This seems very obvious. However, for the uninitiated, paying for a website you don’t own may not be as easy to spot as you might think. So what are we talking about, anyway? Well there are a number of web design options out there at the moment that provide “all in one” web design packages where you design your own website (or a designer will design it for you). These will often include hosting (and sometimes even your own domain name) on their servers. Now while “all in one” may seem convenient, you really need to understand the pitfalls. Many of these “all in one” web design programs are only allowed to be hosted on the providers servers which in short means that, unlike other files and content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal or standard html files, you cannot move your website to another server or host if you’re not happy with the service, uptime or speed of the hosting they provide.

“So how does that affect me?”

Well, as an example say you paid someone $2,000 to design your website and around $20 per month to host it, only to find out that you don’t really own it. It’s kind of like buying a custom made car that you can’t take out of the car park.  You can only get it serviced by their mechanics and only use their fuel. As an example: many of these web design packages are based in the USA or the UK which means that the speed of your website may be affected by latency. Latency describes what happens when your site is hosted (or stored if you like) in the USA but your website is an Australian website with an Australian client base. Any request to view your website from Australia has to ping from Australia to the USA to retrieve your website and then ping back to Australia to be viewed. Now just like there is a delay when you make an international phone call from Australia to the USA, there may well be a delay in retrieving your Australian website from US based hosting. So let’s say you are an Australian based business and you unwittingly buy one of these all in one web design packages and you pay a designer to design it and you’re paying hosting on top of that but you’re not happy with how long it takes for the website to load and the service is rubbish and you’re losing customers. So someone suggests you move your website to another hosting company that can give you better service, speed and uptime at a more affordable price. You go “great I’m going to move my website to another hosting company” but you contact the designer of your “all in one package” and he inevitably answers “no can do”. Now you’re stuck. You either have to put up with a completely unacceptable website that you will have to keep paying hosting for or you bite the bullet and start again and pay for a completely new website that you do actually own and can move if you need to.

White Labelling Web Design Packages

The other issue you have to be aware of is “white labelling”. That is when an all in one web design package is sold by a third party who sells it under their own label and brand so even if you are buying from what you think is an Australian web design company you may not be. As with most things, it’s best to ask a few pointed questions before you commit to anything.

How does 545 Web Designs Port Macquarie Build Websites?

545 Web Designs Port Macquarie builds our websites on platforms using Content Management Systems, which means that when you build with us, you actually own the website you paid for and can move it, or host it, wherever you like. The vast majority of quality hosting providers in Australia and overseas in most cases will move your website or blog from your previous host for you free of charge. Although 545 Web Designs Port Macquarie does offer website hosting, we are not precious about it. Your website is fully moveable in the unlikely event that your businesses needs outgrow the high capacity and standard of service 545 Web Designs Port Macquarie offers.

In short with all things being equal an Australian based website with a .com.au and Australian based hosting should get preference to a com or .com.au website based in Australia with U.S. hosting. However don’t just take my word for it have a look at these two videos from Matt Cutts, he is the Serach Engine Guru and public face of Google.

What Makes A Good Website?

Generally speaking there are several things that make a website a good site and here are just a few.

Content

A good website not only needs to look good it needs to provide your customers with well organized, easy to navigate and relevant information (also known as content). As they say in web design circles “Content is King”. What this means is that good content is what your customers want to see (and equally important, it is what search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN rate). One of the other areas you may want to look at in creating a web-presence for your business is Content Management Systems (CMS). Some popular CMS’s include Joomla, Drupal and WordPress. The advantage of having a website built with a CMS is that you can easily update your website and add new content online whenever you please. Some CMS’s are as easy to use as a Microsoft Word document. Having a CMS can save you a lot of time and money if you can see yourself making frequent updates to your website. The reason being that if you don’t have a website built with a CMS, you will have to contact whoever built your website every time you want to update your site. They in turn will charge you for the time it took to make those changes. A CMS also allows your website to grow with your business. So what makes a website good? Well as far as your content is concerned you should have around 300 words on each page in your website.

