What is a Website, Anyway?
Imagine being a caveman plucked from prehistoric times and dropped into the modern world. Suddenly, you find yourself surrounded by shiny screens and glowing boxes, with people tapping away on them all day long. “What’s going on here?” you wonder. You soon realise these glowing boxes are the new campfire — a place to connect, learn, share ideas. But this isn’t about mammoth skins or swapping tales of hunting grounds. Everything’s happening online, and without your own space… well, like the only caveman without fire, you’re missing out big time. What is a website? A website is a digital space where people find information, connect with others, shop and learn. It’s a place to share ideas, tell stories or create something engaging. Specifically, a website is accessed through a browser, which is the software or app on your phone, computer or tablet that brings it to life. Websites have revolutionised the way we connect with others. Making it easier than ever to reach people far and wide, they let audiences discover what you’re all about and explore what you have to offer. This is also why they’re brilliant for business — helping you share your work, sell your products, and find success in ways that were once unimaginable. What Types of Website Are There? Lots! Just some of the most common types of websites include: Type of Website What It’s All About Landing Pages Single-page sites made for a campaign or product, designed to turn visitors into leads or customers. E-commerce Websites Where businesses sell their products or services directly online. Business Websites To show off what a company offers and pull in potential customers. Portfolio Websites Perfect for showing off creative work, whether you’re an artist, designer, or in a similar field. Blogs From ‘Web Log’ – spots to share stories, articles, or ideas. Nonprofit Websites All about sharing a cause, providing details, and encouraging donations or involvement. Educational Websites Hubs for learning, offering courses or resources for kids and adults alike. News Websites Places for the latest updates, articles, and coverage on what’s happening in the world. Government Websites Official sites offering services, resources, and information from local councils to national bodies. Social Media Websites Where people connect, share, and interact in the online world. Forum Websites Great for joining discussions, asking questions, or swapping tips in a community setting. Wiki Websites Spaces for collaborating on content—think encyclopaedias or user-driven knowledge hubs. The History of the Internet (in One Minute) In the early days, the internet was an experimental network connecting just a handful of computers. In 1969, ARPANET linked four machines across the US to share information. It wasn’t much at first — just basic messages and data-sharing — but it was the first step towards something special. In 1971, the invention of email allowed messages to be sent across this early network. By the 1970s, TCP/IP protocols were developed, acting like a system of phone numbers that let different networks communicate with each other. In the late 80s, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee introduced the World Wide Web. In 1989, he developed the concept of Hypertext, URLs, and the first web browser (also called WorldWideWeb). Berners-Lee also invented HTML, a coding language — or rather, a “markup” language — that gave pages structure and made it easier to create this new fangled “web” content. The Domain Name System (DNS) was developed to link easy-to-remember domain names (like www.123-reg.co.uk) to phone number-like IP Addresses that computers use to identify each other online. See also: What is DNS – How Websites Get Found Online The first website went live in 1991 at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), created to share information about the World Wide Web project. However, it wasn’t until 1994, with the release of the more user-friendly Netscape Navigator, that browsing began to go mainstream. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer came to dominate in the late-90s. Top-Level Domain “extensions” (TLDs) like .com and .co.uk were among the first to be introduced, sparking the domain name boom and shaping the internet’s commercial landscape. New and niche generic domain endings (gTLDs) were released to keep up with demand. Behind the scenes, various organisations emerged to manage the internet’s infrastructure. In 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was founded to oversee domain names and IP addresses worldwide. The Dot-Com Boom of the 90s was the internet’s big bang, with businesses rushing to establish an online presence and investors throwing money at nearly every startup with a “dot com” in its name. When the boom became a bubble in 2000, many companies faced collapse, but the dust eventually settled, paving the way for the internet we know today. Ecommerce revolutionised shopping forever. Search Engines changed the way we access information — with Google surpassing Yahoo! in the early 