Thursday 25th of April 2024

Frequently Asked Questions

Distance     SDCMS     Hosting     Google     Responsive     Secure     iPad     Registration     DNS     Start     Standards     SEO

We are too far away to meet in person, can we still work with you?

Absolutely! Starbird Digital web services has a global reach. We can work with you on your website project, wherever you are in the world. We usually require images, content and possibly drawings from you, which can all be sent by email. We can communicate by email, phone or arrange Skype video meetings. We can issue international invoices, in any currency, that your bank will be able to pay using our IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identifier Code). Alternatively, you can pay us online using PayPal.

If you choose one of our monthly payment packages, then you will be able to edit your content and upload your images using your own admin area.

What is The Easy SDCMS?

The Easy SDCMS is the new Starbird Digital Content Management System. You can easily create your own website in minutes, starting from a template. These website are really (really) good value for money! They start at £7.50/ $10 pcm with no other fees, or £99/$131 plus 99p/$1.31 week hosting. See our prices page for more details.

Why do websites require a hosting fee?

Our web pages are hosted in world class data centers in Dallas-Texas, Houston-Texas and Provo-Utah. These data centers contain racks of computers, in air conditioned rooms, that serve out web pages to users across the world, on demand, 24/7. They cost money to build, use energy, have operations staff, emergency power back-ups, fire security and they are guarded. Your monthly hosting fee contributes to these costs.

Take a data center tour.

Our hosting fees are shown on our prices page. Hosting fees should be paid monthly by standing order to avoid paying an additional annual invoicing fee.

Will people be able to find my site on Google?

Yes, of course! This is why it is important to have your own website, if you want to get noticed by people searching for things online. As an optional extra, we can use Google developer tools to notify them of the existence of your website upon completion. We understand Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and have achieved number one on Google for some of our sites. We can advise you on the content and wording of your pages so that you can improve your ranking for your chosen search criteria.

What is a responsive layout?

All of our new websites automatically resize, hide, shrink, or enlarge, to make it look good on all devices (desktops, tablets, and phones).

Are your sites secure?

Yes, all of our sites use Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted. This is the same system that is used by online banking and shopping websites. The browser displays a padlock symbol once it has verified that the website is secure.

What do you mean by Apple iPhone and iPad compatible?

There are many web developers that create web pages using old technologies that will not work on the Apple iPhone and iPad devices. This is because Apple took the decision to use the latest technologies to improve the performance of their devices. At Starbird Digital we use these same technologies to stream audio and video and to make modern animations that are compatible with these Apple devices.

What is domain name registration?

All Internet web addresses (domain names, e.g. starbirddigital.com) have to be registered with the authorities. This typically costs about £10 ($16) per year, although it can depend upon the domain name chosen. Some domain names are very desirable and can be very expensive. The domain name is owned in law by the person registering it, so it is advisable to register your own domain name if you can. We recommend 123-reg in the UK or namecheap in the USA.

As a special bonus to Starbird Digital customers, we can offer you free domain name registration for our exclusive our-site.co.uk free client domain.

If you would prefer to register your own domain name, then we can also do that for you. There will be a fee to pay, which depends on the domain name that you choose. Alternatively, you can register the domain name yourself and then edit the DNS in your control panel, so that your site can be hosted by us. Please Contact us for further details about domain name registration.

What is DNS setup?

DNS means 'Domain Name Server'. This is set up in the control panel of your registered domain. It tells the Internet whereabouts in the world your website is hosted, i.e. which server your website is hosted on. Our server is in Provo, Utah.

What are the World Wide Web design standards?

All of our sites are made to meet World Wide Web design standards. Most pages on the World Wide Web are written in computer languages (such as HTML) that allow Web authors to structure text, add multimedia content, and specify what appearance, or style, the result should have. The process of verifying whether a document actually follows the rules for the language(s) it uses is called validation, and the tool used for that is a validator.

With these concepts in mind, we can define "markup validation" as the process of checking a Web document against the grammar (generally a DTD - Document Type Definition) it claims to be using.

How can I get started with my website design?

The first thing to do is to start writing down what you want to say on each of your web pages. Often, people say that they would like their own website but then can't think of anything to say! If you have a message that is going to be of interest to other people, then you need to think about what that message is, and start writing it down in a structured way.

By structured, we mean that everything relating to one thing should go on one page and everything relating to something else should go onto another page. This may sound obvious, but for many people this is not that easy. This is usually because they find it difficult to separate images, layout and colors from the page content.

The other things to consider are logos and branding. Do you already have business cards, letterheads, a Facebook page, flyers or vehicle lettering designs or ideas? If so, we need to know about them because your website should fit in with your overall business branding. If not, we can design some of those things too.

Have you thought about the images that you intend to use on your website? They are very important if you want to create a good impression. Don't just assume that you can use any images that you want without permission. You will need to either provide your own photographs, obtain or buy royalty free images, or seek permission for copyrighted images. We can assist you with this.

Search Engine Optimisation: This means thinking about the words that people might type into Google if they are searching for a service like yours. If you are a landscape gardener in New York, for example, and you don't mention “ landscape gardener” or “New York” anywhere on your website, then how are you ever going to be found on Google? We know about this, and again as an optional extra we can help you to get this right too.

Are you going to include a picture or video of yourself and be prepared to write about yourself so that people reading your website will know something about the person behind it? This may seem daunting, but we can help you to present a good image of yourself if you choose to do so.

You can save and print our free web page design sheet as many times as you like and sketch and write on them until you are happy with your planning. When you have finished, you can then scan or photograph your work and email it to us, we will happily look at it for you.

If you would perfer a cheaper option, we have created our own economical content management system, The Easy SDCMS.

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