web developer – Tech Warrior

What is a WordPress theme?

Tristan Green — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 00:30:00 +0000

What is WordPress?

Firstly let’s clear up any confusion about what WordPress is. Simply put, WordPress allows anyone, individuals and organisations, to build websites and blogs. In more technical terms, WordPress is a free content management system (CMS) that is open to the public. It utilises features such as plugins and themes. It is also the most widely used tool for building websites in the world.

Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.
—Henry Ford

How does a WordPress theme work?

The term ‘theme’ is used as an umbrella concept that includes things like page layout templates and stylesheets for colours and headings. A host of profession-specific themes such as a photography theme for wedding photographers or a restaurant theme for a pizza joint or coffee shop are available. General use themes which can be implemented for a variety of websites are also available. These themes can be further adjusted and tweaked through the use of plugins.

A template in WordPress forms a foundation or skeleton for content to be added to, modified and removed. Content can include images, text and videos.

Stylesheets in web development dictate how and where content is displayed. I always remember this as a rulebook which tells your browser, Google Chrome, Opera, FireFox or Microsoft Edge, how the content of a website needs to be displayed. It is the instruction for the browser that the font on a website is a specific size, an image is displayed at that particular place, etc. This is arguably one of the most important aspects of a WordPress theme.

How much does a WordPress theme cost?

Some WordPress themes are free. WordPress comes with a few bundled in to give you a start when building a website. These themes can be limited in their functionality, power and overall ease of use but they give bloggers and small businesses an opportunity to have an online presence with minimal effort.

Of course there is also the option of buying a theme. Usually paid for themes are more versatile and flexible. They offer so much more in terms of how sleek a website can look, how much more control you have in terms of page design and some of the time, you can design your own page layout templates to use across your website.

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.

What is a WordPress plugin?

Plugins are free or paid for extras you can add to your website or blog. They are generally quite niche and often offer something specific to the website. An example of this can be a popup for a competition that gets displayed when someone visits your site; a gallery to showcase beautiful artwork and images; or a plugin to make your website more secure and less likely to be hacked or broken into. You can get more powerful plugins that monitor how many people visit your site and how much time they’ve spent on different pages as well.

Plugins aren’t always necessary as many themes have features built in that plugins offer, making sure there are ‘less cogs that need oiling’. Plugins can be a weak spot for hackers to target so only having necessary ones is a more prudent approach.

As with anything, if you have the budget and spend some cash, you can get your hands on some pretty powerful themes and plugins ultimately making your WordPress themed website more and more standalone and a cut above the rest. If you don’t have the funds available it’s okay, the free themes are more than capable of delivering a great looking website.

I can get a family member or freelancer to develop a website, why choose you?

Judson Dawtrey — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 00:30:00 +0000

You could get your brother / sister/ cousin / person advertising on a lamp pole to develop a website, so why choose Tech Warrior? Many people like to choose the easy or cheap route when designing a website, or for anything really. But with this comes with problems that could be avoided if you invest your time and money in something you really need which would serve you in good stead in the future.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.
—John Ruskin

Cheap and easy = cheap and ugly?

If someone you know is very good at what they do and they are willing to give you a low price then by all means, go with them, as supporting those closest to you is never a bad thing. However, in most circumstances, the cheapest and easiest route can lead to ugly, cheap looking websites. Everyone knows the old saying, you get what you pay for. This is because it's true, in most cases if you pay for a cheap website, you will get a cheap website.

If you went car shopping today, and your budget is R50000, I'm pretty certain you’re not going to be grabbing yourself a brand new BMW 3 series. You’re most likely going to be able to get a 1995 Toyota Taz. This applies to websites too.

Quality at competitive prices while building relationships

If you are planning on investing in a website, we recommend you choose someone who you can trust to provide you with quality websites at very affordable prices. At Tech Warrior, we strive to provide quality websites that are great value-for-money. This might not be your cheapest option, but are very competitive with regards to the quality that Tech Warrior provides.

Not only do we develop quality websites, but we also pride ourselves in our ability to build trust and a solid relationship with our clients during, and after, the web development process. We believe maintaining a good, trusting relationship with our clients is the most important aspect in this industry.