2000s, and remaining the world’s most popular search provider ever since. Over the next decade, Broadband brought faster speeds. Smartphones arrived and 3G Networks enabled faster mobile internet, making it possible to stay connected on the go. By 2012, mobile devices accounted for around 10% of internet traffic. Today, smartphones and tablets account for over 60%. Online Banking allowed people to manage their money from the comfort of their sofa. Illegal file sharing upended the music, film, and publishing industries. Cloud Computing transformed how we store and access data. Social Media Platforms, Dating Websites, and countless other services became part of daily life. Privacy and Safety Concerns grew. Then came the explosion of Apps, the rise of Social Media Influencers, and, how could we forget, internet Memes. Online Shopping went from strength to strength. Google acquired YouTube. Bitcoin went mainstream. TikTok overtook FaceBook. Musk bought Twitter. And, with AI on the verge of shaking the whole thing up again, here we are… See also: .com vs .co.uk – Which Domain is Best for Your British Business? How Do Websites Work? Websites are made up of files stored on servers that can be viewed
Unlock the Perks: 10 Benefits of Having a Website in 2024
When you launch a new business, you’ll be plate spinning. Depending on your company, you’ll have everything from the legal and financial side of setting up to inventory and branding to think about. Due to this, many start up entrepreneurs put off building a website, hoping that a Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn presence will make do for now. As we’ll get into, however, a website is an essential tool for businesses of all shapes and sizes. In this article, we’ll discuss just a few of the ways a business website can help you. But first, we answer a few common questions about what it takes to create we website — and bust a few myths along the way… How much does it cost to set up a small business website? If you use a website builder product, you can build a bespoke website for a set up fee of less than £10 and maintain it for less than £10 a month after that. How long does it take to build a small business website? Using the tailorable templates provided by a website builder product, you can set up a simple website with elements like an attractive homepage, About Us page, Our Work page, a blog, and more in a few hours. If you want to build an ecommerce site – aka a site through which you can sell things – it can take a little longer, but you can still get something live in a day and perfect it as you go along. Can an entrepreneur with no tech experience build their own website? Absolutely. Website builder products let you build a site with no knowledge of code. You simply choose a template you like for your site, tweak it by changing colours and easy to add page elements, add content like copy, images and videos and you’re ready to go. What are the benefits of having a small business website? ✔ You’ll look more professional There are said to be 2.95 billion active monthly users of Facebook, while there are only 200 million business pages on the site. Compare these figures and it indicates that Facebook is still mainly used as an informal, casual platform. Business websites, meanwhile, are official, with their format created to be taken seriously. ✔ You get your own domain name A domain name is more than just a web address. It gives your business a professional and credible image, making it easier for customers to remember and find you. Unlike social media or marketplace profiles, where your name is buried under their branding, a domain name stands out and can be tailored to your business. With your own domain, you signal to your customers that you’re serious and invested in providing a direct, trustworthy experience. See also: Names That Click: How to Choose the Right Domain Name? ✔ You’ll look more trustworthy A business website will inherently feels more trustworthy than a social media profile. It’s a dedicated space that shows commitment and professionalism, where you can present detailed information about your products, services, and company ethos. Customers tend to perceive a website as a sign of a well-established and reliable business. Your customers will also feel safer in knowing they’re data is protected with an SSL Certificate. Recent research has revealed that eight in 10 UK consumers trust a business website more than social media. It’s not surprising, really. UK newspapers have recently reported that social media sites like Facebook and Instagram are a ‘Wild West for shopping fraud’ with one Guardian article revealing: “UK consumers are losing more than £27m a year through purchase scams originating from the two platforms.” ✔ You can set up your own professional email address to match The added bonus of having a website with your own domain is that it allows you to set up a professional email address to match your brand name. This looks so much more professional and trustworthy than a generic email address and helps people to remember the brand