development – Tech Warrior

Can I change what the website looks like?

Tristan Green — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 00:30:00 +0000

Customising your website

"Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants, so long as it is black." said Henry Ford of the Model T. The Model T Ford, generally regarded as the first affordable car in America only came in black. This was so quality vehicles could be produced in an efficient and affordable way.

Tech Warrior uses the same principles - quality, efficiency, affordability. It streamlines the building or development process so the client gets a good looking, robust website that matches and supports the needs of the small business and doesn’t cost a fortune.

Purchasing domain names carefully is a very important aspect of owning a website. Having a website is an important part of running a business. Make sure you are the rightful registered owner of your domain name.

If you choose one of our Small Business Websites products then you will be able to make some changes to the way the website looks but you won’t be able to have a bespoke, custom, built-from-scratch website that looks unlike anything else out there.

The reason Tech Warrior doesn’t generally offer a fully customised website relates to cost and time for both us and the client. As the adage goes, we’ve been around the block, more than a few times over the past 25 years, consequently our Small Business Websites product is designed to be contained, fast and reliable.

There isn’t toing-and-froing between both parties, our trusty sales and support team guide our clients through the content building process helping them produce some of the best content around. It may seem like a laborious task which requires an investment of time, but in practice the content for the website comes easily.

What is the best WordPress theme for my website?

Matthew Green — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 10:02:50 +0000

There’s a difference between best and popular. Just because something is popular doesn’t make it the best. And, often, something that is the best might not always be the most popular. The same applies when it comes to choosing a WordPress theme for your website. In this article I’ll show you how to decide what the best WordPress theme is for you.

Before choosing a theme for your website it’s useful to answer the following questions.

What kind of website do I want for my business?
How much am I willing to spend?
What is my website experience level?

What kind of website do I want for my business?

Are you just starting out with a website for your business? Is it a do-over, refresh or upgrade? What about adding in extra functions, like an online shop? Planning is key when it comes to doing anything. You wouldn’t build a house without a plan and your website is the same. Spending time upfront getting clear on what your needs are will stand you in good stead down the line.

The expert at anything was once a beginner.
—Helen Hayes

Get clear on what the theme must do for your website. WordPress started out as a tool for blogging and has since evolved into a powerful website management system that runs 34 percent of all websites on the Internet. If you can imagine it, there’s a good chance that you can build that kind of site with WordPress. There’s a but though. The more sophisticated and intricate you want a website to be, the more you will impact the next two factors - cost and experience.

Brainstorm and get as much detail on what your website must do for you and your business. Look at what you want the website to do now, in six months and a year. And then plan for that. At this stage don’t worry about the how. Just get clear at a high level on what your expectations are. Product sales? Weekly updates? Membership of a group or club? And so on.

How much am I willing to spend?

Once you have a clear idea of what the website must do the next step is to consider costs. You can get a free WordPress theme or you can pay for a theme. Theme cost is not the only consideration when it comes to working out a website budget. How much of the website building or development are you doing yourself? How much will you have to get someone else to do? What about where the website will live (be hosted)? Again, it’s useful to make a list and plan so that you can see very clearly all the costs that go into a website. Do you have a logo and colour scheme for the website?

Once you know what your overall website budget is, you can decide more easily how much you want to spend on the theme? Does the budget have room for a fancy theme, with lots of features, or do you have to scale down your expectations a bit?

What is my website experience level?

Nowadays WordPress is much simpler to use than when it started out in 2003. There is still a learning curve involved though. You will need some level of understanding when it comes to the jargon of website development. You will come across terms like domain name registration, hosting, PHP, themes, responsive design, browser compatibility and SEO.

Do you know what they mean? If not, are you prepared to make the investment in learning what they are about? If your business is better off with you at the steering wheel and you can’t take the time to become familiar with these terms, considering a third-party professional website developer to help with the development of your website is a good option.

Much like a recipe there’s an order for putting a website together. Again, things are much easier now than back in the day (1994) when we started out but you will still need to go through the various steps in the correct order. Can you afford to take the time to work them out?

Great theme developers and companies offer dedicated support to assist with their theme and getting it up and running. What happens if something else goes wrong? Can you fix the problem? If not, do you know where to turn for general website help and support?

How to choose the best WordPress theme for my website?

