How to Build and Host a UK Website in Just One Hour Source Creating a website used to be a huge pain. You had to learn complicated coding languages or hire expensive web developers. But those days are over! Now anyone can make a beautiful, professional website in no time at all. In this post, we’ll walk through how to quickly build and launch your own UK-based website in about an hour. No technical skills required. We’ll share tips to get your site up fast using Hostingly UK’s easy website builder and hosting. Whether you’re a small business, blog, or just want a strong online presence, a website is a must these days. But it doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive! With the right tools, you can have your own stylish site before your lunch break is over. Let’s get started and build that website of your dreams! How to Prepare to Build a Website Source Before we dive into actually building your website, let’s make sure we have all the key elements ready to go. Having a solid plan in place first will set you up for website success down the road. Figure Out Your Website’s Purpose What’s your website all about? Is it for your business, creative portfolio, blog, or something else? Defining your website’s main goal and objective is crucial. This purpose will guide the design, content, and features we pick later on. Take a moment to get clear on why you want a website and what you hope it will achieve. Get to Know Your Ideal Visitors Now think – who is your website really for? Your target audience should be at the heart of every choice you make. Get clear on who they are, what they want, and how your site can help them. We’ll craft the experience to be perfectly aligned with your ideal visitors. Gather Your Website Building Blocks Finally, pull together all the raw materials your website needs: photos, text, videos, etc. Having this high-quality content ready to go will make the building process smooth sailing. Take the time upfront to set your website up for success. Your future website visitors will thank you! Okay, with that groundwork laid, you’re ready to start bringing your website to life. Let’s do this! How Much Does it Cost to Create a Website? Source Building a website is an investment for sure, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. Let’s break down what goes into the price tag so you know what to budget for. The Web Address First up is paying for your custom domain name (the www.yourwebsite.co.uk part). This usually runs £10-15. But good news! Many of Hostingly UK’s hosting plans toss in a free domain, so you can skip this cost altogether. The Hosting Fee Hosting covers renting space on a server to store all your website files. This is the recurring monthly or yearly cost. Hostingly UK’s packages start at just 7/month for our Starter plan. This works great for smaller sites and blogs. From there, plans scale up based on your needs and budget. Extra Bells and Whistles Premium themes and plugins can jazz up your site’s design or add neat features. But don’t sweat this part – Hostingly UK’s website builder (much like the GoDaddy website builder) has tons of free and paid themes to pick from. So, what’s the damage compared to hiring a fancy web developer? Usually between £2,000-10,000, depending on the functionality of your website and the features you need. Yowza! So yeah, this will always be the more affordable route, which makes it great for getting started and building your online presence! How to Select the Perfect Domain Name Source Picking the right domain name is mega important. This is your website’s address – it needs to be easy to remember and fit your brand. Here’s how to find your perfect match: #1 – Represent Your Brand Your domain should capture the essence of you. Come up with options that sum up your website or business in a catchy, memorable way. Make sure it’s simple to spell too! You want visitors to get your URL right on the first try. People are fickle these days, and if they can’t find what they’re looking for instantly, they’ll move on to something else. Usually, a competitor’s website. #2 – Keep It Short Shorter is better when it comes to domains. Go for something snappy that rolls off the tongue. Something that people instantly know and remember. Facebook. Twitter. Amazon. Punchy and concise works best. Stick to about 2-3 words max. The fewer characters, the better. No one’s going to remember mysmallbusinessltdinlondon.com. #3 – Check Availability Once you’ve brainstormed your domain options, plug them in to see if they’re available. You can check .co.uk domain availability right in Hostingly UK’s domain search tool. Act fast if you find a good one – you don’t want it snatched up! #4 – Consider Extensions The domain extension comes after the dot, like .co.uk. For a UK site, .co.uk is your best bet for authority. Other options like .com or .net work too. Just avoid hyphens or numbers – they’re confusing. With the right domain in hand, you’re ready to conquer the web! Let your brand shine with a domain visitors won’t forget. #5 – SEO Including relevant keywords in your domain name can positively impact SEO rankings, helping your website rank higher in the results of the search engines. Think of your target audience’s primary search terms when exploring domain options. Choosing the right domain name is a crucial decision when building your website, as it forms the basis of your online identity. To select the perfect domain name, consider the following factors: #6 – Consider Your Target Audience A domain name should also be tailored to your target audience. If your website specifically targets a UK audience, choosing a .co.uk domain extension might provide a greater sense of locality and relevance. Domain Name Options There are a variety of domain extensions available to choose from, including: .com — the most popular and recognised globally .co.uk — the top choice for websites explicitly catering to the UK market .org — often used by nonprofit organisations .net — a popular choice for online businesses and technology-related projects Take the time to weigh these factors and examine your domain name options carefully. A well-selected domain will serve as an invaluable asset to your website’s success. How to Build a Website in One Hour Source Alright, you’ve got your domain, hosting