Website design, development and hosting
Vapour Trail specialises in websites for small business. If you are a small business, start up, one man band or partnership, we can offer you a reasonably priced and effective website. We understand that you need to use your resources efficiently and may want to work to a tight budget. No problem, we are used … Read more
In January 2013, The Guardian Small Business Network published an article entitled “Why a good (cheap) website is vital for small businesses”. The writer observes that although 80% of small businesses do have a website, around 80% of those websites “simply aren’t fit for purpose in today’s digital age”. He goes on to explain why: … Read more
Vapour Trail are Website Designers and Developers. Most people are familiar with the term “website designer” and getting your website to look good is an important part of our work. But website development is vitally important too. Development refers to the techy stuff behind the scenes. Making sure that the website loads in the browser … Read more
This is an all too familiar story. I talk to a business owner about their existing website and the tale goes something like this …
“we’ve been in business a few years now and when we started my nephew/friend/IT student/bloke at the pub made us a website. It’s looking a bit old now and we want to update but we have lost touch/they don’t have the time/they don’t do that anymore and we don’t know what to do”.
Your website is a key marketing tool. Whenever you say “visit our website” or a potential customer searches for you online, your website will be the first thing they see. So just as a shopkeeper makes sure the windows are clean and the shop is fresh and inviting, so you need to be sure that … Read more
Blogging is about writing your own stuff on the web. No need for a webmaster, just you, the computer and an audience. This is an enormously powerful tool for business. Have you just finished a job you are particularly proud of? Blog about it. Do you want to demonstrate you have got to grips with … Read more
I would recommend that any new business website included the following features: Content Management System (CMS) A CMS allows persons other than a website designer to update the website. This can be the site’s owner or designated administrator, third party search engine optimisation (SEO) specialist or marketing specialist. Fresh, optimised content is essential to keeping … Read more
The biggest source for free Themes is WordPress’s own Theme Repository. At the time of writing, there are over 2000 freely available Themes for download. Any of these Themes can be used as part of our Small Business Website package. You will need to do the research and tell us which one. There are other … Read more
A WordPress Theme is the set of instructions that defines how your website will look. It controls the font, layout, colours, module positions and all those other elements that determine the styling of the finished website. You could have a bespoke theme created so the your website was completely unique, but that is likely to … Read more
Your business website needs good information. How do you describe your business? Primarily, you should put yourself in the place of someone who has heard about your business and wants to know what you do. So you should be writing about what you do, where you operate, what skills you have, how long you have … Read more