When it comes to picking a theme for your site this usually means you are going the DIY route with the development of your website. Spend some time planning and deciding how much you know and are prepared to learn. Thereafter go through the areas and questions outlined above and you will be well placed, within budget, to make the best choice for you and your business when it comes to choosing the best WordPress theme. Alternatively, you can consider using a professional web development company like Tech Warrior, who have developed a custom website theme that sits at the foundation of all Small Business Websites.

How many months would it take to build a website?

Tristan Green — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 10:48:39 +0000

After months of brainstorming, dreaming, planning and developing you are ready to launch your business to the world. You have the company name registered, the bank account opened, the funding available and the services and products ready to be sold. But wait, you need a logo.

You know that your logo is going to be the face of your business and the launch pad of your brand identity. Maybe one day people will instantly recognise your company by its font, colours and symbol/s. This is big, this is important. You need to brief a designer. But where the hell do you start?

Know what you want from the word 'go'

If you wished to write a story and chose the short story format, this would equate to roughly 5,000 to 10,000 words whereas if you went the novel route this would be roughly 50,000 to 70,000 words. Same story but the difference between the two is apparent. One is much lengthier, while the other may be brief and to the point. One has a more fleshed-out plot while the other doesn’t beat about the bush.

The same goes for websites. If you have a website that only needs one page to tell your story, this can take a developer just a few hours to complete. If, on the other hand, a website needs to have more pages to display a range of products or tell a more detailed story, this will take a developer longer to complete. Each of these pages could need to be designed differently. This could take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to complete.

How detailed the website needs to be

When I mention detail, I’m talking about the ‘fancy pants’ effects you can add to your site. I’m talking about using realistic drop shadows so that the images lift or pop off the page. Or the illuminated hover effect when the visitor moves over a button with their cursor. All of the tiny, ‘flashy’ elements can take time to implement.

If your budget caters for it, why not? Expect to have the website up a little bit later, but it’s going to be a visually amazing end product.

If you choose to have your logo designed by Tech Warrior we provide a Logo briefing document shared online for our clients to complete. It guides you through the process and makes it that much easier to think through the elements required. As with anything, however, you get out what you put in. Make sure what you put in is clear and focused.

Hard coded vs themes and templates

I’ve spoken about the difference between hard coding a site and using WordPress’ themes and templates in a previous article. It really is a fundamental part of the building process.

Using templates and themes may mean certain aspects of your site bear similarities to others’ but you can get your site up faster than someone sitting writing out lines of code. There is also far less margin for error when you use themes and templates. These are prebuilt for you, so you know it works.

Events beyond the control of the developer

This hits a little too close to home for me. Recently I had a really bad run-in with technology. My computer failed on me which resulted in my hard drive and memory needing to be replaced and with that I lost a whole bunch of data. Thankfully we store backups so getting everything back again wasn’t that big of a sweat, it just took a long time. The malfunctions I experienced set me back nearly two weeks.

Unfortunately, hardware malfunctions are something we might all experience at some point, and in the context of the article it can add to the time it takes to build a website.

If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.
—Zig Ziglar

Receiving content from the client

This is possibly the single biggest thing impacting the length of time it takes to build a website. A website structure is relatively easy to create. Populating it with the appropriate branding, colours, content and products is what takes time. It especially takes a long time if the client delays the supply of any parts of the content or wants to make too many revisions to the content.

Certain measures can be put in place to help structure the content delivery process from a client to the developer. Additionally a developer needs to stick to the agreed deadlines. The key thing is commitment from the client when it comes to delivering all the content needed on time and in a format that can be worked with. Retyping handwritten documents is nobody’s idea of a good time. Neither is resizing images when the right dimensions were previously agreed to. Things like this can really add to the time it takes to build a website. Not to mention the possible added expense.

Number of changes or edits

If a client wants images to be changed and text to be edited, it needs to be done. However, people sometimes don’t know when to stop making these changes and clients sometimes try and change everything. This can be a challenge to manage and comes down to clear guidelines and boundaries around the scope of the website project. Some developers don’t charge for these edits, which can come back to bite them in the long run. Those clients who don’t know what they want tend to push the boundaries by not adhering to conventional office hours or making mass edits and changes.

One definitive way to prevent this from happening is to clear up any ambiguity around how many changes and edits form part of the initial website build. Thereafter clear communication on how much changes and edits will cost and how long they will take is also important. This way clients are left in the dark about how the process works.

How many months does it take to build a website? As I mentioned at the start of the article, it’s really an open ended question.

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How do I brief a logo design?

