Reliable and high performing web hosting is a key part of every successful website. When you’re looking into a new website or even just refreshing parts of your existing site, your choice of hosting is often one of the last things on your mind. Not choosing the right host can have negative effects on your business and brand.
With so many website hosting companies and options, it is easy to opt for the cheapest route. However, web hosting is such a crucial part of your website that unless the cheapest option does provide dependable and fast hosting then you can’t afford to make that mistake.
Think of your hosting as the foundation or backbone of your site. You wouldn’t have a house on an unstable foundation, and neither should you have a website with a low-quality or unreliable hosting.
With the increased activity of human hackers and hacking bots in recent years, you don’t want to take chances with the security of your website hosting. It is paramount that whatever hosting you choose and whichever host company you decide to go with, you find out how seriously they take the security. If security is not one of their priorities, you should find another host who does put protection and safety first.
The best hosting companies will also put SSL (Secure Socket Layer) on your site which means any data input to your site will be protected.
SSL Certificate will give visitors to your site confidence as any personal details they enter will be kept safe and not intercepted by hackers. At Guzzbury Studio, all our hosting comes with free SSL certificate as standard.
With a good quality hosting package your host should also take regular backups of your website. This is essential as should your website ever have an issue; you can relatively simply restore a previous version of the site and have it up and running with minimal downtime.
Security doesn’t just affect you and your website; it effects visitors to your site and also search engines which brings us onto the next point:
Search engines don’t like sites that are slow and neither to web users. Poor performance and downtime on your website will reflect on your company and brand, especially if you rely on the site to generate leads and sales. If your website has been efficiently coded and is continually optimised for speed, but it is still not performing well, it is likely that you need to upgrade your hosting package or change providers altogether. Getting the right hosting for your websites requirements is key to achieving the best possible performance and therefore giving users the great experiences they deserve.
When hosting isn’t adequate for a website, it is likely to slow that site down. Search engines like Google do not favour sluggish loading or slow response on any website. Likewise, if your hosting is often crashing causing downtime of your website, search engines are less likely to increase the ranking of your site.
In fact, downtime is likely to cause a website to be ‘down ranked’ and loose its current ranking position due to increasing bounce rates. Of course, this would not happen immediately after one instance of your website being down but will come about if that starts taking place on a regular basis.
Since the last quarter of 2017, Google has pushed for SSL certificates on every website with the aim to become the most trusted search engine. This means that Google is less likely to show your website in search results if it doesn’t have an SSL certificate. Search engines will also warn visitors to your site that it is not secure if you do not have SSL certification or if the certification has expired.
It is also very important to remember that your hosting requirements will differ depending on the type of website you are wanting to host. For example, a busy Ecommerce site will need a lot more storage and power to enable it to keep running smoothly than a simple one-page information website. There are many questions to ask a potential host company before agreeing to a contract with them. Don’t be afraid to ask the questions and ensure you get the best solution for your website.
Contact us to get your web hosting questions answered!
Live chats are a must have for every website. They are an excellent way to directly communicate with visitors on your site.
These days, most clients will visit your website before contacting you any other way. Chats enable you to answer questions quickly and easily and therefore helps to build trust with your clients and potential customers.
For your live chat to be most effective, you should either have it monitored by an agent or do this yourself.
Another way to do this would be to have a FAQ section on your chat widget, so should your chat be offline outside of normal working hours then visitors may still be able to find the answer to their question. People will expect your chat to be online during the working day and have someone ready to help them. Not having this could have a negative impact on the way your business is viewed.
To be honest, there is only one website chat solution we would recommend. Tawk…. It’s free, simple to use and ranked #1 according to users, with a 98% customer satisfaction score!
With Tawk you can monitor visitor activity in real time, collaborate and assign conversations, easily answer questions, share knowledge, and create tickets.
Click Here!
Tawk has a desktop and mobile app allowing you to respond to chat messages on the go. These apps give very useful and detailed insights into the visitors that browse your website. You can see how long they spent, where they are based, how many pages they visited, how many times that person has visited before and much more!
There are additional features available – these do cost but are very competitively priced. You can hire an agent to respond to incoming chats or a virtual assistant to help with your mundane tasks. Tawk offer a package with video, voice and screensharing abilities making it even easier to communicate with your clients and potential customers.
Tawk chat software is by far the best out there and gives you more free features than most, if not all other chat software.
Check out Tawk website or contact us for more details!
We sometimes get told that website maintenance & updates are not necessary, our reply is simply a question: If you left your car outside in a field and did not use it at all for 1 year, having had no services or MOT’s would you expect it to be in full working order? If in fact your car had not been vandalised or stolen completely, its most likely that at least the battery would be flat. This simple illustration applies to your website. Without continual updates it won’t be the well lubricated machine it once was and will become more and more vulnerable to brute force hacking. This could then result in security breaches if your site is collecting clients’ data.
