Building a website?
Discussion
Probably the wrong section but im not sure where else to put this.
While i am not working id love to refresh or rebuild my website.
Lets just get this clear before i start, i am pretty dumb when it comes to all this
I don't understand a lot of web related stuff but am willing to learn what i can.
Years and years ago i had a website made, it was really good but the issue was i couldn't update it myself. I got a local company to take it over so i could update it easier but that never happened. On my first visit i ended up doing something which meant it got hacked and changed into some porn site
The existing website is wordpress and i did manage to sort of get to grips with just updating it. But now it is very old and the galleries on there are all mixed up where people who updated it just mixed it up, the work is also very very old now and no way up to date.
While ive been off ive been playing with wix and tbh in terms of appearance it does everything i want from it. I do paving and landscaping so its all relatively simple what i need.
But then i read wix isn't very good for seo which in itself i don't really understand.
I understand now that google seo and success is based upon me updating it? and that google doesn't like wix?
A lot of my work infact almost all is word of mouth, it is a lot of upper end of the middle end iykwim, id like to be getting some much more involved projects and i believe a website might help. facebook is good but i dont think people looking to spend 50k plus will use it as their first port of call.
I really want to do this myself as proven by the last 2 it doesnt really work with someone else doing it. i mean it took forever for them to even change my address.
While i am not working id love to refresh or rebuild my website.
Lets just get this clear before i start, i am pretty dumb when it comes to all this
I don't understand a lot of web related stuff but am willing to learn what i can. Years and years ago i had a website made, it was really good but the issue was i couldn't update it myself. I got a local company to take it over so i could update it easier but that never happened. On my first visit i ended up doing something which meant it got hacked and changed into some porn site
The existing website is wordpress and i did manage to sort of get to grips with just updating it. But now it is very old and the galleries on there are all mixed up where people who updated it just mixed it up, the work is also very very old now and no way up to date.
While ive been off ive been playing with wix and tbh in terms of appearance it does everything i want from it. I do paving and landscaping so its all relatively simple what i need.
But then i read wix isn't very good for seo which in itself i don't really understand.
I understand now that google seo and success is based upon me updating it? and that google doesn't like wix?
A lot of my work infact almost all is word of mouth, it is a lot of upper end of the middle end iykwim, id like to be getting some much more involved projects and i believe a website might help. facebook is good but i dont think people looking to spend 50k plus will use it as their first port of call.
I really want to do this myself as proven by the last 2 it doesnt really work with someone else doing it. i mean it took forever for them to even change my address.
m3jappa said:
Probably the wrong section but im not sure where else to put this.
While i am not working id love to refresh or rebuild my website.
Lets just get this clear before i start, i am pretty dumb when it comes to all this I don't understand a lot of web related stuff but am willing to learn what i can.
Years and years ago i had a website made, it was really good but the issue was i couldn't update it myself. I got a local company to take it over so i could update it easier but that never happened. On my first visit i ended up doing something which meant it got hacked and changed into some porn site
The existing website is wordpress and i did manage to sort of get to grips with just updating it. But now it is very old and the galleries on there are all mixed up where people who updated it just mixed it up, the work is also very very old now and no way up to date.
While ive been off ive been playing with wix and tbh in terms of appearance it does everything i want from it. I do paving and landscaping so its all relatively simple what i need.
But then i read wix isn't very good for seo which in itself i don't really understand.
I understand now that google seo and success is based upon me updating it? and that google doesn't like wix?
A lot of my work infact almost all is word of mouth, it is a lot of upper end of the middle end iykwim, id like to be getting some much more involved projects and i believe a website might help. facebook is good but i dont think people looking to spend 50k plus will use it as their first port of call.
I really want to do this myself as proven by the last 2 it doesnt really work with someone else doing it. i mean it took forever for them to even change my address.
If you've used Wordpress before it might be the best option to go for. It's changed a bit, with a block editor now, but I would assume there's little to unlearn on your behalf. While i am not working id love to refresh or rebuild my website.
Lets just get this clear before i start, i am pretty dumb when it comes to all this
I don't understand a lot of web related stuff but am willing to learn what i can. Years and years ago i had a website made, it was really good but the issue was i couldn't update it myself. I got a local company to take it over so i could update it easier but that never happened. On my first visit i ended up doing something which meant it got hacked and changed into some porn site
The existing website is wordpress and i did manage to sort of get to grips with just updating it. But now it is very old and the galleries on there are all mixed up where people who updated it just mixed it up, the work is also very very old now and no way up to date.
While ive been off ive been playing with wix and tbh in terms of appearance it does everything i want from it. I do paving and landscaping so its all relatively simple what i need.
But then i read wix isn't very good for seo which in itself i don't really understand.
