Alarm bells!

While being involved with web sites, we have come across several situations that you should be wary of.

• If any web developer attempts to charge you, say every six months, for "submitting to search engines", then you are being ripped off! Once you are in the search engines index, you will stay there unless something disastrous happens. This could be a serious loss of hosting, your domain name expiring or being banned by a search engine for dubious content. In fact, repeatedly submitting to a search engine could annoy them, not a good idea.
• You may be tempted to get your site developed by a friend/neighbour/relative who has learnt a bit of HTML and makes really cool looking web pages. This is probably a bad idea, because a web site should be regarded holistically, everything counts. Amateurs forget about search engine optimisation, keyword research, identifying your target audience and what the site is for. Remember our slogan - "Ensuring Your Web Presence Contributes", looking pretty is not enough.
• Often, a web hosting package includes a free domain name, and this seems attractive. However, if or when you want to change host, you may find because they control your domain name, you have difficulty doing this. It is better to register your domain name yourself, and get hosting separately. That way, you have more control.
• When negotiating with a website supplier, ask about their client's search engine rankings. See what keywords were targeted and do your own google search to see for yourself where the site ranks. Its easy to talk about SEO, its hard to actually achieve results.