Remember, your website represents your business so the last thing you want is for it not to be functioning correctly. Having regular maintenance work on your site will also save money as any issues or bugs will be discovered and fixed before they do too much damage.
During maintenance, your website’s framework should be updated (if there is an update available). With each new update, fixes and security patches are introduced. This means that any bugs or potential weak spots in the security armour are mended, reducing the risk of bots and hackers being able to access and damage your site.
Backup is another element of maintenance, so should anything happen with your site that requires it to be reinstated then you have an up-to-date copy to use. This will save you have huge amount of money and downtime as you shouldn’t ever need to have the site completely re-built.
The performance of a website is key to its success. A poorly functioning site is likely to have repercussions on your business and brand. A well performing site will give customers and potential clients confidence in your business.
Search engines like Google favour sites that are fast and free of errors. Part of maintenance is checking for errors and broken links. When broken links are left for a long period of time, they can become harmful and even start to reduce your ranking position. Regular maintenance gives your site the upper-hand with search engine algorithms.
Without any maintenance, it is likely any functionalities that don’t work will not easily be discovered. A consistently functioning website will reduce bounce rates, as there shouldn’t be downtime or parts not working. Its also more probable for visitors to return to your site if it functions as expected, which in turn can lead to increased sales.
When issues are not fixed, they can build up and result in much bigger problems. With regular maintenance, problems are more likely to be found faster and will save time and money, as larger issues will cost more to sort.
Whilst website maintenance may seem simple, it is always best to leave the technical side of it to professionals, especially if your business relies heavily on your site for sales and attracting new clients. It is also very important to mention that the content on your site should be regularly checked, updated, and added to. Fresh content helps with your SEO and also visitor experience as it ensures your site is always relevant.
Graphic design is so much more than just colours and shapes, its texture, space, alignment, balance, unity, contrast, lines, typography, illustrations, images, animation…. all pieced together to create aesthetically pleasing, yet functioning and meaningful visuals.
As graphic design has so many contributing elements, its hardly surprising how powerful it can be when used effectively in commercial environment.
Good design creates good first impressions. First impressions are very important as they set the tone of how consumers view your brand and organisation ongoing. Once a perception of a brand/company has been created, it is very difficult to change. In the past, first impressions were mostly created face-to-face with an individual or by visiting a company. In the modern society, with the acceleration in growth of the digital world, many first impressions are made online (websites & social media) and can easily be made without businesses knowing. A potential client is likely to have done some online research about your company before any business relationship has begun. Professional, consistent design is a great way to influence first impressions, showcase your brand and build stronger relationships with your clients.
Consistent design will help build strong consumer trust. It cannot be emphasised enough; how essential it is to be consistent in your design, so as to build a strong foundation that consumers will seek and have confidence in. Building a strong consistent brand creates credibility and promotes word of mouth recommendations.
Billy Samoa Saleebey has an excellent podcast interview with personal brand evangelist, Lorena Acosta, it’s called “How to Build a Personal Brand” In the interview, Lorena Acosta explains the importance of being consistent in your family setting, but then how that also applies to your business and brand. Here is a link to the podcast, Click Here! – it’s a must to listening to!
Know when to follow trends. Keeping up with trends and knowing when to re-design your logo or website is key to staying ahead of the competition. Whilst it is good practise to be different from your competition and stand out, outdated designs can create the perception of obsolete business practices and products.
Even large and famous brands like Coca-Cola update their designs to follow trends to keep up with what their consumers are wanting to see.
Great design can boost your social presence. It makes your content easier to read, so consumers are more likely to take time to browse your posts and blogs. Eye-catching designs that enhance the value of the content you have created will help make an emotional connection with your audience and form more loyal clients.
Over 50% of people worldwide are visual learners, so this makes design an incredibly important part of every business. How many times have you, in your mind pictured colours or a logo design but couldn’t remember the name of company associated with it? Great graphic design enables an organisation to be recognised from their colour palette or logo icon. Having bold designs and using carefully selected colours, enables your brand to stand out from the crowd and sets you apart from your competition.
Well designed logo, and other graphics will give your business a professional feel. Strategical designs speak volumes about the culture and practises of the businesses they represent. Your brand should mirror the exceptional services/products that you offer. In the competitive environment we experience today, professional designs are extremely valuable to give your business the edge over others and make a long-lasting impression on clients and prospective clients.
Graphic design can act as a visual support to information by creating value and connections with the target audience.
By producing designs that convey a clear, concise message, you will reach through to your audience in a much greater way. As the English adage says: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
Don’t let anyone ever convince you into thinking the effect graphic design can have on your organisation is minimal. It’s huge! Utilising design can improve every area of your business resulting in an increased profitability and competitive advantage. However, always be careful when re-designing a brand, as too much change can adversely affect your organisation. If in doubt, don’t hesitate to seek professional advise.
Remember, be creative, be bold but be consistent and professional.
In recent years we have seen the online sphere flooded with websites created and launched using website builders and ready-made themes. Does that mean we should all be using them? In short, no!
