What Can We Do For You?
Website Design
At Zap BC, we have been designing websites since 1995. We have seen the trends and fads come and go. We have also seen some useful technologies emerge that have withstood the test of time.
Although we could build Flash filled noisy websites, we believe in the old axiom "Keep It Simple Stupid". Your website doesn't need to stand out in a crowd. Your visitors are only looking at one website at a time. They want to get to the products or information they are looking for as quickly and as easily as possible. Anything that detracts from that process is counterproductive.
We try to build web sites that we would enjoy using. Fast loading, easy to navigate, functional and pleasing to look at. We keep your website goals and the needs of your customers in mind at all times during the design of your site.
Web Application Development
Today's web user is expecting a lot more from a website than just an online brochure. This is where web applications come in.
Web applications are the interactive part of your website. The product catalogue, the shopping cart system, the searchable frequently asked questions, customer feedback forms, members only areas, forums, guestbooks. All of these applications use databases and scripts to access the information in the database. Almost any part of a website that the user chooses what they want to see is some type of web application.
Zap BC can put your website to work for you. We can build an application that will suit your needs and your budget. Contact us and let us know what your requirements are. We can help!
Domain Name Registration
Every business website should have it's own domain name. How confident would you be in a company that has a website address like "www.freeserver.com/mycompany"? If a company can't or won't pay the $20 to $30 per year that a domain name costs, you may not feel comfortable dealing with them.
Registering a domain name is a very simple process and worth the time and cost.
- Visit a domain name registrar website.
- Check to see if the name you want is available.
- Choose how long you want to register the name for. Longer periods of time gets you a discount.
- Fill out a form and pay by credit card.
- Keep track of your login information!!!
That's it. As long as you keep paying the yearly fee, you own that domain name.
We can help you with the process but we suggest that you register the name in your name or your company name rather than us registering the name for you.
Website Hosting
The term "Website Hosting" refers to the computer where the files contained in your website are stored. These files (your web site) need to be available to users of the internet 24 hours a day 7 days a week. A hosting service provider maintains a computer or series of computers called servers that store web sites and then "serve" the websites to internet users.
There are many options when it comes to website hosting. An important credo to keep in mind is "You get what you pay for."
You can expect to pay between $15 and $75 per month for website hosting depending on the services you require. There are cheaper hosting services available but we don't recommend that you use these services if you are serious about the reliability and availability of your web site.
At Zap BC, we don't operate or maintain servers but we will resell the services of hosting providers that we know and trust. We will also recommend hosting services if you want to set up your own account.
Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is the art (or science, or pure luck) of getting your web pages to show up in the search results when your potential website visitors type in key words or phrases. The technology of search engine software is changing all the time and so are the methods they use to index your site.
There is no way to guarantee top placement in the search engines for any given search term. Anyone who tells you they can do this is lying, plain and simple. There are things you can do to increase your chances of ranking well.
The first thing you should do is decide on keywords for each page of your site. Keywords are words or short phrases that people are likely to type into a search website if they are looking for a site like yours.
- Provide original, useful, relevant copy.
- Place your keywords and phrases in that copy.
- Make sure the title of your page uses your keywords. "Home Page" doesn't mean anything unless you build homes.
- Use headlines in the text copy of your pages and put your keywords in the headlines.
- Make sure the file names of your pages aren't full of strange (to the search engines) symbols and code.
- Use text links instead of graphics.
- Use meta keyword and description tags.
- The keyword tag should contain 3 to 6 words or short phrases that are in the copy on that page and should be separated by commas.
- The description tag should be one or two short sentences that describe what is on that page and should contain your keywords.