Web Site Design

Much of the hype and over-optimism (stupidity?) surrounding the Internet has subsided, and the medium is now maturing. Pure Internet businesses are still failing, and in their place, real businesses are coming forward. Although an Internet presence is no longer considered vital for all businesses (especially commodity suppliers), the technology is now so commonplace that there is no excuse for any business not to have some web presence, and there are some good areas where the internet can offer a useful expansion to the goods and services offered by any company. A business web site offers inexpensive advertising space, allowing interested customers to visit and learn about your business 24 hours a day. Size of advertisement is no longer an issue. For the price of a credit card newspaper or magazine advertisement we can supply you with a web page containing the equivalent of an A4 leaflet, which remains available all day, every day, until you remove or update it. For a very modest sum you can give as much detail as you want about your products and services. Minor alterations can be made without huge printing costs. Businesses may also benefit from some of the other things that the Internet has to offer, such a electronic mail, on-line banking, and filling out and submission of government forms and those of similar agencies. Some businesses can really use the web - to sell products or services, 24 hours a day, driven by your customers. Information or catalogues subject to frequent update can be published on the web, saving printing costs and improving customer service. If you have a truly rare product or service, then potential customers can find you - from anywhere in the world. There are a variety of ways of achieving a web presence, ranging from free ISP services (one version of this site is hosted on one such) to ISP services that range in cost from a few tens to many hundreds of pounds per year. We can advise you on the options available to you, and the costs and implications of the different options, and develop a web strategy that meets your requirements and your budget.

	Key Benefits Web site advertising is incredibly cheap when compared to all the more traditional forms of advertising. If you are already using some of these more expensive alternatives, then a web site will provide an invaluable extension that will provide a better and larger advertising medium at a lower cost. Create a shop window on your business that is available to your potential customers 24 hours a day, from anywhere in the world. Create an elegant web presence, and potential customers will know that they are dealing with a quality firm - play to your strengths and reduce the gap between your business and the big players in your field. Create and publish your catalogue, product list and price list electronically, and your customers will always know they have the latest copy - and it saves you the printing costs! Allow customers to place orders on-line 24 hours a day, world wide, always using the latest catalogue. Use the power of web searching to find new customers and suppliers. Receive and place orders electronically. Case Study This web site is hosted on a low cost ISP. The space for the site, the domain name, and the e-mail cost about £25 per year. Designing the overall site layout and devising the text (what we wanted to say) took a few hours (although it has been revised since). Creating and debugging the web site took about four hours. Uploading and checking the site took another hour. Registering with the main search engines took another hour. Due to the low maintenance design of the site, there is little overhead in keeping it up to date. Registering a domain name currently costs a few pounds, and allows you to have your own web and e-mail address (although there are a few potential pitfalls that need to be considered, which is where we can advise you!) So, if you know what you want to say on your web site, how long will it take for us to create it? - and how much can it possibly cost? Here are links to some other web sites that we have created :
	Server-side Programming Complex websites can be created by using databases and server-side programming. This allows more flexibility, particularly when dealing with large amounts of similar data - such as customer details and product lists. Databases can be maintained on-line or off-line, can contain good data validation, and the ability to create custom reports. Such programming also allows you to customise the service you provide to your clients. The Barry, Wales website uses a number of databases to generate pages, allow emailing of images, provide secure communication with users, run polls and more.     Cut Above Arty Crafts sell unique designer card-making supplies, and uses our "minicart" e-commerce system and the PayPal portal to provide a simple, flexible and secure method of selling on-line. A back-end order processing system is included with the system.
	Basic Web Sites Simple, uncomplicated web sites that are search-engine friendly, and contain information that your customers can use! This type of site often includes web-forms, and links to third party sites to provide location maps and directions. Arty-Types (Pet Portraits) Sealmasters (Industrial Oil Seal Supplier) Celtic Cruises (Sailing Pleasure Cruises) The Equine Agency (Buy, sell or let them find your dream horse) EZE Florida Villa (Rent a luxurious holiday villa in Florida) Blues-n-2s (Fire Engine Limousine Hire) Orlando Villa 4US (Rent a luxurious holiday villa in Florida) Pro-Indemnity.co.uk (Professional Indemnity Insurance Consultants with a large selection of quotation request webforms) PUKKA Productions (Amateur Dramatics) Swan Rescue South Wales (Animal Welfare) Talk It Through (Counselling Service)   BusinessInsuranceQuotations.com (On-line Business Insurance quotation system with a comprehensive collection of quotation request forms)   The following sites are little more than "holding pages" - inexpensive sites, providing a very basic web presence and allowing a basic search engine presence to be established. These sites will be expanded at a pace to suit the client. Dancewear Unlimited (Suppliers of all types of Dancewear and Gymnastic wear) Eccentrix (Suppliers of all types of hi-fashion footwear from Boots to Erotic footwear) Tonnic Group (Entertainment and compere services) Florantina Florists (Florist) EZE Weddings (Wedding Car Hire)
	The Barry, Wales site provides simple web site hosting to small businesses in the area, and a "strength in numbers" approach - you can find out about a great many local businesses from the one site. Examples of these smaller sites include : Fitz & Co (Architects & Building Engineers) The Barry, Wales site also uses Active Server Pages (ASP) to deliver some of its functionality. This technology moves data processing onto the server, and allows the web site to interact with visitors and to use advanced database functions.
	At Park IT Consultancy we specialise in "Browser Friendly" websites, with our preference for using little or no browser scripting or any type of browser based active content. This is to ensure that your website is visible on as many platforms as possible, behind corporate firewalls, on older, slower computers, and on computers that have high security settings for the Internet. However, if you feel that your market is sufficiently "savvy" to be using newer browsers and broadband speeds, then we can provide solutions using these less browser friendly options. Do It Yourself Many people have discovered that it is quite easy to produce your own website, but some don't realise that it's not always as simple as it first appears. Specifically, there are a number of pitfalls for the unwary - Some website creation tools create wonderful looking productions that are completely invisible to search engines - which means that your website is only available if someone actually types in your address, or clicks on a paid for advertising banner. Search engines cannot list your site, as they cannot see it! You need to know the tricks to make your website "search engine friendly" if you expect to be found by someone using Google, Yahoo or similar. You need to understand the limitations of HTML, and why you really should use it. You need to understand image formats, and how they affect your website. You need to know how to register a domain name, arrange hosting, web and e-mail forwarding, and FTP. You need to be fussy. Consistent. Painstaking. You are creating software. It needs to work properly, not just on your computer, but on the French customer's Apple Mac, the American's Linux computer, and the text only browser used in that REALLY BIG company's mainframe behind their corporate firewall.   IT takes practice!
	There are many web design companies that charge a ridiculously high rate for web design and creation services - and even have the cheek to advertise themselves as "low cost!". While good design is often worth paying for, there are limits as to what is merely expensive! Some business support agencies insist that you should have a "content management system" so that you can alter your website yourself. We disagree. Some of these systems cost many thousands of pounds yet offer low functionality, and we feel that you would be far better off buying some of the simple but effective HTML packages, and learning to use them properly. Website management has complicated issues, and you really need to understand these if you are to have much input into your website. Hiding behind a "Content Management System" can be a poor substitute! So, we can help you by : Designing, Creating and Maintaining your website for you, or by Assisting you in the design and creation of your website so that you are able to use the tools yourself.   Why not give us a call, and see how we can help!