I understand now that google seo and success is based upon me updating it? and that google doesn't like wix?
A lot of my work infact almost all is word of mouth, it is a lot of upper end of the middle end iykwim, id like to be getting some much more involved projects and i believe a website might help. facebook is good but i dont think people looking to spend 50k plus will use it as their first port of call.
I really want to do this myself as proven by the last 2 it doesnt really work with someone else doing it. i mean it took forever for them to even change my address.
It's easy to update once it's set up. Lots of themes are free. There's lots on YouTube. I went with Wordpress Beginner when I started out with it and found it very easy to follow.
I've used various propriety webauthoring software in the past and found them all (except Front Page, since deceased, but not before time) straightforward. I've a friend who uses Xara and she hardly put a foot wrong, despite knowing very little about technical matters. I've not used it, but she's a fan. It's about £40.
Wordpress always used to be the default suggestion, but in my opinion there are far simpler and more intuitive options available now - particularly for people who don’t want the hassle of keeping on top of the many security updates/threats.
Perhaps take a look at Squarespace. It's a bit like a simpler version of Wordpress that's fully maintained.
Perhaps take a look at Squarespace. It's a bit like a simpler version of Wordpress that's fully maintained.
Bikerjon said:
Wordpress always used to be the default suggestion, but in my opinion there are far simpler and more intuitive options available now - particularly for people who don’t want the hassle of keeping on top of the many security updates/threats.
Perhaps take a look at Squarespace. It's a bit like a simpler version of Wordpress that's fully maintained.
My host has a maintenance option. Not worth it for me as WP now updates automatically and I've few plugins on one site and not too many on the other. Perhaps take a look at Squarespace. It's a bit like a simpler version of Wordpress that's fully maintained.
My host charges £35pa for hosting but I've no idea how much the extra is for updating. He evidently pushes it for those who don't update regularly.
I use Elementor on my main site. It's a more advanced, in the sense of options, than the new WP, but Gutenberg is being expanded every now and again.
There are lots of options ant they all have their pros and cons and aimed at different skill levels.
Take a read of https://www.blinkweb.co.uk/wordpress-wix-or-square... as these 3 are probably the 3 biggest platforms to choose from.
Take a read of https://www.blinkweb.co.uk/wordpress-wix-or-square... as these 3 are probably the 3 biggest platforms to choose from.
Thanks guys i will have a look through.
Am i right in that to have effective seo i would need to update myself regularly? Is that via say a blog on the website or updating pictures and text?
Its not something i would need to get all my work through (mind you we dont know the effects of what's going on in the world yet) but would be nice to push the real quality aspect and try and find some clients who want high quality above anything else.
Am i right in that to have effective seo i would need to update myself regularly? Is that via say a blog on the website or updating pictures and text?
Its not something i would need to get all my work through (mind you we dont know the effects of what's going on in the world yet) but would be nice to push the real quality aspect and try and find some clients who want high quality above anything else.
m3jappa said:
Thanks guys i will have a look through.
Am i right in that to have effective seo i would need to update myself regularly? Is that via say a blog on the website or updating pictures and text?
Its not something i would need to get all my work through (mind you we dont know the effects of what's going on in the world yet) but would be nice to push the real quality aspect and try and find some clients who want high quality above anything else.
Having good SEO is a small part of having plenty of decent descriptions for photos etc (yoast plugin is good for this). But big factors are making sure you are fully up to date with the search engines and location/addresses/telephone numbers etc are all verified. Am i right in that to have effective seo i would need to update myself regularly? Is that via say a blog on the website or updating pictures and text?
Its not something i would need to get all my work through (mind you we dont know the effects of what's going on in the world yet) but would be nice to push the real quality aspect and try and find some clients who want high quality above anything else.
http://business.google.com/
https://www.bingplaces.com/Dashboard/Home
Also make sure you website is optimized
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insi...
And worth getting the analytics in place to give you a heads up
https://analytics.google.com/
m3jappa said:
Thanks guys i will have a look through.
Am i right in that to have effective seo i would need to update myself regularly? Is that via say a blog on the website or updating pictures and text?
Its not something i would need to get all my work through (mind you we dont know the effects of what's going on in the world yet) but would be nice to push the real quality aspect and try and find some clients who want high quality above anything else.
I write SEO copy and for a while optimised websites. SEO is one of the dark arts according to those who write SEO and optimise websites. Others suggest it is fairly straightforward. There's a lot of rubbish out there telling everyone what Google want, and how they will rate a website. Much of it is informed. Much of it is merely SEO copy masquerading as researched comment. (I might have been guilty of this in the past.)Am i right in that to have effective seo i would need to update myself regularly? Is that via say a blog on the website or updating pictures and text?
