Questions:

Answers:

The Internet:

1. Why have a website, should I be on the internet?

If you have something interesting or useful, YES, and begin immediately, the sooner the better. Don't worry about the site not doing everything straight away, there is always time to improve it later.

If you don't have anything useful or interesting then don't bother as no one else will be interested either, the search engines, visitors will all ignore you because CONTENT IS KING.

Why have a website? Its a shop/promotional tool open 24 hours a day 7 days a week selling your product or service and you do as much or as little as you want to help it.

2. Can I make money on the internet?

YES, but it is important to remember to have something to sell. We have had many prospective clients who have come to us claiming that their websites do nothing for them. Normally this is because the website offers nothing more than a corporate chest -beating exercise which both visitors and search engines ignore. If you want your site to make money OFFER PRODUCT TO SELL and be informative and user friendly.

In our experience, since our first redesign of the edmonds site in 2000 to a 'Say what you do and do what you say' manner, we now get over 90% of all new enquiries and business from the internet. The quality and quantity of our new business is amazingly good and now our enquiries are generated not only from Edinburgh and Scotland, but from the UK and all over the world.

3. Whats so important about search engines?

80% of traffic to a site comes from search engines. They are the single most important source of traffic to your site. If your site cannot be found in search engines then you will get no visitors.

4. Search Engines

Google is the best and most used search engine. Edmonds design and build websites to do well in search engines and though all our sites do well (ie: get on the first page of Google results for their keywords) we have never paid for any search engine placement/keywords or advertisements.

The Yahoo and MSN have a smaller share of the search engine market, though together with Google these 3 have 80% of the searh market.

The rest: ask, all the web, altavista, excite, AOL, hotbot, lycos, looksmart, overture and the thousands of others have a varying low percantage of searches. Some are still free to be listed in others you have to pay for.

5. The Future of the Internet: whats going to happen?

No one knows for sure, and if anyone says they do know then they are mistaken.

At one end of the scale we have large Technology companies who want all our computers and homes and lives connected to them so that we pay them for everything we do. Lets call these the Wannabe Worldwide Economic Dictators

At the other end we have a worldwide community who want to help produce good products for free or as cheaply as possible and hopefully help to make a good and happy world: The Techno-Hippies.

The future is somewhere in between. But its worth realising that the internet has not finished growing. First of all everyone who wants to be, needs to be online using broadband. Secondly localised internets are starting to appear, small communities ( muni wifi, towns, villages, friends) linking to each other directly by cable or wireless.

The internet has really only just begun and the bigger it grows, the more power shifts from big institutions like businesses and governments to the mass of individuals and no one knows what's going to happen then.

 

Getting Started:

1. How much money do i need to start a site?

It is possible to do it all yourself almost for free. Read the magazines or just visit the many websites that will explain what to do. You can get a free domain name (but watch out for the sting - they may charge you £100 to leave), free hosting, free secure shopping cart. But you need a lot of time. But this is the best way to do it - as your site starts to earn money you can start paying for a better host/isp, a better service, a better website that you know and understand and can do all yourself.

On the other hand, you can ask us to help, and get a good working site up within weeks because we are many years ahead on the internet learning curve. We can produce a site for you from as little as £500.

Either way, a well planned website should be not only self-financing but income generating within weeks of going live.

2. Hosting

We have 2 different hosting companies that we use. Hosting, including hosting the domain name, hosting the website and a general email address costs up to about £200. The more you need the more expensive it gets.

We always prefer to use Unix or Linux servers as they are more stable, more secure than Windows servers.

Some Hosts offer unlimited bandwidth so however many people visit your site you will not be charged more. Some hosts set a limit over which you will be charged.

Others may offer unlimited bandwidth but be slower at delivering your website files to visitors.

3. Email

All the hosting companies we use allow you to use any number of email addresses with your domain name - so anything-you-want@yourdomain.co.uk/com. When you check your mail anything sent to that domain will get to you. You can also have more email addresses that can be checked individually.

4. Domain Names

We can move your domain name to our hosts, we can buy you domain names and we can recommend domain names to you. The best domain names say what you are, using the words people would use when referring to your topic: a website called www.jsmithbeers.co.uk will do better in search engines than just www.jsmith.co.uk.

5. Images and words

Search engines read the code and the text of your site, they then decide what the website is about. If you use the words and phrases that people will use when referring to each page of your website then the pages will do well in search engines and people will visit.

When producing a site we will need to know the words, the keywords, for every product and service you offer and wherever possible images to match. Then each product and service must have as much detail as possible to be as helpful as possible to visitors.

Plus, we need logos, contact details, and terms and conditions for your services.

