Working from home? You're not the only one!
The work place has drastically changed since the outbreak of COVID-19. Many people are now working from home in order to decrease the risk of exposure to the virus. Although this is a great option for some, it’s not ideal for everyone.
One of the biggest changes that has come about because of COVID-19 is the increase in working from home options. Many companies have implemented policies that allow their employees to work from home if they feel uncomfortable coming into the office. This is a great solution for people who can work productively from home, but it’s not ideal for everyone.
Working from home definitely has its pros and cons. On the positive side, you get to avoid all of the stress and germs of the work place. You also get to set your own hours, which can be great if you have kids or other responsibilities. On the negative side, working from home can be very isolating. It can also be difficult to stay focused when there are so many distractions at home.
If you’re thinking about working from home, it’s important to consider whether or not it’s the right decision for you. If you’re someone who is used to working in a busy office environment, then working from home may not be the best option. However, if you’re someone who enjoys being able to work at your own pace and without distractions, then working from home may be a great choice for you.
COVID-19 has affected the work place in many ways, one of which is the increase in work from home inquiries. Many people are now working from home in order to decrease their risk of exposure to the virus. Although this is a great option for some people, it’s not ideal for everyone.
Ed Hosting has seen an increase in work from home inquiries as a result of COVID-19. In order to accommodate this influx, they have increased their all Australian web support team. This team is dedicated to helping people set up and work from home. They can help with everything from setting up a home office to troubleshooting any tech issues you may encounter.
If you’re looking for a work from home solution, Ed Hosting is a great option. They have a team of experts who can help you get set up and working productively from home. Plus, they offer a variety of plans that are perfect for people who want to work from home. To learn more, visit https://www.edhosting.com.au/.
Aussies love social media – in fact, as individuals we spend 2 hours on it EVERY day! That’s should be enough for you to realize how vital it is for your business.
But what business owners don’t realize that it's not all about the follows!
There’s so many more technical things to consider when coming up with a social media strategy. We don’t want to bore you with that but we love it!
Ed hosting love’s getting into the nitty gritty parts of social media and working out the best plan (and re-tweaking if need be!) for our clients and their business. Contact us today to find out how we can help.
Ed Hosting and Design works hard to build custom websites for their clients - which are tailored specifically to their needs and requests. Using WordPress allows our designers to completely customise the site through plugins and themes, allowing them to build a unique, functional and great site for what ever your business need's.
WordPress allows us to easily provide your site with updates that are also hassle free - making our turn around time exceptional quick.
Using WordPress also gives you the protection of your own website. There's a lot of designers and companies that build your website on platforms that don't allow you have 100% ownership. This is so important to us as we want our clients to feel completely safe that they can move their site or edit it at any time! (Of course no one does because we are the best!).
Contact us today so we can start building your site today!
Ed hosting is the leading website design and hosting company in Geelong and on the Bellarine Peninsula. Ed hosting has been providing quality services to their customers since 2008. Ed hosting have been a huge part of COVID-19, effecting how people connect with each other online and use websites.
Online shopping has seen a surge as people have avoided going outside and have been locked down for six years. With public gatherings being called off, people are looking to connect and socialise in different ways. People are becoming more reliant on video calling and web services to conduct their work, as offices were shut down in favour of remote working arrangements . With businesses relying heavily on the world wide web we have seen an increase in web hosting and design providers – but where the competition fall short Ed hosting rise above them, Ed hosting have managed to create a service that stands out from the crowd. Where other companies only care about money, Ed hosting focus on customer needs.
Ed hosting is a straight forward company with a team of trustworthy people who want nothing but the best for you and your website(s). Ed hosting responds quickly and they understand their customers need. Where most companies fail, Ed Hosting succeeds in providing an affordable, quick and "understanding" service that is tailored to suit each customers needs as an individual.
Ed Hosting has been able to keep their costs down by offering services in house, Ed hosting has it's own design studio to help clients with everything from logo designs to site builds to SEO services. Ed Hosting has an impressive history across many industries including finance, manufacturing, medical, real estate and much more. Ed hosting stands out from the crowd and we want to help you do the same.
We all know what it's like to click through to website thinking they have what you want – only to wait for a long loading and hard to navigate site that asks you to sign up to their emailing list every 5 seconds and then gives you some long winded blog post about why you should buy a certain product or cook a certain recipe? Well, here at Ed hosting we know that for us to make money your website needs to make money – so we want to do everything right from the very start including giving you direction on all the do’s and don’ts for your site.
Web design, hosting and SEO is a very technical and niche area of expertise and requires a lot of effort and thought along side experience in the market. Ed hosting has over 20 years of experience in web design and 10 years in hosting and SEO.
Our top website musts for 2022 is from years of first hand experience in the every-changing world of the web.
I work a lot with DIVI builder, and these days it’s probably the only builder I work with - let’s call it exclusively. So my view may be a little bias. But there is a reason for the bias.
Other builders, Elementor, Ocean or even the native WP editor do some cool stuff and have their own appeal. But DIVI stands above the rest simply because it’s better.
