Posted on

Top tips for designing your own website

Young male sitting in his pottery shop in front of a laptop and writing notes on how he is designing his website. He is wearing a black and white striped top and has glasses

Designing your website is an exciting moment for your company, and really lets you flex your creative muscles! But it’s not just making a beautiful design, although this is important to create a good first impression for your potential clients. We’ve put together a list of top tips of things to think about for your website to help make it look professional and help bring traffic to the site. 

What do your customers want to know?

It’s easy to think about what you want to tell your potential customers, but it’s even more important to think about what information they need. Put yourself in your client’s shoes – when you arrive on the website, can you see what service you provide and how to get it at first glance? If not, your visitors might be put off and move on to another site.

Prepare your content

You should have at least 10 blog posts ready to publish as soon as your website launches. And don’t rush it – your content needs to be high quality. Long-form content which has high-authority links and target keywords will rank higher in search results and drive more traffic to your site. Most importantly, make the content useful and relevant to your target audience! 

Keep your contact details visible and up to date

You want your potential clients to trust you and your brand, and if your site doesn’t have any contact details, they’re likely to become suspicious. 44% of users will leave a company’s website if there’s no contact information. It also creates a better user experience if the contact details are where they expect them to be, so make sure they can easily be found both in the main menu and in the footer of your website. 

Update your website regularly

Once your site is online, you can’t just let it sit there! Using an out of date website framework or plugin makes your computer vulnerable to hackers, so make sure the website creator you use has regular updates. Uploading new and up-to-date content that is useful for your target market both increases trust and helps with SEO, making it easier for users to find your site. 

If you’re ready to put these top tips into action, why not register for a 14-day free trial of Go Sitebuilder? You can design the site, upload your content and launch it in a couple of hours, without any previous knowledge of web design. 

Posted on

How long does it take to build 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.

You’ve decided your company needs its own website, and you’re ready to go. But how long will it take until you launch your website and welcome its first visitors?

The answer to this question varies considerably depending on the way you decide to build your website, and the features you want to include.

Hiring a web developer

If you want complete freedom to create a custom-built site, you’ll have to hire a professional web developer, where you’ll work together to make your vision a reality. This is what the process will look like: 

  1. You meet with the developer to discuss your requirements for the website.
  2. They create a mockup of the design and the sitemap for you to approve or ask for changes.
  3. The developer builds the website according to these specifications.
  4. The website is then sent to you for review, where you can ask for modifications until you are happy with the product.

This process typically takes around 14 weeks for a standard website, but could take longer depending on the complexity of the design and how many modifications you need. The main cause for a delayed website launch is lack of content, so make sure you have all the content prepared for the developers to upload as soon as it’s ready. 

This is a good option if you aren’t working on a deadline and you have a lot of specific requirements for your site. Hiring a web developer costs upwards of £5000, however, so you’ll need the financial resources to be able to go down this route.

Using a website builder

A website builder is the fastest – and cheapest – way to get a website up and running, because rather than relying on a web developer to create your design from scratch, you choose from a list of ready-made themes. Then you can customise it to fit your design, upload your content and you’re ready to go, even if you have no experience. Realistically, if you already have your content prepared, you could launch your website in a couple of hours. 

However, the website builder you choose is important. You need to make sure that they provide everything that you need at a price you can afford. If you realise that a website builder doesn’t give you the features you need after you’ve customised the design and uploaded your content, it’s a laborious process to start over again with another company. 

If you’re not ready to hire a website developer, or you’re in a rush to get your site online, then have a look at the features offered by Go SiteBuilder. If you register for their 14-day free trial you could have a beautifully designed website online today!

Posted on

How much does it cost to build a website?

A male and female coffee shop owners sat in their shop at a table adding up their monthly costs

It’s impossible to answer the question of how much a website will cost without first working out what you need from your website. There’s no point in shelling out thousands of pounds for a custom-made website if you’re just going to be uploading blogs, but equally, you won’t be able to rely on a free website-builder if you need online shopping capability. Let’s have a look at the basics that you’ll need to think about, and how much they’ll cost. 

What’s essential?

Domain name: The annual cost of a domain name can vary considerably, but the average price is between £8-10.

Web hosting: This is the server that allows users to visit your site, and affects the speed and reliability of your website. Shared hosting is the cheapest option, which costs around £5 a month, but there is also Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting, which offers better reliability, security and performance than a shared server, but can cost between £18-80 per month.

