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What is AMP and who needs it?

Student men using mobile phone on a city street finding out what is AMP and who needs it

AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages, and is a way of speeding up the load time of a website on your phone. As 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if a page takes longer than three seconds to load, it’s clear that loading speed is a crucial factor for people visiting your website. 

But is AMP the right way to go for your website, and if it is, how can you implement it? We’re going to take a deeper look at the world of accelerated mobile pages. 

What is an AMP?

Ann accelerated mobile page is a page written in HTML (the standard language for web pages) that has been stripped down to make it as lightweight as possible. This means that it loads faster and is ideal for mobile devices, as using 3G or 4G can mean content-heavy websites take their time to load. 

AMPs were introduced in 2015 and were primarily used for publishers and news websites, so their breaking content could be read on the go without long page loading times. It works by applying limitations on the design aspects of your site to ensure that it is as light as possible, but it also speeds up loading time even more by pre-loading your page before you’ve even clicked on it. This means when a user does click on your page, it should load instantly. 

AMP websites take up a very small part of the internet (0.064% of the web) but they are growing exponentially; 70% in the last year according to statistics provided by W3Techs.

Does AMP help my website rank for SEO?

Although implementing accelerated mobile pages on your site won’t directly affect your SEO ranking, there are benefits to having a fast-loading site for mobiles. From 2016, Google has been implementing their mobile first index, meaning the search engine will index your mobile site url before your main site. 

For responsive websites that have the same url for both mobile and desktop, this isn’t an issue, but there are many sites that have a separate, more lightweight page for mobiles so that it loads faster. This mobile first index has forced websites to consolidate their two urls into one, while attempting to maintain a fast site-loading speed for mobile users. 

By having AMP on your website, it will load incredibly quickly regardless of whether it is on mobile or desktop, and a fast loading time on mobile is a ranking factor for Google and could help improve your SEO. 

How can I implement AMP on my website?

If you are a tech and coding expert, you would be able to custom design a website to be super-lightweight and fast loading, or you can apply a standardised AMP solution to get similar results. The latter still requires basic coding knowledge, but the AMP project page gives you extensive step-by-step instructions on how to create AMP websites, stories, ads or email.

Should I get AMP for my website?

According to Google, the average mobile web page takes 15.3 seconds to load, whereas an AMP can take under a second. From this data, getting AMP on your site seems like a no-brainer, but the information can be misleading.

Many sites are optimised for mobile without necessarily having AMP, and can load in around two seconds. If you’re not sure how long your site takes to load on mobile, you can use a free speed test defining where the user would be searching it and what kind of mobile device they have. 

If your site seems to take a long time to load, it could be to do with the size and quality of the images you’re using. Fortunately there are a few simple steps you can take to manage the images on your website – have a look at our blog to find out how to check your images and improve your page loading time.

In most cases, it is not necessary for you to implement AMP on your website, unless your industry is very fast-moving. News sites are a prime example of websites that definitely should have AMP, as they load almost instantly and they often get featured in SERP panels. 

For a standard website, it is probably more beneficial to carry out some basic mobile optimisation instead of moving your whole website over to AMP. 

With Go Sitebuilder, you don’t have to worry about your website not working on a mobile device as all our websites are 100% responsive and can be used across mobiles, tablets and desktop computers. 

We provide ready made templates that are specialised for your industry, so you just need to upload your images and content and you can have a ready to go website in moments. We know that you’re busy, so we’ve made sure that even our website builder is totally responsive – that means you can edit and make changes to your website wherever you are. Try our 14-day free trial today to see where your new website can take you and your business. 

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How do I launch a new website on social media?

Black female food blogger taking a photo in a cafe wearing a light blue shirt and red hair bandana

Launching a new website on social media can be difficult if you don’t have a good strategy. In order for your new website to gain traction with social media users you need to create excitement and anticipation about its launch. 

The most important aspect when launching a new website is to ensure your website is beautifully created and easy to use. The best way to do this is to use a professional website builder. Here at Go SiteBuilder we aim to make the web design process as simple as possible, allowing you to create the best website for your business. 

Stay socially relevant 

In order to successfully launch your website you must make sure your social media profiles are up to date. Make sure you have a presence across multiple platforms and are keeping followers updated with what is happening in your business. Posting regularly and interacting with followers will make social media a more useful tool for your business. 

Give your website a launch date 

By giving your website a launch date you create a sense of anticipation on the arrival of your website. Make sure you announce your website launch date about a month or so before you publish your website, this allows you to create a social media marketing campaign around your website. 