plan, and content ready to go. Time for the fun part – actually creating your site! With Hostingly UK’s beginner-friendly website builder, you can have a fully functioning site up in about an hour. No techie skills needed! We’ll walk you through the super simple step-by-step: Step #1 – Starting Your Website (Time: 5 Minutes) Alright, time to kick things off and get your site set up! Here’s what to do: Sign Up With Hostingly UK First, create your free Hostingly UK account. Just enter a username, password, and email to register. Quick and easy. Choose Your Plan Next, pick the right hosting plan for your needs. Whether you just need basics for a simple site or more power for a business, Hostingly UK has options for every budget. Buy Your Domain! With your plan selected, let’s lock down your custom domain name. Search for available .co.uk names and snag the perfect one for your brand. And that takes care of the website basics! With your account, hosting, and domain ready to go, you’ve got everything you need to start creating your site. Our friendly support team is here for you every step of the way, even if you’re a total newbie. So take a deep breath and dive on in. Your website awaits! Step #2 – Picking a Domain Name (Time: 10 Minutes) Choosing your domain is super important – this is your website’s address and identity! Follow these tips to pick the right one: Show Off Your Brand Pick a name that captures the essence of your business or site. Keep it short, sweet and easy to remember. You want it to stick in people’s minds! Boost Your SEO Include a main keyword in your domain to help boost search rankings. But don’t overdo it – just one key term is ideal. More will look spammy. Consider the Extension The .co.uk extension looks best for UK sites. But .com and .net work great too. Avoid complicated hyphens or numbers, though. Your domain name is your first impression online – make it count! Pick something visitors won’t forget that represents your brand. Basically everything we shared in the guide above! Don’t forget this step is crucial, so take your time finding that perfect domain. Once you’ve got it, let’s continue the website fun! Step #3 – Choosing a Hosting Plan (Time: 10 Minutes) Okay, hosting. This is where the service that your website will sit on and the reason it will be accessible to others. Therefore, you need a reliable, high-performing service that hosts well, gives a fast, secure experience, and has everything you need to create a website easily. Fortunately, Hostingly UK offers three main categories of hosting and website builder plans, each with unique features designed to cater to different requirements. Let’s break them down: Website Hosting The fundamental website hosting plans are designed with simplicity and affordability in mind. They’re perfect for individuals, small companies, and bloggers who need dependable services without breaking the bank. Here are our core Website Hosting plans: Stardust (Starter): Ideal for small websites and blogs with minimal traffic, this plan offers 10GB of SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth, starting at just £7 per month. Cosmic: Geared towards growing websites and studios, this plan offers 25GB of SSD storage and unlimited bandwidth and scope for five websites, starting at £11 per month. Celestial: Host an unlimited number of websites, unlimited bandwidth, backups of your website automatically every four hours, and a free website domain included, all for only £18 per month. Get started here. Business Hosting Our Business Hosting plans cater to medium to large-scale businesses or eCommerce websites that require expanded resources and higher performance. Check out our Business Hosting offering: Stellar: Unlimited websites, bandwidth, an x2 speed boost, and priority support, everything you need to host the most amazing websites with everything technical handled on your behalf. Prices start at £37 per month. Orion: Need faster speeds? Orion includes everything from the Stellar package, just with a 4x speed boost and automatic backups every four hours. Prices start at £67 per month. Solaris: Everything that’s included in the other packages, just with our maximum speed boost offering for the utmost fastest speeds. Prices start at £97 per month. And don’t worry; every hosting plan comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee, so you can with building your business online without any risk. Get started here. Reseller Hosting Looking to resell hosting services to your clients or customers? Want to easily offer your own hosting packages, all with your own branding, features, and pricing? Check out these plans to get you started: Comet: Offer up to 25 cPanel accounts with 25GB of SSD storage, unlimited databases, SSL security built-in as standard, daily backups, and everything else needed for a fluid and streamlined experience. Prices start at a simple £20 per month. Galaxy: Over 50 cPanel accounts, 100GB of SSD storage, unlimited everything. More scope, more opportunities to build your business. Easy access for just £35 per month. Nebula: The mega business package. 100 unique cPanel accounts, 250GB of storage, and unlimited everything else, all UK-based, so you can offer your customers the best connection and speeds. All for only £70 per month. Again, all packages come with a 60-day, no-questions money-back guarantee, so you can build in peace without worrying about any financial loss! And if you’re just starting out, start with the Comet package and scale up as and when you need to! Get started here. Simply select the website hosting package that best suits your business needs and goals, and away you go! Step #4 – Use a Website Builder to Build Your Website (Time: 30 Minutes) Source You’ve got your domain, hosting plan, and content ready to go. Now it’s time for the fun part – using Hostingly UK’s website builder to bring your site to life! This step is a breeze thanks to the intuitive drag-and-drop website builder. No technical skills needed! The tool handles the heavy lifting, freeing you up to focus on what matters most: making your site distinctly yours. In just 30 minutes, you can have a professional, visually appealing website up and running. Let’s see how it works. Accessing the Website Builder Once you’ve signed up, chosen the hosting