How long will it take for my website to be published?
It can take as little or as long as you want it to take! We can make simple websites go live within 48hrs, but generally it takes around 2 weeks. This is based on the initial build time of your website, how fast you can get us your content to put up and two revision stages to make sure you are happy with the site. Once you give us the green light we will mark your website as approved and publish it to the world!
Will I have the ability to update the website myself?
Absolutely! We build all of our websites using the highly popular WordPress platform. This is a free CMS (Content Management System) that is so popular that it actually powers 44% of all websites across the Internet! It is supported by professional developers, designers, scientists and bloggers, meaning there are mountains of resources for it online. The administration area is super simple to use also, where you can manage the pages and content (text/images) of your website with ease. The design part of the website is not usually editable as this is what we create for you in the beginning.
Why can’t I find my website in Google?
If your website has just been completed and made available to the public it will need some time before it appears in Google search results. There are one or two things we do initially that speed up the process, but beyond that we just need to be patient and wait for Google to “discover” your website. This can be any time between a week and four weeks.
Can I have my own professional email?
Yes! When you purchase a Domain Name and Website Hosting with us, we will include some custom emails set up for you at no extra charge. These will be based on your Domain Name, so if you have registered “www.davesmaintenance.com.au” then your email could be “info@davesmaintenance.com.au” or “dave@davesmaintenance.com.au” for example.
I don’t have any photographs of my business. Can you provide photos for me?
We have access to a few different stock photo websites that we regularly use to collect photos for use on clients’ websites. This will usually be at no cost to you. We also have an in-house photographer who has many years of experience in commercial and real estate photography. We can arrange to send them out to your business to conduct a photo shoot and supply you with low resolution photographs for the website and high resolution copies if you need to use them in printing and advertising as well.
I already have a domain name. Can I still use it?
Absolutely! If you provide us with all the registration details of your domain name we can handle the changeover to point your domain name to your new website. But check with us first before you go and buy your own – we will usually be cheaper than what you would pay yourself!!!
Will my website show up on mobiles and tablets?
Yes. Out of the box, all of the websites we create are known as responsive websites, meaning they will respond and resize the content, adjusting to the size of the device it’s being viewed on. As well as this, some elements of your website may not be necessary to display on mobiles, so we can actually hide them on these devices to help speed up your website (important for SEO)!
Can I have a counter on my site to show how many people visit it?
“Hit Counters” as they used to be called, are fairly old and outdated these days and we’re not fans of using these on websites we create. We do however, integrate Google Analytics into each website to record lots of statistical information about who visits your website, such as where they come from, how many visit your site in a specific period, what device they view your website on etc. This is included in the initial website design build.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. It is a process of setting up the structure and the content of your website to be most efficiently understood, and ultimately found by search engines such as Google. This means all the headings, paragraphs and images on your website need to be contained within proper HTML elements that search engines will be able to read and see a proper structure to your content. There are various other elements like Schema Tags, XML sitemaps and more, that are important to help with getting a good search engine ranking and gaining you those important customers/visitors to your website!
Will you manage the SEO on my website or do I need to get someone else to do it?
Yes and no. SEO is not something you do once and expect to achieve great results with. With approximately 200 million active websites (as of 2018) out there, SEO has become much more challenging for developers and digital marketers to perform successfully. Google for example, keep their search algorithms very secret, so no one can say they have a formula for success anymore, it’s just not possible.
With every new website we create, we will automatically include certain elements (as mentioned above) and properly structure the content of your website to be “optimised” for search engines. Beyond this however, SEO is an ongoing process of fine-tuning and tweaking page content, keywords and regularly updating or adding new content (such as a blog). For a small monthly cost we can continue this SEO work on your website for you, or we can look at setting up some Google Ads for you, where you can pay for advertising space on Google and Google Partnered Websites. This can be quite an affordable and rewarding form of advertising, where you only pay for the visitors you want to your website.
Will you provide reporting on a monthly basis on how my website is performing?
Monthly reporting is not something we generally include in the service. Although every new website will be set up from the beginning to collect and store statistical information using Google Analytics, we will not send this through to you unless you request it. For a small one-off fee we can set that up so you will get monthly reporting sent to you.
I don’t want to manage the website at all. Can I get you to do it for me?
Yes of course! Over 80% of our clients either don’t have the time to manage their website or are simply not interested in learning about how it all works. In these cases we either provide a monthly fee for regular updates or you can opt to pay per update instead (charged in 15 minute blocks).
I need a Facebook/Instagram page set up for my business. Can you help me?
Definitely! We have created and maintained many clients’ social media accounts over the years, some that needed weekly monitoring and maintaining and others that just needed the account created for them so they can then handle the adding of new posts/content. While this is an extra cost that is separate from website design, we can include this in a package for you if you require this alongside your website.