There are a couple of ways you can make the lead up to your website launch more engaging for your current followers and for new followers:

  1. Create a countdown – post something new everyday and remind your followers of how long there is until your website launches
  2. Use giveaways – this can be coupled with the countdown with a different gift every day for the last week for example. Alternatively, give the first 5 people who visit your website a service you offer (for example a photoshoot if you are a photography website)
  3. Give sneak peeks on what your website is going to look like and what you’re going to sell. For example if you are a clothing brand you may post photographs of your new clothes. 

Boost your posts

There are a few social media marketing tips to increase the number of people who see your posts on social media. Boosting the numbers of people who see your posts should increase the number of people who are exposed to your business. These people may look at your profile and follow you as a result of one boosted post. Some of these options are free and some have a cost associated with them: 

Use boost features:

Many social media platforms have services which will boost your posts so that more people see them. Often these services do cost a small amount of money, but if you have one post which you believe will help your website launch it may be worth it. Facebook also offers targeted ads that promote your posts to people within your target audience demographic. 

Work with influencers or general interest profiles:

If your website is in a specific field such as beauty, working with beauty influencers can help boost the exposure of your company. Often influencers will charge for these services or ask for products in return. Check out this blog for more tips on how to work with influencers.

Alternatively you could work with platforms that post photos from other profiles in their domain. For example, for a travel website you may approach an Instagram profile which collates and publishes other users’ travel photos (WildTravelers on Instagram is a good option) ask them to share a photo of yours. 

Use hashtags:

Using hashtags can help boost the number of people who view your posts. Many users of social media may search for hashtags if they want inspiration on a certain topic. If your post is under a hashtag they search then you have a higher chance of being noticed. 

Make your launch an event 

Once you have decided on a date to launch your website you need to decide what to post on the day. There are a number of ways you can create buzz around the launch of your website. For example:

  • Hold a launch party – this is where you can showcase your stock, and you can post photographs from the party on social media. If your store is only online, post Instagram or Facebook Live videos showing off your clothes and counting down to your website launch. 
  • Have giveaways as part of your launch 
  • Create enticements for people to sign up to your mailing list if they do it on launch day (for example 10% off your products). 

If you’re ready to build an amazing website for your business, then look no further than Go Sitebuilder. With a wide range of features, our simple website builder design means you can have a professional looking website up and running in minutes. Try our 14-day free trial today!

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Is there such a thing as a free website?

Is there such a thing as a free website?

Your business needs a website. You know that, but with so many options out there, how are you supposed to choose? There are free website builders, paid website builders, some with ecommerce packages and some without – with so many options, you need a way to whittle down your choices. 

First, make a list of the things you want your website builder to have. Do you want responsive web design, ecommerce capabilities or a personalised domain? Are you a budding designer who wants the freedom to create their own website or are you a rookie who wants ready made templates to make a professional-looking site in moments? You can get all of this and more with Go Sitebuilder, but finding the right website builder is a personal decision.

If you’re not sure what your website needs, we’ve compiled a list of what we think are important elements of the best website builders, and whether you can get them free or not. 

Personalised domain name

The name of your business is the first thing people are going to see when they look for you, so it’s paramount that your website reflects that. It’s well worth finding a website builder that gives you a personalised domain name as it looks much more professional; other free website builders will give you a domain that includes their own name, like www.websitebuilder.co.uk/yourbusinessname. This automatically shows that you aren’t 100% invested in your business. You are likely to have to pay for a personalised domain name, but we think it’s worth the money. 

Responsive web design

Responsive web design means that your website scales up or down in size to fit whichever screen it is viewed on, whether that be a laptop, mobile or tablet. This is increasingly important as mobile web usage overtook over desktop for the first time back in 2016, and the vast majority of people browse for content on their phone. 

Some free website builders offer some elements of responsive web design, and some like Wix are slowly adding more features that will make most of the elements responsive. If you’re not that tech-savvy, however, and don’t want to have to delve into the back end of your site to make sure it is fully responsive, go for a website builder like Go Sitebuilder that is fully responsive. Even our website builder platform is responsive, so you can update your website on your phone wherever you are!

Integrated ecommerce platform

If you’re looking to sell your products on your site, you’ll need a website builder with that capability. It is possible to get a free ecommerce platform, from Square for example, but they are fairly basic and don’t allow you to have a custom domain, shipping calculators, site statistics or integrated shipping labels, which make you seem more unprofessional. They do give unlimited product listings but there is a 500mb maximum website storage, which could become an issue if you are using high-quality photos and have many different products. 