Chantal Dawtrey — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 13:11:39 +0000

Know what you want from the word 'go'

Advertising legend David Ogilvy said “Give me the freedom of a tight brief.” A brief that is too vague or general leaves too much to the imagination of the designer. Ambiguous statements are hard to follow. Creative minds work best under constraint. Coffee is best served constrained in a mug or cup.

You need to know what you want. If you don’t know what you want how on earth will the designer be able to deliver? And you can’t say, “I’ll know it when I see it.” What will happen is you will know what you don’t want when you see it. If you take this approach the road to getting what you want will be a bit like Alice’s walk in Wonderland:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

Too much freedom and not enough boundaries leads to confusion and lost time. I am not so sure you have the time to “walk long enough” to find that magic logo.

Mobile-friendly means Google is your friend

What you do need is to be focused. Know and explain your Why. That is, what do you believe in? What is your purpose? Why does your business do what it does? Watch Simon Sinek explain about why in this brief video.

Be clear about your strategy, an unfocused brief says that a well-defined strategy is lacking.

Know what you want and what you don’t want. Look around at those logos that you are pulled to, and those that you are not. Be clear about why you want to use the colours you do and those you absolutely do not. You probably don’t want to use mustard and khaki for a baby clothing range, but if you do, be sure you can say why. What kind of fonts do you think reflect the image you want to impart? Round and fat, or tall and skinny? Soft and flowing or rigid and still?

Use visuals wherever possible. This really assists the designer and is so much easier than trying to explain in words. Find logos that have elements that you like and include them in your brief. Again, explain what you like and why.

The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new.
—Socrates

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What’s the big deal about having a mobile friendly website?

Judson Dawtrey — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 14:39:26 +0000

A mobile friendly website is a website that can be correctly displayed on any mobile device such as an Android phone, iPhones or tablet, as well as any size LCD screen. This allows for a consistent and streamlined experience of that website.

Many might believe that once they have a modern looking website, they can view it on any platform without any issues, however this is not the case. Once a website is designed, it also needs to be made mobile friendly so that it can be viewed on any device.

People use their phones wherever they go

This is very important because of the fact that in todays’ society most people carry their phones or tablets with them wherever they go. This means most people will be viewing websites on the Internet through these devices.

As a result, most of your website visitors will be coming from mobile devices rather than via laptops and desktops. By not having a mobile-friendly website, you are essentially giving money away. Many mobile device owners who view websites will not go through the effort of trying to navigate a non-mobile-friendly website and will quickly move to one that is.

Mobile-friendly means Google is your friend

Not only does most of your website’s traffic come from people using mobile devices, but not having a mobile-friendly website can also negatively impact where you are listed (or ranked) in search engines, especially Google, as they give preference to mobile friendly websites.

Mobile shopping is also becoming a much-preferred way of purchasing for online shoppers due to the convenience that it provides. By not having a mobile friendly website you are once again shooting yourself in the foot. In South Africa the population is just under 60 million people, of these about 37 million are internet users, of which 35 million use a mobile device for the Internet.

So after reading this, if you still don’t have a mobile-friendly website, you are a very silly goose.

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Why should I even have a website?

Matthew Green — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 15:44:56 +0000

What do you do to find answers to questions you have? The questions could be related to finding directions to a new place to eat or what time a shop closes. They can include finding someone to help you solve a problem or gathering data for a homework project. No matter the kind of question, there’s a good chance you turn to Google for help.

Let's look at some statistics. In South Africa the population is just under 60 million people. Of these about 37 million are internet users (of which 35 million use a mobile device for the Internet). Google commands a huge share of the market for what people are looking for with 87 percent worldwide and 96 percent locally.

To put this another way, this means that more than half the population in South Africa are online and using Google to find answers, research homework and solve problems.

Where does Google get its answers from?

Where does Google get the information from to answer your questions?

If you guessed websites, then you are correct. Websites can take many shapes and forms but when it comes to answering the question, Why should I even have a website? There are a few things to consider.

Are you a celebrity with millions of adoring fans?
Are you a well known multinational or national brand?
Are you a small or medium sized business offering a service or product line?

Chances are you, like us, fit into the third category. And if this is the case you need to offer a compelling way for people to connect and engage with you. How do you do this? The most effective way is through a website.

People buy when they are ready

Remember people buy when they are ready. No matter how many ads you take out or flyers you print, if someone is not ready to buy then your marketing efforts will land on deaf ears or in the rubbish bin.

