Website - non ecommerce
Discussion
Are you looking for the website to generate you sales or is it just part of the corporate tick box of things to have.
If you want it to generate you sales then thought needs to go into its setup.
If it's just to site that you refer your customers to its much simpler.
Give us details on what the sites objective are and we can be....... err more objective
If you want it to generate you sales then thought needs to go into its setup.
If it's just to site that you refer your customers to its much simpler.
Give us details on what the sites objective are and we can be....... err more objective
Also - are you planning to build it yourself (in which case just pop over to somewhere like Squarespace), or are you looking for someone to do it for you - in which case do you need to be able to edit it (they will need to ensure that there is a content management system for you, or will you simply email edits over - in which case there are many options from flat (HTML) websites to wordpress to squarespace to proprietary solutions...
My website is on that level, just a shop window kept going as a professional expectation. Knocked it up in a Wordpress template over a couple of days, removed the WP branding so as to make it appear bespoke but it's obviously a WP site at more than a passing glance. It satisfies us since we don't keep it going for anything other than a web presence.
Thank you all for the advice.
I didn’t know if Wordpress was still popular for this kind of use case or if there was something else to consider nowadays.
The website will be a representation of the brand, services on offer, clients, case studies, testimonials.
Lead gen will be essentially content on site to aid SEO pick up, and a contact us page.
I would ideally like a basic CMS as I would prefer to make content updates myself, not wanting to mess around with HTML - I did that 15-20 years ago and had my fill then.
I didn’t know if Wordpress was still popular for this kind of use case or if there was something else to consider nowadays.
The website will be a representation of the brand, services on offer, clients, case studies, testimonials.
Lead gen will be essentially content on site to aid SEO pick up, and a contact us page.
I would ideally like a basic CMS as I would prefer to make content updates myself, not wanting to mess around with HTML - I did that 15-20 years ago and had my fill then.
There are basically two competing ecosystems which will do what you want and which are reasonable technologies (both have their flaws, but shouldn't affect your use).
- Wordpress - as mentioned above, still the biggest 'brand' in free or cheap CMS systems, the advantage is that you can be up and running in an hour or so at a basic level, and it is free other than any hosting costs you may have. The disadvantage is that it leverages 3rd party plugins / themes / etc. to get to any useful functionality and you can guarantee that there will be conflicts / developers who don't update to the latest version of wordpress and other issues - it is the most intensive in terms of sorting out buggy issues. The wordpress code is also so well known to scammers etc that it is probably the most hacked system in the world - which then leads to updates to prevent that (good thing) which leads back to plugin and theme developers not updating in a timely fashion (bad thing!).
- Squarespace - of the other more 'proprietary' or ' SAAS' or 'cloud' offerings, Squarespace is probably the best - they manage the software so that you don't need to, you just manage content - this means that it is far less likely to have issues, though in theory you are a little more limited in functionality (won't affect you).
So go into it with eyes open - if you choose wordpress (and I have lots of clients where we simply offer hosting and they put on wordpress), just don't expect it to be issue free, it won't be. Wordpress is the system we have had to deal with more than any other due to incompatibilities, bugs, plugin issues etc.
- Wordpress - as mentioned above, still the biggest 'brand' in free or cheap CMS systems, the advantage is that you can be up and running in an hour or so at a basic level, and it is free other than any hosting costs you may have. The disadvantage is that it leverages 3rd party plugins / themes / etc. to get to any useful functionality and you can guarantee that there will be conflicts / developers who don't update to the latest version of wordpress and other issues - it is the most intensive in terms of sorting out buggy issues. The wordpress code is also so well known to scammers etc that it is probably the most hacked system in the world - which then leads to updates to prevent that (good thing) which leads back to plugin and theme developers not updating in a timely fashion (bad thing!).