every and every time you get in touch. It’s easier to trust an email that comes from a business-branded address. Plus, it keeps your work and personal messages separate and tidy, making sure you always look sharp and focused when dealing with customers. See also: How to Create a Free Business Email Address? ✔ You have full control over your visual branding Yes, you can add your logo and header images and branded content to the likes of Facebook and Instagram business pages, but the pages will still predominantly feature the branding of the social media sites themselves. Having your own website gives you the freedom to build and customise everything about your online presence, without the limitations or rules. Facebook business pages, for example, still feature blue call to action buttons, blue text, and blue navigation menus. Every business page on this platform, also has an identikit layout. With a website, there’s no dual branding. You can do it your way: your colours, your tone, and you dictate the layout of your webpages to the maximum. ✔ Showcase the quality of your business A stylish and lovingly-crafted site shows that the website owner is prepared to put time, effort and care into their business, and this reflects on the rest of a company’s offerings. Just like a real shop front, it shows customers what you’re all about. ✔ Develop a mailing list Websites are great tools for capturing email addresses. You simply have to add a newsletter sign up form to your site or create a pop up that offers a discount code in return for an email address. Recent research reveals that email is still one of the most effective channels for driving sales in the UK, with research from one study by Marigold revealing that 51% of consumers have purchased a product as a direct result of an email they received in the last 12 months. ✔ Show expertise with your own blog With your own website, you can host a blog that’s all yours
Impact your business and join us for the Festival of Female Entrepreneurs
On Thursday 22nd October, 123-reg will be one of four headline sponsors of the annual Festival for Female Entrepreneurs, held at Colston Hall in Bristol. The event, run and managed by our good friends at Enterprise Nation, will play host to a day of information, education and inspiration that will help SMEs take their business to the next level. What is the Festival of Female Entrepreneurs? The event, run and managed by our good friends at Enterprise Nation, will play host to a day of information, education and inspiration that will help SMEs take their business to the next level. The Festival of Female Entrepreneurs takes place at Colston Hall in Bristol on Thursday 22 October. Access to the exhibition and networking space is completely free. Access to the networking area is £20, which will give you access to keynote talks and practical workshops from the UK’s leading female entrepreneurs and experts. There are only 250 tickets available for the keynotes and workshops so be sure to bag yours before they run out! Harnessing entrepreneurial spirit 123-reg is very proud to support the festival, especially when considering the growing numbers of females involved in start-ups in the UK. A report by the Office for National Statistics showed the number of self-employed women has increased by 34 per cent since 2009. By way of comparison over the past five years, the number of self-employed men has risen by just 15 per cent. Enterprise Nation’s 2014 Home Business Report found that of the 2.9 million homepreneurs in the UK, 64 per cent of them were women – equating to around 1.7 million women running businesses from home, contributing an estimated £180 billion to the British economy alone. What we have on offer The event which will be packed full of educative content aimed directly at SMEs will see 123-reg CMO, Kate Cox, deliver her top tips on how to start small businesses online. Additionally 123-reg SEO specialist, Roxana Stingu, will deliver a 30-minute workshop on the basics of SEO and the top tips for how small businesses looking to increase their rankings online. Additionally, 123-reg will have a presence at the event and will be on hand to help businesses get the answers they need to improve their online presence. For those that attend the event, we will be offering a free .com domain name with a free WordPress hosting or Website Builder package. The event has grown to become a mainstay of the South West’s business event landscape. Last year the event attracted over 700 attendees. For more information and to book your tickets, simply head to https://www.enterprisenation.com/festival So whether you have just set up your business or are looking for inspiration, the Festival of Female Entrepreneurs will have something for you. We look forward to meeting you! Join the social conversation using #FFE15
How to make sure your website comments don’t get you sued
If you don’t moderate comments on your blog or website you could be held legally responsible for any offensive posts your users make, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled.