We think it’s best to get an integrated ecommerce website that makes your life as easy as possible, including automatic low stock alerts, shipping calculators and unlimited space. 

Integrated blog platform

It’s no secret that blogging is one of the best new tricks to enhance the SEO on your website. If you want to give your website the best chance, try writing regular blog posts on subjects related to your business that you are knowledgeable about; this will help you look like a leader in your field and inspire trust in your potential customers. 

If you choose a few relevant keywords and use this in all your blogs, this will help Google rank you more effectively, so people searching for your products or services will see your website as soon as possible. 

Most free website builders will provide a basic blogging platform for you to use. Find one that has no limits on the number of blogs you can post, has SEO optimisation tools, and can easily be shared on social media. 

High quality web design

The most important bit! A high quality web design is paramount for your website builder, which can be difficult if you have no design experience. Many website builders will boast of hundreds of functions as a way of selling their product, but we’ve found that in the vast majority of cases, people just don’t use these functionalities. That’s why we’ve perfected our web design platform to have everything you need – and nothing you don’t. 

If you have no web design experience, we provide you with colour palettes and templates, but if you want more freedom you can play around as much as you want! Some free website builders have a limited number of templates, but at Go Sitebuilder we have hundreds, with many specialised for certain industries. 

Free website builders are available, but you will have to compromise on certain elements to do so. At Go Sitebuilder, we think it’s worth investing to make sure your website is the best it can be, so we created an affordable website builder – just £9 a month – that has all the capabilities talked about in this blog, and so much more. Try our 14-day free trial today to see what we can offer you. 

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What is the difference between offline and online business?

Female Inventory Manager Shows Digital Tablet Information on difference between offline and online business

You might think the difference between online and offline businesses is obvious, but if you’re starting a new business or looking to move your business from one to another, it’s important to understand the opportunities and possible pitfalls of each one. 

In 2020, an offline business doesn’t mean a business that doesn’t have a website; on the contrary, it’s crucial for all businesses (online or offline) to have a functioning website that acts as a marketing tool. This helps you gain more visibility and attract more customers to your business. Try a simple website builder like Go Sitebuilder; you can have a website up and running in minutes just by uploading your images and content into our ready made professional web designs. 

There are some businesses that thrive online and others that can only really be carried out on an offline basis, so let’s have a look at the differences between them. 

Online Business

An online business is one that carries out its services entirely online and gets its revenue from selling products and services that are either digital or shipped to the customer’s home. 

Always open

An online business doesn’t adhere to opening hours, which means that customers can browse their products or services at any time. According to Workarea ecommerce research, the primetime for online shopping starts at 8 p.m. when the majority of physical shops are already closed. 

Less expensive to establish and operate

Setting up an online business does require some capital, but only the amount you need to pay for a good quality website builder with an ecommerce platform. As it is always online and can take payments autonomously, you don’t need to hire extra staff to supervise the website. 

Harder to gain trust and reputation

Competition is fierce in the ecommerce business world, and you need to find a way to stand out to your customers and persuade them that your products or services are superior. This means you need much more detailed product descriptions and multiple high quality product photos. It’s also vital to include reviews and testimonials so that potential customers can see that others have been happy with your services. 

Growth opportunities

If you start your online business on a small local scale and it picks up traction quickly, growing your business can be fast and efficient. If you are online then you automatically have a global reach, so just by offering worldwide delivery you can exponentially increase your target audience. 

Offline Business 

An offline business either sells physical products in a store, or services that are limited to a geographical location. An electrician or a plumber, for example, has to travel to visit their customers’ homes in person, rather than offering online services. 

Limited hours

A physical store will be limited to their opening hours, and will not be able to sell their products outside of this time, in the same way an electrician will have specific working hours. This limits the amount of revenue you can receive in a given time frame.

Easier to persuade customers to buy

Once you have a customer in your shop, you are much more likely to get them to buy something, in comparison to having a visitor searching on an ecommerce website. Sales are much easier to achieve with face to face interaction, and you are also helped by the fact the customer can physically touch and hold your product. 

The way you interact with your customers will also help you gain a good reputation; if you are helpful and friendly, people are more likely to recommend you to others. 

Easier to tap into local demand

If you are opening an offline business in your area, you understand exactly what people need and what the gap in the market is. If you are providing products or services that weren’t previously available in the area, then you are likely to start seeing revenue immediately, whereas it can take longer for an online business to gain a loyal following. 

