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Website design basics

Serious Sites have put together a few basics to help you get your website designed, built and online. Serious Sites want everyone to have a great website regardless of how you do it.

For assistance contact us, or take a look at what our customers say.

Why you need a website

A website has become a key part of any business that informs your existing and potential customers about your business, products and/or services from your website. Websites are available 24 hours a day, this gives your customers greater flexibility in engaging with you.

Serious Sites web site will design and create a professional online presence for your business, websites are a great way for businesses to ingrain confidence and to build business.

Where to start

• Register your domain name (website address) - do you need .co.uk or a .com or even both?
• Did you know that domain names are only rented you never actually own them?
• Purchase hosting. This is a computer connected to the internet where your website will live. Cheap hosting is not good – your website is important and needs to be available 24/7.
• Normally hosting is paid for every year, sometimes monthly depending on your supplier.
• You may need special hosting depending on your website.
• Serious Sites provide robust and professional hosting for your website.
• The above steps can be quite confusing as the domain name must also be connected to your website hosting - if in doubt consult a professional like Serious Sites.

Design your website

• Attend a course, use online tutorials or hire a professional like Serious Sites.
• Make it easy for people to use - if they find it difficult or confusing they will go somewhere else.
• Make your website unique. Your business is individual and so should be your website.
• Use colours and fonts consistently, avoid too many 'flashy' effects as they can become annoying.
• A poorly designed website says as much about your business as a good one.
• For consistency ensure your website design ties in with any existing marketing material.
• Serious Sites design attractive and easy to use websites as standard.

Create your website pages

• Keep text clear and concise. Whatever you start with aim to cut it down by half – less is more!
• People love images. Make sure image file sizes are not too big - use JPEG, GIF or PNG formats.
• Only use authorised images – taking images from Google may breach copyright.
• Use images that are relevant to your business, don't just use general corporate ones.
• You homepage should state: who you are, what you do, how you do it, unique selling points, etc.
• Create your website to industry standards (W3C), it helps visitors and search engines experience your website the way you intended.
• Serious Sites only use authorised images in there website designs and they always comply to industry standards.

Search engine optimisation

• Ensure phrases you expect customers to enter into a search engine are present in your webpages.
• First and foremost people read websites not search engines.
• Include page titles, descriptions, heading tags, link titles, and image alt tags on every page.
• Ask other websites to link to yours - ask suppliers, business contacts, etc.
• Search engine optimisation is standard with all Serious Sites websites.

Launch your website

• Upload your website to your host using FTP software – free software is available online.
• Test and proof read your website. Ask people who do not know you business to do the same.
• Ask friends and family to take a look, however, they may not always give an honest answer as they don't want to upset you.
• Keep you website up to date and give customers a reason to bookmark your website and to come back.

For further information please contact us, or, why not take a look at some customer testimonials or Examples of our work.