- Squarespace - of the other more 'proprietary' or ' SAAS' or 'cloud' offerings, Squarespace is probably the best - they manage the software so that you don't need to, you just manage content - this means that it is far less likely to have issues, though in theory you are a little more limited in functionality (won't affect you).
So go into it with eyes open - if you choose wordpress (and I have lots of clients where we simply offer hosting and they put on wordpress), just don't expect it to be issue free, it won't be. Wordpress is the system we have had to deal with more than any other due to incompatibilities, bugs, plugin issues etc.
My company builds ,hosts and maintains lots of Wordpress sites (Some for folk on here). If you are careful in choosing what plugins are used when the site is built then generally there are very few issues. We always recommend a monthly maintenance package that covers complete website backups and keeping on top of plugin updates etc. So bear in mind if you are not handy with websites you need to factor in the monthly maintenance. For a website that a has been designed by us, our maintenance packages start at £45/month for Backup and plug-in updates. On the more complex e-commerce website the monthly maintenance cost is dependent on client requirements.
We are also Shopify Partners but find this a slightly more restrictive in functionality and more costly route than Wordpress Woocommerce but still an excellent product.
As a side note and I think AKirk would agree your website developer can support ,you the client, with a complete Digital Marketing Service. Having a well designed website is one thing but how you use it to spread the company message is where it can get most interesting and profitable results. We specialise in High Street retailers who have seasonal quiet periods when their "brick and mortar" outlets sales are slow. We help them to increase Website Sales in those quiet period by using Digital Marketing to good effect.
We are also Shopify Partners but find this a slightly more restrictive in functionality and more costly route than Wordpress Woocommerce but still an excellent product.
As a side note and I think AKirk would agree your website developer can support ,you the client, with a complete Digital Marketing Service. Having a well designed website is one thing but how you use it to spread the company message is where it can get most interesting and profitable results. We specialise in High Street retailers who have seasonal quiet periods when their "brick and mortar" outlets sales are slow. We help them to increase Website Sales in those quiet period by using Digital Marketing to good effect.
Redarress said:
My company builds ,hosts and maintains lots of Wordpress sites (Some for folk on here). If you are careful in choosing what plugins are used when the site is built then generally there are very few issues. We always recommend a monthly maintenance package that covers complete website backups and keeping on top of plugin updates etc. So bear in mind if you are not handy with websites you need to factor in the monthly maintenance. For a website that a has been designed by us, our maintenance packages start at £45/month for Backup and plug-in updates. On the more complex e-commerce website the monthly maintenance cost is dependent on client requirements.
We are also Shopify Partners but find this a slightly more restrictive in functionality and more costly route than Wordpress Woocommerce but still an excellent product.
As a side note and I think AKirk would agree your website developer can support ,you the client, with a complete Digital Marketing Service. Having a well designed website is one thing but how you use it to spread the company message is where it can get most interesting and profitable results. We specialise in High Street retailers who have seasonal quiet periods when their "brick and mortar" outlets sales are slow. We help them to increase Website Sales in those quiet period by using Digital Marketing to good effect.
All valid points - I think a lot of people assume that wordpress is totally free - but you either maintain it yourself or pay someone else to look after it, once you start to factor those costs in, then hosted systems such as SquareSpace etc. look better on a financial comparison.We are also Shopify Partners but find this a slightly more restrictive in functionality and more costly route than Wordpress Woocommerce but still an excellent product.
As a side note and I think AKirk would agree your website developer can support ,you the client, with a complete Digital Marketing Service. Having a well designed website is one thing but how you use it to spread the company message is where it can get most interesting and profitable results. We specialise in High Street retailers who have seasonal quiet periods when their "brick and mortar" outlets sales are slow. We help them to increase Website Sales in those quiet period by using Digital Marketing to good effect.
Not sure I would agree on shopify - on the surface it is more restricted, but the API allows you to do almost anything with it, so you can build whatever you want - perhaps with commensurate costs though!
And yes - there is more to it than just building a website
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