More expensive to set up and run

If you have a physical store, then you will have to factor in the price of renting and insuring a space, as well as paying for running costs such as utilities and staff salaries. If you visit other people’s houses to provide a service, then you will have to pay for your own transport. This can significantly add up, and you might have to raise your prices in order to ensure your offline business turns a profit. 

Choosing whether to run an online or offline business depends on the amount of capital you have to start your company, and the type of product or service you provide. Regardless of which one you choose, you will need a website to either function as your online business, or to market and provide visibility for your offline business. 

Go Sitebuilder is a simple website builder with ready to go templates tailored to your industry. We have an integrated ecommerce platform that allows you to easily sell your products with no limitations, and our responsive design means that potential customers can visit your website from any device. Try our 14-day free trial today and see where a website can take your business. 

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How do you design a website layout?

Parents sit on sofa resting using pc online researching how do you design a website layout?

You might think you need to be a professional graphic designer to build a site with an eye catching and unique web design. However, nowadays this is simply not the case; there are numerous website builders out there which offer ready to go sites and pre-made web designs so that you can build a site which looks great, but doesn’t take up endless amounts of time. 

That being said, whilst website builders do all the tricky stuff for you, you still need to have some sort of plan to ensure your web layout looks smooth and site users can navigate themselves around easily. We’ve put together a list to make the web design process all the simpler, so that you can build a website that looks like it was designed by an expert!

  1.  Stick to simple 

Not only does a minimalist web design look smooth and sophisticated, but there is also a scientific theory behind it in the form of Hick’s law. According to this law of attraction, the more decisions people are forced to make on your site, the longer they take to make a decision. 

So, if you have multiple images of your products on the landing page of your site, you might confuse users as they won’t immediately know which product they prefer. Whilst this does keep people on your site for longer, it can also frustrate them and cause them to delay their decision over whether or not they want to explore your products or services further, leading to a potential decline in site conversions. 

Instead, when building your website, use the best picture you have to either characterise your site, or to show off your best selling product; this will engage site traffic and capture their interest. 

  1. Don’t ignore negative space 

Yes, it’s important to keep your web design simple. However, this doesn’t mean that you should ignore any negative space (space which isn’t filled with a picture or text). Blank spaces between different sections on your web pages are important, as they help to direct the attention of site visitors to the key messages you want to get across, and they also prevent the overcrowding of your web design. 

Instead of simply using negative space as a way to break up different components of your web design, use it as a way to boost conversions. Focus negative space around a call to action to prompt users to consider purchasing your products or enquiring into your services. Google’s homepage is a great example of this: there’s little clutter, and you know exactly what to do. 

  1. Focus on a colour scheme 

The methodology of choosing a colour scheme isn’t as black and white as it might seem: colours can evoke emotions and trigger memories. This is key for your brand: to keep your image as a brand memorable, a strong colour scheme is important, as it means customers are more likely to associate a colour with your business. 

When building your website, picking an appealing colour scheme is also paramount to keep potential customers onto your site. According to Mallee Blue Media, 85% of shoppers claim that colour plays a big role in their buying decisions: choosing colours which clash, or aren’t visually appealing, can cause site visitors to leave your website as they aren’t attracted to your web design.

Although website builders offer customisable colour palettes for you to choose from when building your site, don’t just pick the prettiest colour, close your eyes and hope for the best. Conduct market research into your target market: see what colours they’re most likely to associate with your brand. Below are some businesses which have effectively utilised colour to correlate with their brand. 

  1. Responsive works best 

Building a website with a responsive web design is crucial in keeping site traffic on your site: as most people now visit a website on their mobiles, you’ll need to make sure your website is easy to navigate around on any device. Not only does a responsive website increase chances of conversions, but it’s also important for SEO. 

Considering that site traffic from mobile devices is five times more likely to bounce-off your site if it isn’t responsive, this could negatively impact your ranking on Google’s search engines. If people are clicking off your site at a rapid speed, this could tell Google’s algorithms that your site is of low-value, meaning Google ranks you lower on its search engine results page. 

Luckily, some website builders will offer a responsive website so that traffic to your website can access your page from any device. With Go Sitebuilder, this is included in our package, along with all the other necessary features for you to build your own website at a bargain price, but with premium results. We believe quality shouldn’t be overcomplicated, which is why our simple ready to go sites are perfect for those who want to build a website in a few clicks.

Our 14-day free trial lets you explore all we have to offer and more, completely obligation-free – try it today!

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How do I attract customers to my website?

