Our Web Design and
Development Capabilities
When developing websites we use all the core web languages and structures such as HTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, DHTML, RSS, Flash, and so on.
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If you have any queries regarding any of these services please contact us
Brochure websites are suited to companies who want to display general information about their company and products online. Brochures sites are not powered by a content management system and are most appropriate for websites that do not require very frequent updating.
Content Management Driven websites are often used by clients to display a list of products that require frequent updating. They can also be used to update the text on the website pages without any knowledge of HTML and website design.
These websites use a form based Content Management System (CMS) to allow the owners update the content of the website as often as they require. For more information on how we can create a website that you can update yourself, please contact us.
We work out what software languages and databases are most appropriate for a given website. Most clients nowadays require a Content Management driven website that allows the end client to maintain and update the site’s content on an ongoing basis. This is important for several reasons, not least to ensure the website continues to reflect a client’s changing business, but also because fresh & updated content is an important criteria for search-engine rankings.
We develop most websites on our proprietary Content Management System (CMS) which unlike most CMS systems, is a very modular and granular system which we can adopt to any website design whatsoever, giving you full control over content maintenance while preventing the site design being "broken".
Primarily we use two web development platforms; Microsoft’s ASP.NET and the open-source PHP language and supporting frameworks. We generally build larger sites on ASP.NET unless there is a reason to do otherwise.Typically we use either the MS SQL database or the MySQL database for data storage. More often than not, we will use MS SQL for ASP.NET sites and MySQL for PHP sites. If for some reason you need us to work with some other database (eg Oracle), we are generally happy to oblige where appropriate. ASP.NET sites require Windows hosting (shared or dedicated). PHP sites can be hosted on either Windows or Linux hosting packages.
Wordpress is written in PHP and uses the MySQL database. However, it’s perfectly feasible to combine a Wordpress blog into an ASP.NET website, and we often do so.
These websites are used to sell products online. Some only have a single product, others have a much wider range of items. The payment facilities on these sites can vary but a number of sites use the PayPal shopping cart, a secure and simple to use system offered by a widely recognised company.
OsCommerce and other shopping carts
A shopping cart is an essential component for online eCommerce. For most of the eCommerce websites we develop, we use the osCOmmerce shopping cart, which will allow you to sell products online, manage lists of customers, manage lists of orders, produce reports on sales and product performance, organize products by category, and so on.
Customers will be able to create accounts online, browse products, add them to their shopping cart, and place orders in the standard ‘checkout’ process.
We are also happy to work with other shopping carts if there is a specific reason to or requirement that we do so.
Paypal Integration
Most eCommerce sites we develop use Paypal for payment receipts. This has the advantages of being secure, widely known and trusted. It also means that you do not need to deal with the risk and expense of managing credit card details directly. Receiving payments through Paypal does not require the end purchaser to sign up with Paypal or to have a Paypal account.
We can provide integration with e-commerce solutions other than osCommerce, and with payment providers other than PayPal, but this may result in increased costs.
First impressions count. If your website needs a facelift or if you feel that the current design of your site is no longer up to date, please contact us to see how we can improve your site's design or your search engine rankings for selected key words.
Domain Registration & Management
We can assist clients in the selection and registering of a website domain name for your online presence. The three primary concerns in choosing a domain name, are
- Branding and Positioning; does it reflect the company’s brand, and ideally convey a benefit.
- Simplicity; keep it short, snappy and memorable.
- Search Engine Effectiveness; ideally the domain name will reflect some of the primary keywords important to your market.
There are thousands of sites you can use for domain registration purposes; we typically use register365.com as it combines a wide range of generic and country-specific TLDs (.com, .eu, etc) with low costs and good business practices.
Our preference is that we arrange hosting for the sites we build for you. This makes matters simpler for us, as we get to use the hosting control panels & systems we are familiar with, and we know which hosting companies best support which technologies & options. We work closely with a number of different hosting providers such as Register365 and Blacknight. For each site, we select the best hosting option depending on the nature of the site, the anticipated volume of business, and the geographic location being targeted for business.
If you prefer the completed website can also be installed on a hosting package of your choice with any hosting company. However, in this case we cannot guarantee that your hosting company can host the site we develop. Some advanced websites may require the installation of specialised software on the web server; not all hosting companies support this.
Therefore, if we are not hosting the site, we will advise the hosting requirements; but it will be up to you, your client and/or the hosting company to verify these requirements are met or to arrange alternative hosting.
The main hosting options and considerations are does the site need Windows or Linux hosting, and is dedicated, shared or other hosting structures appropriate? Sites developed in ASP.NET are hosted on Windows servers. Sites developed in PHP can be hosted on Windows or Linux servers (among other options).
Most websites are hosted on Shared Hosting packages, where there are other websites also hosted on the same server. This, of course, is the lowest cost hosting option. Smaller websites are nearly always hosted on shared hosting packages.
Larger web applications will often be hosted on Dedicated Servers. For example, sites that experience very high volumes of traffic may need dedicated hosting to ensure the server has capacity to deal with the “hits” it receives.