Optimisation

This is what you want to do to make your website search engine friendly. One example of the many things that can be done to make your website more search engine friendly is using relevant “key words” in your content. This helps search engines rank your website. For example: If you own a lawn mowing business you may want to use terms like “Lawn Mowing”, “Grass cutting”,  “Lawn Care”, “ Edge Trimming” “Mulching” or “Commercial Mowing” etcetera. These keywords help the search engines with the relevancy of your website when some one does a search for “lawn mowing”. There are a lot of things that can be done to improve your website rankings in Google like Sitemaps, Breadcrumb navigation, naming and describing images etc. However your web designer should not only be able to submit your website to the relevant search engines (like Google) they should know the basics on how to optimise your website for you as well. What makes a good website in this case is good Search Engine Optimisation SEO.

Appearance

You’ve  probalbly noticed that I didn’t put appearance first and that is because what you need to understand that just because a website looks good does not mean that it is good. There is so much more to a website than just its appearance. When someone designs the look (a.k.a. the Theme or Template) of your website it’s like putting up the facade of a house, just like an old western movie set: sure it looks good but it has no real substance to it. Unfortunately there are plenty of people who believe that just because they can design a nice looking Theme or Template they can build a good website and that’s just not true. Now while the appearance of your website is important it’s not the most important thing and so many people end up paying good money for an amazing looking website that no one sees. Just remember people look at style but search engines like Google look at substance. An average looking site with good content and SEO will get you a lot more business than an amazing looking website without any content and SEO (no matter how much you paid for it) so don’t blow your money a flashy looking website without looking at its substance first.

Features/Add ons

An example of a feature would be a shopping cart on your website. These are the things you need to think about when building your website, if you’re planning on selling items online you will need things like an online shopping cart or online order forms. Maybe you want to put photo galleries on your website, make your website iPhone friendly, or put social network buttons connecting you to Facebook, Twitter or MySpace. Whatever the feature, an extra cost will be applied depending on what features you want on your website. So what makes a good website in this instance? Being able to recognise your customers needs and adding the appropriate features or add ons to fulfill those needs.

Pricing

The reality is that not all websites are the same and they will vary depending on what each individual wants in their website, do you want a CMS? Do you want your website optimised? Do you want a photo gallery or video? Or do you want a one-page, brochure style website? If you look at a website like a house it becomes a little clearer. You can have a one bedroom Granny Flat or a five bedroom house with en-suite bathrooms and a triple garage. However, don’t get caught out paying for a five bedroom house and getting a Granny Flat or vice versa by paying for a Granny flat and expecting a five bedroom house.

Well there are several reasons as to why having a mobile friendly site is a good idea. The primary reason would be search-ability.  What I mean by that is that you want people to be able to find you (or search for you) online no matter what sort of device they are using to connect to the internet right? The reality is that more and more people are using their smart phones or pads (like the iPad) to search the internet on the go and they are doing this simply for the convenience. Most people can see that in the not too distant future smart phones and pads will be the primary devices used for browsing the internet or searching online and yet a great deal of websites are not mobile friendly. Why not? Well one reason is: flash. A lot of businesses have spent a small fortune building websites using flash animation software which looks great but unfortunately cannot be seen on some of these increasingly popular devices.  Some mobile devices, mainly iPhones and iPads don’t particularly like websites built using “flash” graphics. Their browsers don’t particularly like flash and if your website has been built based on flash it may not be able to be seen on either iPhones or iPads. Considering their popularity in the Australian market consumer, your flash website could be costing you business (not to mention the high price tag associated with many flash based websites).  The bottom line is if you can’t be seen you can’t be found. A mobile friendly website can be found regardless of the device being used to find them whether that is a desktop, laptop, notepad, mobile phone or pad. Unlike other websites a mobile friendly website detects the type of device your website is being searched by and changes your website into a mobile friendly format that is easier to read (without having to expand the screen) and easier to navigate.