The dangers are obvious. Many actually know very little about web design or getting the site a high listing position in Google. Most find that marketing themselves is so difficult that they obtain very few clients, get bored with the whole thing and then give up. Where does that leave you - the client who has entrusted their website with a now non-existent company? At the very least your website could disappear. At the very worst you could lose your carefully chosen domain name.

Your website is the window on the web to your business. Often it is the first impression that someone will have of you and the services you offer. It's importance should not be under valued and you should think very carefully about who you entrust it to.

Webgloss does not use code generators such as Dreamweaver of Serif. We all come from computer programming backgrounds and we write every single line of code by hand. The advantages of doing this are too numerous to list. Sites perform better in Google, they are maintained efficiently, ongoing optimisation can be applied to them and they give you a professional design that will give your potential clients the right first impression.

Our web design & hosting company was established by Jane Renfree over 10 years ago and has grown to become a company with clients who have been trusting us to look after their business websites for many years. At Webgloss we have collectively written hundreds of complex systems in full blown programming languages including Oracle and C and have years of systems administration experience. Jane spent 15 years programming statistical systems in Oracle RDBMS on Sun/Unix boxes. We are creators of software and systems analysts as well as designers for the Internet.

You can therefore be sure that we know what we're doing.

Your site needs to do far more than just look good!

Behind the website it is the way that it was created that matters. If Google is going to index your site properly, so that people find it when searching, you need it to have been coded by people who know how Google indexes website. A site that performs well for a key phrase that people never actually use is not doing well at all! At Webgloss we know how to choose key phrases that people actually use and we know how to construct a website correctly.

Sites that just look pretty aren't necessarily going to do well in Google!

Do they just buy in templates or use free software?

Does the company actually know how to write HTML code from scratch? Many web design companies just purchase templates or even use free ones - this can cause massive problems when you need your site updating. Webgloss writes all the HTML code for its websites and we never use bought in templates.

Have a good look at their portfolio of websites

Have a good look at their client base and check that they are actual businesses, not just 'invented' to show examples of what they could do if they did have clients. There should be a large portfolio on their website listing plenty of sites they have created for clients, with links to the actual sites online - if they have 12 or fewer examples, then you should really find a more experienced web design firm.

Unfortunately many web design firms are good at selling but not at web design! We know because people come to us every week with tales of how they have been let down.


Do their charges include hosting?

Ask how much everything is going to cost.

It's amazing how many web design firms charge extra for hosting.

They give you a price for your website but they forget to mention that you have to pay server costs to host your website on the Internet or they say you will have to arrange your own hosting.

Webgloss charges include hosting your website on a fast business quality server. The quality of the server really does matter because if people have to wait too long for your site to appear then they will just move on to another - time is money!

Do you really want to update the website yourself?

Think carefully before you sign up to a website that you have to update yourself - do you really have the time to do this? Many sites designed to be updated by the client are extremely limiting in design and layout. Often the system used to update does not work properly and this can mean that you are left with a very strange looking website!

With Webgloss, you will receive free textual alterations to your site once every two months and only pay by the hour for other changes - the most common charge is £20 as most work takes less than 1 hour - we will update your website for you and remove the worry of learning how to use a content management system.

Paying monthly with no design fees is a good idea

Finally, ensure that your designers won't 'run away' once your site is online. Pay a huge fee for your design work and you may receive a great looking site - but will the designers still be there when you need them six months later?

Paying monthly at least ensures that you can stop paying if your website is no longer online & you won't have paid a huge initial fee for something that no longer exists. We have many clients who did this with their previous web firms and were later left with useless sites when their designers moved on to other careers.

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Unsure of what to do next?

Your website is an excellent marketing tool

For your potential clients your website needs to contain sufficient information to give you the edge against your competitors. Your website should be a brilliant marketing tool for your company so make sure that you think about the image it should convey.

Do you have photographs that you would like displayed? Do you have a great deal of text that needs to be on the site? Think about the content for your new website - looking at sites for similar companies may help. Just type a few phrases into Google for your type of business and check out the competition!

Decide how many pages based on your budget

Think about the main topics for your site and calculate how many separate pages you will need. For example, most companies have at least a home page, a services page and a contact page but you may only require a single page website.

