Frequently Asked Questions

What is a website?
A website is an electronic 'brochure' that is hosted on a computer that is permanently connected to the Internet, allowing 'browsers' to view it.

A website provides information to the viewer. Produced in full colour, it can have animation on it, pictures, products, you can even buy items directly from it. There is virtually no limit to what can be displayed on a website but it is often at the expense of 'download time' (ie the more a website displays, the longer it will take to appear on a viewers screen).

From a business point of view, it provides a very strong marketing tool at a relatively low price. For example, if you run a Bed and Breakfast establishment, how do you normally attract customers? Spend money on advertising, then spend money on producing colour brochures, spend money on posting that information and so it goes on.

An alternative is to have a website built. It can show the bedrooms, dining room, lounge, views, the local area, prices, directions etc. You can change the information the same day (ie seasonal price changes), you can take credit card bookings via the site and build a database on e-mails from interested parties for future marketing. All at a fraction of the price you used to pay.

The website offers you a low cost way of marketing your business, keeping that marketing material up to date and marketing to a larger potential audience.

What is a Domain name?
A domain name/website address/URL is the name which the internet needs in order to find your website. Every company or organisation that wants to be on the Internet will register a domain name for use as their online identity or name that clients (customers, all Internet users) will use to access online services such as the organisation's website or email system.

Much like a company's name, logo, or telephone number, a domain name has marketing value when customers can easily remember and associate it with the organisation. Since millions of domain names have already been registered world-wide, it can be difficult to find a good domain name. We can help you find domain names and will help you through the processes of registering a domain and setting up a website for your business or organisation.

What is Website Hosting?
The term Web Hosting means that we look after or 'host' your website for you on a computer or 'server' that is permanently connected to the Internet. This is necessary in order for people to be able view your website. You need it to be hosted on a fast, efficient server.

What is a Server?
A server is the name given to a computer that is permanently connected to the Internet for the purpose of displaying websites. One thing to be aware of is that you need the server to be fast and to have high speed telecommunications connections , so that your website will download quickly and appear on the viewers screen as quickly as possible.

Beware though, often people are tempted to use the 'free webspace' that is offered by your Internet Service Provider. The speed of access to this free webspace will often not be good enough to host a business-grade website. Often at busy times (ie 9am to 10am and 2pm to 7pm) the speed of access to these 'free' servers will almost grind to a halt. If someone is trying to view a site hosted on one of these servers, they may well give up waiting for it to download and move onto another site.

John Lawrence Web Design Services uses 1 and 1, one of the largest hosting company in the world, with more than 38,000 high-end servers worldwide, they handle over 2 billion http requests per day and approximately 68 million e-mails per month. Some 6 million customers trust 1&1 with their hosting needs. They are continually working in Research and Development to bring you the latest web hosting technology available.and it's servers are monitored 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week . It has a guaranteed uptime of 99.99% and is backed up daily. This means your website will always be viewable by your customers and prospects alike.

Search Engines
More and more people are using the Internet to make their initial enquiries about where to stay, where to buy goods, find a certain shop, etc. John Lawrence Web Design Services works hard to try and keep its customers as near the top of the results list as possible.

Once your site has been built and uploaded to the Internet, I submit it to the major search engines. I also link it to my own website www.jlawrence.me.uk. Because I have a high 'google ranking' google soon notices your website and ranks it accordingly, it's a way of jumping the queue!

Do I need a computer?
No, I will take a full briefing of your needs and collect any photos, letterhead and text and then design. Once completed, I can print off a copy of the site for you to see or you are welcome to come to my office to see it.

I'm not very good with computers - it worries me.
It needn't, I am an experts in my field rather like you are in yours. I design, create, build and upload your website to the Internet for you.

Do I need a telephone/fax/broadband?
No, it has no effect on your decision to build a website.

Glossary

ASP
Active Server Pages use Server Side Script to construct dynamic web pages to interact and manipulate databases. Commonly used with database integration

Bandwidth
Amount of data that gets transferred through an Internet connection. Amount of traffic to your web site will generate bandwidth

Bespoke web applications & programming
Specific programming written for manipulation and creation of new or existing web site data.

Browser
A program which allows your computer to download and display web sites on the web.

Database design and Integration
This allows us to transform your company database information into an easily usable and manipulated database design and if need be, fully integrate this into your corporate web site.

Dial Up Account
An account set up with an ISP allowing you to connect your computer to the Internet.

Domain names
The specific name typed in the address bar, which displays a specific web site.

Flash
Flash is the foremost authoring software for creating scalable interactive animation for the web. A macromedia product enabling visually pleasing and interactive web sites.

FTP
File Transfer Protocol. The means of transferring files across the Internet.

Hits
A measure of the number of times items have been downloaded from a web page. Items could be graphics, text etc. It can sometimes be a measure of visitors to a site.

Hosting
The space that a web site takes up on the Internet, hosted by an ISP.

HTML
Hypertext Mark-up Language. The language used to create documents on the web.

Hypertext
Text in web documents that contains links to another document.

ISP
Internet service Provider. Companies that sell Internet access.

JavaScript
A powerful object-based scripting language that can be embedded directly in HTML pages. It allows one to create dynamic, interactive web based applications in a web site.

Search Engine
A tool, which dredges through the content of the web to find specific phrases or words, according to a search.

Spam
Slang for posting the same message to multiple newsgroups.

URL
Uniform Resource Locater. The full address typed in the address bar that points to a specific page within a web site.