In recent years people’s buying habits have changed. Assuming someone is now ready to buy, what will make them choose you? What do you offer that will make them give you their (often hard-earned) money? It is no longer about selling to them but about creating trust.

How do you build trust with your customers?

How do you build enough trust that the prospective buyer or customer goes: “Yes, I want what you are offering!”?

There are a few key areas to focus on but it essentially comes down to showing that you know what you are doing, that you have their best interests at heart, that you can solve their particular problems and that others can verify this.

A website is the best possible platform and way to do this.

Trust is built on telling the truth, not telling people what they want to hear.
—Simon Sinek

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The thought of putting the content together really scares me

Chantal Dawtrey — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 14:46:04 +0000

Now you have published a book, you really should get a website for yourself," I urged a friend. “People need to find you. They need to know what you have done and what you can do."

"Oh, I don’t know," she responded pulling a face, "I then have to get all the content together. I don’t think I have the time and inclination."

This coming from someone who had recently completed her PhD, written a book and was a coach, lecturer and facilitator of several leadership development programmes. She wrote all the time. She had the content. She probably had too much content.

And another occasion, another colleague, "Made a decision about your website yet?"
"Oh, I don’t know. I’m so not tech savvy," she responded, hunching her shoulders, and squinting her eyes, "The thought of having to get the content together…."

She too writes content all the time. Content for training programmes and the various services she offers. Content to get accreditation and tender for business. She has the content. She probably has too much.

Easy to follow guidance

What both of these potential clients need is some easy to follow guidance on what is required for their websites. They have all the content they need. It’s just stuck in their heads or in many other documents prepared for many other reasons. They just need a way of simplifying it and presenting what their clients will be looking for so that they can find them quickly and easily. Isn’t that the purpose of a website, after all?

In our experience less is more. People don’t read much these days. They want short, bites sized content that gives them answers to their questions they have. Questions about the service or products they are searching for. Their questions will be about what is on offer, what problems it solves, how to get it, how it works, how long it will take, what other people think of the product or service and how much it costs. First and foremost clients will want to know how much it costs.

Provide prices and educate

Rule number 1. If you don’t put your prices on your website, your potential clients will probably go elsewhere.

Rule number 2. Your job is to educate. You may know your business, services and products inside out, but do not assume the same of your clients. Do not assume they know where you are, if you are a handyman, for example, your clients will want to know what areas you work in. If I search for “handyman services near me” and you are near me, you may want your website to pop up. Yes?

Painting by numbers

At Tech Warrior, we provide our clients with an online scope and content document that they work through. This document helps them think through all the elements of a website and its content they may not have considered. Like including your address so Google can ensure you pop up when searched for “near me”.

It asks the questions that our clients’ clients may be wanting answers to. It gets our client to look at his or her website from the point of view of his or her client. It’s a bit like painting by numbers for website content.

A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could.
—Zig Ziglar

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Does my website need to look like everyone else’s?

Tristan Green — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 14:23:02 +0000

Why we design the way we do

When buying a new car there are some things I can change and customise to suit my needs, preferences and budget. These include things like metallic paint, alloy wheels, sunroof, heated seats, a more sophisticated media player and so on.

What I can’t change is the basic structure of my chosen model of car. For that matter I can’t even change the overall setup of a car. The position of the wheels, engine, steering wheel placement and number of doors is fixed.

The same applies when it comes to choosing one of Tech Warrior’s Small Business Website versions. The overall setup and structure of the website is fixed. You can customise how it looks and add in various options to best suit the needs of your business and brand. But you can’t have something that is designed from scratch to your exacting needs.

The reason for this approach for all of our client websites is due to the following three reasons:

Overall cost and price
Your time (and ours) is valuable
Content and lack of content

The elephant in the room – cost

Our websites may not be the cheapest but they are definitely not the most expensive and that’s the point. What our website offers you for the price you pay supersedes anything we’ve seen available on the market.

Our websites aren’t hardcoded which helps bring the cost down, mainly because we don’t have a sleep deprived, green tea-fuelled programmer sitting behind a screen making sure an image is placed correctly. We utilise a nifty drag-and-drop system which means if there’s a heading you want where a picture is, we can edit and replace it without hassle.

The aforementioned ties into all of Tech Warrior’s websites. They are all built using the same basic framework, honed and perfected over the 25 years we’ve been building websites. In essence it’s a completed website with everything we have to offer pre installed - it’s our custom WordPress theme - ready to go, again, bringing the cost down. All the website needs is your customising and branding which means content, specifically text and images.

