To celebrate summer, we are giving 40% off .US & .ORG and 25% off .ME & .INFO domain names.

As long as you are buying at least one full priced domain name (excl. .us, .org, .me and .info), you’ll be able to add any number of .US & .ORG at 40% discounted price and .ME & .INFO at 25% discounted price.

The full price domain name you add to your basket can be of any extensions, for any length of time (1 year registration, 5 years registration etc.) as long as it is not .us, .org, .me or .info.

Don’t hesitate and search for your new domains today!

Find out more about our domain offers >

Search for your new domain names >

Terms and conditions apply

If you have an understanding of the coding behind a website (such as HTML, CSS, PHP, ASP) then you have the ability to build your own pages and determine content, colour, text size, tables etc yourself. However, if you’ve less knowledge of the coding involved in building a website, you may opt to use a web design software package or opt to hire a web designer to help you.

Whichever method you choose as best to create your web pages, the first thing you need to do is put together a plan of action i.e. What do you want your site to achieve? Who will be using it? Etc.

Define Your Requirements

What information are you trying to provide? What must be on the page? Are there videos? Links? Documents? Is it text heavy or graphical? All of these things have to be thought about before building the page to make sure they fit and work correctly. It’s often beneficial to use simple pen and paper to work out how all of the elements needed on your page can best fit together. Once you have a clearer idea of exactly what the page should be doing, it is far easier to go ahead and create it.

Identify Your Audience

You need to know who you are trying to reach before you design your web pages. Knowing your audience will help you present information in a suitable manner to interest that audience. There is no point, for example, in writing your content in a manner which people wouldn’t understand.

Navigation

One of the biggest frustrations for visitors to a website is not being able to find what they are looking for. Most visitors want to be able to find content fairly easily. To that end, you should think about how users will navigate around your site. Well there be an overall sitemap, will you provide a main navigation on ever page, will you provide search boxes or quick visit drop down menus? If people can’t easily get around your site, you may find the leave and don’t return. Clean navigation is also important for search engines as it allows them to easily crawl your website to rate your content.

Page Response Time and Speed

Loading speeds are becoming important, particularly given the social media items that can be pulled onto a page. It’s no longer difficult to pull videos and photo albums directly from the likes of Flickr or YouTube. If your page has to many images, to much text, to many feeds or videos then you may find it doesn’t load fast enough. If this is the case on your broadband, think how it will be for those on dial-up internet or slower broadband connections!

Graphics

When adding graphics to your site, make sure to save them in a suitable format (JPEG and GIF are the most popular). When inserting shapes, lines, backgrounds, buttons or any graphics that only have a few colours, a GIF file is best. JPEG files are best suited for pictures. Also be aware of the size of the file you save. The larger the file size, the slower your web pages will load. Also make sure to use “Alt” (alternative) text on your web pages.

Fonts and Colours

These should be based on how best you believe they can help present your message to your intended audience. Small fonts aren’t suitable for those with reading difficulties and certain coloured text on specific back ground colours are difficult to read (e.g. orange text on a red background or white text on a yellow background). Fonts don’t always load correctly on different browsers either, so make sure to test before confirming which fonts you are going to use.

Headlines

An important factor when choosing a layout is a headline. This is most likely the first thing your visitors will see and is predominantly what they will use to establish what content is on the page. Make sure it grabs attention and is relevant. For instance you wouldn’t write “information on product X” if the page was actually about product Y.

Web design can be a simple or complex process depending on your own personal creative and development ability, and the tips above are intended to give you a helping hand. If you’re still not sure of the process or would like some assistance, then contact the web design team at Easyspace today for a free web design consultation.

Alternative hosting solutions, such as Dedicated Server hosting or Virtual Server hosting can instantly provide better security and faster processing speeds than shared hosting, but both come with higher costs, so it makes sense to be sure on exactly what you need before choosing those higher end options.

Shared web hosting, at a lower cost than the Dedicated and Virtual alternatives, is ideal if you want your site to be up and running within 24hrs, if you are short on technical experience and you simply want an affordable solution. Costs are lower because the server your site is hosted on is “shared” with many other people running their own websites. The choices you need to make come down to which level of shared hosting you buy. This decision will largely be based on your requirements i.e. do you have a large site? Will it use up a lot of bandwidth? Does it require a specific operating system? Do you require email? And so on.

What factors should you consider?

So, when choosing your level of shared hosting, make sure to consider the uptime being offered (how often does your provider anticipate server problems throughout the year?), disk space (the level of space needed to store your html files, image files etc), bandwidth (the amount of traffic allowed to / from your site), support levels (to makes sure any issues can be fixed promptly) and additional features that could help your site grow (this could include site promotion tools, access to website traffic stats and more).

It is also important to check the quality of hardware being used, the compatible software specifications and operating system. Most important is a consideration of all factors combined together, to make sure the package will suit your needs.

The providers of shared hosting are normally responsible for managing the servers, installing software, security updates and other aspects of the service. So make sure you know what else you’ll receive when you signup.

Operating system – Linux or Windows?

