Martyn Pearce Website Services - About websites
A website can be one of the most cost effective methods that you can use to advertise your business or organisation. You can have full colour, multi page website, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 52 weeks of the year and the annual charge can be less than the price of just ONE advertisement in a newspaper or magazine.
You also have the added bonus of being visited by internet users who may be searching for a particular service, perhaps in a particular location, who may have been unaware of your existence beforehand.
If you are already using other forms of advertising such as newspapers or magazines, then simply by adding your website name to these advertisements you are in effect multiplying the size of your advertisements, because, by directing people to your website you can give them a great deal more information than you possibly could in the original advertisement. You might even consider reducing the size and costs of your existing advertising.
As well as using your website name on your advertising you will also be able to use it on your stationery, business cards, premises signs and commercial vehicles. This will add to the perceived professionalism of your business.
You should also remember that internet use is increasing and more people than ever are using it to find the products and services that they want. Internet users prefer to go online rather than use the phone book because they can find far more information that way. Details of the services offered, the times of business openings and the location can be much more detailed than a phone book entry. And unlike a phone book, changes to a website can be made straight away so that your information can always be kept right up to date.
There are many types of web page designs and layouts. The most popular being pages with the navigation links to the other pages across the top of each page or down the left hand side. Of course you can have navigation links anywhere you like and in any shape that you want, but for ease of use, variations of the most popular layouts will not cause problems for your visitors.
There are many devices employed on web pages to catch the eye of the internet user, flashing text, gaudy colours, animations, fancy backgrounds etc. but sometimes these devices can drive people away from a site if they become a distraction. I prefer to build websites that offer the information that the internet user wants without giving them a headache.
About website names.
For example yoursitesname.co.uk.
They are also called domain names. A name has to be registered to you by the official registrars before you can use it.
I register your domain name for you as part of my service.
Domain names come in several variations:
The main UK variations are:
.co.uk for use by UK businesses
.org.uk for use by UK charities or non profit making organisations
.me.uk for use by UK private individuals.
The main International variations are:
.com for use by businesses
.biz for use by businesses
.org for use by charities or non profit making organisations
.net for use by internet services providers
.info for use by information services providers
The UK variations have less expensive official registration charges. As you might expect, .co.uk is the most popular and most used variation in the UK.
About website hosting.
Hosting is the name given to the service that allow a website to operate on the Internet. Web pages are held on a server and both the server and the pages themselves have to be maintained as part of the service. (A server is a special kind of computer that can be accessed by many internet users at the same time. It serves these users with the website pages and the services that they request.)
I supply a hosting service for the websites that I build.
Having a website built by me means that you do not need to be involved in the complications of website name registration, the technicalities of building web pages, the purchasing of server space or the day-to-day running and administration of the website. You simply contact me with your requirements and I will do the rest.