COVID-19 South African Resource Portal - Learn More
COVID-19 South African Resource Portal - Learn More
Standard Website Design
As you would expect a Standard Website has a selection of pages which your visitor can navigate to by clicking on any of the menu buttons. Traditionally these websites have a Home page, an About page, a Services and or Products Page and a Contact Page. They allow you to feature information and images about your service or product. A standard website can be arranged or organized in many different ways. With links to pages that feature popular products in the text of your home page as well as through buttons in your navigation bar. Except for the navigation and footer bars every page on a Standard Website can be completely unique.
An e-Commerce Website
An e-Commerce website is similar to a standard website with the exception that it includes a product database with an associated set of templates to display these products. So while it is possible to have unique pages on an e-Commerce website. For example the companies About page or a Blog Page. The product section of an e-Commerce website is more structured. Each product is displayed on it’s page in a uniform way.
WordPress
All our websites, both standard and e-commerce are built using WordPress.
It appears just below the Validate Quote Link in your email.
Choosing a Plugin
There are many conditional logic plugins available. Some easier than others. Some free and some premium.
We’ve found that for complex conditional logic forms that premium plugins are the way to go.
We recommend:
Both these plugins have annual subscriptions. But if you choose not to renew you wont lose your forms functionality. Click on the images to go through to each plugins pricing page.
Getting help with the logic
Conditional logic is pretty straight forward. For example: If the answer to field123 is X, show field001 but if the answer is A then show field020. The further on you go with your logic the more fields you will have.
So while a site visitor may only see 4 fields after having answered all the questions. In the form logic you may have as many as 20 fields.
Let us know if you need help with that.
Styling your form
Most plugins give you a selection of themes to choose from. But if you want your form to match your organizations colors then you will need custom styling.
Here’s an example of the same form. The first has a theme applied and the second has been custom styled.
Why should I invest in a premium contact form plugin?
There are two reasons.
What does a premium plugin give me that a free plugin wont?
When one considers all the activities that a genuinely interested site visitors submission can trigger, it makes sense to have automatic systems, set up. Standard contact forms do not have the ability to trigger and interact with the vast array of email, CRM and third party services that premium plugins accomodate for.
Premium plugins allow for complex calculations
Are your staff spending hours issuing quotes. Wouldn’t you prefer if the staff spent their time following up and closing the quotes that had been issued? This is just one of the ways that a premium contact form with calculations can save you time and free you up to more of what really matters.
What is shipping?
It’s the process of how you get your physical product delivered to your site visitor.
Tip
If you are selling digital products you do not need this option.
What shipping options do I have?
What South African shipping companies work with WooCommerce sites?
What is a Payment Gateway?
A payment gateway is a plugin that enables your website to accept card payments. They provide a secure online environment, essential if you want people to pay for products online. Please note that the majority of payment gateways in South Africa will require that you have a merchant account set up with your banking institution.
Can you set the plugin up so that payments go directly to my bank account?
Yes, we link your payment gateway to your merchant account so that purchases made through your website go directly to your business bank account.
Can I choose my payment gateway?
Yes, although please bear in mind that the gateway must be able to accept payments in South Africa and must integrate with WooCommerce. Here are a list of gateways that operate in South Africa. Limenco Design recommends PayFast.
What is a catalogue only site?
WooCommerce can be set up as either an online store – Where visitors order and pay for products without contacting you directly. As well as a catalogue site – Where your products are showcased in the same format as an ecommerce site but there are no prices or payment facilities. Visitors who are interested, are instead advised to contact you directly.
Use this field to list how many products we need to add to your spreadsheet.
The best way to learn something is to see how somebody else does it first.
For this reason we can add all your products to your spreadsheet or a few to get you started.
The key to having all your products displayed correctly is to ensure that your spreadsheet data conforms to the formats required by WooCommerce. If you want to upload your products yourself we will send you a template for the format that the spreadsheet should follow.
If you prefer for us to do this for you, please select the ‘Yes Please’ option provided.
Use this field to list how many individually loaded products you need?
Tip
We recommend using the spreadsheet selection for when you have more than 20 products.
WooCommerce gives you 2 Options for uploading your products.
What if I want to upload products one by one but am not confident that Ill get it right?
We can upload the first few products for you and then teach you how to add the rest on your own.
Is there a limit to how many products I can have on WooCommerce?
Yes, WooCommerce has a 1 million product limit.
Is there a limit to how much information I can add to each product?
Yes and No, If we upload your product for you we set a 200 word limit. If you do it yourself, you can add more information.
When a website needs more than 10 images per page.
Depending on your business you may have lots of images that need to be uploaded. Here at Limenco Design we accommodate for up to 10 client provided images per page design.
Should you require more images you are welcome to upload them yourself or ask us to do this for you.
Our service includes optimizing the image prior to upload (reducing its kb size) as well as ensuring file names are relevant to the subject matter they are supporting.
Tip
Correctly naming your image files can help your search engine rankings.
What is a Portfolio
Similar to a blog article, portfolio items appear on their own page and that page can be formatted in any number of layouts. The difference with a portfolio comes in the additional functionality
What is a Blog
A blog (a truncation of “weblog”) is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Ref Wikipedia
What is a blog article?