The editing capabilities are phenomenal - cool mix of drag and drop visual editor, with the ability to set nearly every parameter to the Nth degree. And once you learn the art of DIVI Presets - the web design world is your oyster!
It’s smart. It’s intuitive. It’s easy to tweak. Best of all, the online community is ENORMOUS. You can literally find help for nearly anything...from creating your PHP scripts, to a discussion amongst many knowledgeable people on what solution or plug-in is best suited to your needs.
You cannot buy the benefit of an online community and it’s here that DIVI does shine!
Best of all, you can find experienced designers - like us at Ed Hosting - who can help you build a great WordPress site, feature rich and fully customized, that you can then take over and maintain yourself.
Head over to our Instant WordPress Site Quote builder and get a full quote, online in just minutes.
Most of us know what live chat is - and we have all been on websites and seen the Live Chat boxes pop up - but its generally been considered something only the "big guys" can afford - but these days, anybody can get a live chat service up and running, for minimum fuss.
With some powerful features and full mobile app capabilities - you or your staff can deal with clients chatting on the site from home, the office or even whilst down the beach or at the park! (But dont worry - there are "live chat offline" options, so you dont get hassled when you dont want to be!)
The interface on your site is simple and very customisable. You can change colors, icons and various other things.
As you can see from the example chat window to the right, we recently had somebody enquire about our Geelong SEO services. These sort of enquiries can instantly result in a new client for small business, or turn a nothing visitor into a strong lead.
Live web chat is a great way to show off your customer service skills and ensure clients don't bounce from your site, without getting the information they need.
Best of all, Ed Hosting can get your website chatting for under $100...scoot down to the bottom of the page and fill out the form to get more details.
With a swag of features, a live chat integration by Ed Hosting can ensure you cover all the requirements of your small business website.
Multiple Apps
With fully integrated mobile apps, a desktop app and web interface - you can access the chat system and reply to online client questions and requests from any location, no matter what your preference. Best of all, they are all included in the initial instalation fee!
Advanced Time Scheduling
With the ability to set "online" times, you can ensure your smart phone app is only bothering you with incoming live chats when you want it too! Best of all, if you cant be online at any time unexpectedly - simply log out of the app and your Live Chat Widget will show as being "offline" instantly. Its that easy!
Shortcuts and Triggers
Save yourself time, by configuring shortcuts for replies or information you give often and add these into a live chat with a click of a button.
Not only that but you can setup triggers, that will engage visitors on your site who visit a certain page or are on the site for a specific amount of time. For example, you may ask somebody who visits your "BBQ sauce" page if they would be interested in bundling multiple items together. The chat software handles these first chat engagements automatically - and you only need to jump in when the client replies!
Offline Mode
The app will automatically trigger offline mode outside of your schedule or if nobody is signed in to reply - but instead of just vanishing from the page and leaving your clients high and dry, it presents with a quick message box that will send you an email advising of the clients request and contact details.
How Much?
Ed Hosting can get your live chat up and running for between $80-100. This includes setting up the code on your site, configuring access to the Apps (Desktop, Web and Phone) and customising the icon using the basic templates.
We can of course offer further assistance if you like - including setting triggers, creating custom icons and more...just ask and we can provide you with a quote!
More Info?
If you would like to get live chat installed on your website, WordPress or otherwise - simply give us a call or complete the form below and we will get back to you ASAP.
SEO - or Search Engine Optimisation, is essentially the process of ensuring your site is visiable in Google or Bing results and that its ranking for relevant Keywords. A Keyword or Keyphrase is a word or words a person enters into a search engine to find whatever they are searching for. These are generally relevant to your industry, product or services.
An example of SEO Keywords relevant to this topic that a potential client may enter would be:
"Geelong SEO services"
The above may be used by somebody when seeking to find an SEO provider. Most of the results that appear in Google, will come from providers who have done their due dilligence and have a website successfully optimised for those 3 keywords...meaning they will generate traffic for anybody searching for those keywords.
To use an old analogy:
Both can be critical to bringing in new business and the ongoing sucess of your own business.
Doing SEO yourself or having somebody do SEO ensures you are best placed to not only appear on Google or Bing but also appear in the right spots.
SEO includes many different approaches, from onsite structural changes, right through to back links from other sites, blogs or forums - social media also plays a role in effecitve SEO campaigns. Its a wide ranging and complicated process but in most cases, a combination of various tactics is the most effective method.
Some people do tackle SEO themselves - but it can be fraught with danger. It may reduce your rankings or rank for entirely wrong keywords and worse case, incorrect SEO may even get you completely banned from Google!
Its important SEO is done correctly and the best people to do that, are those who deal with SEO practices on a daily basis. Like us here at Ed Hosting - get in touch with our SEO experts for more info.
SEO costs can vary - and are really adjusted to suit the budget of clients. You will be hard pressed to find a proper SEO provider who will do much for under $500 per month - but when it comes down to it, you will get what you pay for. The higher the budget and outlay, the better the return you should get. Again, to use the Yellow Pages example from above, a single line entry advert will be a lot cheaper than a quarter page color advert - but which one will generate more interest from perspective clients?
