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WEBSITE DESIGN

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Toolset


I now use Rapidweaver on a MAC for all my new website design work. I use Rapidweaver because as the name suggests, the build time it allows is very fast and it constructs a well designed site that can then usually be tailored to your needs.

The tool has the flexibility to allow for a completely bespoke site if a client wants something similar to a site that they have already seen on the web, although usually it is quicker to pick and mix from elements that I have already used and proven before.

By using Rapidweaver I know that menus, headers, footers, fonts and colours will be consistent across pages and that the code produced will be of an inherently good quality that is designed to be supported by multiple browsers including mobile ones.

I use Website Auditor to check every site once it is published. The audit will tell me if I have missed any part of the process, or missed a chance to optimise for keywords on a given page, or loaded images which are far too large for the web for example.

Keywords


Ideally you will need to supply the text for each page or at least give me a brief to work with and I will draft the content for your approval. Either way I will be looking to include a set of agreed keywords into the text several times (allowing for the fact that the text still needs to make sense and be readable to humans). The use of headings and bold text for keywords can be useful. Each keyword may be a single word, or more likely a string of two or three words in a phrase.

Website Images


It is really useful to include photographs in your pages for a couple of reasons:
  1. They may be used to create a mood for the page
  2. Behind the scenes the tags that can be assigned to them can be keyword phrases that search engines can find.
You can supply your own images, I can suggest them for you, or if necessary take some appropriate photographs myself.

Video


Video is even more useful both because it attracts the reader's attention and because Google loves sites with video. For Google, you don't even need to worry too much about the quality of the video recorded - just having any video helps. Obviously for the reader the quality of the video does matter. If you don't personally have the equipment or skills to produce your own short videos then I can provide that too. I have professional equipment including audio equipment and editing software to make a really polished looking piece of film.

Do you use Wordpress?

At Web Design York I have been frequently asked if I can repair or optimise an existing Wordpress site. In each case I have been asked the previous web designer is no longer contactable, leaving their client with a broken site with symptoms such as:

Images that do not load properly on certain browsers
Images that when the client loads them are not formatted properly and fill the page
Odd items shown on the screen that are in fact small code extracts that shouldn't be there

I have no experience with Wordpress although in my role as SEO consultant I have talked to people who are experts and from what they tell me Wordpress is:
a) Prone to being hacked
b) Has to be regularly maintained with the latest versions of all the modules, otherwise it can start to malfunction

Given these issues and also the fact that a lot of Wordpress sites I see start to look very similar I have steered well clear of Wordpress.

I can always take a Wordpress site and design something better of course, using the same text and images you have already!

Summary of Functionality Offered

Hosting and Domain Name

Every site needs both a domain name (also known as a URL) and a hosting package. A hosting package is where the data files containing your text, images and the code for the site etc are stored and the website is served from. The computer that your website sits on is sometimes referred to as the server.

At Web Design York, I generally ask my clients to purchase both of these items themselves. That way the account is in your name and you will get the bill for domain and hosting when it falls due, not me. There is no benefit for either of us if I pay for your hosting package and then collect this sum from you.

Please talk to me first about where to purchase your hosting package from. Not all hosts provide the same level of technical infrastructure and operational software. For example to provide you with Blogging and Content Management I need access to be able to run level 5.6 of something called PHP and that will soon change to level 7.0 Many hosting companies I have talked to, even now at the end of 2017 are not running with even level 5.6 of PHP, even though active support for this level expired in Jan 2017.

If you have already purchased a domain name then that is OK but I will probably want to transfer it to my preferred hosting provider so that the domain and hosting are together in the same place.

Hello!

Martin Waring

Web Developer
07913398254
Web development York

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