Building your own website

Hosting Yorkshire have just launched our own SiteBuilder service to enable our users to build their own websites. In preparation for this, we had to really think about what most internet users want when creating their own site.

There's a lot of choice already out there, so we wanted to try to combine all the existing options when setting our service up, adding better customer service, not tying our customers in with contracts and giving the best value for money any company can offer.

Introducing, Hosting Yorkshire SiteBuilder...

Ok, I know what you're thinking, "SiteBuilder! That's what all the other services are called. Not a great start on originality..."

But it's not what it's called that's important, what's important is getting more users online and easily building their own websites the way they want them.

As far as we can see there were two camps before our service launched.

The first being companies offering a pre-built look and promising ease of use, served up via online wizards that let you drag something here and drop something there - they can be fiddly, often there's lots of templates that don't look so great, and in the end you have to compromise on what you initially wanted. The end product is a website that is not really your own. It looks ok but not how you planned it and you don't own the files created. You're locked into a monthly contract and you can never move the website you've spent your time building away from their service. If the company shuts down, sells up or just has problems; you lose your website and have to start again from scratch.

Then there's the second camp, the one that offers choice and freedom. They give you lots of hosting packages to choose from - 1gb, 5gb or 20gb of space  - without you even knowing how much space you need! Different monthly prices for Business Premium, Gold or Personal - and lots of software and configuration options leaving even experienced users trying to figure out how to get things working.

So this generally separates customers between those that are tied-up and locked-in because they need something easy; and those who have plenty of time and the will to learn spending a long time building up a website that might then break on them if they do something wrong.

For us this means we need to fill in the gaps by offering simplicity, freedom, support and choice.

At Hosting Yorkshire we are now offering a completely FREE SiteBuilder as well as an £8 per month package (with no yearly contract) that lets you choose the software with our advice and support - we set up the servers, configure the CMS or website software (such as WordPress or a range of other choices of software for any application) - and we let you take the reins, learning about website design as you create or using something easier to get a fast clean result without needing any technical knowledge.

Hosting Yorkshire SiteBuilder offers complete freedom of choice with lots of help from us. And if you live in the York area we can even pop in for a chat to help get things set up.

For more information or to start building your new website today visit www.hostingyork.co.uk/free-sitebuilder.html and we'll get you set up as soon as possible.

York App Version 1.0

Hosting Yorkshire are proud to finally release the Inside York App version 1.0 which has gone live on Apple's iTunes and App Store.

Please show your support and download it here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inside-york/id585665501?mt=8

We will be working hard to bring out updates to this release and working towards this being York's number one tourism and local information application by providing an insider's guide to York's best attractions, restaurants, accommodation and things to see and do.

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Go Mobile on Google

Google's latest campaign is all about encouraging Mobile friendly websites, demonstrating just how many users now search on mobiles and Smartphones. Research shows that soon using a Mobile or Smartphone will be the most popular way to search online, whether buying, selling or finding information. Using your mobile is now the most convenient way to search the internet, so why wouldn't it become the most popular platform to use?

Is your website ready for mobile users? If not you could be really missing out.

Thankfully Google have now made it really easy to check how your website looks and feels on a mobile or smartphone with the Google Mobile Checker.

Some thoughts to consider before viewing your current website on the Mobile Checker:

• Is it easy to navigate?
• Does the site allow you to use mobile navigation to help locate your premises?
• Is the text readable and the images clear?
• Does the layout fit the screen properly?
• Is everything visible? (Flash websites in particular may not show all content on a mobile.) 
• How easy is it to make contact with you?

Visit Google's Mobile Friendly Checker and test your website at:

www.google.co.uk/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

If you're not happy with how your website displays contact Hosting Yorkshire - we offer native mobile websites and apps at competitive prices. Our Mobile websites are built alongside your current website solely to service mobile users, giving your customers and clients an attractive, friendly and practical mobile experience.

Website Online Marketing

Hosting Yorkshire Web Design are proud to bring more online marketing services to current packages and services for our local Yorkshire clients.

Google and other search engines are always looking for current and developing relevant content. Always adding to and improving your website can help keep it fresh and well-ranked.

This month we have launched the below extra marketing services to help you achieve this:

• SEO or Search Engine Optimisation
• Google Adwords, Google Places and Google Analytics setup and training
• Proofreading and website text SEO enhancement service courtesy of our associates
• Booking Calendars to show availability for those working in hospitality or other sectors
• Social Networking integrations such as help and setup with Twitter, Facebook, Google Circles and LinkedIn

To order or add these to your account please visit our Yorkshire Website Design client portal.

We are really pleased to be working with more partners across Yorkshire to extend what we can offer, and other online 3rd parties to bring you the best value service and the most up-to-date technologies and solutions.

These extra addons coupled with our website design packages make us the best Yorkshire website development service available.

Branding your website the 'York' way

Every year York gets better at tourism. Better at presenting the history and stories we're lucky enough to have had well preserved within our city walls. I personally think the council and tourism bureau are working with smaller local businesses more and more to further promote our interests and help give everyone a reason to visit York.

