Other services

The focus of Website Rescue is what the name implies, however we do offer a lot more.  What we don’t do is try to up-sell you our other services is when all you want is a simple fix. However we’ve been working with internet and related technologies for over 30 years and just so you know, these are some of the other things we can undertake:

• Website creation. We originally worked with hand written basic HTML progressing as better technologies emerged with coding using PHP, Javascript, Perl, CSS, SQL (databases). Currently our preference is WordPress and we have an extensive library of themes, stock mages and plugins, usually with developer’s licenses so we can use them on multiple websites minimising the underlying cost passed on the our clients typically saving them £100s.
• Domain names. You can select and buy your own domain name from any of dozens of providers. Many offer introductory year one pricing but year two will cost a lot more. They don’t offer any advice but will encourage you to buy expensive add-ons and additional names. It’s up to you to configure the name to route web and email traffic appropriately.  It’s also up to you to ensure the annual renewals get paid in a timely manner. They do offer support but it’s usually of the type that goes:
  • call navigation system: press 1 for sales, 2 accounts, 3 for support…etc
  • long wait on hold listening to canned music occasionally interrupted by a recorded message “Your business is important to us” (if it’s that important why not employ more staff?)
  • finally you’ve got through, possibly to someone with a challenging accent and a poor grasp of English
  • a load of questions to establish who you are, Address, Full name, DOB, Phone #, customer identity #
  • now on to dealing with the issue: it’s a low-wage script follower only able to answer the most basic queries, maybe that’s all you need, if not you might get to the dreaded “I’ll have to ask an expert to call you back”.
  • If you’re incredibly lucky they will call back, maybe even same day but first they’ll want Address, Full name etc, then repeat the details of your issue.

  We work a different way: For support leave the relevant information on our voice-mail number or send an email (see the contact page). We will respond,  same day if at all possible. We will help you choose a name, we will provide ongoing support and renewals, we won’t pressure you to buy anything you don’t need.

• Web Hosting. Prices range from a few pounds a month to… the sky’s the limit. What’s the difference? basically features and performance (speed, availability). On the whole it’s a matter of “pay more, get more and/or better” but you can end up buying a Rolls Royce solution when all you really need is a Ford Fiesta.
  Competent responsive support is a key issue (as with domain names). We don’t publish a price list because we tailor hosting to your needs, if you don’t need a database we don’t charge you for one.  If you don’t need email handling, we’ll not charge for that either. We’ll specify a quota of disk space we think you’re likely to need and actually provide double so you’ll not unexpectedly run out. We’ll take daily backups at no extra cost, we’ll restore backups on demand at no extra cost should the need arise.  Historically we maintained the average hosting cost constant for 25 years (but that has been a period of relatively low inflation…). The bottom line is – we are competitive whatever your needs.
• Bespoke coding. Largely with a focus of on-line systems and so using PHP, SQL and Javascript which we’ve been using since not long after they became available. Coding can be very expensive so before we suggest that solution we’ll look for a more cost-effective “off the shelf” solution.
• Data manipulation. You’ve got a load of data in one format, you need it in another.  Perhaps you’ve got a spreadsheet that’s become unwieldy and inflexible, needs to be converted to database. Maybe you’ve got a list of customer contact details and need to extract name and email in order to send bulk emails.  We’ve got the toolset and skills to undertake some quite complex data transformations.
• Microsoft Office. We can all do the basics with MS Word and Excel but doing more than the basics can be a bit more challenging. For example doing calculations in an MS word document. Easy if you know how (I use it to do the calculations in my invoices).