Creating a website

[Deleted User]

Jenna_Appleseed said:

gordon_harris said:

This depends on how comfortable you are doing a little bit of IT/web development, but if you're looking for a completely free option that still looks professional (this is a site about money saving after all) I used some open source software called Hugo to create my website. It's a static site generator which basically creates a very simple website for you using a set theme and you can then change all the text/images to suit.

It looks just as professional as what you get with Wordpress and other services, the downside is just that it's more complicated to do. Still, I'm far from an expert and I made my site in about an hour by following a YouTube guide. I then hosted it on a site called "render" which is free to use so I now have a professional looking website with free hosting and I didn't spend a penny.

Looks like you need to understand web coding to be able to use hugo
 Their ebsite says "Hugo is for people that prefer writing in a text editor over a browser.

Hugo is for people who want to hand code their own website without worrying about setting up complicated runtimes, dependencies and databases."

Also from the support forum 
https://discourse.gohugo.io/c/support/34
"Some Knowledge Required

Dare we say that while Hugo is indeed pretty magical, it is not meant to be a “magic wand” to suddenly give you a published website a la Square Space or Wordpress. You are expected to already know how to assemble a static web page, for which you do need some basic knowledge of html, css, command line and text editors. Or how to prepare a space to host your website. The bottom line is, if you are unwilling to invest the time required to learn these things, then Hugo is not for you.

If you do put the time in, Hugo will help you rapidly merge your html templates, css, javascript, media, and even data, into a flexible working site. In addition, you get the added benefit of understanding how things fit together, which in turn makes understanding a variety of website builders and content management systems much easier. It is really a worthwhile investment to put the time in, to learn the basic building blocks well." 

Render - only free if your site/apps doesn't include anything that needs a database (like for a forum).
https://render.com/pricing

Render is completely free if you use a static website, which is what Hugo does. Like I said, it's a bit complicated in principle, but I'm not a web designer and I managed to get it to work just by following a video on YouTube. Basically all I really did other than following the YouTube video is just change the text in the template and copy different images into the folder in the example site. It's definitely not for everyone, but considering it's completely free I don't regret the small amount of effort it took to get to work.

Andrewshane

Use go daady

CKhalvashi

Andrewshane said:

Use go daady

I wouldn't, horribly overpriced products that can be found cheaper with many other companies with comparable services.

gavinaw

geek84 said:

Good Morning

I want to create a website for my bookkeeping services.

I am thinking of using services like Go Daddy and Wix.

Which one would you suggest from the above, or would you suggest an alternative?

Thank You

Bookkeeping services and any other digital service, in general, would not work well on Go Daddy and Wix.

I'd avoid Go Daddy because they'd delude you into thinking you're paying for the 'cheapest price' but they'll suck the living bucks out of you with their renewal rate if you finish their 'free 1-year trial'. Based on personal experience, they also have really bad customer service. 

With Wix, I know some people would lash out at me because there are Wix fans out there–they suck on the SEO side of things. Mostly because of technical aspects that include URL structures and etc. Their pages also load reaaaaally slow which will definitely take a toll on your User Experience (this has been emphasized by Google lately, it's encompassed in what is now relatively known as Google Core Web Vitals).

Wordpress.org is the way to go my friend. Self-hosting is the most optimal way you can build any website from scratch and modify it to the exact way you want it to be. Web developers are a key aspect of achieving this though. If you're not an expert coder yourself, you can just hire a freelancer on fiverr or upwork to get the ball rolling, but if you're really serious about your business, a remote web developer could be a better option. If you don't know the difference between a freelancer and a remote worker, I'll link out a blog post here for you to read on.

Once you secure a skilled developer to work with, you can start pumping out content to build your SEO profile, creating your landing page, setting up paid ads on famous social platforms like Facebook (if you're willing to shell out some cash) or you can opt it for cheaper ad alternatives for now. 

After the entire website has been developed, you just have to connect and optimize the site further by adding automation tools like booking software like Calendly (since you'll be a bookkeeping service) to talk with clients, after that it'll just be a walk in the park. Hope this helps!

spiritus

gavinaw said:

geek84 said:

Good Morning

I want to create a website for my bookkeeping services.

I am thinking of using services like Go Daddy and Wix.

Which one would you suggest from the above, or would you suggest an alternative?

Thank You

Bookkeeping services and any other digital service, in general, would not work well on Go Daddy and Wix.

I'd avoid Go Daddy because they'd delude you into thinking you're paying for the 'cheapest price' but they'll suck the living bucks out of you with their renewal rate if you finish their 'free 1-year trial'. Based on personal experience, they also have really bad customer service. 

With Wix, I know some people would lash out at me because there are Wix fans out there–they suck on the SEO side of things. Mostly because of technical aspects that include URL structures and etc. Their pages also load reaaaaally slow which will definitely take a toll on your User Experience (this has been emphasized by Google lately, it's encompassed in what is now relatively known as Google Core Web Vitals).