New businesses often presume that the best & cheapest way to get a website up and running is to create a site themselves using a website builder and off-the-shelf templates. Using a website builder might seem cheap, but as with most things in life, you pay for what you get. There are so many aspects to designing and developing a website, unless you are a graphic designer come developer yourself, it is always best to hand the job to a professional company.
Here are what we believe to be the main reasons for new (& old!) businesses to use the services of a web design & development company:
A website is an online representation of your company, so however small you start off, your site should still be professional and completely bespoke to you. Although you may begin with a relatively simple site, you are likely to want to refresh and add to it as your business grows. Using custom design/development means your website can be tailored specifically to your target market and evolve as your organisation grows.
Websites that are custom coded, give the freedom to create virtually any functionality that you will ever need. This enables you to make your web users’ experience more unique, in turn giving a solid foundation from which to build and strengthen your online presence from.
Search engine optimisation is extremely important to every business and should be worked on by a professional during the time of your website being developed. Valuable content is key to the success of your site. A site that is designed and developed in unity with an SEO plan, gives a much stronger starting point for ongoing SEO/SEM works. The point below regarding speed also effects how well your website ranks. Search engines such as Google, penalize slow loading sites and pages, meaning that if your site is sluggish, it is less likely to be pushed up the ranks.
If you view your time as money, (which business owners and in fact most of us should!) then it will be more cost effective for you to hire a company to design and develop your website. It’s then one less thing for you to worry about doing yourself, enabling you to concentrate on planning and getting new clients. Hiring a professional company to develop your site is and needs to be recognised as a long-term investment. However, the ROI of a custom-built website will far exceed that of a pre-built design site.
The loading and scrolling speed of your site pages and functions. Any website that uses pre-built themes or templates is likely to have excess/unnecessary code which will slow your site down. A few extra seconds for your website to load could be the difference between getting an enquiry or order and not. Statistics show that if a visitor is waiting much more than a few seconds for your website to respond, the likelihood is that the user will lose interest and imminently click off the site.
Often, the finished websites built with site builders, are not fully responsive, meaning that they do not properly function when viewed on mobile or tablet devices. Bearing in mind the fact that over 50% of all web traffic is from mobile devices, this is not good news.
Building and designing a website is certifiably not a one-time task. It’s an on-going procedure that requires developers and designers to roll out continual improvements as required. A good website is never completed – the best websites out there are constantly updated and improved. To guarantee that your site stays relevant, proficient website development companies offer extra support, for example, blog or maintenance services. They collaborate with you, but take the responsibility from your shoulders, permitting you to focus on crucial assignments and primary objectives.
Having said all this…Even when hiring a web design & development company you need to tread with caution. Many companies out there claim to offer “bespoke” or “custom” websites when they are in fact using themes and pre-built code.
You can do your own detective work and research (without paying a penny) to verify such claims, with various online tools such as:
Wappalyzer (Chrome extension that detects the CMS, framework and more)
GT Metrix – this website allow you check the speed and optimisation of any website. It gives a full analysed breakdown of its findings.
Any reputable organisation would be more than happy to give you contact details for some of their clients so you can speak with them and check, first-hand the work of that company.
At Guzzbury Studio, we love making projects light work for our clients. Whilst collaboration is most definitely required, we don’t believe in wasting our clients time or resources. So, to make simpler for our clients we have documented the basic processes we follow with every website we design and develop. This is our guarantee that we will ensure all your criteria is met and your expectations exceeded. We don’t just promise results, we deliver them!
In this primary stage, the main point is for us to recognise the end goal of the website design, usually by having a detailed discussion with the client or other stakeholders.
The written content & SEO elements are two of the most important aspects of every site. Honest, quality and valuable content helps drive visitors to your site and increases engagement. Without content, your websites’ bounce rate is likely to be high as visitors will not spend time on your website. It is key to analyse at this stage how you can add value to your content, so users come to your site to gain insight and knowledge.
The development includes most of the programming work, as well as uploading content. We prefer to keep the codes arranged and refer regularly to the planning aspects as the full website gets its shape. We take a strategic approach to avoid expected hassles by continually testing on the go.
The purpose of the launch phase is to set the website for public viewing. To do this requires the final polishing of design components, extensive testing of interactivity and features and, most of all, a report of the user’s experience.
Of course, the launch stage is never really the end, there is always framework updates and maintenance required.
We sometimes get told by clients that they don’t require maintenance or updates on their site, our reply is simply a question: If you left your car outside in a field and did not use it at all for 1 year, having had no services or MOT’s would you expect it to be in full working order? If in fact your car had not been vandalised or stolen completely, its most likely that at least the battery would be flat. This simple illustration applies very much to your website. Without continual updates it won’t be the well lubricated machine it once was and will become more and more vulnerable to brute force hacking. This could then result in security breaches if your site is collecting clients’ data.
All the best websites out there are continually evolving, being updated, modernised and optimised. A great website is never complete!
Get in touch with us to request your quotation
