UKC

10 Tricks to Creating a Great Website

How to Create a Great Website

If you want your business to be a success you must have a website, otherwise you’re missing out on a huge audience.

However any old website won’t do – it must be a usable one. So with that in mind, here are some practical tips to get you started.

1. Don’t delay.

Don’t hang around: buy your domain name now if you haven’t already and put up a holding page to let people know you’re developing the site. Get the basic bones of the site up and running and then develop it as you go along. This way you’ll build an audience right from the very beginning.

2. Focus on appealing to your ideal customers.

Do you know who your customer is? All successful websites are built on this knowledge. Keep it simple and focus on providing them with exactly what they need. Know who you are aiming to connect with before you start building the site so you are heading in the right direction.

3. Invest in a web designer to create your website.

It might be tempting to do everything yourself, but expert designers are experts for a reason. They know how to appeal to your target audience and build the website so it is easy to navigate and use. You’ll also get a much better quality website in a shorter amount of time than it would take you to create one yourself.

4. Minimise your use of images.

Images and graphics do have a place on a website. However they shouldn’t dominate the text, because ultimately people will visit your website for information rather than images. Using too many of them can also lead to a much slower loading website, and that could send some people elsewhere when they want their information quickly.

5. Make sure the site works with all browsers and screen sizes.

If you hire a web designer they’ll do this for you – taking another headache out of your list of things to do. Your site might look great for someone using Firefox but it may not appear properly for someone using another browser. You want it to look its best at all times so people don’t give up and go elsewhere.

6. Make sure you are easy to get in touch with.

A key part of developing your website is to make sure all your contact details are included. It is incredible how many people forget to do this. Make sure the information is easy to access from all parts of the website too. If someone wants to get in touch but can’t find the required information, they’ll go elsewhere.

7. Entice people to come back by letting them know what’s coming in the near future.

This is another good way to pique people’s interest. Perhaps you have a new product or service coming soon. Promote it and get people to come back for a closer look in the near future. Announce a forthcoming blog post or a new web page focusing on a new area of your business for example.

8. Link to and from your website.

You don’t want to link to competitor’s sites, but you can link to sites that provide more information on your work or business. Furthermore it is a good idea to create quality links from other sites back to your own. This can be done through promoting your website as positively and consistently as you can.

9. Submit your website to web directories.

This is one of the best ways to get indexed in the search engines as quickly as you can. While the search engines will find your site eventually, you want them to know where you are without delay. The sooner your site can be found, the sooner you will start getting traffic. Don’t forget to contact web indexers either, to ensure the URL of your website is listed in all the right places.

10. Provide strong navigation and a good linking structure.

Have you ever found yourself on a website and lost track of where you are? If you have you’ll know how important good navigation is. Make sure you provide a good linking structure between pages. Again, this is something a good quality web designer can help you with. Ensure your visitors can always find their way back to the home page or to other parts of the website.

As you can see, there are a number of techniques you can use to make sure your website is strong, easy to navigate and welcoming to your visitors. The better your website is, the more likely it is people will come back and visit again and again.

Nominet to offer DOMAIN.UK extension

It may soon be possible to register the much anticipated .UK extension for UK domain names. For instance, instead of domain.co.uk you will be able to register the shorter domain.uk version. This new domain extension will only available to UK registrants.

Nominet have begun a 3 month consulation ending January 7th in order to consider the issues put forward. The new extension would be a new service that would run alongside the already popular .CO.UK, .ME.UK, .ORG.UK and .LTD.UK domain extensions.

The .UK domain extension will not simply be another extension. It will be provided with additional security and verification features including:

* Available only to UK registered addressess
* Daily monitoring for malicious software and viruses
* Trustmark support for verified domains

The proposed pricing to domain registrars of the new .UK extension will be £20 per domain per annum as opposed to the current £2.50 per domain per annum for the other .UK extension.

You can respond to the consultation either by completing an online form, by downloading the consultation and emailing your comments to direct@nominet.org.uk or by requesting a hard copy of the consultation from direct@nominet.org.uk

View full details directly at Nominet’s web site under Consultation on a new .uk domain name service

10 Killer Domain Name Tips

How to Choose a Great Domain Name


Today plenty of people run (or are thinking of running) a small or home based business. You could be one of them. Regardless of the type of business, having a website on the internet is immensely important if you want to reach the right audience. And all good websites start with a great domain name.

When it comes to registering a domain name we recommend you get the .co.uk and the .com domains where possible as a minimum. This means people will find your site regardless of which extension they type in. If you can get .biz, .org and some other extensions as well, so much the better.

We’ve put together ten essential points to remember that will help you find the best domain name for your business.

1. Think about your keywords.

Keywords can be a strong part of any domain name. Jot down the half a dozen strongest keywords relating to your business and see if you can use any of them in your domain. One idea is to combine a keyword with your brand name, for example.

2. Use and develop your brand.

If your business already has a name, try and get the domain for it if you can. This will help to build your brand. A good example would be if you own a shop and you want to build a website to back it up online. Even if people don’t know if you have a website or not, the first thing they’ll search for is your business name, so make sure they can find it.

3. Check copyright and any trademarks before committing to a domain name.

When you have a domain name you like, check and see whether anyone else is using that name first. Not just as a domain name, but as a business name. It could be costly if you buy a name that is already in use.

4. Be timeless rather than trendy.

Don’t be tempted to go for a domain you think is trendy. Trends pass, but your domain name will be around for some time. Ask yourself this – will the domain name you choose still sound good and be effective in a year from now? How about ten years? The answer should be yes in both cases.