Most shared web hosting packages are based on Linux or Windows Operating Systems. Both are readily available and both have their own reasons for being the best option.

The decision, therefore, of choosing a Windows or Linux based web hosting solution should be based on your own actual needs, not myths. Specifically, the choice should be based on what you want to do with your site, if there are existing requirements and / or what requirements there may be in the future.

Linux

The Linux shared web hosting solution is perhaps the most used form of shared hosting. Often cheaper than the Windows alternative, its popularity is largely down its open source nature and the availability of support for the popular PHP scripting language and MySQL database programme.

Supporting other tools and languages such as Apache, Pearl and Java, Linux hosting servers are scalable and extremely reliable.

Windows

The Windows web hosting solution is based on the Windows operation system from Microsoft and, as a result, is the best platform for people who prefer using ASP / ASP.NET scripting languages and Microsoft SQL Server or Access databases tools. Clearly there is benefit should you wish to use any other Microsoft based technologies. The one key downside to Windows based hosting is that it is often slightly more expensive because of licensing fees (compared with the open source nature of Linux).

In summary, choosing a shared web hosting solution really comes down to your requirements. Do some research on what is available from various providers but, more importantly, make sure you know what you need now and what you might need in the future. Some questions we recommend asking to help would be: What scripting language is my site built in? Does it use a database? Does it have a lot of imagery on it? Is it a big site? Do I need site stats or promotion tools? How important is support to me? Do I need email with it?

With that in mind, all Easyspace customers are invited to take part in a short questionnaire to let us know what they think of our control panel. The questionnaire should only take a few minutes to complete.

We value all feedback we receive, so we’d be grateful if you could spare a moment to give us your thoughts.

The questionnaire can be accessed via the homepage of the Control Panel once you’ve logged in.

The survey will be available to complete until Tuesday 30 June 2009.

Many thanks in advance for your participation.

Registering your domain name is easy, but some important decisions are required before you make the final choice. Below are five factors that will influence your decision and determine just how successful your domain is in driving traffic to your website.

Domain extension

The original and still the most popular domain extension is the .com with most people having been very familiar with it for a long time. Many people associate the .com extension as the standard extension for a business and it is the tendency of many users to look for the .com version of a website, whether it exists or not, before checking for other extensions. The .com is also one of the most sought after extensions when it comes to premium domain / aftermarket sales, where owners privately sell domain on for inflated prices.

Thinking towards extensions has been changing in recent times, with less emphasis being placed on the extension and more on the words used before it i.e. ‘yourcompany’ .com, ‘mycompany’ .com because this is will have bigger impact on brand consistency and search rankings than the extension itself.

However, the correct extension is still important. Nowadays there are a significant number of other domain extensions to choose from including .co.uk, .net, .org, .biz, .me, .tv, .eu, .tel and many more. Most domain extensions today are as likely to be spidered by search engines as any other.

It’s also worth considering name protection, by registering your chosen name in multiple extensions. Some of the most popular extensions are .com, .net,.org, .info, .biz and .co.uk so, if you do want to protect your domain then it would be worth checking it is available in these extensions as well.

Keywords

Your chosen domain keyword(s) (the part before the extension) is an important aspect to consider when choosing your domain name. You should try where possible to embed a main keyword or phrase into the domain name. This keyword or phrase could be your company name, a service you offer, the name of a local group etc but should, where possible (and if available), be relevant to the focus of the website. For instance, if you sell red widgets, look at domain variations such as yourcompany.com, redwidgets.com, widgets.com and remember to try in different extensions.

Relevant and well thought keywords within your domain can have a significant impact on how your website will perform in search engines, not just for brand searches, but also for searches related to the service you are offering.

Hyphenated Domain Names

Should you get a hyphenated domain name? Hyphenated domain names are slightly more difficult to remember and to communicate correctly. There is a tendency to forget the hyphen or mention it in the wrong places when information is passed by word of mouth and hence it is wise, if possible, to avoid them. This is purely a communication issue so, if there is no choice but to choose the hyphenated version, just do so. Search Engines do not discriminate against hyphenated domains … you just need to make sure you communicate the domain correctly.

Short and Memorable

Choose a domain namethat is short, memorable and easy to pronounce. A shorter domain name is always easier to remember than a long one. Word of mouth advertisement is considered to be one of the most popular forms of advertising in a business so a short and memorable domain is ideal for people to remember your website and pass the word around. Try to keep your domain name registration topically relevant, whether it be brand or service related. As search engines get smarter and smarter, sites that display total relevance will rank higher than catch all sites.

Trademarks and copyrights

Be sure to avoid other companies’ trademarks and copyrights when choosing your domain name. Legislation has been passed making “CyberSquating” illegal. Be ethical in your domain name registrations to avoid possible legal pitfalls.

Finally, treat your domain name as an asset. Keep the domain name passwords safe! The last thing you want is for somebody to steal your domain name and redirect it on the internet.

There are several ways to register a unique domain name.

Register your own domain name through Easyspace.com today!