Be wary of the SEO Provider promising over the top results, such things as "We can gurantee you number one rank on Google". They cant - and such sales pitches should have you running a million miles. Just consider that there is only one #1 result for a particular key word - and if all SEO providers made that promise, there would be a lot of very upset people who dont actually finish #1.
SEO is very much a best practice process - and a slow an steady approach over at least a couple of months, will assure you get solid results and ongoing results.
Feel free to ask ED Hosting if you have any questions about SEO, we are also more than happy to do a free SEO consultation if you need more info relevant to your site.
Just complete the contact form below and we will be in touch with more details!
We recently did an experiment, to trial a couple of the large Australian hosting providers. Something we do like to do from time to time, just to see what we are up against. Let me preface this article by saying its not a statistical or numbers based article...its simply some musings from our findings.
Whilst we are not going to name the providers openly, simply because we are not brave enough to openly start a war with a much bigger provider - it seems to us that the bigger the provider (aka, the more Social Media ads, Google Adwords or TV Campaigns) the worse the support.
Of the 5 providers we trialed, each made claims - outrageously, given the level of support we encountered - to offer the best support. One even went as far as showing their Google and Facebook reviews, compared to other hosting providers. But a glance over these reviews would fairly quickly suggest a lot of the reviews are 'fake news'. Simply based on the same use of language across the reviews and the fact that over 90% of the reviews had been left with the last 30 days. Fake news on review sites is not a new thing, and occurs a lot across all industries, but it does seem to be ripe these days in the hosting games.
...a lot of the reviews are ‘fake news'...
The response times to ticket varied enormously but surprisingly, this wasn't just between hosts but within hosts. We submitted a number of tickets to each provider. Some received replies within 10 minutes, and others would be hours.
One of the most frustrating things across the board, was what we can only assuming is a tactic used by these providers. Its something we came to call the 'fluff reply'. This was essentially the initial reply, that achieved absolutely nothing in resolving issues. Our theory is that this was for a couple of reasons:
This was our most interesting finding hands down. All 5 hosts we trialed, simply did not want to help as soon as the issue become outside of "I need my password reset". We even got told to "find another provider" and "good luck in doing so!" Granted, this was a $5 per month hosting provider but they still claimed to be "the best web hosting provider in Australia" and flaunted their Google reviews to 'prove' this.
Its extremely disappointing to see this attitude from Hosts, and in particular combined with the misleading review situation, it must leave a lot of hosting clients frustrated and disullusioned with the hosting industry - it certainly left us with a bad taste in our mouths.
When choosing a new host provider - we would suggest finding one of the smaller Australian hosts...yes, like Ed Hosting - and speaking to somebody there first, to a confirm you will deal with a real, knowledgeable person who WANTS to help you.
There are so many variables when choosing a host, but level of support and cost are the two most important and you need to weigh these up carefully. When you are just another $5 a month client to a hosting provider, are they really going to give two hoots about you and your issues? Not a chance - you will be told to shoo off, and they will move onto the next client in the list - probably to tell them the same thing.
When it comes to Web Design and Hosting, WordPress has become a buzz word over the last few years. Its the dominant web development platform across the globe. WordPress now has nearly 75% global market share - which is remarkable given the volume of web site builders out there.
Basically, WordPress allows anybody - newbies or seasoned developers - to create stunning, responsive and functional websites. Unlike the god-awful platforms like Weebly, Wix or Squarespace - WordPress is truly flexible.
The other platforms are not - I discovered this week you cant even redirect a Wix page to an external site! (A necessity for SEO).
WordPress is only limited by your imagination...
Anybody!
As long as you are willing to learn the basics, anybody can use WordPress - from young kids, to senior citizens - its simple and intuitive to use.
With millions of online help posts and hundreds of tutorial videos - you will never be alone!
AS well as the brilliant flexibility that a WordPress site offers, the online community is the next best feature. With millions or users worldwide, WordPress has a vibrant online community - where you can get help for nearly anything, just by asking Google!
The official WordPress site also has an active forum - where expert help is just a question away - WordPress support forum.
A lot of Hosting Providers - such as Ed Hosting - are also experts when it comes to WordPress Web Design. Meaning if you cant find an answer online, its probably just a phone call away.
Another brilliant aspect of WordPress is you can virtually host it on any server or with any provider you like.
Our 3 stooges above - Wix, Weebly and SquareSpace - MUST be hosted on their servers. This means if you dont like their support, and trust us...you won't, you are stuck with them. So you may spend hours and hours building your site, only to decide the customer service levels dont cut it - but you can't move services without rebuilding your site.
With a WordPress website - if you dont like the service or the price - just move it! Its as easy as that? (as a matter of fact, Ed Hosting offers a free website migration service, get in contact if you need more information).
No - but you do need to spend some time learning the basics. But this applies to any site builder. You cant pick up Wix or SquareSpace design skills in 10 minutes - you need to learn how things go together and then experiment. Get your hands dirty so to speak.
WordPress is no different. Once you have the basics, you will become an expert quickly. You can always ask for help via the forums, or give Ed Hosting a call if you need WordPress Help.
If you want true flexibility, ease of use and a unique, modern and mobile friendly site - the answer is WordPress.