plan, and registered your domain, it’s time to start building. There are two main website builders available, depending on which you’d like to use, and they support all the major platforms. This includes; WordPress hosting Magento Opencart Joomla Prestashop Drupal Each of these is known for being fast, having a ton of customisable themes available for them, and creating high-quality websites with ease. Many of them even have built-in SEO tools, so it’s super easy to manage your search engine optimization tasks and get ranking. Just pick the one that best suits your needs! Choosing a Template These days, you never have to build a website from scratch since there are just so many website templates out there. Whatever your business, whatever your branding and style, take a look through the available templates. There are plenty of free, mobile-friendly templates out there to get started with, or for a few extra bucks, you can get a premium one. It’s up to you and your budget. However, which one you choose is really up to you, but the trick is not to get caught up in trying to find the “perfect” website template. It doesn’t exist because this is your new website, so you don’t actually know what your customer needs are or what will work best. What you need to do is to see your website as a living, breathing entity that will evolve over time. Get it set up and functional, with all your content in place, as quickly as you can. And then tweak, edit, improve, remove, and enhance pages, content, and features over time, as and when needed. Whether you’re running a business, starting a blog, establishing an online store, or showcasing a portfolio, there’s a template for you. Just remember, it’ll look very different in several years, so don’t try and get that now. Done is better than perfect. Customising the Template Once you’ve picked your starting point, it’s time to make it your own. Our website builder’s drag-and-drop system makes it easy to customise every detail. You can replace the images with your own images, change the text, adjust the layout, and add or remove sections until your site suits your vision. Add all the content to suit your business, add your contact details, and if you’re creating an online store to sell products, add your products now so you can actually sell online. You’ll have a stunning website in no time at all! Adding Website Functionality To help improve the online experience and so you can add more value to your customers’ lives, we offer a range of add-ons like social media integration, contact forms, and SEO tools that can be easily incorporated into your website. This includes built-in marketing tools, extra web pages, a landing page here and there, and automatic optimisation for mobile devices. Everything you need for a professional site. Whatever features you need to make your website give your customers what they want, add them in now! Review & Publish When you’re happy with your website, and you think everything’s in place, go through it all from a customer’s perspective. Imagine you come across the website and you want to buy something or book a service. Do all the links work? Do the pages connect? Is the information easy to find? Does the content have any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors? Once you’re satisfied, with just one click, you can publish your website for the world to see. Step #5 – Grab a Cup of Tea While You Publish (Time: 5 Minutes) The exciting moment has come. It’s time to share your meticulously built website with the world. How, you might ask? Just one simple click. And you’re done. Now, when you type in your domain name from any computer or mobile device, you’ll come across your website. It’s really that simple. Of course, as we’ve said above, your job is not done. As you start to sell services, you’ll need to add them in. Your content will also change as your business evolves. Maybe you want to work on your SEO so you get more traffic, which could mean starting a blog page and using blogging tools, starting an email marketing campaign, adding a photo gallery, or growing your social media channels. Whichever direction you want your business to take, don’t believe this is a one-and-done thing. Come back to your website regularly, keep it alive, and make sure it’s serving your business and your potential customers in the best possible way. It’s this kind of approach that will ensure you succeed online. Conclusion: The True Power of Efficiency (Total Time: 1 Hour) And there you have it; within just an hour, you’ve embarked on the thrilling journey from having a mere website idea to seeing its realisation on the web. Never has creating and launching your own UK website been so efficient or so accessible. We at Hostingly UK genuinely believe in removing barriers to entry in the digital world, giving you the tools you need to stake your claim on the web. So, aren’t you amazed at how quickly and effortlessly you can transform your ideas into a fully functioning digital platform? That’s the true power of efficiency offered by Hostingly UK! Get started with us today and have your website up and running within the hour. We can’t wait to see it! Frequently Asked Questions Can you get web hosting for free? We get it – “a free site” sounds pretty tempting when you’re making a website on a budget! Some companies do offer free web hosting services. But before you jump on those free offers, know that they come with a lot of catches. You’ll likely get limited bandwidth, barely any storage space, turtle-slow speeds, and zero technical support. Not ideal! Your best bet is to invest just a small amount into a legit paid host like Hostingly UK. The tiny price brings huge benefits: tons of resources, ultra-fast speeds, round-the-clock support, and rock-solid security. In other words, don’t waste time wrangling free hosting’s restrictions. A few bucks a month with Hostingly UK gives you the freedom to build the site you really want! Do you get web hosting and domain name together? Yep, Hostingly UK makes it super simple by offering both in one place. Once you’ve picked out the hosting plan that fits your site’s needs, you can seamlessly select your perfect domain, too. No jumping through extra hoops or using separate services. We handle it all from start to finish, getting your site online