Experience counts when it comes to building a website

One of the ways we keep prices down is based on our experience. 25 years in the industry teaches you a few things about how to deliver the best in the most efficient way possible. Another way is through the use of our custom developed theme. It’s not bespoke, but fear not! As we are still able to blow you away with our quality designs.

We also believe our clients should write their content themselves as they know their business better than anyone else. However, if writing scares you or you believe you’re going to mess it up, we will help guide you through the content writing process.

Ask as many questions as you need

At Tech Warrior we will provide you with the same trustworthy relationship you get out of your friends and family, while providing the best website for your business, at very affordable prices. We aim to build strong, long lasting relationships with our clients and we encourage you to ask us as many questions as you need about the website building process, so that you feel comfortable choosing us as your web developers.

Who are Tech Warrior’s competitors?

Matthew Green — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 00:30:00 +0000

There are many choices to be made when building a website. These decisions can be broadly split between who will build the site and what platform or software will be used for the development of the website. In this article we’ll take a more detailed look at both of these competitor categories for Tech Warrior.

The father of every good work is discontent, and its mother is diligence.
—Lajos Kassak

Who will build the website

There are three groups of people who compete with Tech Warrior when comes to building a website:

Family and friends
Professional web design companies
Do-it-yourself-ers

Family and friends

A knowledgeable family member can be a useful resource for building a website. The upside is you know who you are dealing with, what kind of work they are capable of and you might be able to negotiate on the cost of the work.

The down side to this approach can sometimes be all of the above as well. Are they building the site as a favour or is it a bona-fide job? Is it a priority for them or are they fitting you in because they know a little (or a lot) more than you? How much experience do they have?

Professional web design companies

This is a good option if you want to hand-over the process and have it managed on your behalf. These companies can be one-person or many-people in size. They usually support you from the beginning of the process until you have a live, hosted website.

Unfortunately there is no professional body to regulate the standard and quality of web site design and development companies so you will need to do some research to ensure that the company or organization is credible and trustworthy. Over the years we have heard some horror stories of domain names and websites being held ransom by unsavoury web design companies who portray the right image but don’t deliver.

Do-it-yourself-ers

You can build the website yourself. There are many options available when it comes to the software or platform (see below). There is only one question that needs to be answered: “is building the website myself the best use of my time?” If your business needs you at the helm, running the show then using one of the other options is probably better.

What is the best software or platform for my website?

There are various Website building platforms or software that also compete with Tech Warrior when it comes to building a website. These can be installed and run on your computer, can be hosted and managed on your behalf or a combination of the two.

You will want to make sure that the software tools are widely used and open so you can get support when needed. This also ensures you don’t get locked into an expensive once-off proprietary system with limited options for growth or an exit strategy if you and the developer want to part ways.

The most widely used website software is called WordPress. More than 35 percent of all websites use it. This is the software of choice for Tech Warrior. WordPress is usually installed at a hosting provider.

There are other software options for building a website. The more well known ones are Joomla or Drupal. They work and function in a similar way to WordPress but are not as widely used.

Website software that is hosted and managed on your behalf

Another type of competitor that Tech Warrior has is website building software. These go by the name GoDaddy, Squarespace, Shopify, Wix, Weebly and others. They provide the tools to build a website. They also provide the associated services required to get a website up and running like domain registration and hosting. In some instances an online shop or store as well. Tech Warrior has chosen to use WordPress which also provides an option like this.

Make the right choice for your business needs

We have no control over whether you choose a competitor of ours. We do want you to make the right choice for your business. Your website is still the most effective way to answer questions, build trust and get customers to engage and buy from you. Make sure the person or organisation doing it prioritises your needs and offers a good value-for-money product and service. In addition, make sure your website is built using a platform that is open, widely used and doesn’t keep you locked in to the whims of the web developer.

Visit our learning hub for more articles

The post Who are Tech Warrior’s competitors? appeared first on Tech Warrior.

Who are some great web developers?

Tristan Green — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:30:00 +0000

The competition is heated

Living in the twenty-first century can be exhausting when it comes to finding a service provider for your needs; be it small or large scale building contractors, logistics for the home or business, digital design gurus or in our case friendly web developers.

