It all looks like a piece of cake in the adverts, but there’s a lot
more to building a decent website than choosing a name and dropping a few
photographs into a template.
Yes, you could get something up and running in an hour, but is it
really that simple?
In a nutshell, no it isn’t, and you probably guessed that without
me having to spell it out.
If you want a good quality website, someone needs to put thought and
effort into it, and that takes time and experience.
Why would you want to:
- have a website that looks just like all the others when you can have
one that looks and works exactly the way you want?
- use a
‘website builder’
that won’t allow you to do
what you like, and locks you in so you can never go anywhere else
without starting again from scratch?
- work hard writing material to put on your website when I can write
it for you in a way that will attract the attention of potential
visitors in Google searches?
- spend ages looking for suitable graphics when I can probably find or
create them for you?
- work with a business that is based miles away when you can work with
an individual who lives nearby and can easily visit to discuss your
requirements?
I’m experienced with modern website development and maintenance
techniques such as:
- Building ‘static’ websites that don’t involve
databases, in order to achieve quicker page-loading speed and a
much higher level of security than is usually provided by
‘dynamic’ websites
- Using ‘responsive’ design so your website automatically
changes its appearance to look good on smartphones, tablets,
laptops, and desktop computers
- Keeping the master copy of all your website material locally, rather
than having it all stored ‘out there somewhere’, so it
can be backed-up very easily with no chance of it ever being lost
- Testing your website locally so it can be thoroughly checked before
publishing it on the Internet, rather than editing it
‘live’ and possibly messing it all up in
front of the world
- Retaining old versions of your website so you can always put things
back the way they were if you decide that a particular change was
not such a great idea after all
- Requiring only a basic level of support from your ‘web hosting
provider’ meaning you can easily move to another provider if
you like and never get ‘locked in’
I’m also well aware of what most visitors like to see when they
visit websites:
- A clean, spacious look rather than a cluttered, crowded look
- Easy-to-read content presented in top-to-bottom order
- Nearly all relevant material and few, if any, adverts
- Simple, clear, easy-to-navigate menus
- A subtle rather than in-your-face colour scheme
It’s also important to avoid the things that most people hate about
websites:
- Slow loading times, often caused by the website loading many pointless
images that may be decorative, but are more often than not irrelevant.
- Videos and sounds that start playing automatically without permission.
- Reams of text about cookies and questions asking whether the viewer is
prepared to accept all of them, or just the essential ones.
- Things jumping about all over the screen while the viewer is trying to
look at them.
- Invitations to sign up to receive notifications or e-mail updates.
- Nonsense about signing in before you can see anything, possibly using
your Google or Facebook account.
- Google adverts popping up all over the place, so you can hardly see
the information that you actually want.
- Pop-ups asking you to complete a survey, or give your opinion of the
website, when you’ve only been looking at it for a few
seconds.
Genuinely local
If you want a truly local web developer, I actually live and work in
Mildenhall.
One competing web developer claims to serve the Mildenhall area, but the
work is really done in Kolkata.
Another says it does web development in Mildenhall, but also says it
covers twenty-eight other places from Aldeburgh to Stowmarket.
The reality is that they have offices in Cardiff and Chenai.
They don’t live here, and they don’t work here.
I do, so if you ask me for help then we can easily meet face-to-face.
If you’d like a chat about your initial requirements, or changes to
a website that I’ve already built for you, I’ll quickly come
round and see you.
However, if you’re happy to deal with people who claim to work in
Mildenhall, but aren’t really local at all, good luck with that.
Example websites
Here are a few websites that I’ve built for Mildenhall businesses:
If you would like me to build a custom website for you, please
get in touch.