quickly and hassle-free. Our bundled packages (complete with premium features and a ton of built-in tools) let you check two crucial steps off your own website launch checklist at once. Streamlined, straightforward, done. That’s the Hostingly UK way. Is web hosting cheap? Web hosting prices definitely vary a lot depending on where you look. But the good news is, with Hostingly UK, you get rock-solid hosting that won’t break the bank. Our paid plans start at just £7 per month. Now that’s cheap! You get tons of resources and tools to build a fast, fully functional site—all for the price of a fancy cup of coffee. So, if you’re wondering whether quality web hosting has to be expensive, the answer is nope! Here at Hostingly UK, we keep costs low without compromising on service. That means you can easily create a beautiful, mobile-friendly website on a budget. Affordable pricing plus powerful features—hosting can be cheap when it’s done right! Does web hosting give you an email? With Hostingly UK, the answer is yes! Our hosting packages come with professional email accounts using your custom domain. That means you can have a sleek, branded email like “yourname@yourbusiness.com“. No more clunky default addresses. Having matching emails and website domains lends a polished, trustworthy vibe to your brand. It shows clients and customers you mean business. So, not only do we offer easy website building – we hook you up with a custom email to level up your brand, too! Just one more perk of choosing Hostingly UK for all your hosting needs. What is a website builder, and do I need coding skills to use it? A website builder is a stress-free way to make a site—no coding or technical knowledge required! With Hostingly UK’s website builder, you can use our drag-and-drop editor to, well, drag, drop, and click your way to a stunning website through the intuitive editor. No need to mess with complicated code or learn any tech skills. Thanks to the huge template library, you can easily find a professionally designed layout that fits your vision. Tweak fonts, colours, and add your own content in just a few clicks. So don’t worry if you don’t know the first thing about HTML or other programming languages. Hostingly UK’s website builder tool makes DIY web design simple and, dare we say, fun! How long does it take for my website to go live after I click ‘Publish’? The second you click that big, beautiful “Publish” button, get excited – your site is live! Hostingly UK’s website builder tool pushes your website out in near real-time. Pretty cool, right? Now, we do have to give a tiny disclaimer. DNS, the technology that directs people to your site, can take up to 24 hours to fully propagate across the whole internet. But don’t stress! This short lag is totally normal and something all hosts deal with. Consider it the final countdown as the web eagerly awaits your awesome new site. The bottom line: Once you officially publish with Hostingly UK, your website won’t be waiting long to go live for the world to see!
Top 10 website development trends in 2021 Now that the year is coming to an end, what were the top 10 website development trends in 2021? What design, copy or media elements defined the year or maintained their dominance? If you’re pressed for time, we see the standout trends as: COVID-19 policies & procedures pages become standard practice. Artificial Intelligence and bots help with UX and customer service. Single Page Application (SPA) sites increase in popularity. Mobile-first development is now the norm but watch out for Apple users. Serverless applications and architecture enable remote working. Product test automation reduces development costs. Motion UI harnessed to funnel users through the journey. IoT dominates the boardroom with web crossover. Content optimised for voice search first. Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) plugin saves dev costs. We’ll sort them into the three key development areas of mobile-first, pandemic related and UX inspired trends and provide a bit more flavour to their emergence below. Mobile-first trends More than half of all internet traffic is mobile now. We don’t even need to link you to the reports, intuitively you know. Chances are your own browsing habits have migrated to mostly mobile in recent years. So, it’s obvious that Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), Mobile-First Development and Single Page Application (SPA) are leading the charge in design for phones. We expect these trends to continue with good web development focused on near-instant mobile load speeds, rapid conversion and streamlined UI. Lastly, recent changes by Apple on user privacy rules on their devices have changed a lot about what can be tracked now. Essentially not much is passed on to advertisers, websites and merchants any longer, so it’s a space to watch as well. Pandemic-related Privately and in the corporate world, COVID has changed our lives forever. Safety precautions are now listed on nearly every website and our work from home directives have informed tech. AWS (AWS Lambda), Google Cloud (Google Functions) and Microsoft Azure (Azure Functions) lead the charge on serverless computing allowing commerce and business to continue uninterrupted. And collaboration service partners like Cisco are already thinking about syncing their tech with any return to the office with IoT devices like the Cisco Webex Board. We’ve also cut out unnecessary costs in support through automation and bots to help with testing and customer service. UX-focused Artificial Intelligence and bots now dominate the first-touch response for many businesses. They help direct users to resources or manage workflows for service departments. But design is contributing to the user experience too. According to InVision, “motion helps make UIs expressive and easy to use, it’s one of the newer members of the UI design family.” But with new, vast SASS libraries, that’s becoming less of a concern. Lastly, all content is slowly becoming optimised for natural language as sites compete for ‘position zero’ across search engines and home devices. Want Alexa or Google Home to read your content as a result? You’ll need to write for a natural voice response. Want to talk about design, UX or anything else on the internet? Our expert team is standing by.
