Frequently Asked Questions

What can a website do for me?	Should I register my domain name and get a hosting package set-up?
What is Html & CSS?	What is Flash and what impact can it have on my website?
What is cross-browser compatibilty?	How will people find my website?
My website has been updated, but I can't see the changes?	My website has just been made live, but Google is not showing it in it's search rankings?
What steps should I take in planning my website?	What is SEO?

Can't find what you're looking for? Try typing in a search term below to search our website and the web for any related subjects.

What can a website do for me?

There are several benefits to having a website. By having an online presence you can reach a global market in a very cost-effective manner. Customers can view products, services, or whatever you want to share from the comfort of their own home, 24/7. You can deliver news quickly about new products and special offers and sell directly to customers through your website. A website can reduce your customer service and administrative costs by providing online Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (FAQ), order forms, enquiry forms, product brochures, menus, instruction manuals, etc. Your website could also be used to collect valuable customer feedback. Whatever type of business you are in, there are many ways to grow your business and profit from having an online presence.

Should I register my domain name and get a hosting package set-up?

As long as you are sure you have chosen the right domain name for your business it is advisable to register your domain name, so that it does not get registered by someone else (check out the W3schools Guidelines for more info about choosing your domain name). We offer a reliable and cost-effective web hosting and domain name registration service through a third party provider. If you set-up your domain name and hosting service with another provider, please remember that we are unable to provide a free 'domain name and hosting' maintenace service (including 'nominet whois-opt out', administration data set-up, etc.). Please feel free to contact us for more info or for us to set-up your domain name and hosting for you.

What is Html & CSS?

HyperText Markup Language (html), is a language in which web pages are written. If you were to look at a page of html it would appear to be written in code, which is why we use internet browsers (Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari etc) to 'de-code' this for us and present it in a readable and aesthetically suitable format

CSS is an acronym that means Cascading Style Sheets. CSS allows web designers to attach styles (fonts, colors, size, margins, etc.) to HTML documents. It works like a template allowing web developers to define a style for an HTML element and then apply it to as many web pages as they need. It simplifies website maintenance and also helps the way a page displays content for Search Engine robots on the Internet.

What is Flash and what impact can it have on my website?

Flash is a popular authoring software developed by Macromedia, it is used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash animations are quick to download, are of high quality, and are browser independent (they look the same on different browsers). Flash contains an object-oriented language called ActionScript and supports automation via the Javascript Flash language which allows for user interaction via keyboard, mouse and other input methods. Flash content can be displayed on various computer systems and devices, using Adobe Flash Player, which is available free of charge for common web browsers, some mobile phones and other electronic devices.

The impact of Flash on a website can be both positive and negative. Some users feel that Flash enriches their web experience, whilst others are not very keen on it (e.g. as they may not have Adobe Flash Player installed to be able to view the Flash file). When using Flash on your site it is important to consider the impact it can have on your SEO. Not all search engines are able to crawl through and index the content within the Flash file. Whilst Google is able to index most of the content within a Flash file there are limitations. Check out Google's approach to Flash for a more detailed overview.

What is cross-browser compatibilty?

There are many different browsers. The most common browsers to date are Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari. A browser is an application which reads the coding languages (HTML, CSS, etc.) of a website and displays it as images, styles, text, etc. Each browser can display a website's coding language slightly differently, as some browsers do not conform to the W3C Standards and some browsers are not up to date with the latest coding languages. As a web developer it is important to write up website code, so that it is displayed with minimal differences in each seperate browser, this sometimes requires a seperate coding language all together to facilitate a style or application within a website which otherwise would not be displayed properly. Each browser will also have a different version, as it is constantly being updated. Most users will update their browsers to the latest version, but some users do not update their browsers and still use older versions of each browser. Web developers have to take this into consideration and will test the website in different browsers and versions of browsers, this is to minimise the differences that the browsers will present and ensure they are only minor and do not create any issues with regards to the usability of the site.