Shot of happy and successful business colleagues giving high five in office after attracting customers to their website

Every burgeoning business needs an online presence. Bringing your business online means you can massively grow your potential customer base, as well as giving you the opportunity to stand out amongst your competitors with a slick website. Already got your website made? Then you’re halfway there! The next step is attracting customers to your site, and we have some useful tips for you on how to do just that.

Not got your website made yet? Visit our site builder here and get started! 

Design the perfect site

One of the most important aspects of your website will be the web design. A well laid-out, easy to navigate online store demonstrates professionalism and reliability to your visitors. You don’t have to be a web design pro to help your online business flourish. Go Sitebuilder boasts a huge library of website designs that help you easily build your website exactly the way you want it.

High quality descriptions of your product will also convey professionalism to potential customers visiting your eCommerce site. Sprinkle some key words and phrases that people would search for in your product descriptions to ensure that visitors stumble upon your website. 

Product photos are just as important as product descriptions; professional-looking photos of your products show a degree of credibility to your online store’s visitors. Make sure they show all aspects of your product and that you have at least two or three images for each one. 

When creating a website for your business, it is important to create a domain name that reflects your brand. Ideally, you want your domain to match the name of your company. This reinforces your brand and makes it easier for customers to find you and return to your online store. 

Understand the power of social media

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest. The list of possible social media platforms available is exhaustive. Share a link to your new website across all of your personal social media accounts to increase traffic to your store. Networking on LinkedIn, at both a personal and company level, will also be a valuable tool in promoting your business.

Don’t just rely on personal accounts, as it can look unprofessional. Create social media accounts for your business as well – social media is a great way for your business to interact with potential customers online. Maintaining a regular flow of updates helps to keep followers informed about your business, as well as bringing a sense of personality and approachability to your brand. As many as 80% of users on Instagram alone follow at least one business, so this is a channel you should definitely be exploring. 

For each of your business social media accounts, make sure you have a link to your website in your bio, as well as sharing it in individual posts.  That way, every time someone visits your page, they will always see a link to your eCommerce site first.

As well as helping your customers stay abreast of your business, social media is a great tool for learning about your customers. Using analytics (usually built into the platform) to stay informed of your customer base’s interests, demographics and what time they are online, can help you to create content valuable to them at times they’re most likely to see it.

A blog is a great platform to allow customers to keep up to date with any news or updates from your business. Sharing a link to your online store throughout your blog is an absolute must if you want to drive up clicks. Remember to keep up a steady stream of updates in order to build a bigger following. With Go Sitebuilder’s fully integrated blog platform you can get started on yours right away.

Promote your business everywhere

A bulletproof way of ensuring people hear about your new online business is to tell them about it. Simple, right? Tell your friends, tell your family, tell anyone who’ll listen. As long as you keep talking about your online store, people will keep hearing about it.

Post in local groups to get your website in front of a relevant audience. Most towns and communities have dedicated Facebook groups for their residents to post in. Utilise these to keep everyone in your area informed about your business.

If you’re using Facebook as part of your social media strategy, then you can reach potential customers through Facebook’s targeted advertising, where adverts for your website will appear in front of your target audience. You can apply the same principle to Instagram, who are also under the Facebook umbrella, but you’ll have to do some research to work out who is more likely to buy your products.  

For local businesses, registering your business with Google Places is really handy as it means it can be found more easily with Google searches, as well as ensuring it appears on Google Maps. Yahoo! and Bing have similar business databases which are also well worth signing up to.

The only thing left to do…

…is get your website started! We hope you’ve found this blog helpful. Make sure to let everyone know that your website is up and running and your online business will be flying!

Get your website set up now – Register for a 14 day trial today and see how our website builder can help you create a beautiful, professional blog hassle-free. 

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What are the most important elements of an amateur sports club website?

People doing yoga stretching to be added to a sports club website using Go Sitebuilder

Designing a website for an amateur sports club can be overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. With so many different website builders offering a range of features, figuring out what you need for your sports club can be difficult. At Go Sitebuilder we aim to make website building as simple as possible, by having an easy-to-use interface and giving helpful hints and tips in our blog. 

Whether you are building a website for a football club or a boxing school, showcasing your best assets is vital in attracting new talent and sponsorship. In the UK there are over 6,000 amateur sports clubs, which means whatever sport you are working in, there is plenty of competition around you. In this blog we are going to talk you through the most important elements of a sports club website. If you use clever web design and a great website builder you can create the best website for your sports club. 

Clear Information

This may seem obvious but ensuring your website shows all key information is vital to attracting visitors. All information regarding your club should be easy to find on your website, for more help with navigation tips, check out our blog on why navigation is so important. Your website should also be up to date with all recent news and events. 