What brands need to know about NFTs – non-fungible tokens NFTs- non-fungible tokens are the latest buzzwords to emerge from the cryptocurrency space. Chances are you’ve heard about NFT auctions generating millions of pounds for seemingly worthless pixels. Maybe the whole thing just makes no sense. Or perhaps you’re thinking of how you could use NFTs as a brand? Here is what brands need to know about NFTs or non-fungible tokens: NFTs are digital coupons that entitle you ownership of a digital thing. If it’s vintage, it’s gold. Nostalgia generates revenue. Digital land grabs are happening. Celebs are selling out and cashing up One of a kind According to Forbes, “Although they’ve been around since 2014, NFTs are gaining notoriety now because they are becoming an increasingly popular way to buy and sell digital artwork. A staggering £123 million has been spent on NFTs since November 2017.” It’s essentially a coupon that entitles the buyer to own a digital good. That could be a piece of art or something more abstract like a dancing cat video. Because it’s one of a kind, it creates the same scarcity that posthumous artworks do. It’s made up of snippets of code that can’t be reproduced and are stored using the same tech that enables crypto. In fact, most NFTs are bought with cryptocurrency. Nostalgia reigns Maybe it’s just because so many crypto-investors are millennials but 80s, 90s and 00s nostalgia is fetching a hefty price. From beloved YouTube videos like ‘Charlie Bit My Finger” to bespoke collections from Atari for Centipede and Pog; if it’s retro it’s selling like hotcakes. Buyers are snapping up NGTs for digital nostalgia at an alarming rate. Want to own digital Dunkaroos biscuits? It’s possible. For brands with a history in the recent past, this presents an opportunity to monetise old assets in new and exciting ways. Acres of bits A digital land grab is happening too. From parcelling up the real world into fake lots or selling off bits of the ‘digitalverse’; people are buying and selling digital real estate. Why should brands care? Well, it’s expected to boom in the next decade. According to Republic, “Humans now conduct much of their lives through a screen, and virtual worlds that exist only on computers have cropped up. These are places where people can “congregate” by using avatars and have interactive social experiences–entirely virtually. These online communities are called metaverses.” And you can buy them. Is there an opportunity to advertise your product or service in the hubs? Maybe you want to own the metaverse around your actual offices? The possibilities are still unfolding. Celebrity payday From selling the rights to unreleased tracks to making digital doodles, celebs are cashing in. And that’s good for their relationship with fans. But is there a way for brands to participate? Think about famous ad collaborations that would make a great NFT. Do you own “Where’s the Beef?” or “Got Milk?” – those clips could net you millions. Consider your back catalogue of popular ads and highlight any that could see new life as an NFT. And if you need to learn how to sell them, this guide is helpful. Want to talk about NFTs- non-fungible tokens, websites or anything else on the internet? Our expert team is clued in.
5 signs you’ve outgrown your web hosting Web hosting is a modern commodity. You need to have the right abound of storage, bandwidth and speed to enable your customers to buy. Fall down at any of those hurdles and you’re leaving cash on the table. So, you probably know not to simply go with the lowest quote you can get. Chances are, when you make your hosting selection, you carefully compared the packages to make the right fit. But now you may be feeling something is off. The arrangement isn’t as comfortable as it was before. Here are 5 signs you’ve outgrown your web hosting: Hungry neighbours taking more than their fair share. Show load times are costing you money. Poor IP reputation is getting you flagged. Bad performance at peak times. Non-standard software is banned. Hungry Neighbours With any shared service agreement, resources are pooled and used across all subscribers. But not everyone has the same needs. You can bet that for every few low-bandwidth users, there’s a super consumer who is pushing that load to its limits. If your host doesn’t have limiters in place, you probably have noticed a drop in service levels as your host has gained popularity. Slow Loading If you notice that your site’s page loading time has taken a nosedive, it’s time to consider a switch. You can monitor that here. And don’t be lulled into a false sense of security by good desktop loading times. Mobile traffic is fast overtaking desktop browsing as the primary medium. If your mobile load times are slow, you’re missing out on custom. Bad Reputation You must monitor your IP too. If they’re getting flagged for spam and malware, that’s going to affect your business. There are several tools available to keep track of your host’s reputation. If there are any warnings, it’s possible another client of your web host has been exploited. This can happen if they’ve not kept their website up to date or failed to enact good security. But it will hurt you, so it’s best to look at making a change. Peak Time Struggle Shared server resources share demand too. So, during busy periods, the RAM and CPU may struggle to keep up. As a result, you’ll see a temporary reduction in loading speed and hang time on processing functions. The downside is that this may cost you consumer trust. If a payment screen hangs, a client is unlikely to attempt the purchase twice for fear of being double charged. Standard Only Out of the box tools will rarely suit a growing business. When you began, basic software like MySQL was just fine. But now you need better, non-standard software like Percona. If your web host won’t allow you to integrate the systems you need, it may be time to move on. You don’t need to settle for basic programs. We’d love to help you evaluate your web host. Let’s talk about what our hosting packages can offer if you have noticed any of these five signs you’ve outgrown your web hosting.