Wordpress.org is the way to go my friend. Self-hosting is the most optimal way you can build any website from scratch and modify it to the exact way you want it to be. Web developers are a key aspect of achieving this though. If you're not an expert coder yourself, you can just hire a freelancer on fiverr or upwork to get the ball rolling, but if you're really serious about your business, a remote web developer could be a better option. If you don't know the difference between a freelancer and a remote worker, I'll link out a blog post here for you to read on.

Once you secure a skilled developer to work with, you can start pumping out content to build your SEO profile, creating your landing page, setting up paid ads on famous social platforms like Facebook (if you're willing to shell out some cash) or you can opt it for cheaper ad alternatives for now. 

After the entire website has been developed, you just have to connect and optimize the site further by adding automation tools like booking software like Calendly (since you'll be a bookkeeping service) to talk with clients, after that it'll just be a walk in the park. Hope this helps!

In my experience, if someone isn't that comfortable with understanding the merits of different web building platforms then SEO is a step too far to comprehend properly.

It may be tough, even with modest SEO efforts, to rank naturally for bookkeeping services in the area. The best option is to ensure you are listed as a bookkeeper at your registered business address and then hope you get results when people search for "bookkeepers near me" or "bookkeepers Luton" (for example)

CKhalvashi

spiritus said:

gavinaw said:

geek84 said:

Good Morning

I want to create a website for my bookkeeping services.

I am thinking of using services like Go Daddy and Wix.

Which one would you suggest from the above, or would you suggest an alternative?

Thank You

Bookkeeping services and any other digital service, in general, would not work well on Go Daddy and Wix.

I'd avoid Go Daddy because they'd delude you into thinking you're paying for the 'cheapest price' but they'll suck the living bucks out of you with their renewal rate if you finish their 'free 1-year trial'. Based on personal experience, they also have really bad customer service. 

With Wix, I know some people would lash out at me because there are Wix fans out there–they suck on the SEO side of things. Mostly because of technical aspects that include URL structures and etc. Their pages also load reaaaaally slow which will definitely take a toll on your User Experience (this has been emphasized by Google lately, it's encompassed in what is now relatively known as Google Core Web Vitals).

Wordpress.org is the way to go my friend. Self-hosting is the most optimal way you can build any website from scratch and modify it to the exact way you want it to be. Web developers are a key aspect of achieving this though. If you're not an expert coder yourself, you can just hire a freelancer on fiverr or upwork to get the ball rolling, but if you're really serious about your business, a remote web developer could be a better option. If you don't know the difference between a freelancer and a remote worker, I'll link out a blog post here for you to read on.

Once you secure a skilled developer to work with, you can start pumping out content to build your SEO profile, creating your landing page, setting up paid ads on famous social platforms like Facebook (if you're willing to shell out some cash) or you can opt it for cheaper ad alternatives for now. 

After the entire website has been developed, you just have to connect and optimize the site further by adding automation tools like booking software like Calendly (since you'll be a bookkeeping service) to talk with clients, after that it'll just be a walk in the park. Hope this helps!

In my experience, if someone isn't that comfortable with understanding the merits of different web building platforms then SEO is a step too far to comprehend properly.

It may be tough, even with modest SEO efforts, to rank naturally for bookkeeping services in the area. The best option is to ensure you are listed as a bookkeeper at your registered business address and then hope you get results when people search for "bookkeepers near me" or "bookkeepers Luton" (for example)

SEO isn't something I'm able to comprehend properly, despite fully understanding how multiple options work, hence I pay someone to deal with that for me.

I equally don't have time to keep a blog up to date (or do, but am working 70-80 hours a week at the moment and don't want more), so this isn't an optimal solution.

What I use and often recommend (which is a self-hosted Wordpress site) may not be the best option for others, as any site I use in the course of my business (running on a custom theme) are heavily plugin reliant, many of which have been either custom-built or modified for our use to ensure maximum efficiency. It's naturally a case for any business to look at the available options and choose what is right for them.

nicos42

hi if you have no knowledge of code I would not recommend wordpress. I highly recommend webflow or wix. on wix you have many add ons like bookimgs, calendar etc..

Romb678

If you need a  basic website look at WordPress

edwel1793

I think we're on the same boat here when I helped a friend with her website. We weren't coders so we stuck with what was available. We used Wix to have the basic needs settled for 6 months and somehow moved to WordPress afterwards since we wanted more content and wanted it more customized.

But it was a LOT of work, not even joking, from finding a web developer to optimizing it for search engines. I'm not sure if it's the right path since I'm not an SEO expert myself but SEO was one of our starting points when we migrated to the new website. It needed a more technical standpoint and we even asked help from an SEO expert (inserting link here in case you need it, he is amazing, he helped us from start to finish)

The good thing is it's much more sustainable, and more traffic is coming in. 

kayaks2fish

coffeehound said:

Can anyone advise please, for a Wordpress site, is it possible to change the generic logo that appears in the browser tab?

yes you can alter that logo and there are lots of tutorials on youtube about it!