Need help picking a website creator/hoster for small family business

chef-borjan · 12 Nov 2014 at 11:51

Hi all.

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but I trust the OC community a lot and I wanted a UK centric view on things.

Long story short, my parents are trying to set up and run a small home bakery. Customers find us on the web, like the look of a cake, send us a request for an order then we generate a paypal invoice to handle payment. Then we get them their delicious cakes.

We have a rudimentary website I clobbered together with basic IT/HTML skills hosted on blogger, but it looks like crap and we need to update it. As we only have a handful of sales a month, we would like to keep costs down. But primarily, we are looking for a website builder/hoster as well as e-commerce capabilities (although this I'm not completely sure about, as we don't want to let people actually buy cakes online in case we can't fufill the order, it needs to be given the ok first.) But importantly this all needs to be simple and easy to use, my parents will be the ones maintaining it after all!

Typing 'best cheap website builder' into google is a nightmare and the sticky above seems to be for hosting only.

Any advice? I am very new to this all...

webhound · 12 Nov 2014 at 13:38

You will find most 'good' freelance web designers / developers will usually throw in a years free hosting into their contract.
My concern would be "Customers find us on the web, like the look of a cake, send us a request for an order then we generate a paypal invoice to handle payment". How do you propose users to find your website? SEO is not something which is done overnight and can take years (if at all in some cases) for a website to be placed in the top 10 search results. Social media marketing could be your best bet but as with an advertising, it isnt cheap.

Send me a PM if you want any further advice, I'll be happy to help.

hargi · 12 Nov 2014 at 13:41

Id sugest taking a look over at Vidahost for the hosting ( I use it for all my sites and others on here recommend it ) I may have a discount code if you want to send me a message in trust.

With in vidahost's cpanel you can install wordpress witha few clicks from there you can either use its theme or go to themeforest and purchase one that you can alter.

If you want to go down the ecommerce route then there is one click installers for a few of them. But I think youd be ok with Wordpress and then use buttons to email you there requests

chef-borjan · 12 Nov 2014 at 13:44

Thanks, and I might PM you later.

This is very much a side project at the moment, so no huge concerns to bring money in ASAP. SEO is important, but we are finding that we are spreading through word of mouth slowly but surely. We might get three or so orders a month at the moment, so somehow people are finding out about us!

I take it web designers would also give you all the tools and knowledge to maintain your website long after your face to face business with them is over?

chef-borjan · 12 Nov 2014 at 13:47

hargi said:
Id sugest taking a look over at Vidahost for the hosting ( I use it for all my sites and others on here recommend it ) I may have a discount code if you want to send me a message in trust.

With in vidahost's cpanel you can install wordpress witha few clicks from there you can either use its theme or go to themeforest and purchase one that you can alter.

If you want to go down the ecommerce route then there is one click installers for a few of them. But I think youd be ok with Wordpress and then use buttons to email you there requests

Thank you very much, this might be what I'm looking for. I have also dabbled in wordpress, so that might work out as well. Their prices look reasonable fairly reasonable too.

hargi · 12 Nov 2014 at 13:50

Yes.
For clients that want to be able to update the content rather then the full blown theme change then a CMS like Wordpress is best. It allows them to change the content with a WYSIWYG editor that they are comfortable with. There are other CMS Joomla, Drupal etc

Gambisk · 12 Nov 2014 at 13:50

http://www.squarespace.com/ job jobbed, can even play with it for free before taking out hosting options. if you look around there are normally promo codes too.

chef-borjan · 12 Nov 2014 at 13:58

Gambisk said:
http://www.squarespace.com/ job jobbed, can even play with it for free before taking out hosting options. if you look around there are normally promo codes too.

ENTER PROMO CODE: BOMBCAST

Haha, cheers, thanks I actually already had a look at that one, but prefer something in the UK.

webhound · 12 Nov 2014 at 13:59

I'll echo hargi and suggest Wordpress as your platform and Vidahost as a decent web host.

Black Dynamite · 12 Nov 2014 at 14:20

Hi mate, Vidahost and Wordpress is the route you want.

Vidahost are, in my opinion, a fantastic hosting company. They respond quickly, have very little (if none!) downtime and the communication is fantastic, can't recommend them enough.

I'm a freelance developer so if you'd like to discuss send me a message by trust

swinnie · 12 Nov 2014 at 22:29

TSOHost/Vidahost for hosting. Either are excellent, as they are part of the same group. Excellent value for money, and support is second to none.

Find a recommended local Freelancer who can design and develop the website, perhaps on a product such as Wordpress to achieve the goals that you need and you should be good to go.

mtalk · 13 Nov 2014 at 06:12

Get one click auto installer for wordpress with Webhost UK , and buy a nice wordpress theme that suites your requirement from Themeforest.. webhostUK support person can even help you with theme installation.