At Cape Computer Help, Chris Dixon has been designing websites for local businesses on Cape Cod for more than 10 years. At this point, there are about 50 websites located on the server, mostly local businesses from Cape Cod. Click Here to see a selection. The internet and the tools available for website design have changed considerably in that time. These days the website design environment of choice is WordPress. Websites can be small and simple, from just a marketing tool for a business or organization up to a fully functioning ecommerce site, allowing a range of products and services to be purchased online. Whatever your needs, please write or call for a discussion, and we’ll see what can be done within your budget.
Website Design, Domain Name Registration and Hosting are included.
When you work with Cape Computer Help, a complete solution is included. You really need three things and they are all part of your solution.
Domain Name Registration
Your domain name is the address of your site on the internet, like http://capecomputerhelp.com. It’s unique in the world and needs to be registered. If someone already is using your desired name, then we can work together to find an alternative which will work. Don’t worry, most users will search for you using a search engine like Google and the actual name you use doesn’t matter too much. Cape Computer Help will register it for you and if you already have a domain name, can take over control of the registration which needs to be renewed annually for a small fee. Or if you prefer you can register and maintain your domain name yourself.
Hosting
Your hosting server is the computer where the files are stored that make up the website. When potential customers find you on the internet they contact the hosting server and it delivers the files, text and images to their device. Its very important to have a secure, high performance server which is well maintained. Cape Computer Help provides that too. However if you prefer to manage your own hosting account or even to have your own server, Cape Computer Help can work with that.
The Website Design
Once you site is registered and hosted, we’ll need to complete the design and publish it on the internet. This is where the rubber meets the road. With the wealth of experience available at Cape Computer Help, you can be sure that we can quickly and easily develop a website to precisely meet your needs. The level of interaction when developing the website varies from customer to customer. In many cases we start with a kick off meeting at which almost all of the website requirements can be established, and then over the course of a week or two, typically, the website is built, and then there are some phone calls or additional meetings where we refine the design, until it reaches the point where its ready to launch. At Cape Computer Help the goal is to build a website professionally but to enable the customers, if they wish, to maintain the website design themselves. Our customers vary; some leave all the work to us, and some need to be able to make their own changes. Either way, you can be assured of a professionally built website, executed in a timely fashion, taking care to meet all your requirements.
Working with WordPress
WordPress (http://wordpress.com) is an open source platform which enables the website to be dynamically designed to work on any device, from a desktop computer of any type, a tablet (like an iPad) to a smart phone. Open Source means that the software on the server is available for anyone to use free of charge, and that it is maintained by contributors. WordPress is now the most widely used platform for website design from simple small businesses to large corporate sites. Originally envisioned as a blog site design tool, it has evolved with add-ons to where it can be used for almost any internet purpose. Examples include plugins for managing an event schedule, selling products online, taking credit cards, providing access to Real Estate Listings through MLS, and many more.
How do you get started on a Website?
Cape Computer Help customers usually meet with us and we determine what will be displayed on the website, provide photos and as much information as they can, and I’ll work with it from there. Some customers have a clear idea of the information they require, down to the exact text required on each page of the website. Others approach the project with no more than a need to get their business on the internet and we work from there. At each stage we can meet or stay in touch my phone and email as the website develops. If you already have a website we can leave that up and running while we work on the new version, and switch over at the point when the new site seems better than the old one. I think you’ll be surprised how quickly that happens! Do you have a site and you just need a few small changes? We can do that too. Have you lost touch with the person who originally designed your site and lost all the passwords? Believe it or not this is a really common problem and Cape Computer Help is experienced dealing with this. We contact the current hosting and domain name registrar and work with them to regain control of the site.
What will a Website do for me?
The internet as a marketing tool continues to evolve. A few years ago websites were designed to be informational, to simply tell people about your business. They worked only on a computer and not many people used one on a day to day basis. Now more people use the internet on their mobile phone than on a computer, and its often their primary means of contacting a business when they are looking for products or services, so its a contact medium, and probably your strongest lead generator. Even if a business makes the first contact with a potential customer by another means like a radio advertisement or a personal referral, they will go straight to the internet to find out more about it.
email and Tech Support is included
With your website at Cape Computer Help, you can have as many email accounts as you need, and tech support to configure those emails on your phone and your computer is included in the website design and hosting package. On the concept that Cape Computer Help should be your business’s IT support person, we will do everything necessary to support keeping your site up and running, and your emails coming in and going out. Any questions please call, any time.