Make sure you include contact information, location (whether this is your offices or where you train) and office hours. Additionally, as there are specific types of sports clubs and levels for different sports, including detailed information is also important. Consider the following questions when writing about your sports club:

  • What level do you play/train at? 
  • Is there a specific age group you are targeting?
  • Do you have any special awards or trainers that you can mention? 
  • Mention the type of club and ethos you have. For example, are you more focused on development or competitions? 

Photographs and Videos

Your main selling point is how good your team/players are at their sport, so make sure you show them off! Have a range of photographs showing members at their best. If you have photographs from events such as  regional matches or  tournaments include them, especially if a member or team was placed top in the competition. 

Depending on the type of club and your ethos, consider including photographs from more social gatherings. Many new members will look for the spirit of the community they are looking to join, so whether your socials are a curry night or an awards ceremony at the end of the year, ensure to include photographs of them. 

Team or Coaches page

Whether you have a team or coaches page is dependent on whether the focus of your sports club is on the performance of your team or the development led by your coaches. Having this page is a great way to show visitors the people involved in your club. This  personal touch to your website is great in making your community feel more involved in your activities. Ensure you include photographs of your team or coaches, so that visitors can connect more with your website. 

Recent News and Matches

If you want fans to stay updated on your team, having a news page is vital. Including a range of news stories about your club will ensure that visitors stay engaged with your website. Consider the following topics when writing news bulletins:

  • Recent matches or competitions and their outcomes 
  • League table updates 
  • New player/team member/coach updates
  • Tips and advice on how to get involved 
  • News about training sessions or community activities
  • Fundraising events or targets 
  • Updates on alumni if they go on to be more successful in the sport 

With many website builders, visitors can leave a comment on your news stories. This is a great way of keeping fans feeling engaged with your news and getting a feel for their opinion on developments in your sports club. Keeping visitor engagement up is seen to have positive effects for your website and your business. One study showed that if visitors are encouraged to engage with a website, it fosters the idea of a partial owning of the product and therefore an increased attachment to the product. 

Eye Catching Web Design

As with any website, having effective website design is key in creating a standout website. Make sure you think about aspects such as colour, font and layout when designing your site. The design you choose should reflect the type of club you are and be easy for visitors to use. For more inspiration take a look at our blog on the best designed football websites.

If you need a great website builder for your sports club, then look no further than Go Sitebuilder. With a wide range features, our simple website builder design means you can have a professional looking website up and running in minutes. Try our 14-day free trial today!

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What are the different navigation options for a website?

A male and a female sat at desk, looking at a laptop. The male is wearing a red hate and pointing to the laptop. The female is looking at the male.

Navigation is an incredibly important aspect of web design. Navigation refers to how visitors move around your site, whether this is through links or a menu. If the navigation on your website is too complicated visitors can be put off exploring further around your website. If you need more convincing check out our blog on why navigation is so important.

There are a few different options when choosing the type of navigation you want. Often this is a choice between menu styles, but there are other ways in which good navigation can improve your website. With such a range of templates and layouts that come with many website builders, it can be difficult to choose the right one. With Go Sitebuilder we want this choice to be easy, so read on to find out the best navigation style for you. 

Header Menu

Website builder homepage showing video and navigation bar
Source: GoSiteBuilder

The first, and most popular, style of navigation is using a header menu. As you can see on our website this is the style we opted for. A header menu gives the visitor a clear range of options as soon as they enter the website. This means that there is no additional searching for a menu option, making this style the most simplistic. A recent study found that header menus are 22% quicker to navigate than other menus. 

Some header menus are static (meaning that they stay at the top of your page as you scroll), whereas others move off the page as you scroll. Neither option is better or worse, but having a static menu means visitors can change pages easier. Often these headers have between 5-7 options to click on, more than that and the web design starts to look cluttered.

Pros of a header menu: 

  • Visitors can easily find your menu
  • Easy to organise your website into specific categories 
  • Gives structure to your website 
  • Allows visitors to quickly move between web pages 
  • A very popular web design trend – for more web design tips read our blog on the latest web design trends

Cons of a header menu:

  • Takes up space on your website
  • Can be difficult to translate into a mobile format 
  • Some prefer a more minimalist homepage with a smaller menu

‘Hamburger’ Menu

Event website homepage showing a hamburger menu]
Source: Circles Conference
events website showing drop down menu
Source: Circles Conference

The ‘hamburger’ menu is often represented by 2 or 3 lines. When the lines are clicked on, the menu opens into the website, as you can see above with the Circles Conference website. Although this option is used less, there are still positive aspects to this design. 