In 1988, when the Internet first reached our golden sandy shores in sunny South Africa, it operated primarily within the realm of academic institutions. As it evolved and the World Wide Web was invented, only a handful of individuals understood its power and how it could slingshot businesses into a league of their own. Fast forward to present day and terms like Search Engine Optimisation, Content Management System and Landing Page are commonplace. These terms have grown in popularity as our world has become more digitally inclined.

Timing, perseverance, and ten years of trying will eventually make you look like an overnight success.
—Biz Stone

Businesses, small and large, have begun to adopt the Internet, use the Web and search engines like Google to increase business turnover or profits by pulling people to visit and engage with their websites.

There are a plethora of tools available to aid in bringing prospective clients to your website. Of course anyone can sit down and build a website but you’ll have to decide if it’s worth your time as the business owner to sit and figure out how everything works, or if you should hire a professional company to do it for you.

The trusted voice

At Tech Warrior we get to engage and meet with many people and businesses regarding their websites. And because we have been around for so long (25 years) and have a lot of knowledge on websites and website development we are often asked who are some of the other website builders and competitors we have in our industry.

Our goal is to be the trusted voice and blatantly transparent when it comes to building a website. It is one of our passionate goals. We want our clients and customers to be as informed as possible.

We’ve compiled the following list of companies who we think do some incredible work both in the web design and development space.

Cloudfusion

Based in Bedfordview, Cloudfusion delivers some of the most beautifully designed websites we have ever seen. They have a customer-centric philosophy aiming to deliver the best possible online solutions for their clients as well as their clients’ clients. Services they offer include SEO management and implementation, web design and development, e-commerce and e-governance solutions, brand building. For those interested they also offer mobile app development.

Vaimo

Although not founded in South Africa, Vaimo is one of the largest and most trusted online commerce partners in the world. They have offices in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng across Europe, Asia and North America. Their specialty lies in Business-to-Business and Business-to-Customer experiences; offering great websites and user experiences both for the client and service provider. They have partnered with industry giants such as Adobe, Oracle and Akeneo.

Big Web Media

Operating from Woodstock in Cape Town, Big Web Media, aims to simplify and as they put it, ‘demystify’ the internet industry; specifically web design and search engine optimization. Their focus is to increase brand visibility and monetization through online marketing solutions, guiding their customers every step of the way, ultimately leading to incredibly sleek end products which are bound to keep customers returning.

Cocopine

Operating out of Johannesburg with a service reach to most major business sectors, Cocopine offers affordable website development and mobile app development for small and medium sized enterprises. They aim to empower their customers to edit, manage and update their WordPress websites through online tutorials and courses. If that isn’t for you, they offer to do the heavy lifting and deliver some really great looking websites which are bound to get heads turning and clicks through SEO.

Focus Online

Focus Online has a close connection to the travel industry but an equally impressive affiliation to web development, design and SEO services. They aim to increase brand visibility through search results in all major search engines; they offer content marketing, email marketing and social media services that are designed to pull prospective customers in time and time again.

Visit our learning hub for more articles

The post Who are some great web developers? appeared first on Tech Warrior.

I am concerned about my site being hacked. How do I prevent this?

Matthew Green — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 00:30:00 +0000

What does being hacked mean?

What exactly does the word hacking or hack mean? Why would someone or something want to hack my small business website?

The word hack is often used in a number of ways, depending on what is being hacked. For this article we are going to focus on what it means in relation to a website. Someone (a person) or something (a bot or computer program) attempts to gain unauthorised access (breaking in) to your website with a view to do something with it (stealing data, using the computer’s resources) for something other than what it was originally intended to do.

Why would someone hack my small business website?

Often the answer is related to money. I won’t go into the different types of money or the idea that there is not enough - there is approximately US $37 trillion in circulation so there is more than enough. Hackers extend the effort because it can be an easy way to make money. Almost all attacks (hacking attempts) are automated. The reason behind the attacks runs from harmless to severe.

In the former, someone might just be trying to see if they can. Usually this is the domain of pranksters. If the attempt is successful what usually happens is that the homepage is defaced with no real harm being done.