Webgloss monthly charges are based on the number of pages in a website so take a look at our packages page to ensure your budget covers the monthly cost. Think about any regular changes you may require and whether you will need more than our free 'once every two months' textual updates. This will need to be thought about as a percentage of your website budget.

Contact us

Then just get in touch and ask for a no obligation draft design. We will discuss layouts and colour schemes with you and guide you towards a design that is suitable for your site.

You may telephone us on 023 9236 0528 & you can be sure that the conversation will be devoid of 'techie talk' unless you specifically ask for technical information!

Contact may also be made by completion of our online form or just email us telling us that you are considering a website with Webgloss.

We will ask you to email us your company logo, if you have one, and sufficient information for us to create a draft layout for your website. The draft will be ready for you to view approx. 2 weeks later. At this stage there is no obligation to come to us for a full website. We provide the draft design to give you the chance to decide whether you would like Webgloss to develop a full website for your business.

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A domain name is the 'web address' of a website - it is what you type into your browser when going to a website. Below are examples of domain names:

http://www.teddies-galore.co.uk
http://www.allthebestbaskets.co.uk
http://www.freedom.org.uk
http://www.gifts-for-you.com

A domain name is essential for you to have a website and you may choose a suitable name for this. Your chosen name may not be available (someone else may have already registered it) but, if it is, Webgloss will register the name for you - just ask us to check its availability. We currently charge £20 for this registration.

If you register your domain name with another registration company it will have to be transferred to our servers. You will probably pay for its registration with the other company and we charge £20 to transfer the domain name to our servers. It is therefore cheaper and less time consuming to allow us to register it for you. click for more information about domain transfers

It is imperative that your business does not 'lose' its domain name and, for that reason, Webgloss will ensure that it is renewed prior to its expiry. All domain names have to be renewed - once every two years for a co.uk type and once every year for a .com type. Before the domain expires Webgloss will renew it for you and you will be sent an invoice for £20. If you do not wish your domain name to be renewed you need to let us know in writing at least 90 days before the renewal date.

The only characters allowed in a domain name are the 26 letters of the standard alphabet, numbers 0-9, and hyphens (-). A domain cannot begin or end with a hyphen, but it can contain a hyphen. Underscore characters and spaces cannot be used in domain names. Names must have a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 63 letters (this figure does change though and may be different at the time of registration). Two-letter .co.uk domain names are not allowed by Nominet, the regulating authority for .co.uk names, because all two-letter combinations are reserved for the ISO country codes. When this rule was introduced, there were already a few companies that had registered two-letter names and they have been allowed to keep their domains

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Initial draft layout

Once we have received your company logo, if you have one, and sufficient information to enable us to create just a single page layout for you, it takes between 7 and 10 working days for us to complete your draft design.

We then email you to view your draft and await your feedback.

Development time-slot

When your draft has been agreed, we ask that you send us the rest of the content for your website. You will need to tell us when you can do this by - give us a date.

Once we have that date, we will book a development time slot for you which will start as near as possible after the date you have given us.

When your time slot begins, as long as we have received all the content for your website, we will begin full development of your new website and this takes between 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the size and complexity of the content.


Checking your new website content

When your website development is complete we will ask you to check through it and advise of any changes. These will be carried out before your site goes live online to ensure that the content is accurate.


Getting online

Once your full site has been agreed and we have either registered or transferred your domain name, we will then send out a request for monthly payments and an invoice for the domain registration or transfer. When payment has been received we will set up your email accounts and your website will 'go live' on the Internet.

From start to finish the process will normally take under 6 weeks - 2 weeks for the draft and less than 4 weeks for full site development.

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There is no guarantee of a free listing with any major search engine. This is an indisputable fact but, unfortunately, many web design firms will tell you variations of the truth. Any web design firm that advises differently is lying to you unless they are personally bribing the owner of the search engine firm.

Having said that, Webgloss has an incredible success rate with client sites in Google. We optimise your website for Google from the moment we design it and we advise you carefully of things you should do to help it reach a high position within the Google search engine.

Soon after your site has been designed and is 'live' online we will submit it by hand to the major Search Engines. Many web design companies charge extra for this service and are unable to offer the excellent results that Webgloss achieves.

