Frequently Asked Questions about your new website project

Website Hosting - High-speed & optimized

We offer reliable and professional website hosting, e-mail boxes, e-mail aliases, basic website statistics and 24/7 support. We host and maintain your website on high-speed, dependable UNIX-based host servers - designed specifically to cater for WordPress hosting. 

We give all our websites a daily dose of TLC and we use special advanced software and applications for monitoring. We won't develop your website if you want it hosted somewhere else. We also only host websites and SaaS applications that we design and maintain ourselves. My mother taught me never to talk (or host) to strangers, sorry!

We don't mess around with a dozen alternative hosting packages for you to choose from – because we have developed your website, we know exactly what level (geekspeak for "technical options”) of hosting service you require – so we take the risk out of a bad hosting decision. Oh yes, we also do all your domain registrations and other techie things so you don't have to be concerned.

Security of Data and SSL Certificate

All data is confidential and secured on the host server in an encrypted format. Databases and website pages will be backed up daily and stored In a number of off-site locations within RSA and internationally. Please refer to the Web Management package of your choice for all the other activities that we undertake to keep both your website protected against ransomware and data mining.

Google demands that all websites have an SSL Certificate. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate(s) is/are a third party application software that allows secure encrypted software communication between a web server and a browser and vice versa.

All data entry/form submissions will be protected by a standard SSL Certificate ($0 warranty) - this is provided free of charge by 247highway and included as part of the website hosting fees. Should you require an extended warranty, please contact us for the price of other certificates which start at approximately R269 per year.

The advantages of a CMS (Content Management System)

There is a wide range of benefits for a business that uses a CMS website:

• A CMS website can also contain static pages of information e.g. an "about us" page or a "contact us" page, as well as "dynamic" posts or "blog" articles that can be continually added.

• A blog is a tool that is not only capable of reaching new clients but can also build a dynamic community which exchanges information, solutions, reviews, and opinions about a business and its products, services, and reputation.

• Using a blog as a key element of an online marketing and promotion initiative will give The Copse a chance to reach new clients, and to present a new business face to your existing clients.

• Also, the dynamic nature of a blog, which is always being refreshed and updated, helps achieve higher internet search result rankings, which in turn attracts new clients.

• The "personal" nature of blogging and the ability to generate online conversations and interactions will allow The Copse to develop and project a brand or personality, or specific traits, such as being innovative, or focused on client service, etc.

• Blogs and reader comments are a key source of gathering information for your business and for other readers and clients. Reader comments, and particularly client comments, provide detailed and immediate feedback on your business activities, products or services. Positive feedback gives confidence to other potential clients, while negative feedback gives you the chance to respond to concerns, defend your product or services or improve your business processes.

• A blog gives people a reason to regularly visit your website, especially if you post frequently and deliver quality content that’s entertaining, useful or both. Both B2C and B2B companies see business benefits – more traffic and leads – when they blog frequently, compared to companies that blog infrequently or not at all.

Do you want 126% more sales leads - get a blog!

According to the Institute of Content Marketing survey, small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without. Combine that statistic with the fact that a whopping 77% of internet users read blogs - Now you’re onto something. Regular blogging is a go-to content marketing strategy for a reason – it works - and just keeps on working.

Why do you use WordPress?

WordPress is open source content management software and currently powers around 28.3% of all websites on the Internet. The project is contributed to by tens of thousands of developers all over the world and is growing from strength to strength. WordPress allows us to develop flexible and customisable websites to modern standards and observes web development best practices. Furthermore, the community of web developers that use WordPress reaches far and wide and allows us to tap into this collective intelligence and bring that wealth of experience to your project.

Did you know the # of pages has little to do with the base design cost?

The base cost of a website is not proportionate to the number of pages that you need.

Every website - from the smallest to the largest must have

• an optimum infrastructure with page linking and cross-referencing,

• The styling of individual page layout designs depending on page functionality e.g. a Contact page versus an About us page are not the same layout,

• styling for all corporate fonts and colours used throughout the site for text consistency and legibility.

• visual styling and manipulation of photographs,

• the creation of graphic elements and icons.

• it takes the same amount of time to setup an e-commerce infrastructure for 1 product than it takes for 1,000 products.

• any special feature will need to be coded - even if it will be used on only 1 page and not 100.

... Starting to get the idea? A 10-page website design and development time can be just as complicated and take as long as it does for a website that will eventually grow to 500 pages.

How do we keep our costs low?

We use the concept of the “WWW Global Village” in that all communications with you are via Skype, Online Chat, telephone or email. We don’t have to charge you for travelling and on-site meetings. You provide all the information via our online planners for your website and email or upload your text and photographs or images your special 247highway CRM portal.

What is meant by the phrase:  "lifetime updates" or Software "End of Life"

A developer creates a programme according to the current techniques at the time. He might add functionality, make fixes, tweak options, and updates over a span of 3-5 years i.e. the Lifetime of the programme. However, no website theme or a programme or plugin can be expected to automatically take advantage of the latest techniques and programme functions beyond about 3-5 years. It largely depends on the popularity of the programme, how long it will continue to be updated by the developer.