York has finally found its own brand identity - it's surprising how long this has taken but I believe it's down to people wanting York's culture to further embrace the city's heritage. Gone are the tacky gift shops and cheap greasey-spoon cafés... York now has much more class!

Too many towns and cities are built up of the same large highstreet chains, with a look to always expanding rather than restoring - it's great to expand and embrace the future, but what makes York really great is its past! What we do best is improving what we already have, the city walls make expansion difficult thus forcing most of our focus to the city centre.

Now everywhere a visitor glances in York there is an attraction, a historical building, city tour guide or interesting market fayre. We are culturally richer than ever. And with new museums opening (such as York Chocolate Museum opening this year) there's always a lot to promote.

So time to build this promotion further. Simulant hosting of York is adding new services to help York businesses be a part of the overall York image. For those businesses relying on tourism and visitor trade I suggest making sure your own business advertising includes more about York and how you are part of this city. Rather than just showing what you offer, put what you offer into a local context with a great image of where you fit into this important city.

Simulant York hosting provider has just launched a vast York Stock Photography website to help push your own York business branding. We will be updating this regularly, adding more every month. We are proudly allowing our current clients free use of our library of York images at no cost, with small charges for other users. This means high quality York imagery and photography to use on service and information websites, brochures, posters, and other promotional material.

See www.yorkstockphotos.uk to see what is available so far. For more online marketing, photography and website design advice contact Hosting Yorkshire at www.yorkshire.hosting/contact/

Mobile Website Design

Yorkshire is a major tourism region and visitors are relying heavily these days on their Smartphones and mobile phones to locate Yorkshire businesses and tourist attractions. Many of our Yorkshire website design clients are starting to recognise the need for App development and a good mobile interface to allow for this ever-emerging market.

Is it time to consider a mobile website design for your business? It's not just about tourism, Smartphones offer the consumer an ability to contact any type of business on the move as well as do some online Christmas shopping while they're at it!

More specifically to our Yorkshire clients, a mobile site may mean extra online accommodation bookings, beauty therapy appointments, computer game purchases or even looking up a great place to have a meal.

With Christmas coming up especially (I wonder how many phones will be sold as Christmas presents this year?!), the Smartphone and mobile internet market will be bigger than ever in 2012. Statistics are now saying that mobile internet is soon to overtake desktop and laptop/notebook browsing.

We are all starting to get used to having a wealth of information and websites available to us on the move, whether on an iPad or a Google Android phone...

Every hit your website gets from a mobile device isn't a potential customer, but rather has the potential to aggravate and lose your visitor to another business that has catered correctly to mobile interface design.

Currently most websites will load up on Smartphones and show correctly (unless using flash or other third party plugins), the problem is the text will be tiny, the images indistinguishable and menus are usually very difficult to navigate correctly.

This is not the fault of your website designer - with websites designed for larger platforms this is unavoidable. To make the user interface suit everyone's devices would mean a lesser experience for the user, so why would we want to strip away the quality that the power of a desktop computer can serve. Some websites can be designed to function correctly across all devices regardless of the type, but for most of the internet this is a lot to ask. In my opinion our best option is to detect what device a visitor is using when they hit one of our websites and then direct them to a portal created for the best specific viewing experience possible.

Redirecting visitors to different website portals or sites isn't a new phenomenon, many websites used to do this for specific browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Explorer or Opera. The need for browser-specific sites is dying out thankfully with CSS 3, html5 and other web standards being used in modern browser design. As improvements are made, along come different problems... We now have more screen sizes than ever, more types of computer than before, different operating systems and platforms - as well as interfaces such as small mobile keyboards, touch screens and even speech recognition with services such as Siri on the iPhone.

Whatever comes next will not fit to your website design, you must instead fit to its design! Mobile, for now, means a smaller screen - it has to fit in your pocket. iPhones and Android phones are increasing screen resolution to provide more screen space, but until we get user interfaces that can project or interface glasses we can wear that plug into our mobiles, the need for mobile websites will only increase. Unless of course we all get better eyesight first with laser eye surgery!

It's all about creating simplified mobile sites that are attached to your standard desktop website. The mobile site may have a prefix to the domain address or different extension, and the site itself must have larger buttons and menus that can be used easily on a mobile as well a clean matching interface to allow the best user experience.

If you're interested in how these kind of mobile websites are designed and how they work please visit www.hostingyorkshire.uk on a mobile Smartphone to see the kind of mobile website we can create for you.

We are also currently working on Yorkshire and York App development and other ways to get your business and our clients in Yorkshire featured heavily on mobile devices.

As always I'm happy to help anyone with questions or any businesses in need of Mobile Website Design, visit www.hostingyorkshire.uk and send me an email.

York Collectable Coins from the Shambles

We are launching a new Penny Press machine on the Shambles in York which will house 4 brand new collectable York coins. The press will flatten a one pence or penny and create a new pressed York coin. I've submitted the final designs today for the new collectables and here are some graphics of the finished coins. We hope they're a big hit with York locals, tourists and great souvenirs for the kids too!

I'll be posting more about these on the respective York websites found on the coins once they're being manufactured.

www.yorkshambles.com

www.insideyork.co.uk

www.theminsteryork.co.uk

www.insideyork.co.uk