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New and existing customers who transfer their domain names to Easyspace will receive a full year of free web hosting, worth £47, along with the full service and support of Easyspace’s team of dedicated technical experts. Included within the hosting package will be 3GB web space, 200 mailboxes, 15GB monthly bandwidth and more.

Easyspace already provides solutions for all other aspects of setting up a business online, from low cost shopping carts and a variety of hosting options, through to security and dedicated website design.

Errol Vanderhorst, sales and marketing director at Easyspace: “Domain names and web hosting aren’t immune to the current economic climate and, like other services and products, people are more aware of their associated costs than ever before. We realise the value of owning a domain and website, particularly to a small business, so we’ve decided to help those looking to reduce their outgoings.

“Our free web hosting offer means that all customers can transfer their domains and websites to Easyspace and pay nothing for one full year while still receiving the full benefits offered.”

Visit our domain transfer section for more information.

Established for 25 years, Creative Calendars wanted an internet presence which provided an easily-accessible directory for existing and potential customers. Having attempted to rework the site internally without achieving the desired results, the company turned to Easyspace for help.

Previously the company relied on sending samples to customers before an order was placed; but the Easyspace redesign, with simple navigation and immediate visual impact, allows buyers to view calendars online and helps secure sales more quickly.

Since the revamp, Creative Calendars has seen an increase in enquiries, website traffic and sales.

As an additional benefit, the new website - www.advertising-calendars.com - is hosted and managed entirely by Easyspace in its state-of-the-art data centres, meaning that data security and website resilience come as part of the package. The all-in-one approach has also allowed Creative Calendars to reduce costs.

Dennis Godding of Creative Calendars said: “The new website gives a one-stop approach to all of our products. They are showcased in such a way that our potential customers can quickly and easily locate their exact requirements – and order online!

“Web novices like ourselves could never have achieved the visual impact of our new website. It has also been designed using software that will enable us to make changes and updates very easily.”

Errol Vanderhorst, sales and marketing director at Easyspace, said: “Creative Calendars needed to increase their web visibility and our design team were able to help out with an eye-catching site which allows customers to easily browse the company’s varied range of promotional calendars. This allows the company to concentrate on its core business and drive further growth.”

View the Case Study: www.easyspace.com/web_design/examples

The award comes from the influential Web Host Directory who, each month, encourages its visitors to for vote for the Top Web Hosts in each of its Web Host related categories. At the end of each month the Web Host Directory awards panel visits the top voted Web Hosts in each category, and determines which are most worthy of receiving an award.

The Virtual Server range from Easyspace has grown from strength to strength in recent times, launching initially with just two Linux based options to now encapsulate 2 Linux options, 2 Windows server options, a Ruby on Rails loaded virtual server package and a custom VPS solution, where customers can configure a virtual server to match their requirements.

“We’ve now received several awards for our Virtual Server offering in recent months, which is testament to the continual development effort that goes in to making sure they are best of breed. Our Custom VPS solution has been met with a great response from customers and the feedback we’re regularly receiving is allowing us to develop the product further.” Comments Errol Vanderhorst, Sales and Marketing Director at Easyspace.

Telnic is releasing a number of .Tel applications that allow users to search and manage .Tel domains quickly and easily without the need to use the web.  The .Tel plug-in enables anyone with Outlook to have their address book updated dynamically. .

The free Outlook application allows users to:

- Directly lookup a .Tel domain inside Outlook, including private information from friends
- Search for a .Tel domain inside Outlook
- Add any .Tel domain as a new contact or associate it with an existing contact
- Refresh all the .Tel information in your address book with a single click
- Send ‘friending’ requests and accept or decline them depending on your TelFriends status
- Quickly change your .Tel profile to make sure your contacts reach you the way you want

The free .Tel Outlook application is available for download from http://telnic.org/community-applications.html.

Register a .tel domain name now, or take advantage of our continuing sale to register other domain extensions for just pennies per day.

The iPhone applications allow users to login to their TelHosting account directly from their iPhone and update / manage their .Tel contact information and details on the go.

Other features include:

• Easily publish their location through an embedded map linked with the iPhone’s GPS
• Update their status using profiles depending on how they want to be contacted at that time
• Add new, remove, hide or show items of contact information
• Manage, add or remove folders and profiles which group contact information together
• Manage privacy settings for friends and colleagues
• Add or remove keywords that help people searching for .tel owners contact information

The Blackberry application allows users to search for .Tel domains, save .Tel data to your Blackberry address book, switch between .Tel profiles and control your private .Tel data.

Other features include:

• Directly lookup a .tel domain inside the address book, including private information from friends
• Search for a .tel domain inside the address book
• Add any .tel domain as a new contact or associate it with an existing contact
• Send ‘friending’ requests and accept or decline them depending on your TelFriends status
• Quickly change your .tel profile to make sure your contacts reach you the way you want

These services are available to download free of charge. Instructions for download are available on the Telnic website: http://telnic.org/community-applications.html

Like the idea of these features? Then register your own .Tel domain today with Easyspace for just £12.50 pa.