Robin Hood, the ‘stonk’ market and terms of use Last month, Reddit banned together to take the Stock Market (or stonk market, as they call it) for a ride. They identified gamer-centric stocks that were being shorted by big hedge funds and banded together to inflate the price. This effectively caused some hedge funds to lose billions when they had to buy back the shares at a higher price. As a result of this market volatility, Robin Hood and several other trading platforms used by private investors, restricted trades of these stocks. People got mad. And Robin Hood got sued. Later, they revered their decisions and allowed limited trades to return. Why did people get so mad at Robin Hood in particular? Well, we think it comes down to branding. We’ll discuss this whole mess with Robin Hood, the ‘stonk, market and terms of use from an online branding perspective including: Defining your brand values Creating a tribe Aligning your processes, procedures and terms Brand values “At Robinhood, we believe the financial system should be built to work for everyone.” At least that’s what it says on their website. Maybe watch their advert to see them reinforce this idea. They’re building a brand proposition. You should believe they’re on the side of the little guy. They promise to be for everyone. However, the recent restrictions didn’t align with their brand values. And people got angry. That’s why it’s so important to create a brand that your organisation can live up to, even in the hard times. Think about who you are and what your goal is at your core. Then, determine if the market you operate in will allow you to remain consistent. Creating a tribe Because Robin Hood’s brand values were so attractive, they easily built a tribe. Fans of the platform (prior to the ‘stonk’ market debacle) were honest about its drawbacks but had warm feelings for the brand. They bought into their ‘rob from the rich and give to the poor’ narrative. Many were open advocates for their software. But when they restricted trades, the Robin Hood mob bit the hand that fed and 1-starred their reviews on Google. Building a tribe is great. It gives you powerful advocates for your brand and great word of mouth advertising. But beware, fail to live up to your tribe’s expectations and you could be in for a world of hurt. Aligning your processes, procedures and terms This is where Robin Hood really fell down. Based on the brand values and beliefs instilled in their tribe, it came as a big surprise when they evoked restrictive clauses in their terms of use. Most people never read terms and conditions. So, it’s no shock that users were aghast to find this: “You agree that, without notice, Robinhood may terminate these Terms and Conditions, or suspend your access to the Service or the Content, with or without cause at any time and effective immediately.” Stopping the little guy from investing seems quite at odds with their brand values, doesn’t it? And that’s where aligning your terms, processes and procedures come into play. It’s no use to have brand values and create a tribe that you can’t support in good times and bad. So, when creating the nuts and bolts of how your website/service will operate, make sure it marries with your stated goals. If you want to learn more about online branding, check out this page or speak to our helpful team.
Why the Parler ban is a bad thing This month, tech giants banned a fledgeling social media app called Parler. Amazon, Apple and Google all removed the app from their app stores and hosting services. According to Vox, “Amazon booted Parler from its Amazon Web Services, citing the risk to public safety. This followed Parler’s app being removed from the Google Play Store and Apple App Stores for its role in inciting violence.” The network has received criticism for its extreme free-speech position which led to extremist viewpoints gaining steam on the platform. But regardless of your personal political leanings, here’s why the Parler ban is a sign of things to come. And none of them are good. We’ll discuss concerns including: Tech giants have too much power Users may be signing away personal rights Platforms can promote and enforce political agendas Application of service terms can enable anti-capitalist market control Centralised Power When companies become too big, they throw the rulebooks out of the window. No longer does the concept of supply and demand apply to them. They are so essential, so entrenched, that they operate outside the normal market bounds. Don’t think that’s true? Chances are you use Amazon a lot (especially during this pandemic), now imagine if they raised the price of standard delivery and Prime by 30%. You’d probably still pay it. Why? Because they’re the biggest game in town and no one else even comes close to the convenience and selection they offer. Loss of Rights Before you join or use any online service, you agree to the terms of use they operate under. Most people never even read them. There are some scary things in Facebook’s terms of use, but most people on this planet have already agreed. These include selling your likeness, keeping a copy of pictures you delete and tracking your GPS movements. And yet we all use Facebook every day, never thinking about all the privacy rights we’ve signed away. And the only option to free yourself, stop using them. We’re not exaggerating. Political Agendas Who platforms allow to speak and who they don’t says a lot about their political agendas as an organisation. And before you think ‘platforms are neutral’, no they aren’t. People work at companies and people have biases (positive or negative). This applies to discrimination too. LCFI states, “consistently White portrayal of AI can amplify discrimination, including by: sustaining a racially homogenous workforce, perpetuating oppressive narratives of White superiority, misrepresenting the opportunities and risk of AI, and creating new power hierarchies that place ‘White’ machines in a position of power over non-White humans.” Anti-capitalist Platforms can put pretty much whatever they want into their terms of use. This includes restricting your other business activities or selling ads on your content. Some terms even grant ownership of your content to the platform. Once a service gets large enough, they can buy out competitors and shutter them to maintain dominance. These practices fly in the face of capitalist and free-market attitudes that are present in most western countries. We believe in neutral hosting and user privacy. If you want to learn more about us and our services, check out this page or speak to our helpful team.
