Website Design and Hosting
Do you have a website? Does your website work for you, or at least advertise your existence? Do you want to sell products or services through your website but lack the expertise?
You might be surprised how often people use the Internet to find products and services, you could be losing business without knowing it. You may also be surprised how cost effective open source solutions are, even custom built to your business requirements.
Star Office Systems exists to provide Internet, Intranet and E-commerce solutions that maximise interaction between businesses, staff and customers. I use intuitively designed website structure, combining visually stunning graphic design and superior functionality to capture the imagination of potential and existing customers.
Domain name - If your unsure what would be a good name for your website I'll help you choose it. This is what customers will type into the address bar at the top of any browser to access your website, as well any email addresses such as This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Typically domain name costs will be negligible (.co.uk domains cost £7.98 two years)
Design - This consists of creating the look of your website, based on your brand or logo along with any marketing or promotional information you can supply.
Hosting - Your website needs a host server to function, each web-server can serve multiple websites and email accounts, so it's not as expensive as it sounds, only £30 per year.
Maintenance Option - If you don't have the time or resource to make changes to your website in house, I'll take on this role on your behalf.
CMS Option - Each CMS (Content Management Systems) has many features available that you may or may not want configured, adding the content can be included, or you can do this yourself. Training will be given to ensure you are knowledgeable about how you use the system, I agree this with you before any work is undertaken.
Reasons your business needs a website?
It could save you time and money.
When people have difficulty with a product or service, the web is one of the first places they turn these days. If you could have helpful advice or frequently asked questions on your website to cater for these customers, this gives them the information quick, and furthermore access this at any time day or night. This also means you don't have to spend valuable time answering multiple similar calls.
The same is true for examples of your work, if your in an industry where customers might want to see a portfolio of work. Web pages are ideal for making photos and designs available online, instead of having to create and send out to potential clients.
If you advertise your products or services no matter how you achieve this, you'll know it's not cheap and you often need to repeat any marketing campaigns at great expense to gain any benefit. This is not the case with a website, once created your website is there 24 hours a day 365 days a year, at minimal expense you have your own constant advertising platform.
Your competitors will probably have one.
If your competitors have a website, this gives them an advantage over you. If somebody is looking for your products or services online, they are obviously not going to find you if your not there to find. You might want to search for your competitors on Google or your favorite search engine, try multiple searches for different combinations of product or service names, location keywords and see if they are listed.
Unless your on multiple online business directories, you're invisible to anyone on the Internet, even if your on these directories, 8 out of 10 potential customers are more than likely to contact businesses with websites than ones without.
It could help your business grow.
The Internet has proved one of the most effective methods for finding new customers for many businesses.
An ideal way to present your products and services to potential customers in a way that will encourage business. Some very limited businesses can survive on referrals alone, however this can in no way be counted on for the majority of businesses especially when starting up or entering new markets.
You should always be looking at ways to grow your business or diversify if necessary, unless you're blessed with as much work as you can handle.
Your customers will expect it.
As I've alluded to earlier on this page, more and more people are getting connected to the Internet, whether this is via broadband on their mobile phone, ADSL Internet at home or in the office. Searching for things on the Internet has become second nature, because you can find just about anything fast, businesses having a website has become a given.
Perception of your business is a powerful thing, just as having a website can increase this, not having one can be very damaging. Just like other marketing method the Internet is a very useful marketing tool, it can reach more and more new customers every day.
What to include in your website design brief:
The more detail you can provide about your design requirements, the greater the impact should be on your target audience.
- Title of items or pages.
- Format, dimensions, layout, orientation.
- Budget and schedule.
- Anything else you can provide: Product photographs, website screen shots, diagrams. (high-resolution)
- Description of target audience: Occupation, gender ratio, average age, location, psychological demographic, lifestyle.
- Message objectives: Hierarchy of copy messages, treatment of headlines, body copy, visuals, call-to-action.
- Where to look for inspiration: Give brief examples of style / overall look you want the website to achieve. What aspects of the product or branding can be used as a starting point for the design? What feelings or metaphors reflect the spirit of your product or company?
