• 1 Domain name
• 2 Web Hosting
• 3 Content
• 4 Web Design

Domain Name

One common mistake many people make when trying to find a domain – is they type in the domain in their browser, and if they don’t reach a website, they assume the domain is available. Unfortunately, this is not conclusive evidence that a domain is available for registration. To find out if a domain is available, a search needs to be conducted with a domain registrar. Virvo’s preferred domain registrar is Moniker. Although we have no affiliation with Moniker, we have used their services for many years, and have been more than satisfied with their level of service, security and pricing.

To find out if a domain is available, go to www.moniker.com and do a search for your domain name. Moniker will show if your domain is available, and if so, allow you to register it.

Domains based on english words are difficult to find because most of them are already registered, if you struggle to find a domain, various tools such as wordiod can help you generate a domain.

Web Hosting

Web Hosting is a critical part of any website, as it provides a means for end users to access your website. Virvo doesn’t act as a webhost – however we can arrange hosting through one of our partners.

There are 3 issues to keep in mind when looking for hosting:

• Hosting can affect your web development budget. If you dont have a dedicated server ( or general root access), many web development companies will charge an extra fee for deploying your website. This is because some basic tasks such as moving files, changing file permissions or changing server settings cannot be performed – instead, the hosting company needs to be contacted, often delaying web development or deployment.
• Hosting plays a role in SEO. If your target market is almost exclusively in the UK, you should ensure your webhost provides servers based in the UK. Google and other search engines give priority to locally hosted websites, for searches associated with a location.
• Hosting problems can make your website inaccessible. If your web host experiences technical issues, it could lead to downtime for your website. Make sure you choose a webhost with a good reputation and a proper Service Level Agreement (SLA).




Content

The content of your website plays an important role for ranking in search engines, and also makes the sales pitch to your customers. As such, it is critical that your website content is written clearly, and communicates to your target audience.

We normally advise client to write their own website content for two reasons:

1. You know your products and services better than anyone else – so the content you write will communicate the most important aspects of your product or service.
2. Hiring copywriters can be very expensive. Quality copy writers often charge £300 or more for a 500 word article. For large websites, this can become a significant expense.




Web Design

There are two ways to get your website designed – use a template or get a custom design.

Using a template design provides a big advantage – cost. A professionally designed website template costs around £50. Compare this to a custom website design which costs around £3,000 and you can quickly see why many small businesses opt for a website template.

The disadvantage of using a template is that your website design will not be unique. Website templates are often sold many times, meaning there will be other websites with the same design as yours.
One way to keep your web design costs low, but also have a unique website design is to take a template and modify the design to provide the branding and look-and-feel of your company. This can vary in cost depending on how much alteration of the template is required.

If you are looking to setup a website, contact us today – we can provide all the services to get your website launched, as well as provide ongoing maintenance.

If you would like advice or further information, dont hesitate to call us on 0203 286 8478. Our staff are friendly and always ready to help.

]]> http://www.virvo.com/setting-up-a-website.html/feed 0 http://www.virvo.com/cs-cart.html http://www.virvo.com/cs-cart.html#comments Sun, 28 Mar 2010 15:26:31 +0000 admin http://www.virvo.com/?p=580

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Ecommerce Development

• 1CS-CartThe shopping cart emphasising SEO and ecommerce marketing
• 2Interspire Shopping CartInterspire Shopping Cart as an ecommerce platform
• 3Magento EcommerceFind out the advantages and disadvantages of using Magento
• 4Ecommerce ConsultingMaximise revenue from your ecommerce store
View All Services
]]> CS-Cart is a commercial PHP shopping cart application with a focus on user-friendliness and SEO.

Advantages of using CS-Cart

• Highly Customizable – addon system and hooks allow for full customization.
• SEO friendly – emphasis has been placed on marketing and SEO.
• Fully featured – all the common ecommerce features are built in.
• Commercial Support – although not free, it helps to address critical issues rapidly.
• Affordable – licensing is very reasonable.
• Low Maintenance – Installations and upgrades are relatively easy.

Disadvantages of using CS-Cart

• High Learning Curve – learning how to develop custom addons and modify the themes can be time consuming.
• Slow – due to the architecture used, the application often has speed issues.
• Not Very Popular – meaning fewer addons and more difficult to find developers with experience.

