WEBSITE DESIGN

If you have software on your computer is there any reason why you can’t design your own website?  You can of course make your own website! 
So why pay someone else to design your site?  Using a professional offers the following benefits:

  • Website online quickly
  • Professional design with easy to navigate site
  • Error free pages and menus
  • SEO can be included from the start which is cheaper than having to re-write pages later
  • We offer a website that once built you can make changes yourself
  • You can then concentrate on swapping links and building your website presence

Are all Website Designers much the same?
No.  There are more website developers online than any other profession I have ever searched for.  Designers can range from 11 year old children to highly trained designers with years of experience. 

  • When choosing a designer ask to see samples and references.  A designer should have the technical knowledge to make sure your site ‘works’ and the design flair to ensure your site looks good and attracts customers.
  • A good designer will also incorporate SEO into your site.  Be wary of those who don’t pay enough attention to search engine placement, it is not unheard of for them to come back at a later date pointing out that you need more work done to improve traffic.
  • Many designers offer CMS websites which means you can do the upkeep yourself if you chose to.  I haven’t found any other CMS websites that offer both design and SEO apart from our own SEF(Search Engine Friendly) CMS.
  • Contact Us to quote to build your website.

 

About SEO and how it works.

What is a Website Hit?
A common misunderstanding is that the number of hits relates to the number of visitors.  A hit is the number of times each part of a website is asked to be opened by a web browser.
Example:
If you open the home page of www.canzdesign.com (which has approx. 50 graphics plus the page itself and the CSS formatting the page) it would count as 60 hits, so one visitor looking at two or three pages could easily count for 200 hits.

Is the Number of Visitors to a Site Important?
The number of visitors to a site is important if they are visitors interested in purchasing from you.  Careful SEO can target visitors likely to purchase as opposed to browsers or visitors looking at copying graphics or wording etc from your site for free.

What Should I look for when Buying a Website?

  • How well the site is indexed by search engines and how many key phrases used by search engines are found in this website.
  • If search engines visit regularly and how many people find the site through search engine results – this will show how search engine friendly the site is.
  • Are the visitors buying.  If the website is making good money then this will be reflected in the purchase price.  A good rule of thumb is “if it’s going cheap there is usually a good reason”.

I plan to start a business next year; when should I think about a website?
ASAP!  The sooner you buy a domain name the better.  With a domain name you can start to use your own email address, nothing puts off prospective clients more than a hotmail or yahoo email.  Using your ISP’s email address can also be a big mistake as if in the future (due to the competitive pricing) you wish to change ISP you do not want to have to re-market a new email address.

Can I just have a domain name email address without a website?
Definitely!  Or for a small investment you could have a ‘business card’ website.  This would be a page listing your company logo, slogan, a couple of sentences about your business and your contact details.  You would also have 3 domain email addresses.  This option could cost you as little as $60 to build the page and $50 per year for hosting.

Is there ever a time when a website would not be useful to my business?
Yes.  If you are looking for a quick dollar with minimal investment then, like any business, a website will not reap rewards.  A business website is like any other business, expect to put a lot of work into making it special.
The most you could realistically get for your $1,000 is a small website (which would cut your print advertising requirements significantly).  In your print advertising, instead of outlining all your services, simply add your URL to the advert and guide prospects to your site with a promise that will encourage them to look it up.

If CanzDesign did everything for me what would I expect to pay?
This depends completely on what you would like us to do for you.
Examples:
A basic website selling 100 products, with 5 web pages describing your business and products.

  • A site this size would cost a maximum of $3,500 for your  domain name, hosting for the first year, design of the website and use of our CMS.
  • If you would like your products added (and you would provide these details), it will cost between $.50 -$5 per product depending what work needs to be done to your pictures. Average $2.50
  • Basic web page optimization $100 per page.
  • Adding your website to the main search engines and directories $100

The total would be approx. $4100

Advanced SEO – The sky’s the limit!  We suggest that once your site is online, the basic optimisation done and search engines added, leave further optimisation for six months, until the search engines have found your website.
We can then determine what further SEO is required and where.
Finding link partners could be started around month 2.  Adding 2 or 3 partners per month is more valuable for search engine ranking than adding  150 or 200 at once. 

  • Each valuable link takes approx. 2 hours.
  • Spam links are to be avoided, we look for links which compliment your business.
  • Contact the link’s webmaster about exchanging links.
  • Add the link to your website.
  • Total approx. $3,000 per year.

Add your website to the 10 main directories $200.
Tweaking all Main Pages for best possible results $100 per page.  Many companies optimize only their home page but greater results can be had if all pages are tweaked.  This price also includes watching and analyzing website statistics to ensure optimisation has greatest value.  Total approx. $400.

Summary If you provided your content and images you could expect to pay approx. $4000 for the initial website and approx. $5600 ($300 per month) for website optimisation over the first year.
After this initial year your could pay around $200 per year for website hosting, renewal of domain name and possibly $300 per year for updates or changes to your site. You shouldn’t need anymore SEO, or just some tweaking a couple of times a year Canz SEO often does one lot of tweaking free per year to clients that have paid for a full years SEO.