Here at Lexnia web design, we optimise our websites for the most commonly used browsers and browser versions based on the official W3Schools statistics which include:

- Firefox (latest version 8 together with older version 7)
- Google Chrome (version 15 (versions 16 and 17 are still at development and testing stages))
- Internet Explorer (latest version 9 together with older versions 8 and 7)
- Safari (latest version 5)

How will people find my website?

In addition to search engines, there are a variety of ways to help visitors to find your site such as placing your website address on all of your promotional material, business cards and email signatures. You can also direct people to your website by looking for other related sites that are willing to add your link to their website (link building). You can also add your website address to blogs and messages you post on social networking sites for example. Advertising in industry related e-zines, traditional media (magazines, newspapers, etc.) will also help your marketing strategy.

My website has been updated, but I can't see the changes?

Every web browser stores a cache of the websites you visit (e.g. HTML pages, images) to reduce bandwidth usage and server load, as such it can sometimes store the old version of your site. Clearing the cache should allow you to see the updated version of your site. Clearing your cache on a regular basis can also make some websites run smoother and free up space on your computers hard drive if it's running low.

My website has just been made live, but Google is not showing it in it's search rankings?

Here at Lexnia, we make every effort to ensure that your site has been developed with search engine friendly code (including meta keywords and description, standards compliant code, sitemap, etc.). We also submit your site to 100+ directories (including the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) as part of our web design service. When submitting your site it can take up to 2 weeks for your site to show up in the different search engine rankings and can also depend on other factors such as search terms, competitor sites, website content (your content must include major keywords, etc.), hosting set-up, number of links leading to your website from other websites, etc. Generally if Google has not found your site within one week and you want to speed up the process, we are able to submit a 'Crawl URL form' to Google on your behalf, but cannot guarantee that this will get you to the top of the search rankings.

What steps should I take in planning my website?

1. Analyse your target market to help you decide on the look and feel your website should have. Check out other websites for inspiration.

2. Determine what the main activities will be that you want your customers to be able to perform on your website. Do you want to set up an E-Commerce site where you can sell your products and services online? Or, do you want a Brochure site wich provides information about your company where potential customers can learn about your products and services? Or, do you need a one page website which acts like a business card, so potential customers are able to find your contact details?

3. Identify the features that you want to add to your website to make it more engaging and interactive for the users of your website. Some common features include online forms, photo galleries, search option to allow visitors to search for content within your site, social network feeds (facebook, twitter, etc.), flash animations to showcase animated content, etc.

4. Do you want to monetise your site through additional affiliate links, third party adverts and other related methods? Please feel free to contact us for more info.

5. Decide on the frequency of updates you will need to keep your target market interested and engaged in your website.

6. Decide on what SEO and online marketing options you will need for your site. Please feel free to contact us for more info.

7. Decide on your budget and consider the additional costs such as Domain Names and Hosting, SEO and Online Marketing and Site Maintenance. Please feel free to contact us to get an estimate.

8. Produce the content needed for your site. Make sure that you include important keywords in your content to optimise your website for the search engines. Decide on images that will compliment your site making sure that they are of an acceptable quality and of the right size. We offer Graphic Design, Commercial Photography and have access to 1000's of Stock Images. If you would like us to produce your content for you we are also able to offer a Copywriting service. Please feel free to contact us for more info.

9. Develop a project plan for your site so that you are able to communicate your needs to your web designer/developer.

What is SEO?

All of our websites are developed using search engine friendly methods, which means that the search engines are easily able to crawl through and read the contents of the website including image descriptions through 'alt' tags, meta keywords and meta description to enable the search engines to easily index your website's contents and display it correctly in the rankings, see example below:

The above example website comes up as the first organic listing within the rankings when typing in the name of the performer which is "Sukki Singapora".

We will be updating this page frequently, as such please check back soon. If you have any suggestions with regards to any questions and answers you would like us to add to this page please feel free to let us know.