CS-Cart is an easy-to-use and feature rich shopping cart, and although it isnt fully object oriented, it is built to faciliate extensions and addons. We advise our clients to use CS-Cart if they want to have a framework to build on, as CS-Cart’s addon system is very easy use. Unlike other ecommerce platforms such as Interspire Shopping Cart, CScart is very modular, and has features built in to allow addons and themes to built without interfering with the core application. When cscart addons are built properly, they allow for easy an upgrade route, and better maintainability.

Get Expert Help

If you are considering using CS-Cart as your ecommerce platform, talk to us today – we built many addons and websites using CS-cart, and can help you setup, customise, deploy and maintain your CS-Cart platform. For more information, or to find out how we can help you, call us today on 0203 286 8478.

]]> http://www.virvo.com/cs-cart.html/feed 0 http://www.virvo.com/cakephp-framework.html http://www.virvo.com/cakephp-framework.html#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:56:50 +0000 admin http://www.virvo.com/?p=578

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CakePHP Web Development

• 1CakePHP FrameworkFind out how CakePHP can accelerate web development
View All Services
]]> CakePHP is an open source PHP framework used for rapid application development. It was one of the first opensource PHP frameworks, and because of this has established strong roots in the PHP development community.

CakePHP has a small learning curve for anyone familiar with MVC architectures, unlike other frameworks such as Symfony.

If you have a website built with CakePHP and would like to find out about our CakePHP development services, contact us today on 0203 286 8478.

]]> http://www.virvo.com/cakephp-framework.html/feed 0 http://www.virvo.com/wordpress-mu-development.html http://www.virvo.com/wordpress-mu-development.html#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:39:31 +0000 admin http://www.virvo.com/?p=564

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Content Management Systems

• 1Wordpress MU DevelopmentProfessional Wordpress MU development services
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]]> Looking for a professional Wordpress MU development company to customize your WPMU platform?

Wordpress MU, or multi-user, is used to host multiple separate websites or blogs – all based on a single wordpress installation. Wordpress MU provides a powerful platform for developing massive networks of sites, it the best off-the-shelf publishing platform, providing all the features of Wordpress, with a focus on multi-user content management.

There is only one issue which normally arises when a company decides to use WPMU as their software platform for launching multiple websites – professional Wordpress MU development services are hard to find!

Our Wordpress MU Development Services

At Virvo, we have been working with Wordpress MU for years. From various internal projects, to fully customized solutions tailored to various industry needs, we have built many WPMU plugins, themes and customisation packages. Our extensive experience in maintenance and enhancement of different wordpress installations has allowed us to build close relationships with our clients and business partners.

If you have a project involving Wordpress Mu, and are looking for experts in WPMU to accelerate your development and design, call us today on 0203 286 8478 to see how we can help your business.

]]> http://www.virvo.com/wordpress-mu-development.html/feed 0 http://www.virvo.com/wordpress-development-company.html http://www.virvo.com/wordpress-development-company.html#comments Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:54:09 +0000 admin http://www.virvo.com/?p=543

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Content Management Systems

• 1Wordpress Development CompanyProfessional Wordpress plugin development and theme integration
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]]> Looking for the best Wordpress Development Company? Look no further.

We have invested heavily in the adoption of Wordpress as our main content management system platform. With over 5 years of experience building Wordpress plugins, integrating Wordpress themes, and deploying client websites on the most popular content management system on the web (AKA Wordpress), we have become one of the top experts as a Wordpress development company.

Why Wordpress?

WordPress is a free, versatile and easy-to-use content management system (CMS) with strong support for extension and scaling. It has a low learning curve for both end users and developers, which is part of the reason it has become so popular.

Wordpress Features

 

• 1Drag and drop Widgets to create fully functional Web pages.
• 2Add lists, content or multimedia to new web pages.
• 3Launch product and campaign landing pages on the fly.
• 4Deploy third party widgets such as Salesforce, YouTube and more.
• 5Optimize every page for SEO using freely available plugins.
• 6Speed time-to-market by building and reusing functional Widgets on multiple projects.

Contact us on 0203 286 8478 to see how we can tailor WordPress to meet your specific online needs.

]]> http://www.virvo.com/wordpress-development-company.html/feed 0 http://www.virvo.com/interspire-shopping-cart.html http://www.virvo.com/interspire-shopping-cart.html#comments Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:18:49 +0000 admin http://www.virvo.com/?p=539

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Ecommerce Development

• 1CS-CartThe shopping cart emphasising SEO and ecommerce marketing
• 2Interspire Shopping CartInterspire Shopping Cart as an ecommerce platform
• 3Magento EcommerceFind out the advantages and disadvantages of using Magento
• 4Ecommerce ConsultingMaximise revenue from your ecommerce store
View All Services
]]> Looking for Interspire Shopping Cart development experts? Welcome to Virvo.