Its not something i would need to get all my work through (mind you we dont know the effects of what's going on in the world yet) but would be nice to push the real quality aspect and try and find some clients who want high quality above anything else.
Basically, update the website with some copy/images regularly.It's better to have 350 words every few days than 1,000 once a month. Ensure the right words (keywords) for searches are present in headings, page names, meta data and such. That will put you ahead of the majority of your competitors. Everything else is refinement.
If you are after sales, then the best was to go about it is to get visitors to your site by other means. Push it on social media and forums. Better still, get others to do so. Use the many techniques to get your website URL out to people.
If you feel the need to write a blog, then by all means do so. Ensure it has some connection with your product, write about what you know, only do what you know, not feel, you will be able to keep up. The best content is that which solves the problems of the readers.
There're official Google guidelines. Following their directions seems to be a good option, but remember, their main intent is to stop websites using trickery to beat their algorithms. They have, in the past, been very careful with the truth.
Remember that writing copy every three days, or even each week, is quite a commitment. If you're not up to it, try other methods or pay a writer. It's not as if charges are prohibitive.
I'm not after work, but I occasionally work for an excellent SEO agency, taking their overflow when there's a rush or when I've got specialist knowledge. (Nothing in the last two weeks. I've been told there's unlikely to be any for some time.) I'll give you their name if you are interested.
Derek Smith said:
My host has a maintenance option. Not worth it for me as WP now updates automatically and I've few plugins on one site and not too many on the other.
My host charges £35pa for hosting but I've no idea how much the extra is for updating. He evidently pushes it for those who don't update regularly.
I use Elementor on my main site. It's a more advanced, in the sense of options, than the new WP, but Gutenberg is being expanded every now and again.
I know what you mean, and I'll concede Wordpress is still very good for SEO and also good value for techies who know what they're doing, but it's horribly complex for someone who just wants a reliable, safe site that they can easily update themselves. The OP's site sounds like it was hacked once before, so I think suggesting more Wordpress isn't the best idea. Most small businesses have many different tasks to contend with (in normal times anyway), so checking if for example a new plugin update is compatible with their Wordpress theme or page builder and then knowing how to roll it all back if it completely breaks probably isn't something they are too interested in doing! My host charges £35pa for hosting but I've no idea how much the extra is for updating. He evidently pushes it for those who don't update regularly.
I use Elementor on my main site. It's a more advanced, in the sense of options, than the new WP, but Gutenberg is being expanded every now and again.
I read an article somewhere describing Wordpress as having too many "moving parts" and I think that's probably how I feel about it now.
Bikerjon said:
I know what you mean, and I'll concede Wordpress is still very good for SEO and also good value for techies who know what they're doing, but it's horribly complex for someone who just wants a reliable, safe site that they can easily update themselves. The OP's site sounds like it was hacked once before, so I think suggesting more Wordpress isn't the best idea. Most small businesses have many different tasks to contend with (in normal times anyway), so checking if for example a new plugin update is compatible with their Wordpress theme or page builder and then knowing how to roll it all back if it completely breaks probably isn't something they are too interested in doing!
I read an article somewhere describing Wordpress as having too many "moving parts" and I think that's probably how I feel about it now.
I've run websites, sometimes multiple ones, from around 2000. Who could forget NZOZ04 for my lad's rugby tour of Australia and New Zealand? My favourite URL. I've had my share of problems with webauthoring software. I tried WP back in the day, around 3 I think, and I experienced some problems. However, it's no more difficult to learn that Serif's or Xara's options. I read an article somewhere describing Wordpress as having too many "moving parts" and I think that's probably how I feel about it now.
I went back to WP for no other reason than I fancied a change. This was three or four years ago. I've had one problem where the site went down due to me playing with the software, but other than that it's been fine. I run one site for a charity and limit the plugins to essentials only. My main site uses Elementor, which limits the need for other plugins. I've had no problems with that in all the time it's been on WP.
If I was to change, and I probably will for my main site, I'd go with Xara. It's simple, straightforward and, importantly for me, different. It is more flexible as well.
I think the problems quoted with WP might focus on the old days. I don't know, but I've had no problems.
Over the last few days i have made a pretty brilliant site on wix. It appears almost exactly how i want it.
Is there any harm in just going ahead with it using a slightly different domain as my original website and just having 2 running?
Is the new website likely to just disappear and be a pointless episode?
I am thinking worst case i can give the guys who deal with my existing website the link to what ive done and tell them thats what i want but i need to be found.
Is there any harm in just going ahead with it using a slightly different domain as my original website and just having 2 running?
Is the new website likely to just disappear and be a pointless episode?
I am thinking worst case i can give the guys who deal with my existing website the link to what ive done and tell them thats what i want but i need to be found.