We offer different packages to cater for your budget. If at the beginning of our relationship you only have a budget for a one paged website, but want to upgrade to a five or ten pager at a later date, we’ll be there to help set everything up so that you can expand when you are ready to. Head over to our website pricing page and take a look at the different Small Business Website offerings Tech Warrior has.

The most valuable commodity – time

One of the more important aspects of our website building process is that we don’t want to waste your time and, equally, we don’t want to waste our time. This is why we do our best to engage with you, helping you get your content in order so we can launch your website quickly and smoothly.

We do our utmost to achieve this by creating online documents you can complete, with the guidance of a Tech Warrior team member, that will help you write great content. This means you are able to give us something to work with!

Website content checklist

To streamline the start of this process we provide you with a checklist – making sure you have a colour palette, hero images, gallery images, write ups for all the sections on your site; all we need from you is to be met 50 percent of the way by providing us with all the necessary content needed for your website. This process helps reduce how long you spend writing and providing content and how long Tech Warrior spends building and populating your website with said content.

We can have a website up and running within a very short space of time (especially compared to a more conventional website development process) provided all content is supplied, on hand and no major changes are requested.

Success is where preparation and opportunity meet.
—Bobby Unser

Meeting us at the halfway point – content

If writing content isn’t your thing, that’s okay. More often than not, people believe they need to have this near perfect level of content in the first draft: zero typos, no grammatical or punctuation errors. This puts you under unnecessary stress and pressure, besides all of Tech Warrior’s content capturing is done online. This means we can assist you every step of the way from start to finish and mitigate the stresses of wanting perfect content from the onset.

Planning out what needs to be said on your website should be top of mind when you’re generating content. Are you descriptive enough for people to understand what it is you and your business have to offer? Are you able to solve the issues and problems people have? After all they’re visiting your website to see if you are the best choice for them. If you have a minimal amount of content which doesn’t capture your audience’s attention, chances are your website isn’t going to be as successful as you’d like it to be.

Tech Warrior always provides its clients with a foundation to build from - we’ll provide guidance where needed, but we need something to work with in order to help you deliver the best possible content.

Your site may not look entirely different to one of our other client sites, but it will be yours in a unique way.

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I can’t really write, can you write my website content for me?

Judson Dawtrey — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 12:41:00 +0000

A common concern many web developers hear from clients is that they struggle to put their content together. This could be due to them not being very good at writing or not knowing what they need to include, or simply not having the time to put the content together.

Creating the content for a website can be very daunting especially when clients are under stress due to workload or other commitments that come with starting a new company, often the motivation for a new website. Lack of time and focus can influence what content is put together and how long it takes to put it together. This can result in delays in the website development which, in turn, can impact the business. No website for people to view your services and no way to contact you if they have an interest in what you provide.

Content is the most important aspect of your business website

Content is the most important aspect of your business website. It shows your customers exactly what it is that you do as a business, how the business can help them, as well as answering any other relevant questions.

And, talking of questions, you need to be able to answer all the potential questions your clients may need answering before they decide to buy from you. Most people in today’s society don’t have the time to sift through a bunch of websites trying to find the information they are looking for.

Most customers will move onto another business within minutes if not seconds if the website doesn’t answer the specific questions they may have. This is why having the right content, as well as not having too much unnecessary content, is very important for your website.

Can we write the content for you?

But back to the original question: Can we write the content for you? The short answer to this question is: Yes we can write and gather your content for you, but we don’t want to. One of the reasons Tech Warrior charges what we do for our Small Business Websites is because we don’t offer content creation. On top of that, we don’t know anything about your business. You know your business better than any writer out there. So we strongly recommend you do the content yourself.

How can I put quality content together when I don’t know how to write properly?

But now you could be asking yourself, how can I put quality content together that will be relevant to my business website when I don’t know how to write properly? At Tech Warrior, we have a specially designed online scope and content document that we share with clients.

This document guides you through the content creation process using a number of specially designed questions. This document updates in real time so that we can see which questions have been answered and which questions you may be struggling with.

It also prevents the back and forth game when sending separate documents via email, which can lead to information getting lost and the latest versions not being used.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.
—Thomas Jefferson

You know your business better than anyone

The scope and content document is comprehensive yet simple to understand. We strongly believe that the client should compile the content as they know their business and what they do better than anyone, no matter how good, or bad, a writer they are.

