Why do you need a website?
“May the sun never set on your business!” This has never before been as achievable as it is now. The number one benefit of having a beautiful website, is the fact that people across South Africa - and even the world- can visit your business, your institute, your shop, your church, your whatever, all from the comfort of their own homes, workplaces or mobile phones. This means that when you are not at the office, your doors are still open to showcase product or service to potential clients.
So why should dezignZA design it for you?
We want to help YOU! That's just what we do. We offer a solution where we take the guesswork out of your design. We give you what you need, we make it all look really pretty and we don't charge you an arm and a leg for it. Good value for money is what we offer, as we believe everyone needs the best opportunity in this current economy and we would like to be the people to help you get it.
That is some powerful stuff right there!
SOME BASIC TERMINOLOGY USED BY DESIGNERS
SEO
Search engine optimisation is the process where we add code, links, keywords and descriptions so that search engines like Google, Bing and more will be more easily able to list your website when people search.
SEO is a time-consuming process, which doesn't improve overnight, BUT if done correctly and consistently, it could mean more business for you.
Responsive
A responsive website is built in such a way that it rearranges the layout and content on your website to adapt to the device on which you are viewing it. Examples of devices are computers, smart TV’s, mobile phones, tablets or even many gaming consoles.
Fun test: Grab the bottom right corner of this browser window and pull it from right to left to effectively narrow the display area for this website. You will see how the website adapts and moves content. That is responsive design.
Domain Registration
Domain registration is often the first place to start once you know you want a website. You can use various companies to register your domain name. You also then have to decide the top level domain, in other words: ".co.za",".com", ".ie", ".me" etc.
For South African sites it's a good idea to purchase a ".co.za" domain as it's clearly a South African domain, but if that's not available or you're hoping to attract more international customers, ".com" is great.
WEBSITE HOSTING
Registering a domain is part one; hosting it is part two. Ypu cannot skips these two parts in any way. Once you have registered your domain name, it needs to be hosted somewhere.
There are two recurring fees for websites. 1. Your domain needs to be renewed annually. 2. Your hosting needs to be renewed annually. The good news is, it's generally inexpensive and we prefer to host your domains on our server as we've spent months researching hosting companies and are very satisfied with the one which we use.
UX
UX is short for user experience and refers to the way people experience your website and can also be utilised to help steer people towards areas on your website that you'd like them to visit.
A website with poor UX will often frustrate your potential clients and they most likely try to find another company that has an easily navigable website.
CMS
CMS is short for content management system and refers to software like Joomla!, wordpress, drupal or many more.
CMS simplifies website management for you, our clients, and in most cases you will be able to log in and easily update content, change images and do other small changes.
The more in-depth changes you can leave for us.
E-Commerce
E-Commerce refers to a website’s capability to sell goods or services online through an online payment system.
You can sell anything such as physical items, downloadable content or even allow clients to book appointments online.
The set-up of an online shop can take a bit of time, so this wouldn't be included in most basic web design packages, but is something to consider if you really want to be able to trade 24/7. A good e-commerce site means your website is constantly working for you.
Social Media
The way people buy is turning to social, mobile, and global. The social media aspect of that refers to companies like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, to name just a few.
Social media has made it easier than ever to get your product in front of your friends and enabling you to receive more leads via word of mouth.
Utilising social media is a great place to start attracting traffic to your website and reminding your friends, family and acquaintances about what you do, so that they can refer potential clients to you too.