Why Should You Host Your Domain Name Locally? When choosing where to host your domain name, you have 2 choices – either you can use a local host, such as The Web Shack, or you can opt to choose an international hosting service. In this blog we take a look at the different aspects to…
Website Hosting – Guidelines to Finding the Right Host (South Africa) Website hosting in South Africa is an extremely lucrative industry that is highly competitive in all aspects. As you can imagine this makes choosing the correct host for your specific corporate requirements very difficult. Currently in South Africa the top three web hosts consist…
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A website page is a content area (much like Microsoft Word) where you can add/edit content that you are trying to portray to your viewers. It is very much like a company brochure that is indexed on the internet through search engines such as Google, etc. A page is normally linked to the homepage of your website in the menu bar located on the top of your website.
The menu bar is a variety of buttons categorised for various purposes (eg: Home, About, Our Services, Contact Us). These are all buttons that link to individual pages once you have clicked on them. They can be changed as needed within the confines of our WordPress software.
Things you might include on a page?
Things you put on a page vary based on your company campaign but generally would include text describing your pages objective, accompanied by pictures, graphics, and basically anything that would be appealing to your target market when it comes to promoting your company. A page can also include information about your company history, background, the team, basically everything a user would view to know more about your business.
A page is a maximum of 400 words.
A responsive or mobile-friendly website is specifically designed to resize to fit on all devices; the website changes to fit the screen of the device, providing a better experience for the websites end-user. For example view shack.co.za on your tablet or mobile phone and watch how the website adapts to fit the different displays.
The benefits of a mobile/responsive website
As you can imagine having a responsive website has become important due to the fact that many people are browsing on search engines from their mobile devices. An unoptimized website will frustrate a potential user from browsing your website possibly losing a potential lead. There are also search engine optimization benefits involved and Google will rank a well optimized website ahead of one that hasn’t been optimized for mobile devices.
A logo is a graphic representation (mark, emblem or symbol) commonly used by commercial enterprises.
Overview of what is included in our Logo Design package
The ultimate outcome we look to achieve with our logo design package is to provide companies with the best graphic representation that embodies their core values as per their company requirements and recommendations. Initially we create four separate logos in the first round of design mockups. From here the client has the opportunity to select one of the four mock-ups. Thereafter we allow up to two additional changes to the chosen logo mock-up in order to “iron out” any preferences or change requests. The final design is rendered as a PDF file and includes a .png and .jpeg version. The client may also request the open files (design files) if necessary to keep for their records.
A stock photo is a photo that we buy online, it is a professionally taken photograph that we get for you if you need pictures to fill up your website and make it look more appealing or fit a specific aesthetic. The benefits of stock photos are that you don’t need to try and take all your own photographs or spend endless hours trying to find nice free images that are not copyrighted on internet search engines. Get professionally taken / edited photos for your industry to truly impress your end-users.
How do stock photos benefit me?
Stock photos most importantly assure you that all the images on your website are not copyrighted. If you simply pull any image off a search engine the chances are that you could encounter copyright infringements and possibly be sued for using someone else’s images which they paid money for in the first place.
A banner slider is a line-up of images that get cycled through continuously; these are generally included on the home page of your website. They help promote products/services visually in the hope that a viewer will be captivated by what they see and thereafter get clued up with the content on the rest of your website. We at The Web Shack believe that a banner slider is a vital part of your website in order to intrigue the majority of people that may view your website.
A Hero Image
A hero image is used when you select 1 banner slider. The banner no longer slides and the content is specific to one effective background image used to communicate your website outcomes. Text and animations can still be included with buttons linking to featured pages further.
How many banner sliders should I use?
You may be wondering why the maximum amount of banner sliders only goes up to a maximum of 5 on our online form. We have done research into the way individuals interact with websites and more specifically your website landing page. Most users that view your website will hit the landing page and within less than 1-2 minutes they will have read and viewed the page and navigated away from it. We feel having an abundance of sliders is therefore irrelevant as the user navigating the website will only see the first five banners at the most.
With Elementor WooCommerce Builder, you reach a pixel perfect custom-designed store, but skip over the hand-coding parts. Each section of your store can be customized easily.
Categories are the top level order of your listings or directory. For example if you’re looking to build a job portal your categories may include professions such as “Law, Culinary, Engineering, Marketing”.
If you’re looking to build a car dealership website your categories may include vehicle types such as “SUV, hatchback, sedan, cross-over”.
Shipping can be set up in one of two ways.
