I'm thinking of getting a new website....but how?

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-Rob-

Say Cheese!...Oh, and call me Susan
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I currently have a Zenfolio website and this year I’ve been getting more and more frustrated with how slow it runs a lot of the time. It’s very easy to use and has unlimited storage so it has its upsides but on the downside the templates are a little restrictive and the SEO is certainly restrictive.

I’ve looked in to getting a Wordpress website before but it just confused the hell out of me yet I hear so many people saying how easy it is. I’m happy to spend a few hundred pound on creating a new site but I want to go in to it with confidence that I know what I’m doing and that the end result will be better and more reliable than my zenfolio site.

Are there any TPers out there that have taken this journey and can give me some pointers on exactly where to start, what to read, what to buy etc.

My needs are fairly simple:
- Unlimited, reliable, fast hosting
- A user friendly control panel
- Good SEO potential

So let’s start with the hosting side of things as that seems to be the first thing I’d have to sign up to and spend money on.
- Who do people recommend for unlimited hosting?
- Other than it being unlimited what else do I need to look out for?
- What is a MySQL database and what do I do with them?

Please keep any replies VERY, VERY simple. Try and write any advice so a 10 year old could understand it to give me a chance of keeping up lol
 
I have never used it myself but squarespace gets lots of good reviews, and you can get a free months trial.
 
Avoid Squarespace - SEO isn't up to it.

WordPress seems popular, but I hated it.
 
Also avoid Format.com like the plague. They don't allow you to create unique meta titles for each page.
 
-Rob- said:
I've tried Wordpress before and hated it but so many people rave about it as the best way forward for SEO that it's something I need to look in to.
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ProPhoto gets all the love. I didn't like using it, but I have to migrate my site to somewhere that will index properly so may have to bite the bullet.
 
Yes, that's correct.
 
I think you need to establish a few thoughts on what you're using your website for @-Rob- Is it a business website, do you sell from it, do you show client galleries on it (bearing in mind you use Zenfolio at present), etc.

In real terms WordPress is excellent, and in truth not difficult to come to terms with - if you can use a Word document, you can use WordPress once set up and running - it's the getting set up and running that's the bit that takes the learning curve, but sticking to a fairly simple system you can get up and running easily enough. WordPress itself is a management system for your content, and onto that you add a theme which gives you the look of how you want your site to look. You can buy a whole host of themes from a number of different places, some good and some not so good. Again dependent on your needs, depends on what you need to spend really.

Web hosting is a minefield, people on TP appear to like TSOhost, I use a company called Unlimited Web Hosting, and there are plenty of others out there that are reasonable that can provide one click install for your WordPress install. Once that's done, it's then a case of uploading your theme, and content and moving forward from there. With regards to SQL database and the likes, I wouldn't worry too much about the technicalities of them. At the end of the day, it's a database that holds the information for your site. Most host companies offer packages with a number of databases which are easy to set up - normally it's just a case of usernames and passwords, nothing too technical to consider. If you do one click installs, most of the time, the database is automatically assigned.

WordPress accounts for something like 25% of the global website builds now, so it's a good reliable solid base for a website with plenty of great options for a website whatever your needs are. You just need to know what your needs are to get the best for it.
 
Another vote for Unlimited...

Bear in mind that whatever theme you use only gives you the home page. You have to build all the others, which is what put me off.
 
Hi,

If your looking for quality webhosting with great service at a reasonable price look into bigwetfish (https://bigwetfish.hosting/) If used them for years with websites for others and they are a small enough company to get personal service and they care, but big enough to provide quality at reasonable prices. They do wordpress specific hosting. I'd then look into Photocrati as a theme, designed for photographers and loads of flexibility with galleries, payments etc. They have been on the go for ages and well known. They also have some big changes coming up soon hopefully. Photocrati also have the Nextgen Pro plugin which is designed again for photographers. You could be up and running cheaply.

Cheers,

Kenny
 
Kenny Girvan said:
Hi,

If your looking for quality webhosting with great service at a reasonable price look into bigwetfish (https://bigwetfish.hosting/) If used them for years with websites for others and they are a small enough company to get personal service and they care, but big enough to provide quality at reasonable prices. They do wordpress specific hosting. I'd then look into Photocrati as a theme, designed for photographers and loads of flexibility with galleries, payments etc. They have been on the go for ages and well known. They also have some big changes coming up soon hopefully. Photocrati also have the Nextgen Pro plugin which is designed again for photographers. You could be up and running cheaply.