The content is not meant to be a Shakespearian play that will be used to write an essay for your English exam. It is supposed to represent who you are as a business, what services you provide, and how you can help your customers.

The scope and content document we use allows the client to take a deep breath, and realise that this whole content thing isn’t actually that bad! It is a whole lot easier with the correct guidance.

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I can build my own website, why pay you to do the same thing?

Matthew Green — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 14:24:06 +0000

There are a number of website building tools around today that make it very easy to get a website. It’s also possible to get a friend or family member to use one of these tools or systems to get your website up and running at very little to no cost. If this is the case, why should you pay someone like us, Tech Warrior, to build your website for you?

Yes, it is easy enough to build a website. We even go so far to say that anyone can build a website nowadays. When deciding whether or not to use a professional company to build your website, consider these four questions:

Is building my own website the best use of my time and resources?
Will building my own website add or take away from the brand I am building for my business?
Should I do business with friends and family?
If I choose to get a web developer to build my website, how can I be sure that they are as professional as they make out?

Is building my own website the best use of my time and resources?

To put it another way, this is really asking when is free not really free? We all have the same amount of time in the day to get things done. The cost of doing something yourself or at a lower rate might look appealing in the short term. It’s important, however, to ensure that it works out in the medium to long term.

There are many variables and steps involved when it comes to building a website. The time taken to build it, create the content and get the visuals working just right, for starters, will mean you won’t be able to focus on your business, doing things that only you know how to do. If you and your business are up to this trade off, then doing the website yourself is an option. If your business needs your unique skills and talent then getting a professional company to build your website is probably a better option.

Will building my own website add or take away from the brand I am building for my business?

All businesses should care about their brand identity. It’s the entire way customers will engage with the business. Branding starts at the surface level, with your logo and appropriate colours and expands more deeply into the complete end-to-end experience your business offers its customers. If you or your brother’s cousin who’s building the website as part of a university project can ensure that the website being developed complements the brand of your business, then doing the website yourself is an option. If not, well, then the professional website company option is a better bet.

Your brand is not what you say you are—it’s what you do —Denise Lee Yohn

Should I do business with friends and family?

We have all been there. Someone you know looks like they could do with some help, so you do them a favour. Either for free or at a reduced cost or price. And then the problems start. The person inevitably ends up being one of your most difficult customers. It’s the same sort of thing with a website. If your website is being built by a friend or family member, make sure building websites is their core business. Otherwise you will find yourself at the bottom of the priority list.

Over the years we’ve heard many stories where the person doing the website lost interest, went overseas or changed careers. What then of your website? How do you regain control of your website if it’s been abandoned or you need to do updates and changes to your website? Or what if you need to reclaim ownership of your domain name?

In this case you might be better off with a dedicated and professional website company rather than the do it yourself option.

If I choose to get a web developer to build my website, how can I be sure they are as professional as they make out?

We’ve been in the field of websites for a very long time. We have seen them all - the fly-by-nights, con-artists and cheapskates, all offering something that sounds too good to be true. In addition, because the barrier to entry is quite low when it comes to actually building a website, many people think that it’s just a matter of a download here for the website system and then a download there of a website look (also known as a theme) and presto, I can now call myself a web developer (not!).

Check the credentials of the company offering the service. How long have they been around? Do they have a portfolio? What about (positive) testimonials? At the very least, check that they are using their own domain name (that’s the thing that ends with .co.za) and not just a gmail.com or hotmnail.com email address. A professional website company will always use their own domain name.

The company should answer all your questions, offer complete transparency about costs, not put undue pressure on you to buy from them, and make sure you are completely happy with the process before going ahead. If they don’t, then look for another company.

You get what you pay for

Are you in the business of providing a service or product only to get partly paid for it? I am sure not. You expect a fair compensation or price for your service or product. Almost anyone can bake a cake, few can bake the kind of cake you would want at your key celebration. Similarly, few people really understand what goes into making a website work successfully. When it comes to free, family-done or do it yourself websites, you often get what you pay for.

Don’t be a guinea pig for someone’s high school website building course. Don’t go the free route, it will make your business look cheap. In the end your business will suffer as a result.

In today’s age, customers are informed and educated as to what they want. Sometimes they will know more than you about what you offer. Whether you choose to do it yourself, or get a professional company to build one for you, make sure your website matches the times and buying patterns of today’s savvy consumer.

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