How are you going to build your site?

This section will be strongly influenced by your budget, your technical skills, and your time. Getting a custom-built website costs thousands of pounds, whereas coding your own site is cheap but takes time and needs technical ability, and could end up looking unprofessional if you’re not an experienced developer. We recommend using a semi-automated website creator. 

Website builders make it easy to create high-quality websites with ready-made and customisable themes, and their monthly prices often include the domain name and web hosting already. Many of these offer free plans or free trial periods, offering paid premium features for a monthly fee between £5 and £15. If your site needs to function as an online shop, then expect to pay an extra fee for this. 

When you make your decision, it’s important to budget realistically. You may have the money this quarter for a premium website, but remember that this will be an ongoing cost year after year. It’s best to start small and then add premium features as and when you need them. Write down a list of all the features you want on your website, then prioritise them accordingly – what is necessary right now? What can wait until the website is more established?

If you want to try out a website creator that gives you a domain, web hosting and five free email addresses, then Go Sitebuilder offers a 14-day free trial, and costs just £9.99 a month after that. Why not register today?


Posted on

Can you build a website for free?

Male business owner working from home and using his laptop to update this Go Sitebuilder website. He is wearing a blue v-neck t-shirt, sitting at a desk that has a mug, notebook and hard hat on.

If you’ve got a business you need a website. If you’re just starting out, though, is it worth shelling out a monthly sum for a paid domain when there are so many free options available? We look at the pros and cons of free website builders and building a website for free.

Why choose a free website?

With so many free website creators on the market, it’s easy to see why so many people have chosen the unpaid option to make their first digital footprint. Even if you don’t know anything about website design, they offer ready-made themes tailored to specific sectors that give your site a professional look in minutes. Many small companies start off on social media, and a free website offers a significant step up from a Facebook or Instagram page. Seems like a good deal, but there are limitations to a free website.

Why choose a paid website?

A free website provider normally has its drawbacks. First, you cannot get your own domain, but instead, have to piggyback on the name of the provider. One of the most popular free website creators, Wix, forces you to create an unwieldy and unprofessional web address along the lines of www.yourname.wixsite.com/yoursite. 

Another disadvantage is that most free websites cap their storage and bandwidth, which means you’ll be limited in the number of images, videos and blogs you’ll be able to upload. Restricted bandwidth will make your site slower, resulting in a worse user experience and a less visible site in terms of SEO.

The website may be free for you, but the providers need to make money through you somehow, which they do by cluttering up your page with their own adverts. The companies also bombard you with emails detailing all the features available in their paid version in a bid to get you to upgrade.

To decide whether it’s worth getting a free website rather than a paid one, then you need to look at your priorities. If you just want a web presence where you can show your services and upload blogs, then a free plan is all you need. However, if you are looking to grow your company, increase your SEO and need certain features such as online selling or mobile capability, then it might be better to look at a paid version. 

If you’re still not sure, Go SiteBuilder offers a 14-day free trial where you can see which features work for you and your business, as well as a team of experts on hand to offer support if you need it. Give it a go today!

Posted on

What is crucial for effective website design?

A man and a woman standing over a table looking at a piece of paper. The male is wearing a casual denim shirt and holding a pen. The female is wearing a white t-shirt and is standing slightly in the background

A beautiful website will leave a great impression. There are a lot of different directions you can adventure into when designing a new website. We’ve put our heads together to give you this easy to follow list that will help you create the most effective website design.

Keep it simple

You could be forgiven for thinking that the more you add to your website, the better the experience for your audiences. But, there is a fine line between being informative and causing confusion or clutter. Simplicity is the way to go.

Use your space to say what you need to say, but don’t go overboard. Keep your colour palettes, fonts and other design elements clean, minimalist and simple. Not only will this create a sleek design but it will also make it easy for the viewer to digest the information. And, don’t be afraid of the white or blank spaces on your site. These are actually important design elements in their own right.

Use logical navigation

Try to view your website like taking a journey, in that there should be a logical path to follow to get from A to B. Straightforward navigation is a vital component of any website because it enables viewers to easily find the information they’re looking for. If your site lacks cohesion, some visitors may be left wondering where they’re supposed to go.

