Making a website......

marvin

Making a website is as hard or as easy as you want to make it.

If it is an all singing all dancing database driven shop... it is not that easy... if it is a flyer equivalent on a website it is easy.

As others have said for a simple "professional" looking site many or the builders like oneandone mysite etc will be ok and will come with the domain and hosting.

I would avoid the free ones as you never know how long they will remain free and a .co.uk (and soon .uk domains) start at around £3 per year it is not a big cost.

Personally I like the look of homespun websites that work on any browser and download first time and fast. If all you are doing is creating a simple profile and contact details site keep it simple.

SEO is not hard it is simply about making sure that the background words are ones that are searched for, for the business that the site is about.

It takes a little while for Google to get indexing your site and having links to and from the site is also important but not falsely created ones.

Most of my sites are on page 1 of Google for the subject matter they are on and even when I am up against stiff competition I am within the first 30 sites.

As others have said reading up on the subject will reveal all, being front age of Google is also something that SEO firms use to sell the need for their services, yet many on the first page of Google are paid to be there.

If you want to aid your site in Google using Google advertising on it does help it as does using Google analytics.

So go for it have fun and goodluck

Oh and don't forget if signing up for a host check the cashback sites first!

wallbash

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.

So He is not selling ( well nothing that requires money up front ) so read the requirements.

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

He is a pest controller, info required is
can he do the job and what is the likely charges , nice to put in a few recommendations.

To sum up, get off your high horse, understand what the OP wants and stop making a mountain out of a mole hill ( pest controller required)

ps post #8 i was wondering.

Jemma-T

Just look at other pest killers' websites for ideas and of course any other website that's simple on the eye. Then use the best bits/ideas.

Just jump into it you've nothing to lose and you can easily get something simple done then update it as you get better.

https://www.vidahost.com are very good and offer 2 or 3 years' hosting nice and cheap (£29 for 2 years) and they'll let you register the domain eg https://www.pestkillaz.co.uk (2 years around £12) and divert email (eg info@pestkillaz.co.uk to any email provider) etc.

Nice n simple:
http://www.allpestsolutionsnorthtexas.com/
http://www.whitmorepestcontrol.com/
http://stanleypest.com/index.html

Don't just look at pest control -it doesn't matter really just use that type of site to get things going.

Also Google "free website templates" that'll get you up and running too as there will be guides.

Just get your finger out and start and do something. Start with registering the domain.

j88kln

Hi,
Thanks for all of the replies.

I now have a website up and running, still working on little bits though (http://dkjacklin.com)

I have one question,

It is searchable in google by typing d k jacklin, but is there any way of making it searchable by other words such as, pest control s!!!!horpe

regards

Andy

bazster

You can't make it "searchable" in Google, only Google can do that, and they will do it according to their own rules and logic (despite what you might hear from thousands of [STRIKE]snake-oil salesmen[/STRIKE] SEO "experts").

There are some technical things you can do to the site (Google for "SEO tips" and the same things will come up over and over again) but ultimately the key to getting on the first page of Google is to have a damned good site with interesting stuff people want to read, and to get lots of other good sites to link to yours. Easy it is not.

But before anything else you should sign up for Google Webmaster Tools (Google it!) and tell Google about the site.

j88kln

I have been signed up to google webmaster tools and I have just checked for the first time in a couple of days and I have a message saying

"Over the last 24 hours, Googlebot encountered 1 errors while attempting to retrieve DNS information for your site. The overall error rate for DNS queries for your site is 100.0%. "

I am not sure what to do about this

Andy

bod1467

How long has the domain name been active against a live site?

(It takes time - possibly up to 48 hours - for DNS (Domain Name Server) entries to propagate through all the name servers on the Internet. So the route Googlebot is using may not have seen the DNS entry when it tried. If it continues to throw errors then that's when you should investigate).

j88kln

It has been up since sunday.

I am a novice with all of this as I have never done anything like this before

your help is very much appreciated

agrinnall

I like the mole picture - I hope it's either one you've taken yourself or is available free of copyright. Although I haven't looked at all the pages I do have a couple of comments. First, check your grammar, on your home page you've used a semi-colon where a colon is correct. Some of the sentence construction doesn't read quite right too. Second, if I was looking for someone to do the type of work you advertise I would expect to see a phone number on the contact page as well as the form (in fact, I dislike forms, I'd much rather just have an email address as that way I get a copy of what I've sent).

But, overall, not a bad first attempt.

[Deleted User]

Try this link:
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url?hl=en_uk&pli=1

It lets you tell Google about your site, and submit it for a link