The main reason this is chosen over a header menu is that this design is more minimalist and takes up less room on the homepage, which leaves more room for a bold header, as seen in the images above. Also, as this menu opens out there is more space and there can be more sections of the website. If you have lots of navigation options, a header menu can look cluttered, so a hamburger menu could make your web design look more streamlined. 

Pros of a hamburger menu: 

  • A more minimalistic look
  • A larger range of menu links 
  • Easily transferable to mobile websites 

Cons of a hamburger menu:

  • May be harder for a visitor to find the menu if they don’t know what the symbol means
  • Visitors have to spend more time finding your menu

Drop Down Menus

Source: Asos

This option is often used for online shops as visitors may want to find a specific item. This example of the Asos website essentially has three menus. The first is the option between Women and Men, then they categorise the product by general product type such as clothing, then more specific fits or clothing types. This allows for multiple options when organising your website. 

However, unless you need lots of options an overly organised menu may distract from the content of your website. For example an accounting firm would not need as many options as a site such as Asos. 

Pros of a drop down menu:

  • Site content can be organised into more specific categories
  • A good way to organise for e-commerce sites
  • Gives structure to your website 
  • Visitors can easily find the menu and navigate through your website 

Cons of a drop down menu: 

  • You may be tempted to make too make categories and over complicate your website navigation
  • Not every website needs this many categories 

Whichever type of navigation you choose, remember these 5 assets of good navigation:

  • How quickly can visitors change pages? 
  • How easy is your menu to use?
  • Does the style fit with your web design?
  • Is it too complicated?
  • Can your navigation be translated to a mobile site?

If you are ready to start building your website, then look no further than Go Sitebuilder. We offer a wide range of features including a range of design templates, which give you multiple navigation options. Our simple website builder design means you can have a professional looking website up and running in minutes. Try our 14-day free trial today!

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Do I need terms and conditions on my website?

Caucasian male with a long beard is sat at a desk in front of a laptop editing photos with camera equipment surrounding the laptop

If you’re building a website for the first time, it can be easy to get distracted with creating a beautiful web design, or creating a colour scheme that compliments your logo. We still find it hard to choose between our professional and stylish ready to go templates on our website builder!

But you need to be aware that there are some boring-but-important pages that you must include in your website. We’ve already written a blog on making sure you have a privacy policy on your website, but what about terms and conditions?

What are terms and conditions?

Terms and conditions are the small print that explain how your company works. They set out your rights and responsibilities as a business, as well as the rights and responsibilities of your customers. 

Ideally, a terms and conditions page should be no longer than two pages, and it should include:

  • The products and services you provide
  • The price and manner of payment accepted
  • Any guarantees or warranties you offer
  • Limit liability if there are any errors in your web content
  • Copyright and trademark information
  • Information on what happens when the customer wants to terminate service with you
  • Where your website is operating from and what the governing law is. 

Although terms and conditions are known for being difficult to read, you want to make sure that yours are plain and intelligible, so that both you and your customers can refer to them if any issue arises with your services or products. 

Do I need terms and conditions?

Although for many basic websites it is not completely necessary to have a terms and conditions page on your website, it is wise to have them, as it protects you from being held responsible for things that aren’t your fault. However, a terms and conditions page is required if you collect user data. Even if you just use your website for marketing purposes, there are still multiple reasons why you should think about having a terms and conditions page. 

Prevent people abusing your site

The terms and conditions page sets out the rules and guidelines your users need to follow to access your website and use your services. This can help prevent users writing harmful language or spamming other users on your comments or forum section. 

Make it possible to ban users if necessary

For websites that allow users to register to become part of the community or to access certain services, then it is a good idea to have a clause in your terms and conditions that allows you to ban them temporarily. This could occur if a user is being abusive on your website and is insulting other members. 

Make sure you own your content

The Intellectual Property clause is often included in a terms and conditions page, and this stipulates that you own the logo, content, and web design, and that this ownership is protected by international copyright law. This makes sure that nobody can copy anything from your website to replicate on their own site,  claiming that they weren’t aware that it was protected by law. 

Limit your liability

However many times you edit and reread the copy on your website, there are likely to be a few errors that slip through the gaps. That’s why many terms and conditions sites include a clause that makes sure that the owner of the website can’t be held responsible for errors in the content, or if there are accidental inaccuracies in the information presented. 