Your menu bars and page layouts are key to providing clear navigation, but you should also include easy-to-understand calls to actions so that viewers know what to expect or do next. You can easily lead them exactly where you want them to go!

Try out visual media

Cramming your website with text could be hard for your viewers, so think carefully about how you present your written information. Ideally, your text should be easily scannable, so time-starved viewers can still easily find the information they need.

Quick tip: Use lists and bullet points, for example, to break chunks of text up.

Another essential strategy to break text up is to include visual media on your site. Images speak louder than words so they’re a really important asset to your site to promote your products or services. Ideally, use your own photos, but whether you use originals or stock images make sure they’re of good quality – you don’t want a blurry, oversized image to be representing your business.

Responsive design

Effective website design involves enabling the site to be compatible for use on a range of devices, including smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. If you’ve already got a Go Sitebuilder website you won’t need to worry about responsive design as everything you create is instantly responsive!

Responsive design, in a nutshell, means that your website will adjust in size to suit a particular device. This leaves your content clear and easy to read no matter what device it’s viewed upon. With many internet users now relying exclusively on smartphones for web viewing, this is a design element that is nowadays a necessity rather than a luxury if you don’t want to miss a potential audience!

You don’t have to be a professional designer to build a website with Go Sitebuilder. Our hand-crafted, beautiful website sections will have you online within minutes – so what are you waiting for? Get online today with a 14-day free trial!

Posted on

4 fool-proof ways to drive traffic to your new website

Launching a website

There’s nothing quite like launching a fresh, new website – especially as a small or new business. After all, your website is part of your public image and your most important digital marketing asset. But, what happens after you’ve hit the publish button?

Your traffic can, and will, grow organically once your site is online but it’s likely to take a long time for you to see the growth you’re really looking for without boosting it yourself. Thankfully, there’s a wealth of easy-to-follow options for driving traffic to your website. We’ve explored some of these options below:

Option #1: Work on your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is the heart of any solid digital strategy. Put simply, it’s a staple of on-page and off-page techniques which can help you bring organic (i.e. not paid) traffic to your website. Quality SEO will bring your website higher in the search results when users look for your target keywords, meaning more traffic for you. It sounds scary and complicated but this easy to follow guide will get you started on the basics. Once you understand the basics, keeping your website up to date with fresh content is the best way to play your SEO-game!

Option #2: Create a content strategy

Another great way to keep people coming back to your website is to frequently publish interesting and engaging content. In fact, a solid content strategy is really the backbone of successful digital marketing. The great thing about content production is that it’s low-cost (or free if you’re willing to put pen to paper) and easy to do if you leverage your industry knowledge. Create a plan of the types of content you think your visitors would find interesting or useful and set up a calendar for when you want to post each article or page.

Option #3: Explore the world of guest blogging

Here’s a method of traffic generation which can bring traffic to your site in two different ways. By doing a little outreach and working with related websites, you can arrange guest blog posts whereby you write some content for them, and they allow you to link back to your website. Not only will this bring relevant traffic to your site, but it’ll also generate backlinks which are an essential ingredient to quality SEO.

Option #4: If you’re in a rush, try some paid ads

While the strategies we’ve shared so far are all proven and effective, they can take a little time to reap the traffic rewards. SEO, for example, can take a few weeks or even months to start showing positive results. If you need traffic faster than this, PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising is always an option. With a program like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, you can bid a small amount of money to place your ad higher up in the search results. It can be a great way to give your new business a jumpstart.

If you’re having trouble driving traffic to your website, try out one or more of these ideas and you’ll soon start to see some positive results. And if you’re yet to build the website of your dreams, why not try out Go Sitebuilder today? It’s the easiest way to create a professional website for your business – no technical skills required!

Posted on

How do I promote my new website launch?

Website Launch Plans

The launch of a new website is an exciting proposition for any business, but in order to ensure it goes off with a bang, you will need to plan and execute the pre-launch process carefully. We’ve put together a list of tried and tested expert tips to follow to help you promote your new website.

Build anticipation

Now is the perfect time to start building buzz around your brand! You’ll want to begin by growing your customer base – especially if you’re a new business. You can choose a traditional route such as printing newspaper ads, or a more current direction by using social media. Just make sure, whatever method you choose, it’s a direct line to your target audience so you’re communicating effectively.