Cheers,

Kenny
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Prophoto is a one time fee though.
 
Another vote for WordPress from me. I built (my first) site using Wix and got nowhere with it showing up anywhere on Google. I moved over to WordPress about a month or so ago. The content is essentially the same, and it's now showing on page 1 or 2 for the search phrases I've targeted. I did some SEO research and tinkered with a few things (mainly file names used for photos, which you need to name correctly before you upload to WordPress as you can't change them once they have been uploaded) but alt-tags, page titles, content and images were pretty much the same. The WordPress site has cost me £0 to set up (it's in my signature if you want a look, and I used the free Snap theme).The domain name registration cost £1.99 from GoDaddy. The only expense really was setting up the email account to link with the domain name, which was about £35 from memory.
 
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Morbid said:
Another vote for WordPress from me. I built (my first) site using Wix and got nowhere with it showing up anywhere on Google. I moved over to WordPress about a month or so ago. The content is essentially the same, and it's now showing on page 1 or 2 for the search phrases I've targeted. I some SEO research and tinkered with a few things (mainly file names used for photos, which you need to name correctly before you upload to WordPress as you can't change them once they have been uploaded) but alt-tags, page titles, content and images were pretty much the same. The WordPress site has cost me £0 to set up (it's in my signature if you want a look, and I used the free Snap theme).The domain name registration cost £1.99 from GoDaddy. The only expense really was setting up the email account to link with the domain name, which was about £35 from memory.
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nice site :) although one of your image links is broken on the gallery page.
 
My advice is.. Don't believe anyone who says there service is umlimited.. it isn't .. even the company above who call themselves unlimited have a "fair use" policy and state "We may impose restrictions for any reason on access to the Website at any time without notice, and you shall not circumvent, or attempt to circumvent, any such action." - fair use policy is a get out clause for them to put restrictions in place... for most people you will never pass a fair use policy... but I bet i would come close and a few others i know..

if you think about it logicaly.. the word unlimited can't be applied to anything anywhere..
 
KIPAX said:
My advice is.. Don't believe anyone who says there service is umlimited.. it isn't .. even the company above who call themselves unlimited have a "fair use" policy and state "We may impose restrictions for any reason on access to the Website at any time without notice, and you shall not circumvent, or attempt to circumvent, any such action." - fair use policy is a get out clause for them to put restrictions in place... for most people you will never pass a fair use policy... but I bet i would come close and a few others i know..

if you think about it logicaly.. the word unlimited can't be applied to anything anywhere..
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It's irrelevant for most users - especially photographers - and not the reason I recommend them. They're incredibly quick to respond to issues and they're reliability is spot on.
 
As
wibbly said:
I think you need to establish a few thoughts on what you're using your website for @-Rob- Is it a business website, do you sell from it, do you show client galleries on it (bearing in mind you use Zenfolio at present), etc.
...
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This^

It's vitally important that you understand that different types of site have different strengths and weaknesses, it's no good buying into something gorgeous but slow to load and difficult to update if you're going to be constantly adding content, some have brilliant on-line gallery features, easy commerce solutions, great blogging options, great user interface for customers, easy customisation options, etc.

Your requirements will enable you to get what you want. Currently you're asking for a camera, and you could be recommended everything from a compact to a 1dx with a 400mm lens, or a mirror less and pancake lens. They all take pictures, but they don't necessarily take the picture you want.
 
As an alternative, Susan, instead of becoming the uncle Bob of websites you could employ the services of a professional web design agency that is experience and helps you along the journey to get a professional, good looking site that matches your brand and caters for your target audience. Same as getting a professional photographer really.
 
dejongj said:
As an alternative, Susan, instead of becoming the uncle Bob of websites you could employ the services of a professional web design agency that is experience and helps you along the journey to get a professional, good looking site that matches your brand and caters for your target audience. Same as getting a professional photographer really.
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I could but to be honest, I'd rather do it myself. It's been something I've been wanting to learn for a long time and there has been done very useful advice given so far. Thanks everyone. Once Christmas is out of the way I'll really start looking in to it.
 
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