Interview: Fighting Malware with Anirban Banerjee
2012 continues to be a year of great excitement for 123-reg. We are thrilled to announce the release of Site Scanner, powered by Stop the Hacker. For those not in the know, Site Scanner is a SaaS based malware monitoring tool that scrutinises a user’s website, notifying the customer when malicious code/viruses are found via email and in the 123-reg control panel. Furthermore, the software provides the user information on where the damaging code is located (the line of code it starts and ends on) and provides steps on how to eradicate it. Protecting your online business against malicious code couldn’t be more important in 2012. This year has seen the issue of internet security rise to the front pages of the national newspapers. Whilst events such as the Linkedin security breach are unfortunate, they are helpful in educating the market. 123-reg spoke to Anirban Banerjee, Co-Founder of StopTheHacker Inc., in a bid to help inform website owners of the growing threat of malware and detail how purchasing Site Scanner can give you peace of mind. A blacklisted website can have serious implications for any online business in terms of lost revenue, potential customers and credibility. We asked Banerjee about the threats to 123-reg customers who run websites with little or no malware detection service. ‘Malicious hackers are targeting websites in order to compromise them. If your website gets compromised and is misused to distribute malware to innocent visitors, the infected website is put on a blacklist by Google and other search engines.’ The potentially spiralling affects could be disastrous for your online business as Banerjee explains. ‘If your website is blacklisted, users will be blocked from coming to your website. This could lead to a loss of revenue. Moreover, this could result in an irreparable loss to the reputation of your website and business.’ The threat of being blacklisted by Google is one that is not only very real but one that every website owner needs to protect against. Once malware infects a website, it harms both the company and its customers. Website owners typically have no idea they have been infected, and many do believe that anti-virus protection software is enough. However, it is not. ‘9,500 websites get added to the Google blacklist every single day. Given the UK market is quite big; this represents a substantial number of UK businesses. It takes 7-10 days for a blacklisted website to clean up its act, on average, this process can cost thousands of pounds in lost revenue before even considering the potential revenue lost from your brands’ reputation being tarnished.’ Prevention is better than cure, but having said that, Site Scanner also acts as a quick reaction, something users can take heart from. If malicious code is found on the user’s website at any time, they are sent an email detailing exactly where the code is, and just as importantly, how to delete it. ‘Site Scanner incorporates the best of breed technology when it comes to malware detection, Antivirus engines, signature databases and reputation monitoring. It will help 123-reg customers by providing them with peace of mind. Together, we will help fight the battle for them!’ Central to seeking a partnership, 123-reg looked-for a provider with a real passion for the online security industry. What 123-reg customers should also take from the partnership is Banerjee’s passion for helping people secure their websites as well as the quality of product that his company provides. ‘Our goal is to make website security ubiquitous. Having a secure website and not worrying about hackers installing malware on your site and getting blacklisted shouldn’t be a luxury, everyone should have access to a high quality, reliable and accurate malware detection prevention like Site Scanner.’ Releasing a product like Site Scanner highlights 123-reg’s commitment to helping its customers secure their websites. 123-reg is working with everyone involved with Site Scanner to bring website security to millions of users. Remember, you don’t have to be a high traffic website to be targeted. Even if you see yourself as a small site, you are attractive to hackers because your site will have more vulnerable openings for hackers.
How long does it take for my website to get indexed?
Creating a great website nowadays is child’s play. Getting it indexed by most search engines is where it gets tough. I have a website, now what? Having your website online is not enough. Search engines can take a while to crawl and index your website. You must submit it to their index manually. This way you attract the search engines’ attention to your newly created website. I’ve submitted my website. Nothing happened. If you take into consideration just how many websites are submitted on a daily basis it is understandable why days may have passed without your website featuring in search engine results pages. How can I make the indexing process faster? There are some things you can check/fix in order to make sure your website can be crawled and indexed: Your pages must have a 200/OK server response Make sure you have actual content – although pictures and videos might be perceived as content for your users you also need to have text on your pages. Crawlers can’t see inside videos but they can definitely see the text. Don’t complicate your links – use simple HTML for the links on your pages. Don’t overcomplicate things by using JavaScript based events. Manually submit your website – if you think your website is ready then you can start submitting it to various search engines. Help your website get discovered – try talking about your website on other sites. Keep in mind these need to be relevant to your own website’s topic. Try finding only the quality websites that are both popular and reliable. With just one link placed on such a website