1. Do your own shipping. Charge a flat rate per province and take care of the deliveries yourself.
2. Partner with a local shipping company and integrate their shipping system into your website for convenience. The following shipping companies can be used:
• Collivery
• Fastway
• Parcel Ninja
This is strongly recommended for Online Stores.
Included in this plugin is a firewall, a security scanner which offer leaked password protection and advanced manual blocking. It also monitors live traffic and repairs files. Additionally it offers country blocking and two factor authentication.
A user is 106% more likely to leave your website if the page doesn’t load within 6 seconds.
Using a plugin to speed up your website will help by keeping your image files as small as possible, keeping the code behind your website tidy (and quicker for browsers to read) and automatically cache preloading.
A page consists of roughly 300 words. A product consists of roughly 150 words. To give you an idea, this text box is 55 words.
On a website, pages are normally counted as the areas that have titles such as “About Us” or “FAQ”. Products are counted as each individual service/package/product/project/item that you are offering.
One-Pager Website
A One-Pager website is a modern-feeling, parallax website. Don’t be confused by the one page though – a One-Pager website can be a decent size website. A One-Pager website continuously scrolls through all its content. There is no linking to lots of individual pages – this makes your website smoother and faster. When you choose an option in the menu, the site will automatically scroll to that section. If you are still unsure whether this is the correct option for you feel free to contact us.
Website Design
Choose this option if you are looking to make a standard informational website. This is a website which includes general functions EXCLUDING things like eCommerce/Client Portals/Directories/Property Listings/Custom Development/Forums and the likes. Bear in mind our mock ups/themes we send through to you showcase the full functionality that we can use to build your website. If you are still unsure whether this is the correct option for you feel free to contact us.
eCommerce
Our online store option brings the same functionality of the website design package above but also includes some crucial features that are necessary to sell products on your website. We integrate a payment gateway so users can safely checkout once they are ready to purchase products off your website. We also include a shopping cart featuring all your products on sale. The perk here is that you also have the same control as in the website design package to add your own products and content as freely as you please.
Membership/Dynamic Website
A membership website allows your users to sign in to profiles on your website. Depending on how you would like to structure your site, users could be required to pay a membership fee in order to access their own profile. A dynamic website is a more technical website, connecting to third party systems; building comprehensive databases etc. basically a bespoke web development.
Elementor Website
Elementor websites are pixel perfect custom design – extremely customisable. They take longer to build but offer personalised solutions. These sites are safe and easy to up-date and maintain as there are very few third party plugins and apps required. Elementor is an all-in-one-place solution.
Build My Own Website / Sit With a Designer
A budget friendly way to build your website! Take control of your own design, layout and functionality by building your website. With multiple website builders to choose from, you can find the platform that suits you the most.
Don’t worry if you’re not a techie, these builders are very easy to use. And if you get stuck, you can always book an appointment with one of our designers to guide you.
These pages hold items such as blog posts, portfolio entries (portfolio entries can also be used for catalogue based products.), and gallery images. If you are making use of a one-pager website, it is best practice to have these pages separate.
If you want your users to communicate with you through an automated system on your website then gravity forms is definitely for you. Gravity Forms is a Premium Contact Form plugin that offers extremely diverse functionality.
It creates forms, uses conditional logic, sends e-mail notifications, allows users to upload files and can even account for calculations.
Enquire if you are looking to use Gravity forms premium features and we will quote you accordingly. (full list of features can be sent on request.)
As a premium feature it is even more powerful. Offering coupons, polls, quizzes, surveys, user registration, webhooks and advanced post creation. It can connect with systems such as Trello, PayPal, Zoho, Twilio, MailChimp and Active Campaign.
Please select the option most applicable to you:
– Directory: A website that includes allows user to sign up and list their service/products/event/item.
– Job Portal: Connect employers and employees
– Car Dealership: List and sell vehicles
– Classifieds: Users sign up and list their adverts
– Coupon/ Daily Deals: Host coupons, specials and deals with partners
– Intranet/Extranet: Manage your organizations communications flow
– Social: Chatting, file sharing and connecting
– Real Estate: List and sell Real Estate
Other: Select this option if none of the other options sufficiently describe what you are looking for.
Shipping is the process of sending client their purchased product. If you are selling digital products, like e-books, you will not require this option.
How many products would you like us to add to your spread sheet? You have the option to add your own additional products to this spread sheet over and above what we add for you.
Products can be added in 3 ways.
1. Add you own products, one by one to your website.
2. We can add your products for you, one by one to your website. (For this option we can the first few products, and teach you how to add the rest on your own)
3. A spread sheet detailing all your products can be used to upload all your products to your website at once.
What is a Product?