Another great way to build up some hype before your launch is to reach out to an email list. Emails can be beautiful works of art that let you relay your message to a group of people all at once. You can use emails to tease or share more information about your launch, products and services. Using beautiful images or including gifs will ensure your emails captivate your audience.

Utilise social media

Every business should make the most of social media to build brand awareness and increase audience numbers, whether they already have a website or not. However, if you’re launching a new site, using social media is a highly effective strategy to promote this event and stoke up excitement for the launch.
Create pages on social media platforms most frequented by your target audiences and regularly drip-feed information about your new website launch to create relationships with your customers and build up the anticipation. As well as detailing when the site will be launched, include information about what you’ll offer, what the site will contain and what visitors can expect.

Tease audiences with snippets from your new website, such as a sneak preview of some images, videos or blogs. Include offers or promotions for the first number of people who visit or purchase from your site once it’s launched.

As well as promoting your launch on popular sites such as Facebook or Instagram, the power of video cannot be ignored, so consider making short videos on YouTube talking about key aspects of your new website and the launch.

Start blogging

You might not be able to blog on your new site yet, but that doesn’t mean to say you can’t post on another related site. Create a guest blog post about your new website launch to feature on a site that your target audience is likely to follow. Include a link to your website and the dates of the launch so that visitors can click on it on the big day. As well as guest blogging, you might also wish to pay an influencer to promote details of your new website launch or consider creating some press release copy.

Timing is crucial, however. If you release a guest blog post or PR copy about your launch, make sure that it hits audiences close to the launch date. If you post too early, audiences may forget about it, but if you post too late, the momentum may be lost.

Now that you know everything that you need to when it comes to promoting your new site all that’s left to do, is to start (and finish) building it! Try Go Sitebuilder FREE for 14-days – no credit card required!

Posted on

How to start your own electrician business

Building an electrician business

Have you really hit it off with your clientele or developed your skills to an exceptional level? Or, maybe it’s just simply time to make a change. Whatever your reason for starting your own electrician business, this is an exciting time, so, where do you start? We’ve put together a list of 4 simple steps to have your electrician business up and running in no time.

1. Build a client base

You may already have a client base; people who come to you regularly to carry out any necessary work. If you have not yet built a client base, this is an important and exciting step, as this will be where your day-to-day work will come from. There are many ways to network and build this client base. Start by using social media, marketing your services within your local area and sign up directories such as Yell and Checkatrade.

Contractors are also an ideal pitch for electricians, as this can often mean repeat business when they are contracted on an allocated job. For example, you could contact a construction company, advertising your services, and offering to be an external contractor within their project. 

Building relationships with clients and contractors may take a bit of time, but it will be worth it. Getting good reviews, recommendations and photos of the brilliant work you’ve completed will be very helpful in the future success of your business.

2. Ensure your qualifications are up to date

When starting your own business, one thing that is often checked is your credentials – by clients and potential investors. This is simply a way for people to quickly verify your skills. After all, people will want to be sure that you are able to do the job and feel confident in your abilities. With the knowledge that you have obtained, along with the necessary qualifications, they will be able to trust that you are truly a specialist within your trade. Having the necessary education and qualification is a must to be an electrician, or to simply run an electrician business, it’s required by law.

3. Insurance is essential

This is a step you won’t want to miss – making sure you’re covered is key! Property, vans and people could be at risk when carrying out electrical work and good insurance can put your mind at ease. There are a number of different types of insurance coverage that are offered to business owners. So, make sure to do your research or speak to a professional to find the right fit for you. Don’t forget to insure your tools and equipment as well – they’re the heart and soul of your trade after all!

4. Build your online presence

More and more people are comparing services online, not only by price but by customer satisfaction and professionalism. Online reviews and websites are a key part of this, and thereby, a strong online presence is a must. You could potentially be losing out on clients if you do not have a website. Or, if your website is somewhat basic, difficult to use, or isn’t mobile-friendly potential customers could start looking at your competitors instead. A website with a good design, which features reviews, contact methods and images of previous work will show potential clients that your services are just what they’re looking for. A website can also help potential customers understand what other services you provide, as well as your ability to work to a specific idea or demand.

If you are looking to build a website then look no further, we’re here to help you create a professional and unique site to promote your electrician business. Start with a 14-day free trial and see what you can build today – no technical skills required!