I’m in a very similar situation, but I can also offer some advice too.
We had a company build our website for our core business, our drone services company.
We paid about £1000 for the first build, and then when we wanted to add more functionality, the company we used wanted to charge almost the same again.
It was at this point we said we can’t keep spending that money and not have control over it directly.
So we got the website transferred to our control, and ended the agreement with the original company.
The website was created in WordPress and we thought it would be easy to make changes ourselves.
How wrong we were, even changing a simple line of text broke the pages, as it turns out a lot of the pages had been hard written in code, hence why making small changes affected it so badly.
Now to cut a long story short, we were making changes and things were going quite well.
Then one of my friends gave me some advice to add SEO to increase our visibility .
At first it worked fine, we added the plugin for simple seo, and things really improved.
But one feature we wanted to add, was the ability to get customers to leave reviews using trust pilot.
We followed all the step by step guides from trust pilot and it partly worked, but to get the embedded reviews working it needed another plugin to added.
This was where it all went very badly wrong.
The entire web site Broke, we lost all the images and links and things were not looking good.
I will continue on another post.
We had a company build our website for our core business, our drone services company.
We paid about £1000 for the first build, and then when we wanted to add more functionality, the company we used wanted to charge almost the same again.
It was at this point we said we can’t keep spending that money and not have control over it directly.
So we got the website transferred to our control, and ended the agreement with the original company.
The website was created in WordPress and we thought it would be easy to make changes ourselves.
How wrong we were, even changing a simple line of text broke the pages, as it turns out a lot of the pages had been hard written in code, hence why making small changes affected it so badly.
Now to cut a long story short, we were making changes and things were going quite well.
Then one of my friends gave me some advice to add SEO to increase our visibility .
At first it worked fine, we added the plugin for simple seo, and things really improved.
But one feature we wanted to add, was the ability to get customers to leave reviews using trust pilot.
We followed all the step by step guides from trust pilot and it partly worked, but to get the embedded reviews working it needed another plugin to added.
This was where it all went very badly wrong.
The entire web site Broke, we lost all the images and links and things were not looking good.
I will continue on another post.
So the website was broken, it was my own stupid fault, I had wrongly assumed I knew what I was doing, when of course despite being a computer software professional for over 25 years, I did in reality have no clue about coding and websites.
Now I class myself as being very lucky as I have a good friend who I called and asked him to help get us back to at least a working website.
I now have a WordPress login for us and my friend too, and when things don’t go well I call him to fix it for us, and of course we pay him too.
The moral of this story is I guess if you want it doing properly, pay a professional.
My friend Prit, has also now installed a plugin which backs up the website, so if the website does get broken we can easily restore it.
If I can give you that single piece of advice, do that on your WordPress site as soon as possible, it gives great peace of mind.
Now I class myself as being very lucky as I have a good friend who I called and asked him to help get us back to at least a working website.
I now have a WordPress login for us and my friend too, and when things don’t go well I call him to fix it for us, and of course we pay him too.
The moral of this story is I guess if you want it doing properly, pay a professional.
My friend Prit, has also now installed a plugin which backs up the website, so if the website does get broken we can easily restore it.
If I can give you that single piece of advice, do that on your WordPress site as soon as possible, it gives great peace of mind.
One more thing I should add, I still can’t believe how hard WordPress is as a tool to use, but it does seem the best and most widely used by lots of big companies.
I have used other website building tools, like wix and square space, which seem nice at first, but quickly get hard to use when you want to do more sophisticated options.
I’m still looking for a nice and easy way to add and make changes to our websites, but still. Haven’t found it.
Another company we know well recommended us to buy some paid WordPress themes, and I guess we should do that to make the changes we want.
Let me have a look at the ones we were recommended to use,
I have used other website building tools, like wix and square space, which seem nice at first, but quickly get hard to use when you want to do more sophisticated options.
I’m still looking for a nice and easy way to add and make changes to our websites, but still. Haven’t found it.
Another company we know well recommended us to buy some paid WordPress themes, and I guess we should do that to make the changes we want.
Let me have a look at the ones we were recommended to use,
This was the WordPress theme add-ins we were recommended to use.
https://thrivethemes.com/
We still haven’t decided whether to use that one or another though.
We have been looking at this too.
https://www.elegantthemes.com/join/
They all cost a fee of course, but it’s not a large amount of cash in the scheme of things.
Our problem is just making a decision and building a plan to make the conversion and changes.
https://thrivethemes.com/
We still haven’t decided whether to use that one or another though.
We have been looking at this too.
https://www.elegantthemes.com/join/
They all cost a fee of course, but it’s not a large amount of cash in the scheme of things.
Our problem is just making a decision and building a plan to make the conversion and changes.
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