Interspire Shopping Cart is one of the best commercial PHP shopping carts available on the market. It comes in various versions including a hosted version known as Big Commerce, and the original stand alone Interspire Shopping Cart.

Advantages of using Interspire Shopping Cart

• Fully featured – all the common ecommerce features are built in.
• SEO friendly – a big focus placed on marketing and SEO.
• Very Flexible – all pricing structures have been catered for.
• Commercial Support – free for 12 months, and afterwards can be extended for a fee.
• Provides an API – to make integration into other applications easier.
• Easy to theme – making changes to the look and feel is very easy, thanks to the theme file structure used.
• User Friendly Backend – administration in the backend is very easy, because of the great user interface design.
• Powerful Marketing Features – the Interspire Shopping Cart team paid a lot of attention to marketing.

Disadvantages of using Interspire Shopping Cart

• No proper plugin support – support of custom modifications and addons are very limited.
• Expensive – Interspire Shopping Cart is a commercial product and costs nearly $2,000 for the ultimate edition.
• Code doesnt follow best practices – meaning duplicate coding and sql everywhere. This often makes development slow and painful.
• High Learning Curve – although theming is fairly simple, changes to the pricing system or any core area is very difficult.
• High Maintenance – Installations and upgrades are often painful and time consuming.

Interspire Shopping Cart is a powerful ecommerce shopping cart system, but has its weakness just like any other ecommerce system. We advise most of our clients to use Interspire if they dont wish to make many modifications to it, as it provides many features out of the box. Unlike other ecommerce platforms such as Magento Ecommerce, Interspire doesnt lend well to extensive modifications – it makes upgrades very difficult and costly.

Get Expert Help

If you are considering using Interspire Shopping Cart as your ecommerce platform, talk to us today – we have been working with Interspire for years, and can help you setup, customise, deploy and maintain your Interspire Shopping Cart platform. For more information, or to find out how we can help you, call us today on 0203 286 8478.

]]> http://www.virvo.com/interspire-shopping-cart.html/feed 0 http://www.virvo.com/magento-ecommerce.html http://www.virvo.com/magento-ecommerce.html#comments Sun, 28 Feb 2010 01:08:31 +0000 admin http://www.virvo.com/?p=506

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Ecommerce Development

• 1CS-CartThe shopping cart emphasising SEO and ecommerce marketing
• 2Interspire Shopping CartInterspire Shopping Cart as an ecommerce platform
• 3Magento EcommerceFind out the advantages and disadvantages of using Magento
• 4Ecommerce ConsultingMaximise revenue from your ecommerce store
View All Services
]]> Magento is the most popular PHP shopping cart on the market today. Built on the foundations of the Zend Framework, with a target audience of small businesses and enterprise, Magento has established itself as the most flexible and robust opensource shopping cart application on the market.

Advantages of using Magento

• Fully featured – many common ecommerce features are built in.
• Very Flexible – almost all pricing structures have been catered for.
• High Popularity – reduces risk of abandonment as with some other opensource projects.
• Fully OOP compliant – making maintenance and development easier.
• Supported by Varien and Zend – meaning support and ongoing development is guaranteed.
• Built on Zend Framework – development is accelerated if you have past experience with this framework.
• High Popularity – means finding man-power for development is not too difficult.
• Provides an API – to make integration into other applications easier.

Disadvantages of using Magento

• High Development Learning Curve – due to its elaborate features, it takes a long time to get used to the magento codebase.
• Slow – over 6,000 files and lots of processing makes magento a slow application in terms of server side processing.
• High Popularity – means many attempts to exploit vulnerabilities by hackers.
• High Maintenance – Installations and upgrades are often painful and time consuming.

Get Expert Help

If you are considering using Magento as your ecommerce platform, talk to us today – we have years of experience working with Magento, and can help you setup, customise, deploy and maintain your Magento platform. For more information, or to find out how we can help you, call us today on 0203 286 8478.

]]> http://www.virvo.com/magento-ecommerce.html/feed 0 http://www.virvo.com/freelance-technical-writer-journalist.html http://www.virvo.com/freelance-technical-writer-journalist.html#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:49:58 +0000 admin http://www.virvo.com/?p=489 Virvo is looking for a freelance technical writer/journalist to assist us in expanding our team of journalists. You should only apply for this job if you can generate a minimum of 2 articles per week (between 500 to 1500 words per article).