In the latter, the website might be used as a springboard to infecting other websites so that the computing power of the server can be used for spam. Spam is a numbers game which is why there is so much of it. The website could be infiltrated with links trying to boost dubious and dodgy sites in Google so they come up higher in the search results. At its worst, the hacker could set up the website so it tries to install software on unsuspecting future website visitors with a view to extorting money.

What can I do to stop my site from being hacked?

All websites are vulnerable when it comes to being hacked. WordPress based websites are often targeted more than other sites because of how popular WordPress is. In a similar way to how Windows based computers are targeted due to the number of computers running Windows. Tech Warrior uses WordPress to build all versions of its Small Business Websites product. There are some guidelines for ensuring your website, WordPress or otherwise, stays safe and secure from hacking attempts.

We suggest following these three steps to make sure your website is protected against hacking.

Choose a good hosting provider
Change the default username and password
Keep your website software up to date

Choose a good hosting provider

Not all website hosting providers are created equally. Cheap hosting providers often provide the bare minimum. You could be vulnerable to a hacking attempt if the hosting is not properly or securely set-up.

Change the default username and password

If you use a content management system or web builder like WordPress, make sure you change the default login name and choose a strong password. Often hackers will take a chance and try using the login name and password as their first and easiest entry point.

Keep your website software up to date

Out of date software and in the case of WordPress, plugins, are also an easy entry point for hackers. Keeping software up to date ensures that any bugs or holes that could be exploited by an attacker or hacker are minimised.

Do your part

At Tech Warrior we have a Website Armour product that keeps the website software, WordPress, and the plugins up to date. In addition it checks for viruses and other nasty bugs. It also comes with offsite backups as a further layer of security.

When it comes to keeping your website safe from hacking, nothing is 100 percent attack proof. There are often stories in the news that cover hacking attempts and security breaches. The best you can do is ensure that you follow some best practices as outlined above and ensure that you do your part.

If you define yourself by how you differ from the competition, you’re probably in trouble.
—Omar Hamoui

Visit our learning hub for more articles

The post I am concerned about my site being hacked. How do I prevent this? appeared first on Tech Warrior.

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.

Visit our learning hub for more articles

The post How many months would it take to build a website? appeared first on Tech Warrior.

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

Visit our learning hub for more articles

The post What’s the big deal about having a mobile friendly website? appeared first on Tech Warrior.

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

Visit our learning hub for more articles

The post Why should I even have a website? appeared first on Tech Warrior.

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

Visit our learning hub for more articles

The post The thought of putting the content together really scares me appeared first on Tech Warrior.

web developer – Tech Warrior

What is a WordPress theme?

What is WordPress?

How does a WordPress theme work?

How much does a WordPress theme cost?

What is a WordPress plugin?

Further reading

I can get a family member or freelancer to develop a website, why choose you?

Cheap and easy = cheap and ugly?

Quality at competitive prices while building relationships

Experience counts when it comes to building a website

Ask as many questions as you need

Further reading

Who are Tech Warrior’s competitors?

Who will build the website

Family and friends

Professional web design companies

Do-it-yourself-ers

What is the best software or platform for my website?

Website software that is hosted and managed on your behalf

Make the right choice for your business needs

Who are some great web developers?

The competition is heated

The trusted voice

Cloudfusion

Vaimo

Big Web Media

Cocopine

Focus Online

I am concerned about my site being hacked. How do I prevent this?

What does being hacked mean?

Why would someone hack my small business website?

What can I do to stop my site from being hacked?

Choose a good hosting provider

Change the default username and password

Keep your website software up to date

Do your part

What is the best WordPress theme for my website?

What kind of website do I want for my business?

How much am I willing to spend?

What is my website experience level?

How to choose the best WordPress theme for my website?

Further reading

How many months would it take to build a website?

Know what you want from the word 'go'

How detailed the website needs to be

Hard coded vs themes and templates

Further reading

Events beyond the control of the developer

Receiving content from the client

Number of changes or edits

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

Further reading

People use their phones wherever they go

Mobile-friendly means Google is your friend

Why should I even have a website?

Where does Google get its answers from?

People buy when they are ready

Further reading

How do you build trust with your customers?

The thought of putting the content together really scares me

Easy to follow guidance

Provide prices and educate

Further reading

Painting by numbers