How to write terms and conditions

It might seem daunting to have to write the small print for your website, but you don’t have to do it yourself! Although many terms and conditions pages are very similar, don’t be tempted to copy and paste another company’s page and put it on your own. As likely stipulated in their terms and conditions, that would be classed as intellectual property theft. 

If you have a basic website that you are using as a marketing tool and that doesn’t take users’ personal information or payment details, then you can use an online terms and conditions generator where all you have to do is fill in certain information fields and it is created in a matter of moments. 

If your company is slightly more complex, for example if you have an ecommerce website or a subscription service, then it may be worth hiring a lawyer to write up your terms and conditions for you. This can be done fairly inexpensively using an online lawyer who specialises in this field, and will save you a lot of hassle in the long term. 

If you still haven’t decided on the best website builder for you, why not give Go Sitebuilder a try? We have an integrated ecommerce platform, and give you a personalised domain name and five email addresses, as well as many other benefits that make creating a website simple, fast and fun. Try our 14-day free trial today to see how beautiful your website could look. 

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What’s the difference between local and global web design?

Pleasant conversation. Pretty young woman holding her kid while having telephone talk about the difference between local and global web design

If you’re building a website for the first time, or want to improve the web design of your site, you’ll need to work out whether you want to target a local or global market. Whilst it might be tempting to create a web design that falls into both of these categories, if you’re building a website from scratch for a brand new business, then it might be a good idea to focus your web design on just one of these categories. 

Go Sitebuilder offers ready to go sites which are completely customisable, so that you can build your website with a web design that perfectly suits your business, whether you’re aiming to keep it local, or to make it global. We take a look at some of the differences between local and global web design to help you decide which is the right web design for you. 

Colour scheme 

The psychology behind the colour scheme of your website is more important than you might think. According to TrueList, 42% of shoppers base their opinions of a website on the overall web design, and colour is an incremental factor when it comes to forming these judgements. When selecting the colour scheme for your site, think about what emotions you want to evoke, and what emotions the colours might inspire. 

If you’re building a website with the aim of targeting local customers or clients within your area, consider if there are any colours you can use that resonate with your locality. For example, if your town or city has a renowned sports team, you may choose to select a colour scheme which slightly mirrors the colours of that team. However, you also want to have a distinctive colour that resonates with your own brand – see if you can incorporate a colour which is unique to your business into your web design. 

On the other hand, if you’re building a website with the purpose of selling your products or services globally, you’ll want to pick a colour scheme which is more general. For example, some colours have negative connotations: in South Africa red is the colour of mourning, so you might want to opt for a more neutral colour scheme to ensure your web design is appealing to your global audience. 

Images 

Images also play an important role in the aesthetic appeal of your web design, as they not only add to the overall appearance of your site, but they help to convey a message. Using images is one of the quickest ways to communicate with your target audience – according to MIT, the human brain can process images in 13 milliseconds. That means it’s crucial to choose the right image for your website, as it is a great way to capture the interest of site visitors. 

If you’ve created a web design targeted at a local audience, one of the best ways to boost your image as a trusty, local business is to use local images. This doesn’t mean uploading a few snaps of some local landmarks onto your site – try snapping images of your products being used in a local area, or maybe upload a picture of your business collaborating with another local business. 

For a global web design, images of your local area are much less important: you don’t need to use images to highlight the fact  that you are a local business targeting local audiences, so you have more freedom in choosing which images to add to your web design. Use more general photos: stock images are a good way to add a professional touch to your website, without the cost of hiring a photographer. At Go Sitebuilder, we offer a huge range of stock photos to choose from, helping you build a website perfect for a global market within a few clicks. 

Content 

When building a website, your content not only conveys a message to your audience, but it also plays a big role in SEO, which affects your ranking on Google. You’ll need to decide how you want to structure your content for your web design: if your aim is to build a website for the global market, then you might want to focus mainly on keywords referring to the the products or services you sell, so that Google’s algorithms rank you higher on its search page results when someone searches for a specific item or service. 

If you’re a local business, you’ll still want to use keywords for your product, but you can also capitalise on local keywords, as it is fantastic for SEO: if you incorporate your location within your content on multiple pages then Google will rank you higher when someone searches for your products or services within the area. 

Whether you’re building a website for a local or global market, it’s important to find a website builder that is easy to use, but also offers quality services; Go Sitebuilder offers ready to go sites with completely customisable web designs, so that you can build a site that’s perfect for you. Our 14-day free trial gives you all the freedom you need to try our services, completely free of charge – try it today!