The term, “End of Life” when it applies to application software or website sofware, means the point of time where a certain version of that software is no longer supported, and no more upgrades, security or performance patches will be produced. While you may continue to use the software or website, you will not be able to take advantage of any new technological enhancements and methodologies (e.g. advanced programming interface changes), the most important of which will be new security features, responsiveness for mobile devices and visual enhancements.

What is information architecture?

Information architecture is the relationship of how all the different pages of a website are related to each other. A website sitemap (or sitemap) is a visual representation (list of pages of a website). It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for Web design or a Web page that lists the pages on a website, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. Not to be confused with an XML sitemap which is used by site engine crawlers.

Who writes the text content of the pages?

We may have written a hundred web pages and blog posts but we’re not responsible for writing or inputting any text copy unless we specified it in the original proposal. We’ll be happy to help though, and in addition to the estimate, we will charge you at our standard copywriting or content input rate.

Writing content ... sucks - need help?

Writing content for website pages or writing content marketing purposes is difficult. The truth is most people suck at it because being able to consistently do it right is H.A.R.D. It's not easy to express yourself unless you have had lots of practice - and then on top of it, you have to remember things like writing with specific keywords in mind, setting the right tone of voice, finding interesting things to say, keeping your reader's attention watching your grammar and spelling, etc.

Without the good, quality content for your website or online marketing efforts, you are doomed to failure. Forget about photos and pretty colours and fonts - the Search engines don't care about anything except words they can search and index.

The good news is that you don’t have to worry about producing perfectly polished, search engine-friendly copy. Our team has spent years writing for all sorts of industries and we’ll be happy to help you make sure that your content promotes your business products and services in the best possible way.

Bonus ... you could just ask our team to write all the text for you and make sure that it is optimized for on-page SEO at the same time. Phew, what a load off your shoulders! Ask us for a special quote for your content.

What Photographs can I use?

You will supply us photographs in digital format. If you choose to buy stock photographs we can suggest vendors of stock photography. Any time we spend searching for appropriate photographs will be charged at our standard discovery rate. NO, you cannot copy photos off the internet!

Who owns all the content or photographs (Copyright)?

You guarantee to us that any elements of text, graphics, photos, designs, trademarks, or other artwork that you provide us for inclusion in the website are either owned by your good selves or that you have written permission to use them.

Browser Compatibility

We develop using valid HTML and CSS code. The landscape of web browsers and devices changes regularly and our approach is to look forward, not back. With that in mind, we will test all our markup and CSS in current versions of all major desktop browsers to ensure that we make the most of them. Users of older or less capable browsers or devices will experience a design that is appropriate to the capabilities of their software.

We do not cater for people using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and cannot predict the behaviour of that browser.

We will also test that these templates perform well on Apple’s iPad. We will not test old or abandoned browsers, for example, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 5.5 for Windows or Mac, previous versions of Apple’s Safari, Mozilla Firefox or Opera unless otherwise specified. If you need us to consider these older browsers, we will charge you at our standard old browser rate for any necessary additional design work, development and testing.

Who do I call if something goes wrong with the website or I can’t figure something out?

Provided you subscribe to one of our ongoing website management plans, we will be your first point of call should something go wrong with your website - whether it is a hosting problem or something that is covered by your website management plan. We will provide training and video tutorials to assist you in using your website once it is launched.

What happens after the website is launched?

Once your website is launched, we will provide 14 days of support to make sure any bugs have been ironed out and that you are confident using your new website. After this, you will need to subscribe to one of our ongoing website management plans to make sure your website is looked after and maintained. These website management plans include updating your software, regular backups, security checks and making sure your website is online and open for business 24/7/365. More information on our website management plans is included in this document - ask us for the latest prices or to customize a plan for you.

How long will it take to appear at the top of Google?

The time it takes for your website to appear on page 1 of Google depends on a number of factors. It depends on the search phrase people are using to find your website and the number of other websites that are also available for those search phrases. Nobody can truly say how long it will take for your website to appear at the top of search engine results pages (including people who actually work for Google), however, there are a number of factors that can improve your chances. Building your website on WordPress is a good start as WordPress has some great Search Engine Optimisation fundamentals built-in. Creating unique and interesting content on a regular basis for your website is also critical to increase your visibility amongst search engines. Launching your website and then forgetting about it is a surefire way to get lost amongst the noise. We are happy to talk to more about your search engine strategy if we haven’t already.

How will I know if anyone is visiting my website?

We can install Google analytics API codes on your new website for SEO purposes so that you can monitor your own website. We use our own proprietary analytics software which is easier to use and understand. Ask us about it and we can show you how to view your analytics information to see a wide range of statistics about your website including the number of visits, page views than the amount of time people are spending on your website.

Once you subscribe to one of our website management plans (3 or 4) you will also receive more detailed analysis of your website performance and recommendations on how to improve.

What happens if I want to add some features to the website while you’re building it?

Whilst we like to be flexible and responsive to your needs, we also like to deliver what we promise within the time frames and budgets we have allowed. If you ask us to add new features to your website while we are building it, will most likely ask why? If we all agree that your new request will greatly help us achieve our objectives then we will be more than happy to oblige. If your new feature is something you would like to add to your website but is not directly tied to the original objectives of this proposal, then we will suggest to schedule it for a second iteration of the website once it has been launched. This will require a new proposal.