6. Updating: Once the site is up, is that it?

No. A good site changes content regularly, a great site changes content everyday and the whole site should continuously evolve. The more you change the content the more people will return to your site, link to your site, talk about your site, and the more search engines will return to relist your content.

We can help you develop an internet strategy, a plan of what you need to think about and do. We can make regular changes to the site. This would come under Maintenance.

 

The Web Site:

1. Web site Statistics - ignore the hits?

It is very important to check your web site statistics each month, but the number of visitors is not really very important - its whether they buy something or not.

From your stats you will see what product or service is popular or not, what people are looking for when they come to your site, where they go in your site, whether any part of your site is broken, what country they come fom, how long they stay etc...

The number of HITS is irrelevant. For every page that a client visits there will be images and other files called by the server to compile the page for the visitors browser, each one of those actions is a 'hit'. A page with 40 pictures could mean 40 hits for 1 visitor. Ignore hits.

Visit sessions, unique visitors, and repeat visitors are the true figures for your site.

2. Databases

If you want a database we can do it. But they should be used sparingly and not for the whole site - for search engine visibility reasons. Search Engines find it easier to se html pages than active sites using .php or .asp pages. If the find the pages easier then the will list them more.

3. Forms

If you want forms we can do them. But they should be used sparingly as not everyone can be bothered to fill in a form, or trusts you with their details, or worst of all your form might not allow them to ask what they want to ask. You can lose clients with forms. Always offer another contact method, preferrably all methods of contact ie telephone, email, fax.

4. Frames

Although visually they neatly divide the page, they are just awful. Search engines hate them as they can't see frames and therefore automatically don't trust your site. Sometimes a visitor can end up with a page from a framed site but no navigation. Awful, awful, Not recommended!

5. Flash Web Sites

Flash websites make the designer look very clever and the client a fat-headed show off. Most flash websites are slow to download, hard to navigate (unless you like going back to the beginning and starting again), devoid of information and difficult and expensive to maintain. On the plus side they are invisible to search engines so you rarely find them. Flash can be good when used correctly within a site. Though after years online i have yet to use a flash site on a regular basis.

6. Web Site Password Protection

This is a simple way to protect areas of your site from the public, but allow access to those with the password from anywhere in the world.

7. Marketing the Web Site

Some people forget to put their web address on everything - you must do this. Other methods are targetted emails (and its a fine line between spamming and sending emails to past clients and former enquirers). There is also pay-per-click marketing where you buy a position or keywords on various search engines.

 

E-Commerce:

1. E-commerce - how easy is it?

As soon as you have a website you can earn money from it - just put your telephone number on the site and an email address. About half of enquiries from a website will by 'phone, half by email.

2. Credit Cards?

There are many ways of taking credit card details from your site. The single most important thing to remember is that this should be done safely and securely, and to make the client feel safe and secure.

You can take credit card and switch payments with Paypal. Your client does not need to have an account with Paypal to do this. Many people duse Paypal - it maybe a bit more expensive bu the money is in your Paypal Account immediately and it is very easy to set up. (You can then move money from Paypal to your account - but remember to use your name as it appears on your bank account as this will cause you headaches later if you don't.)

You can take credit card details and download them safely so you can put them through an offline credit card machine. You need a secure server to take the credit card details on the site. Your Bank should give you a machine for about £300 set up and about £20 per month.

You can take credit card details on your site and have the site verify the card and take the money. You need an arrangement with one of a variety of companies that will do this - speak to your bank about Merchant Accounts. Most charge extra for each transaction and most hold the money for a few weeks before you get it. There are nine banks that offer merchant accounts - all divisions of well-known high-street banks. These are referred to as merchant acquirers or acquiring banks.

Edmonds can help arrange all of these services for you.

 

Legal:

1. What do I need?

All of the following.

2. Terms and Conditions

You need Terms and Conditions for any business web site. Be open and honest and helpful. Offer contact information for everything. See ours:

3. Contact Details

Its a good idea to litter your site with contact details. Half your enquiries will come by telephone if you let them - or you could lose half your enquiries if you don't.

Let people know your address, it makes you seem safer, more real. It also helps search engines.

Give contact details for complaints and problems, they may never be used but it makes people feel safer.

4. Complaints

Give contact details for complaints and problems, they may never be used but it makes people feel safer.

5. Disabled Access

Australian Olympics 2002 web site was successfully sued for not being disable friendly. Basically this means making the site clean, simple and text based - by a strange coincidence, that's exactly what search engines like too.

6. Personal Details

Tell people what you plan to do with their details. No one wants you to sell their details on to a third party. Tell them you won't in the Terms and Conditions and stick to your promise. If you want to offer an email newsletter service let people opt into it. If you use Personal Details in a manner that upsets people you could end up in court with no visitors to your site.

Be very careful with credit card details, the safest thing is to delete them as soon as they have been used.