Why One.com’s acquisitions should worry you One.com is a vast, sprawling WebHost. And they have been for a while. Now, with yet another acquisition of Zoner Oy, they’re one of the largest players in the market. According to TechRadar, “one.com’s latest acquisition should come as no surprise given that the firm has set about making strategic purchases for some time now. Since being acquired itself by private equity fund Cinven in early 2019, one.com has acquired six other organizations in the past year across Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark.” And One.com’s acquisitions should worry you. Reasons for this include: Lack of competition in the market Server strain and potential increased downtimes Less personalised services due to volumes Less Competition If you’ve played the board game Monopoly, you’ll understand why the concept is a bad thing. According to HG, “As a company acquires a larger and larger market share, they are able to exert unnatural control over the market. No longer does the principle of supply and demand apply, because the monopoly controls all or most of the supply, so if someone wants the product or service they often end up having to pay an inflated price to have it.” Since web hosting is a significant and ongoing business expense, any price rises would have a detrimental effect to the corporate environment. Strained Services Web hosts never have unlimited bandwidth. It’s a restricted resource. So with an unrestrained growth, it’s more likely that each individual will get less of the pie. In order to prevent this, more and more businesses will need to choose dedicated services. And this is no small additional price to pay. According to Startups, “The cost of website hosting for small businesses in the UK ranges from as cheap as £2/month, all the way up to more than £400/month. Shared hosting is the cheapest form of website hosting (£2 – £12/month), while dedicated hosting is the most expensive (£60 – £400/month. However, there are additional and optional costs – such as privacy + protection, and sitelock – which you might have to factor into your hosting budget.” Less Service There are some benefits to working with smaller web hosts. One key difference is the personalised service. When you’re more than just a number in a sea of accounts, your business can receive personal attention. That’s not possible with a huge conglomerate. They must triage their limited staff resources by account value. So, if you’re not a big spender, you’re likely to get little to no attention. This can cost you a competitive advantage if an upgrade or configuration change could see your web presence improved. To keep ahead of the competition, try not to let yourself become a number. We’ve said numerous times, how important it is to invest in good web hosting. It can seem easy to just go with the market leader, but that might be to your detriment. If you want a niche team of experts to look after your best interests, have a browse of our packages.
How to Choose Good Images for Website Sales Conversions The type of images you choose could be reducing your sales figures. Yes, that’s right! People respond to images in different ways and picking the wrong ones could put customers off your product. And it’s not just that. You could be reducing your overall web traffic if you don’t have any images. According to Jeff Bullas, “Articles with images get 94% more total views.” That’s a huge difference in traffic. But having good quality images will make a huge positive impact. So, if you’re wondering how to choose good images for website sales conversions, consider the following: Skip the cheezy, staged stock photos. Show real people having an emotion. Don’t just go with what you like, test it! Use the best quality and clarity image you can. Make it relevant to the content and true to the brand. Ban cheesy stock You know the ones. A comedically overstressed worker pulling at his hair, a frazzled housewife surrounded by messy toys or a smiling ethnically ambiguous woman clutching a shopping bag; these don’t really say anything new. Think about communicating a unique message. Look for photos that jump off the page at you. Scroll past any you feel you’ve seen before. There are loads of options for great free stock photos like Unsplash and Pixabay. Show real emotion People buy from people. Try to use human faces or human body parts wherever you can. This will help your visitor imagine themselves using your product or service. Try to show them what they’ll feel when you solve their problem. Oh and it never hurts if the people in your images resemble your target audience too. Test, test, test Often, people just pick an image they like and go with it. They never actually stop to think if this image will resonate with the customer. One way to test this is to have multiple versions of the same landing page with different images. Keep the one that performs the best. Do this with every page on your site for the best results. Clear, high quality Even if you find the ‘perfect’ image, don’t bother with it if the resolution and quality are low. Today’s modern consumers are used to crisp, crystal imagery. Think of all the perfectly filtered Instagram images they scroll past each day. A poor quality image will do more harm than good. Just don’t chance it. Source another image. Totally relevant Not only should the image be relevant to the topic discussed within that element or article, but the brand should factor too. Think about your brand colours and values. If you’re a bright and fun brand you shouldn’t select dark-background imagery for example. There’s a visual disconnect there between the image and the overall page. They need to marry up. Images are very important to design and sales performance. But if you want more tips on how to improve your website SEO overall, check out our previous article.
