it is now rare it can and does happen.

It is one thing to save money, it is quite another to do it to the detriment of your image when doing so actually costs more in the long term.

wallbash

it seriously shouts the message that squatters live there and you might never get your items if you send them money.

You don't honestly believe the rubbish you are posting do you??

woodworm001

I think search engine optimisation (SEO) is more important than a fancy web-site. It's not hard to create a reasonably professional looking basic web-site these days, but it's not much use unless you can get on that first page of Google hits.

My wife has her own business and we paid for a pro web-site to be done and it cost around £1000 (not much compared to many), but some of the SEO stuff you can do yourself.

I used this, though it was free 12 months ago ... do a search on Amazon kindle books for 'how to get to the top of google'

I'm sure that info is free elsewhere, but that was free back then and I say this that my wifes business only has 1 competitor in our town so it was going to rise fairly quickly.

Sparhawke

wallbash wrote: »

You don't honestly believe the rubbish you are posting do you??

So you would go up to and buy perfumes and aftershaves off a guy in a sheepskin coat who has a suitcase table on a busy street and avoid the proper shop or market stall?

Serious?

It amounts to the same thing pretty much, I would NEVER take anyone seriously who couldn't be bothered to pay for their own domain and hosting. They might be the best plumber or mole catcher in the land but if you cannot even be bothered why should I?

I guess for you though credibility doesn't enter into it.

Try this, answer the OPs question instead of going after me. I am here to answer his question rather than waste my time arguing you on obscure points. He said that he will trial it for a year and if it works out then carry on; why spend a year building up a free website that no one will take seriously and then have to move and then build it up again...with a completely new set of circumstances and challenges, it makes no sense. Get it right the first time.