5. Avoid misspellings.

Avoid this at all costs. If someone asks you your domain name you should just be able to tell them what it is. You shouldn’t have to say ‘it’s so and so, but you don’t spell it the normal way.’ Avoid using a ‘z’ instead of an ‘s’ and so on.

6. Keep your domain name short and catchy.

The shorter it is the better. Most obvious single word – and even two word – domains have gone, but you don’t have to resort to five or six word domains. Keep it as short as possible, because short domains are far easier for people to remember than long ones. You don’t want to have to explain your domain name for people, or worse, struggle to fit it on your business cards!

7. Use UK-Cheapest.co.uk to find out whether your preferred domain is available.

This is the easiest way to see whether your ideas are available or not. Once you have the name you want – and it’s available as both a .com and a .co.uk name – you can buy it from us.

8. Avoid hyphenated domains.

Have you ever tried to give someone a domain name that has hyphens in it? You end up saying something like this: ‘it’s best hyphen new hyphen sports hyphen shoes dot com.’ Phew! It’s a bit of a mouthful, but those hyphens are necessary otherwise the person won’t find the website. So avoid using them wherever possible when you’re creating your ideal domain name.

9. Consider opting for something other than your brand name.

If you cannot get the domain name you want, think about combining two particular evergreen words related to your business that will carve you a niche online. Let’s say you sell titanium wedding rings for example. You could combine the words titanium and vows (as in wedding vows) to create a brand from the very beginning.

10. Persevere!

Don’t choose the first domain idea you come up with. It’s amazing how many people spend only five or ten minutes thinking of a domain name. As soon as they find something that is available and halfway reasonable, they buy it, when there could have been something far better available had they spent a little longer thinking about it.

Be prepared to brainstorm some ideas for a day or more, and remember – the domain name you choose could have a profound effect on how successful your business is.

Conclusion

Choosing a domain name is a serious business, once you start building your brand it is difficult to change it, so put the time in at the beginning to avoid the common pitfalls. It will be worth it.

New [SPAM] policy on parked domain forwarding services

Re: How we deal with SPAM for email forwarding

We have changed the way we deal with spam for all emails managed by our parked domain services. External services such as Google/Gmail, Hotmail, AOL are constantly tightening their incoming email requirements and so in an effort to minimise false positives further, we have applied the following features:

1) We have modified the score for Spam Assassin to eliminate false positives.

2) We have activated Spam Assassin for all emails. This includes incoming mail for mailboxes, out going mail for mail boxes and emails forwarded to external destinations.

3) Email determined to be SPAM by Spam Assassin is no longer quarantined but will continue to be forwarded (or delivered if you have a Mailbox) with the addition of the text “[SPAM]” added to the subject header.

4) The Spam Assassin headers will remain intact for all forwarded email. This will show the receiving mail server that we have already evaluated the email and marked the score. The receiving mail server may perform additional checks.

5) Google’s Gmail policy states that even if email arrives that they determine is spam, it will still be delivered as long as the text “SPAM” is included in the email subject header. See Best practices when forwarding to Gmail for more information.

6) These changes are only relevant to parked domain services (microlite1) and are not relevant to our Plesk hosting services.

If you see an email with [SPAM] in the subject header this just means that this MAY be spam, it is down to you to decide as it is impossible to know for sure on an automated basis. Other than the subject header change the email will be treated normally as with any other email. The modification of the subject header will ensure that all emails are delivered to your external services.

As always, if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact the support teams.

iOS6 is here. Is it worth it?

Apple iOS 6 Upgrade available today, is it worth the trouble?

We’ve already upgraded our iPads, iPods, iPhones, well, all of our iDevices and in short, what device gets what?

After 5 minutes the following new features caught our eye…the upgrade is well worth the wait. It is packed with over 200 upgrades (you can read all about them in your ‘more details’ link in your iDevice) however not all features are available on all devices. If you have an iPhone 5 (lucky lucky you!) or an iPhone 4s then you get every new feature.

Siri – Until now, Siri was only available on the iPhone 4S. Well with iOS 6 you now have Siri on the New iPad. Siri is also much improved and can post directly to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. With greater language support Siri has taken a big step in the right direction.

Maps – A huge change and a move away from Google Maps. Apple now use their own Maps app which come with cool new features such as 3D maps, turn by turn navigation, real time traffic information and more.

Facebook Integration – all devices get this upgrade. You can now share photos directly from the camera app or post your current location directly from Maps. Your Facebook events are also automatically synced with your Calendar app.

FaceTime over cellular – for iPhone 4S and the New Ipad only. Use up all your mobile data allowance fast with this cool new feature! More useful for devices with 4G support.

Panorama Photos – A new feature for the iPhone 4S provides the ability to take Panoramic pictures, no longer requiring a third part app. Sadly, this feature is not available on any iPad devices.

If you have an iPhone 4 then there has never been a better time (or bigger requirement) to upgrade to the 4S. Features that the iPhone 4 will not receive with iOS 6 include Facetime over cellular, Flyover, Panorama, Turn by turn navigation and Siri.

If you have an iPad 2 you will not receive Facetime over cellular, Panorama (not on the New iPad either) or Siri.

Well there’s hundreds of new features and fixes, we are excited about the upgrade. So what are you waiting for, start downloading your iOS6 now and get some exciting new features! So, is it worth it…? YES! YES! YES!