Ways to Speed Up Website Loading Times Website loading times have a huge impact on your ranking in search. So, it’s one of the most important issues to address for SEO. There are quite a few quick wins that will make your website faster. And a lot of them are free or incredibly cheap to implement. We’ll discuss ways to speed up website loading times including: Using image compression to reduce file sizes. Employing lazy loading to reduce the bandwidth burden. Applying minify to streamline code on your website. Using browser caching to make repeat visits faster. Image Compression Images are some of the most bandwidth-heavy elements on any website. So, you’ll gain a lot of benefit from making these files as small as you can without losing detail. WordPress has a host of free or cheap image compression options available. You simply install and activate the plugin, then chose the level of compression and let it run. Remember that the number of pictures you have makes a difference too, so try to group images together if you can for fewer requests. That way, it is trying to load only one large image instead of 6 small images. Lazy Loading Lazy loading does what it says on the tin. When you install a lazy loader, your images and text will only appear for the viewable screen. That means, if someone hasn’t started scrolling down the page, the content isn’t being retrieved. Because nothing is loading unless it’s needed, site speed goes way up. Enabling lazy load is easy for WordPress and most other platforms since it’s core to modern design. If you have an older website, it’s a great idea to check that it’s activated for better load times. Your website administrator can help you with this. Minify When you minify code, what you’re actually doing is getting rid of any unnecessary comments, punctuation or pointless characters within the script. Similar to lazy load and image compression, some WordPress plugins offer this with an all-in-one tool. You’ll need to minify all the code on your site including Java, CSS and HTML to see the most benefit. Once the erroneous characters are removed, your site will perform better and load faster. That’s because it’s not having to read as much data to deliver the page. In this case, less is more. Caching Caching is like memory. Your visitor’s browser can store all the info it needs about your website and save it for later. That way, on repeat visits, they don’t need to load everything from scratch. You can set the limits on how long you want the data stored. And best practice suggests a year is a great refresh period. If you need more info about how to implement caching, check out Google’s advice. As we said before, page loading times are extremely important to your search engine ranking, so improving it is critical. We hope these tips helped and if you need more, check out our previous article on SEO.
Choosing Web Hosting for Remote Working Operations Find the right type of web hosting for remote working teams With the new normal taking shape each day, remote working looks like it is here to stay. Remote teams still need to adhere to the same rigours and legal requirements while away from the office when it comes to data security, cybersecurity and access controls. Web hosting for remote working is often not considered until it’s too late and you’re facing a crisis. Why should your web hosting service matter, exactly? Well, it all comes down to security and traffic levels. We’ll break down the common types of web hosting and remote working implications of each to make the choice a simpler one. Shared Web Hosting Shared hosting does what it says on the tin. Several domains are hosted in the same servers and they all share RAM (Random Access Memory) and CPU (Central Processing Unit) resources. Because it’s shared, it’s cheaper. Often making websites an affordable option for sole-traders or small businesses. However, that affordability does mean that resources can become strained if your ‘server neighbours’ experience high traffic volumes. Remote Working Verdict: Best for small operations with low traffic, high risk of vulnerability. Virtual Private Server (VPS) A step up from shared hosting, a VPS gives you some dedicated space on a shared server. It’s a great option for SMEs who don’t have a lot of technical expertise. It offers more storage and more security than standard shared hosting. However, it doesn’t fix the problem of traffic impacts on server stability. We only recommend them for low to medium traffic websites like a B2B service provider. Remote Working Verdict: Good for SMEs with low to medium web traffic levels, medium risk of vulnerability. Dedicated Server Hosting A dedicated server is very secure and can host high levels of traffic due to a lack of shared resources. The downside is that these require a fair bit of technical know-how to maintain and operate. If you need total control and space to scale, dedicated servers make sense for the cost. They aren’t cheap though. You’ll want to look into managed hosting if you don’t have an internal IT team. Remote Working Verdict: Good for large businesses with high traffic needs, low risk of vulnerability. Colocation If you have your own servers, you don’t need to maintain a physical presence to store them. By simply renting racks and cabinets, you can run your own end to end infrastructure for a fully-remote operation and have complete control over your servers at all times. You’ll need technical expertise in the team or managed hosting services to manage and run a co-located service, however. Remote Working Verdict: Good for medium to large businesses with no physical offices, low risk of vulnerability. Cloud Hosting A cloud hosting service uses many computers working together to run programs across multiple servers without much real risk of downtime due to the scalable nature of the platform. It has increased in popularity in recent years for businesses of all sizes. The web host can activate additional resources to account for traffic spikes and prevent downtime which offers better stability. Remote Working Verdict: Good for businesses of any size, low risk of vulnerability. Hopefully, we’ve helped answer some of your questions about web hosting, but if you want to know more, just reach out to one of our knowledgeable team members here.
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