Website Design FAQs
Introduction
These questions tend to crop up regularly when we talk to people about getting a new website. It’s always good to know what other people ask, The answers give you confidence that you’re dealing with a professional. We add new questions as they crop up and we’ve split them into categories:
Click on the questions below to see our responses. Click again to remove detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Things to do first
What is a domain name and do I need one?
The domain name is your website's unique address on the internet. It's like a telephone number for websites.
Choosing one isn't straightforward. It depends on many factors and the advice keeps changing. Best discuss it with us before committing yourself. If you've already chosen one, don't worry, we can connect it to your new BlueTree website.
It costs very little to register a .uk domain, usually £12-£15+VAT at the time of writing. Others, like .com, .eu, .gov, .org, cost more (but not a lot).
We don't charge extra for helping clients choose and register their domains.
TIP: if you get someone else to register your website, make sure you have a login to the registration account and that your business is named as the "Registrant". This makes your business the "beneficial owner" of the name. This is important as it's a valuable business asset. Explanation here.
I don't have a logo, can you help?
Yep, we can help. We can either:
- Create a text only logo for you when we build your website.
- Or we can can design you a logo and provide versions ready for your website, print and social media.
Do you provide email addresses?
We don't offer email hosting; it's best practice for your website and email to be hosted on different servers. That way, if your email goes down, your clients can still contact you through your website, and vice versa.
However, we can help you acquire one or more "domain" email addresses (e.g. you@yourdomain.co.uk). There are two ways this can be approached:
- Free (usually): Your domain registrar will probably allow you to set up a free email forwarder as part of your domain registration. A "forwarder" sends your domain emails to your personal account (e.g. Hotmail, Gmail); you'll reply using your personal email address
- Paid: Domain email accounts - your domain registrar or another ISP will have packages you can choose from - we can help you choose the right package if you're not sure
What is a TLD email address, and do I need one?
A "Top Level Domain", or TLD, email address is one that matches your website address. Like you@yourwebsite.co.uk, for example. It's not essential, but choose a TLD email address because:
- it looks professional and adds credibility to your business
- it separates your business and personal emails
- some business directories (and they can be an essential part of your online presence) insist on it
On-going Operation
What does it cost for updates to our website?
It's very easy to update your website. What's more, you only need a web browser, so you can do it, any time you want, from anywhere in the world. Check our these movies.
If you prefer, we'll do it for you. Choose to pay for each update, or we may add a little to your monthly support payment. Costs depend on workload, so please ask here.
Can I add new pages to my website?
Yes, as many as you want. And it’s easy to include them in your menus.
We make branded, empty page templates for you. Choose the one that best suits your new page. You control the content, the template ensures your new page matches the others on your website.
Is there a limit for photos, images and movies on my website?
We don’t limit the number of images you can add to your website. We do operate a fair usage policy (1GB), but nobody has yet built a website big enough to invoke it. Movies are less of a problem because we play them directly from YouTube of Vimeo, so they don't use much space on our server, nor do they use our internet bandwidth.
Why is is it important to host my website in the UK?
Sometimes you don't actually know where your website is hosted. There are several reasons for a UK business to host its website within these shores.
- Whilst the Internet works at the speed of light, it can still take a while for data to travel from another country; search engines reward speed, so we try very hard to make sure your pages load fast
- US government agencies monitor and share all traffic across the Atlantic; that may not worry you, but they do make mistakes, and it's easier to resolve disputes with somebody in the UK
- No UK Government organisation will do business with you if there's any risk that their data will go outside these shores
- Search engines reward consistency: if your market's in the UK, then use a .uk domain, register it with a UK ISP and host your website here
Global corporations host duplicates of their websites in each country for these reasons.
What is image optimisation, and is it important?
A high quality photo contains many "pixels", little dots that form the image. This makes image files very large, and large files take a long time to load. Photographic quality isn’t needed so much on the Internet, so we can get away with smaller files.
BlueTree CMS optimises larger images when you put them in your image library. It resizes them when you add them into your web pages. If you prefer to optimise them yourself, which can work better if your picture is very large, please do.
My Website on the Internet
Will having my contact details online generate lots of spam?
Sadly, spam is a fact of life for all internet users. However, we can take steps to reduce it.
Whilst users can see your email address and phone number, they’re hidden from crawlers. Web crawlers are programs hunt the web looking for people's contact details.
BlueTree CMS uses "NAT variables", short codes you can type anywhere on your website. The CMS will display your Name, Address or Telephone number wherever it encounters one of the NAT codes. This means that only human spammers can collect your contact information.
Will search engines list my website?
Yes.
As you build your BlueTree website, the CMS adds your pages to an "XML sitemap". This is a page that you don't see, coded for search engines. It shows all the pages in a format that search engines use to understand your site and its content.
When you commit an update to your site, BlueTree CMS asks if you'd like to submit it for scanning by the main search engines.
What is SEO, and must I buy an SEO package?
First, you don't pay extra for an SEO pack. You can achieve the most common SEO tasks using the features built into BlueTree CMS. Perhaps the most important thing you can do within your site, is make the content both useful and unique.
SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization". When Google wasn't so clever, people called "black hat SEOs" could con it into thinking web sites were useful, so it would list them high in search results. Google is much cleverer now, but there are things "white hat SEOs" can - and should - do to help it understand your website better.
There's "on-page" and "off-page" SEO. BlueTree CMS has features that support on-page SEO. Some, like our XML sitemap feature, are automatic. Others, like metadata, you control in the page settings dialogue.
For small businesses with a local market, most off-page SEO is simple, but time-consuming. You control the content; to rank high in search results, make it more useful than that of your local competitors.
If the basics don't get you the Google rank that you want, then we can help you get up and running with Google Ads.
What else can I do to promote my business online?
Once your website is published and search engines have found it, we'll tell you about some free steps to boost your business online. For those with local markets, it's time-consuming but inexpensive. If you have a national or global market, you'll need to employ expert help.
The main thing to remember, especially for a local business, is that you only need do enough to stay one step ahead of your competition. Sometimes, for a small business, just keeping up is enough to bring in the orders.
If you need to so more to boost your business online, Google Ads may work. For more information on this please see our Google Ads page.
Why is web page load speed important?
Internet users are impatient; they'll leave a page if it doesn't load fast. Web pages these days should load load in under five seconds, and start showing interesting info after two or three. We build BlueTree websites to load efficiently and display properly on all devices, including those with high-definition screens.
Your home page and landing pages, particularly, should load fast. In the unlikely event that they load too slowly, let us know and we'll look into it.
It's less important for other pages, as you will already have grabbed your visitor's interest by the time they reach one, so they'll be willing to wait a little longer.