you can ensure a faster indexation. My homepage is indexed but my other pages are not You can finally see your homepage listed in a search engine but where are the rest of your pages? There are several possibilities why your website hasn’t been completely indexed: You haven’t properly interlinked your pages – the crawler can’t get to every page of your website. In this case you should change the way your pages are linked to each other. Until you do that you should create a sitemap file that contains all your pages. When the crawler visits your site it will be looking for this file before crawling your website. You accidentally blocked the crawler’s access – you’ve disallowed the access to certain sub-directories from your robots.txt file or added the noindex tag on some of your pages. Check your robots file and see if you added any extra lines. Also check the pages you can’t find in search engines and see if these have the right server response or if they have a noindex tag in their source code. Robots.txt, sitemaps and server responses. I don’t know what does those are! Do not panic if you feel it is getting too technical for you. If none of the above makes any sense then you can simply use a service that will submit your website to search engines. 123-reg has its very own SEO software called Search Engine Optimiser which can help you get indexed. The best part? You don’t need any technical knowledge to use it. What will your software do for my website? Automatic submission It will save you some time by automatically submitting your website to hundreds of search engines – imagine doing that manually, it would take forever. By having your website indexed by so many search engines you will get worldwide exposure. Website improvement You don’t need to know SEO to understand what problems your website might have. The detailed SEO analysis of your website is clear, concise and easy to understand. By fixing your website’s issues you can get better ranks and more traffic. Competitor research See how well your website is doing in search engine results pages compared to your competitors. Personal control panel You don’t need to download or install anything. Your control panel is online which means you can access it from any device and any place. See the full list of Search Engine Optimiser features for more details and please come back and tell us how you think our SEO software can help improve your website’s visibility.
Is the EU’s cookie law confusing you too?
You might remember that in May last year some new EU rules came into force. Dubbed the ‘EU cookie law’, the legislation says websites have to get permission from users before storing pieces of information called cookies on their computers. What are cookies? Cookies are small text files which websites place on visitors’ computers. They’re typically used to identify that particular visitor and provide them with a better experience. Cookies are a crucial part of many website functions which we take for granted. For instance, it’s usually cookies which allow online shops to remember what items you have in your shopping trolley. They’re also used to keep you logged in to a website, or to provide valuable usage statistics and information to website owners. If you run a website, it almost certainly uses cookies. Their most likely function is to monitor visitor numbers and behaviours through tools like Google Analytics. They may also be used to display relevant adverts to visitors, or – if you sell online – to power key parts of your online shopping system. What the cookie law says Although the cookie law came in last year, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) decided to give websites a year to implement the rules. The deadline is 26 May 2012 – after that date, websites which don’t comply with the law could be fined up to £500,000. The implications of the new cookie law could be far-reaching, yet there’s still a lot of confusion about how the rules should be interpreted and what websites need to do to comply. As a result, many websites are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach. In short, the new rules require websites to get permission from visitors before placing any cookies on their computer. Permission must be informed and overt, which means you have to ask visitors outright if you can put cookies on their computer, and explain clearly what the cookies are used for. You can’t bury the information in your website’s terms and conditions and leave it at that. The only exceptions to this are cookies deemed essential to providing functions visitors have asked for. But you can’t rely on this to cover many of your cookies. The ICO guidance on the new law (PDF link) says that “this exemption is a narrow one”. It’s certainly not likely to cover cookies for analytics purposes, which is one of the most common uses of cookies – particularly for smaller websites. Implementing the cookie law Even with the May deadline fast approaching, hardly any websites have done anything obvious to comply with the cookie law. The few which have begun seeking permission tend to use messages displayed at the top of the screen or overlaid on the website’s pages. As you’d expect, the ICO website has an opt-in message at the top of every page. And BT has begun displaying a message (right) to explain a bit more about its cookies, although it’s debatable whether this is a proper opt-in. But by and large, most websites are keeping their cards close to their chest. That’s understandable, when you look at the commercial implications: when the ICO added an opt-in message to its website, measured visitors dropped by about 90%. That didn’t mean the site was receiving fewer visitors – it just meant people weren’t opting in to cookies, so the ICO couldn’t track what those people were doing. For sites which rely on accurate visitor data to make money, the implications are significant. Adding an opt-in could leave them at a disadvantage to competitors, which is why there’s a real reluctance on the part of website owners to be the first to move. The bare minimum It’s looking very unlikely that many websites will have implemented a cookie opt-in by 26 May. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be doing anything at all. In fact, the ICO – which is responsible for enforcing the rules – has suggested that the most important thing is to take steps in the right direction. If you can show you’re moving towards full compliance then you’re unlikely to be targeted. As a bare minimum, it’s important to have an understanding of what cookies your website uses and plan how you might implement an opt-in. It’s useful to know exactly what cookies your website uses anyway, and you can do this relatively easily using tools like Bitstorm View Cookies or Attacat Cookie Audit. These will show you what cookies your website creates as you move through the pages. The harder bit is working out how you would create an opt-in function on your site. As we’ve seen, most websites display a message to users – but the tricky bit is creating the back-end logic to ensure cookies are only set once people have given their permission. If you’re not adept with computer code, you might need some help from a web developer to accomplish this. There are some ‘plug and play’ tools available, like Optanon and this tool from Wolf Software (designed for sites using Google Analytics), which could make things easier. Don’t do nothing Although there is still a fair amount of uncertainty around the new law, it’s fair to say that doing nothing is not a good option. In the long-term, people’s attitudes and understanding of cookies may change – and web browsers may include settings to help provide a consistent opt-in. But for now the onus of complying with the law falls very much on individual website operators. And while the chance of being prosecuted may be small (at least to begin with), doing nothing at all is a dangerous move. To start with, review guidance from the ICO (PDF link) and try and establish what cookies your website currently uses. Even Europe doesn’t understand the cookie law That’s the way the cookie crumbles
6 Top Tips on How to re-use your content without upsetting the search engines
If you’ve written a decent blog, there’s no surprise that you may also want to use it across more than one site – perhaps on a sister brand, or even a guest blog post for a third party. Yet, doing so may see you fall foul of duplicate content penalties from Google and Bing, and with those rules not always clear, how do you know what is right and what is wrong? Here’s our six top tips to re-using your content without causes red flags from search bots. 1. Be the best and be the first Search Engines dislike duplicate content, but they love duplicated content. Well not love, but if it is clear to a searchbot that you wrote and published it first and that the copy text is just that and duly linking back to your website, that should help boost your ranking. 2. Re-use but re-purpose There’s something to be said for the old adage that nothing is ever original. People have been writing books, magazines, etc long before online content ever came about and even stuff about techie subjects is often a fresh subject but well-worn approach and comments. So coming up with original content doesn’t actually literally mean that. It is perfect acceptable to use old content and re-package it. Re-focus it for a new audience, maybe a new age-range requiring different language. Search bots are clever but they look for language patterns and if you are re-writing a blog in a different style and with different words, they probably won’t spot the similarities. 3. Vary your approach Statistics are great, they can mean anything you want and the same is true about words, phrases and even official statements. Even if you use the same facts the wide variation of newspapers that still exist in this country shoes that with a different take on them you can write a very different piece, and certainly not one likely to come across and duplicated. 4. Pick a new entry point If you first wrote a piece about first-time car purchases, have a think how you can give the same piece a slightly different starting line. Obviously you need to change more than just the opening line, but you will be amazed how that opening sentence has a massive influence on how the rest of your blog will flow. For example: Consider a blog on the effects on the car industry as a whole given the choices now available to the first-time car buyer, or perhaps the information sources now available to the first time buyer and how that influences them. Same facts and research probably, completely different blog. 5. Re-examine your research for new gems As I pointed out, this is nothing new. Freelance journalists have been using these tricks of the trade for years. One exclusive interview will only normally be published in one magazine but some of the unused quotes from the same interview can probably be used in another three or four articles, not just focused on that interviewee, but the subject they talk about, etc. 6. Turn a news piece into a reflective piece Another journalistic tool. If you wrote a blog last month about the imminent launch of the iPad 3, there’s no harm in re-using much of that for another blog elsewhere but update it. No longer news, now you can add comments of those lucky enough to have been using an iPad3 in the past few weeks. How has it compared to what they expected? Using and reusing content, is becoming a must in the busy demands of the online world, but you need to have a strategy about how you achieve it and how it all works together. As ever, don’t just churn out content, make sure it fits somewhere and has a part to play in your longer-term strategy