Products populate your online store and will be the items featured on your shop page. These are specific to your business and are a crucial part of the ordering and checkout process. We find clients often confuse an online store with a product catalogue. We have allowed for our clients to now choose between both by selecting whether they want a payment gateway.
An online store vs a product catalogue
An online store includes a payment gateway which clients will use to directly order and purchase your products online without having to contact you to do this. If the shop lacks a payment gateway it automatically becomes a product catalogue that simply showcases your products and has no pricing and ordering involved. Users will have to enquire directly with you and cannot buy your products directly off the website.
A product is a maximum of 200 words.
Your product spread sheet can be setup in one of two ways.
1. We can create the spread sheet for you.
2. You can send us a spread sheet that you have created detailing all your products. We will send you a template of the format that the spread sheet should follow.
A server crash, hacks, malware, user error, deleted files and running bad commands – All of these things can completely wipe out your website site forever.
Backing your website up routinely is strongly recommended – this option comes with 1GB free storage.
SEO is essentially how your website ranks on Google. The higher you rank higher with Google, the more people your website can be seen by.
The Standard setup of SEO includes using free plugins and making sure there are no major issues preventing your site from ranking. It includes:
– Add website to Google Webmaster Tools
– Add website to Bing Web Master Tools
– Add website to Google analytics
– Setup of SEO by Yoast plugin
– Sitemap.html setup
– Sitemap.xml setup
– robot.txt file setup
– Setup of WP Fastest cache plugin. (Speeds up the website.)
– This includes optimising the home page copy for one selected keyword
Premium SEO setup gives you a kick start, and gets your website ready to start with monthly SEO. It includes:
– Add website to Google Webmaster Tools
– Add website to Bing Web Master Tools
– Add website to Google analytics
– Setup of Premium SEO by Yoast plugin
– Setup of Local SEO by Yoast for WordPress plugin
– Setup of Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin (This is for eCommerce websites only)
– Sitemap.html setup
– Sitemap.xml setup
– robot.txt file setup
– Setup of WP Fastest cache plugin. (Speeds up the website.)
– This includes optimising the home page copy for one selected keyword
Copy is the written content on your website. Simply put, the words. You can either supply us with your own copy or we can assist you by writing it for you.
Why would I need someone to write copy for me?
This mainly has to do with SEO. SEO is essentially how your website ranks on Google. Copy is a large part of what can make you rank higher with Google, and therefore, be seen by more people. Having your website copy written by a professional will ensure that your website is optimised for Google’s best practices, ranking and of course, online marketing.
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Products populate your online store and will be the items featured on your shop page. These are specific to your business and are a crucial part of the ordering and checkout process. We find clients often confuse an online store with a product catalogue. We have allowed for our clients to now choose between both by selecting whether they want a payment gateway.
An online store includes a payment gateway which clients will use to directly order and purchase your products online without having to contact you to do this. If the shop lacks a payment gateway it automatically becomes a product catalogue that simply showcases your products and has no pricing and ordering involved. Users will have to enquire directly with you and cannot buy your products directly off the website.
A product is a maximum of 200 words.
A parallax is a modern-feeling, one page website. Don’t be confused by the one page though – a parallax can be a large site. A parallax website continuously scrolls through all its content. There is no linking to lots of individual pages – this makes your website smoother and faster. When you choose an option in the menu of a parallax, the site will automatically scroll to that section. If you are still unsure whether this is the correct option for you feel free to contact us.
This is a website which includes general functions EXCLUDING things like eCommerce/Client Portals/Directories/Property Listings/Custom Development/Forums and the likes. Bear in mind our mock ups/themes we send through to you showcase the full functionality that we can use to build your website. If you are still unsure whether this is the correct option for you feel free to contact us.
Our online store option brings the same functionality of the website design package above but also includes some crucial features that are necessary to sell products on your website. We integrate a payment gateway so users can safely checkout once they are ready to purchase products off your website. We also include a shopping cart featuring all your products on sale. The perk here is that you also have the same control as in the website design package to add your own products and content as freely as you please.
A parallax website consists of only one page, but many sections. All your content is divided into sections on a page. You can either scroll continuously down the page to view content, or click on an option in the menu, and the website will automatically scroll to that section.
A section is a maximum of 400 words.
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A video post consists of a video and up to 50 words of text. The fee includes creation of the video and text. Please note that videos are limited to 15 second text based videos. This can include vector imagery and animation but not photographic imagery or recordings.