You may well have received emails from SEO firms offering to get you in position 1 with Google. Many of these firms don't actually specify which search phrase will be used to reach position 1. It's easy to get to position 1 for people typing in the name of your company! You want to reach a high position across a number of search phrases that people who don't already know your company name may type in when they are trying to find businesses like yours.

Webgloss advises that you think very seriously before parting with any money to firms offering wonderful guaranteed results with search engine listings.


take a look at how our client sites perform in the Google search engine

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If you are having problems with collecting email or you are travelling away from home, you may collect your email from the following web page:

http://webmail.yourdomainname.co.uk

(substitute 'yourdomainname.co.uk' for your own domain name).

Enter the first part of your email address into the Login box (e.g. if john@johnbloggs.co.uk then enter john).

Your email password should be entered in the Password box - please contact Webgloss if you need reminding of your password.

NB: If your email account is a forwarding account only then you will not be able to use this facility. If you would like your email account type changed then please contact Webgloss.

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After your site has been agreed and is live online,

Webgloss will carry out textual alterations of existing content once every two months free of charge.

Other alterations are charged at £20 an hour.

Changes to your website should be emailed to admin@webgloss.com.

Please be as clear as possible to ensure that we understand what is required.

Please send textual changes in the body of an email instead of as an attachment.

If new photographs are included, it may be preferable to send separate emails, one per photograph. Please send images in 'jpg' or 'gif' formats. There are hundreds of different graphic packages in existence and, although you may be familiar with, for instance, Quark Express, or the image manipulation software that was bundled with your digital camera, it may cause delays if you send images in the formats that apply only to your graphics software.

Please be aware that additional pages may cause your monthly hosting charge to increase as our package costs are based on the number of pages within your site.

When we receive your alteration request we will acknowledge receipt and then we will calculate how long the work will take. If there is a charge, this will be emailed to you and you will then need to agree the amount. Once we have received agreement the cost will not change. We will then allocate a time-slot for the work and inform you of the date the work will commence.

We endeavour to commence work on all updates within 3 weeks of receipt and you should therefore allow three weeks when you plan your site alterations. In reality, small updates are frequently completed far more quickly than this.

If your request is urgent then please tell us why and we will do our best to update your site quickly.

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You may upgrade your initial package with Webgloss at any time.

This is sometimes necessary because you need new pages added to your website.

Your standing order for hosting will need to be changed by your bank when this happens.

If you want to start selling items through your website using PayPal or Google Checkout you will need to change to one of our Shopping Cart packages.

Further information about Webgloss Packages may be seen on our packages page.

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There is no tie in contract with Webgloss and you are therefore free to leave at any time.

Your final hosting payment is due for the calendar month that you leave.

If your business is about to close please inform Webgloss as soon as possible and give details of whether the business is being sold or coming to an end.

There is a charge of £10 per domain name to transfer your domain name to another company and your new host may have their own charges for the transfer in of the domain name. Your account will need to be up to date, eg. no unpaid invoices, and the transfer fee paid before any transfer can be facilitated.

If you are considering selling your domain name please inform Webgloss and give us the detail of the recipient.

If the business is being sold please inform the new owner that they will need to open an account with Webgloss to ensure that the website continues to exist on the Internet. If a new account is not opened by the new owner then the site will be removed from the Internet.

Please remember that neither a site design nor any part of a site design may be transferred unless this has been agreed by Webgloss Web Design Hampshire. No graphics produced or supplied by us may be used elsewhere as part of your new website.

All design work and images provided by Webgloss Web Design Hampshire (excepting photographs and text submitted by the client) remain the property of Webgloss Web Design Hampshire and are protected by design copyright unless formally purchased (non-exclusive design rights) by the client when a domain is released to another hosting company. Unless a purchase has been made the design remains the property of Webgloss Web Design Hampshire.

Webgloss Web Design Hampshire reserves the right to refuse to sell the copyright of any design.

It must be noted that the reproduction without written permission of any design work or images owned by Webgloss Web Design Hampshire, whether electronically produced or otherwise, will result in a copyright infringement case being submitted to our solicitors.

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