Compensation

You will initially be paid on a per published article basis (ranging from £25 to £200). The compensation will for each article will be based on your experience and the type/length of articles you write.

After a few months we will ideally move to a monthly contract relationship, where you will have a required number of articles to produce per week – and will be reimbursed accordingly.

We have an incentive/bonus program that rewards you based upon the popularity of the content you author.

Requirements

• Excellent english, and the ability to write articles with personality
• Demonstrated ability to produce professional articles
• Be able to commit to a minimum of 2 articles per week
• Be enthusiastic, industrious and have a sense of humor
• Be creative, critical, articulate and sometimes snarky in your English
• Have strong research/analysis skills. Check facts well. Detect and filter BS
• Be familiar with writing for the web and for impatient online audiences
• Location is flexible

Bonuses

• Experience with enterprise IT project management
• An engineering or software programming background
• Experience using or integrating enterprise software

Writing Topics

You should be comfortable talking about 2 or more of these topics:

• Startups and venture capital
• Management of company
• Ecommerce
• Web publishing systems, trends, current news, product releases, etc.
• Web Content Management Systems (technical and marketing topics)
• Web content – writing it, optimizing it, sharing it, doing it better
• Enterprise 2.0 – wikis, collaboration, online office, new enterprise tools, etc.

To Apply:

Please send a CV and cover letter to . You should also include links to 5 articles which you have written. Please put the position title (Freelance Techincal Writer) in your subject line. Applications that do not include a cover letter will not be considered.

Due to the volume of applications we receive, we regret that only those selected for shortlisting will be contacted – shortlisted candidates will be contacted within 72 hours of applying for the position.

]]> http://www.virvo.com/freelance-technical-writer-journalist.html/feed 0 http://www.virvo.com/web-development-company-in-wealdstone.html http://www.virvo.com/web-development-company-in-wealdstone.html#comments Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:05:19 +0000 admin http://www.virvo.com/?p=481

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Weadstone Web Development

• 1Web Development Company in WealdstoneProviding local web development to Wealdstone businesses
• 2Web Design Company in WealdstoneWebsite design for local businesses in Wealdstone
• 3Wealdstone Web DesignWeb Design for Wealdstone based businesses
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]]> Looking for a local web development company in Wealdstone?

Here are Virvo, we pride ourselve on being able to provide a personal web development service to local businesses in Wealdstone. Whether you are looking to establish an internet presence, or want to launch a new web application, we can provide a rapid and economical option for your web development needs in Wealdstone.

Being a web development company based in Wealdstone, we cover a broad spectrum of areas including Harrow, Middlesex and Greater London – where we can provide onsite web development services.

If you would like more information about the web development services we can provide for your business, or you’ve just got something you would like to discuss, call us on 0203 286 8478.

]]> http://www.virvo.com/web-development-company-in-wealdstone.html/feed 0 http://www.virvo.com/web-design-company-in-wealdstone.html http://www.virvo.com/web-design-company-in-wealdstone.html#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 07:59:28 +0000 admin http://www.virvo.com/?p=445

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Weadstone Web Design

• 1Web Development Company in WealdstoneProviding local web development to Wealdstone businesses
• 2Web Design Company in WealdstoneWebsite design for local businesses in Wealdstone
• 3Wealdstone Web DesignWeb Design for Wealdstone based businesses
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]]> Looking for a local web design company in Wealdstone?

How many times have you been involved in a conversation and the phrase “Google it” has come up when there is uncertainty about something? Whether it’s related to entertainment, history, the name of a product or its reviews, you can information on the internet about virtually anything. The internet is now an essential part of daily life in the 21st century.

The internet is also an integral everyday tool for most businesses, whether it’s used for marketing, research, or communicating with consumers through blogs and newsletters.

Virvo recognises the importance of the internet to businesses, specially small local companies without large marketing capital. That is why as a web design company based in Wealdstone, we try to help small business build an online presence.

We offer a complete web design solution to our neighbours in the Wealdstone and Harrow areas, including a full website, a free domain name, free email addresses, on-going maintenance packages and advice on how to get to the first page on Google.
We also build content management systems, and other applications to allow local Wealdstone companies to build a larger website at a lower cost.

If you would like an on-site consultation for web design in the Wealdstone area, or would just like more information about our web design services, call us today on 0203 286 8478.

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