Setting up website for my dad's business

[opethdisciple]

Hope this is the right place.

My dad runs a shoe repairing and locksmithing shop in London. It's pretty small scale and we only need a basic website, so people can see we have a web presensce as well as get contact details and a description of services.

A year ago, my dad went ahead with out consulting me and bought for £600!!! a very basic website from BT!

The domain name is with BT at the moment.

Im thinking of purchasing a some server space and installing wordpress and setting up a website for him.

Firstly, is wordpress ok for this use? Will be 3-4 pages of content. Pretty basic.

Secondly, how do I migrate his existing domain name?

Thirdly, Im thinking of purchasing from these guys. They have a basic package as well as an unlimited one. The basic one doesnt include security features. Do I need it?

How do I play with wordpress without having to buy server space yet?

All content editing in wordpress is done through the browser, and no need to install plugins etc on the local PC?

 

[namnoc]

Don't bother with Wordpress as it will just complicate matters and adds nothing for what you need to do.

Just stick it together using standard html and I would suggest Vidahost. I don't know the people you refer to, but there is nothing worse than having an unreliable site and/or support issues. For the extra few quid is is a lot better to be safe

 

[opethdisciple]

Dads asking me about SEO optimization..... etc. (basically BT sold him aload of jargon and now he's got this buzzword in his head)

Is this something simple enough to do?

 

[AHarvey]

honestly, I'd be looking at coding something probably with Bootstrap to make it more mobile friendly. Locking smithing is something i associate with "**** i've lost my keys, better check google" which will be done on your phone. I am just starting with Bootstrap but it looks great so far

Do you want 2 sites or 1 site for both?

I'm a fan of not linking businesses. I'd have one for each company if it was me.

Use Vidahost as suggested, cheap and quality service. There is TSOhost as well I think.

They have guides/FAQs on how to do everything.

Link to the current site?

 

[Mitzy]

I'm going to go against the grain. I would suggest you use WP, its easy to install and skin and is perfect for a static site. Also a lot of hosts are configured with automatic site deployment using wp. Someone above suggested Vidahost, they are cheap, reliable, UK based and have excellent customer service. Their most basic shared hosting package would be suitable.

 

[GravyMonster]

I'd also suggest you use wordpress. If you've not got much experience it's much easier to buy a professional looking skin and amend a WP installation than it is to do it from the ground up. Any good skin should be responsive, so that will cover the mobile site too.

If you're concerned with SEO, use the Yoast WP plugin too.

 

[asim18]

I tried experimenting with WordPress for one of my client's sites.

What an absolute load of bloat it was. Ended up hand coding the site from scratch and reduced server usage/load by 99.9% in the process. Never again.

Use WordPress only if you have to.

 

[aslco]

I tried experimenting with WordPress for one of my client's sites.

What an absolute load of bloat it was. Ended up hand coding the site from scratch and reduced server usage/load by 99.9% in the process. Never again.

Use WordPress only if you have to.

It's good if the customer needs to update it themselves or if you want to do ecommerce ( magento may be best), but for static i would hand code with bootstrap

 

[GravyMonster]

...reduced server usage/load by 99.9% in the process. Never again.

There is a lot to WordPress, but I do not believe that for 1 second. The only way that would be the case is if you had a massively complex template, or your host is terribly configured.

It's the Word vs Notepad argument basically.

 

[Black Dynamite]

I tried experimenting with WordPress for one of my client's sites.

What an absolute load of bloat it was. Ended up hand coding the site from scratch and reduced server usage/load by 99.9% in the process. Never again.

Use WordPress only if you have to.

I'm calling bull on this unless this ...

There is a lot to WordPress, but I do not believe that for 1 second. The only way that would be the case is if you had a massively complex template, or your host is terribly configured.

It's the Word vs Notepad argument basically.

Use WordPress, do it once, do it right. Make a template yourself, or download a lightweight one.

Makes the whole thing hassle free down the line when your dad wants to change some text or add another page, which he will.

I used to hand code static sites as I thought it was easier, now I actually know how to use WP properly, it's my starting point. You might not need the functionality now but think 3 years down the line.

 

[mortals]

How do I play with wordpress without having to buy server space yet?

All content editing in wordpress is done through the browser, and no need to install plugins etc on the local PC?

You can play with wordpress with something like xampp(win)/mamp(mac)
I think this thread is possibly something to look at: Is WordPress overkill for a simple static website?

Wordpress seems to be something a lot of people use to get websites up and running easy, even sometimes without knowledge of php/html/css etc (I see a lot of poorly setup wordpress installs, even some where people don't update wordpress or the plugins which can lead to security issues)

Not saying wordpress is rubbish as it has it's place as a cms and is good for blogging etc.

Do you have any experience with html, css, php, sql