This fee is the amount of money that will be paid directly to your chosen advertising platform/s (e.g.: Facebook) in order for your advert to run. While the fee is paid to The Web Shack to manage, The Web Shack then pays this money forward to your chosen advertising platform.
Please note that your total quote will include both the management fee and the advertising budget.
This fee covers the design, creation, changes and scheduling of all the posts you selected above. It also covers the management of accounts.
Please note that your total quote will include both the management fee and the advertising budget.
Your advertising budget is the amount of money you pay directly to the social media platform in order to boost or advertise your posts. Please note that we charge a 15% management fee on advertising budget. This management fee includes the setup of advertising accounts, set of adverts, including targeting, as well as, managing the adverts performance. Example: If you select the option for R1000 worth of advertising budget, R150 of that will be deducted as the management fee and the remaining R850 will be allocated to your accounts paid advertising.
A blog is a post consisting of up to 700 words. The fee includes research, writing and posting. All blogs include one stock image. In order to post the blog to your website, we will require limited permission access to the back end of your site.
Image posts consist of an image and up to 50 words of text. The fee includes the creation of both image and text.
A text post is a status update consisting of text only. This fee includes the writing of a post of up to 200 words, or the character limit of the social media platform. Please note, if Instagram is one of your additional platforms, text posts will not be cross-platform posted to Instagram.
When we post to your primary platform, we also post to the platforms you select here. This fee includes adjusting each post to suit the best practices for each additional platform.
Additional platforms are above and beyond your primary platform. Are you using more than one platform? If you select yes, this fee includes the use of Loomly. Loomly is a social media managing program that facilitates an approval process – we never post without your approval. It merges all information from many accounts, onto one, easy to understand platform. This allows you to keep an eye on all your social media with ease.
Your primary social media platform is the platform you place the most importance on. If you only make use of a single platform, it is your primary platform. When we design you strategy and post, we keep your primary social media platform at the top of our minds. This fee includes the account management of this platform.
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Every domain requires a top and second level domain name. The “.co.za” part of a domain represents the top-level domain name. The “.co” stands for general use by South African and non-South African persons and entities. The “.za” part of the domain is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for South Africa.
Which domain purpose do I choose?
The domain purpose relies a lot on what purpose you would like your company to have and where your domain is going to be displayed. For example if you need your website to be featured internationally, commonly a “.com” top level domain name will be used from South Africa. A “.co.za” is better if your purpose is to infiltrate the local market. There are also non-profit domain purposes and alternatives to .co.za. We generally supply .org and .net but have had requests to host a .church and many other types.
A domain name locates an organization or other entity on the Internet. For example, the domain name www.shack.co.za is what you landed on to get to the page you are viewing currently.
Things to consider when choosing a domain name?
First of all when you are considering a domain the first step is to check its availability. There are databases and websites to check if a domain is registered or not. The next important thing to consider is that your domain is relevant to the company. It usually revolves around the company name. For example our company is called “The Web Shack” so the domain name “shack” fits. We have also abbreviated the domain name to an extent as it is important also to keep your name short. Having a long domain name makes it hard for someone to search for you on a search engine if they are unsure of all your company information. You also have to be aware that numbers and hyphens, etc are not recommended in a domain name and can affect your websites ranking on search engines.
A payment gateway is setup to facilitate credit card purchases on your website. It usually involves a plugin which needs to be setup and linked to your own unique merchant account. People will not interact with your website and pay for products online if they don’t see a valid payment gateway that they trust. We at The Web Shack integrate your payment gateway and link it to your relevant merchant account so any and all purchases will go directly to your business bank account.
We at The Web Shack recommend the PayFast payment gateway to our clients as it integrates well with our ecommerce software, however their are numerous types available in South Africa. Listed below are some of the more popular choices:
The directory & listings option is only for clients looking to create an online directory where users login and add listings to their website. The type of industries we are talking about are property, travel & leisure, automotive sales as well as general business directories to name a few. Bear in mind this integration does not include The Web Shack adding any listings to the website, we simply build the framework for this to be possible.
You may have seen a couple of our websites on our portfolio include an events calendar or events listing pages. This is created using the events management feature. We basically setup and integrate an events management plugin on top of our standard website package which has functionality to add events as well as pull events created straight from Facebook to the events calendar on your website, etc.
Our online bookings option is for clients looking to add a booking system on to their website. This may include things such as tickets sales, table reservations as well as room bookings, etc. This is also achieved through the integration of plugins on top of our standard website package. Feel free to contact us directly should you be unsure if any of the above features will work for you.