A blog article is a single page. In WordPress blog articles are referred to as ‘posts’.
What sort of information can a blog article contain?
A post can contain pretty much any sort of information and can be laid out in a variety of ways. The choice is yours. For example you may have a collection of newsletters that you want site visitors to have access to.
If you need a website with more than 20 ‘web pages’. List them here.
Bear in mind though, that a web page is different from a Blog Article a Portfolio Item or an E-Commerce Product. All of these look like a web page to site visitors, but they are not.
If you’re not sure how many ‘web pages’ you need. Start off by including about 4.
What are the threats my website faces?
When it comes to a WordPress website there are a variety of ways to gain unauthorised access. The most common is with the admin username and password. Besides this hackers can exploit any number of coding vulnerabilities.
Once in a hacker has access to everything on your website. They can both access all the data stored in your website. For example form submissions. As well as add malicious code.
What are the consequences of being hacked?
Google is constantly on the hunt for harmful websites and as soon as it finds one, it blacklists it. This results in that URL losing all of it’s rankings and becoming virtually invisible. The fact that your website was hacked is not the issue, what is the issue is that your site contains coding that is harmful to others. You will be left with no choice but to start your rank building journey again.
Depending on the information stored on your website and what the hacker does with it, you may (unlikely but not impossible) be found liable for damages suffered by site visitors. And while you may or may not face legal repercussions the chances of losing market confidence are most certainly just as bad. Losing credibility can have far reaching consequences on your business.
In the case of e-Commerce websites the threat is even worse. Once they’re in they have access to everything your online store has done.
How do hackers get the username and password?
A common hacker tactic is called a ‘brute force attack’. Here a program is set to methodically enter username and passwords until the right variation is found.
How does website security work?
Website security focuses on making unauthorised access as difficult as possible. Limiting log on attempts and blocking known bad IP addresses are two well known ways of making your website less attractive to a hacker.
Premium wordpress website security.
Ignoring website security threats and leaving your website unprotected is never advised. Our premium security plugin offers the following:
Select this option to find out more.
What is a Website Backup
Your website is made up of files and folders which are stored on your ISP’s server. In simple terms a server is a large fast computer and accessing this server (through the internet) are your site visitors.
A backup of your website is therefor a copy of all of these files and folders saved in a location that is not accessible to internet users.
ISP’s Provide Backups
Most ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) make regular backups of the files stored on their servers. In the case of our ISP, copies are made 3 times every day. Then once on a Sunday (kept for a week) and then on the 1st of every month. (Kept for a month).
When it comes to internet hosting, security and safety is very important and there are a variety of security systems in place. As an example one of the security measures is that the physical location of these servers tends not to be made public.
However as important and safeguarded as these computers are, the saying ‘never say never’ exists for a reason. Should anything happen to a server that your website (and it’s copies) are hosted on then your website is gone. All of it would simply disappear.
External Backup Facility
Investing in a paid for and automated offsite backup up facility provides peace of mind. To find out more about this premium plugin please select this option.
What is Website Speed?
The amount of time it takes a browser to load your webpage.
What factors affect website speed?
There are 4 factors involved.
You can not do anything about your site visitors internet speed or the state of their browser. Further, with the most affordable hosting packages available at ISP’s being shared hosting. Your only option on a busy server is to upgrade to a dedicated server at an additional cost.
Fortunately Google does not penalize you for a slow #3 and #4 and server traffic volumes vary depending on the time of day. So in essence your real challenge comes in ensuring that your websites coding is as slim and trim as possible.
What are the benefits of improving your websites speed?
With WordPress the most affordable way to do this is with the addition of a premium plugin. Select this option to find out more.
What is SEO
SEO consists of a range of marketing, writing, designing and web development skills that come together with the aim of improving your search engine rankings as well as your site visitor conversions.
Why is SEO important?
SEO is what makes the difference between being found online and remaining buried way down the list of search results. It also plays a big role in converting visitors into customers.
How many types of SEO are there?
There are a multitude of ways to influence search engines and your target market into choosing your service or product. SEO methods and techniques are constantly changing.
Is SEO the same for everyone?
No, every business has different challenges when it comes to SEO.
What does the SEO Setup include?
Both the Standard and Premium SEO Setup packages include:
Metrics
Once your website goes live it’s important to track key metrics. In order to get this data you first need to link your website to analytics tools, namely:
Indexing
Getting found in search results means search engines first need to visit and categorize your site. To facilitate this there are files made up of coding that help them get that done correctly. We create and set these files up for you.
Caching
Caching (pronounced cash -ing) every time a visitor visits your site a copy of the page they view is saved on their device. This can mean, many seconds saved in the long run. We set this up for you using WP Fastest Cache (the free version)
Keyword Optimisation
If you read the guidelines and info for copywriting then you’ll already have an idea of the challenges involved in getting search engines to rank your website. While every website is different there are some standard activities that take place no matter what the situation.
Difference between the Standard and Premium SEO Setup Packages
The difference between the two packages comes in with the Yoast SEO Plugin. With over 5 million installs, Yoast SEO outperforms all other WordPress SEO plugins. To read more about the differences between the free and premium version, visit Yoast SEO Plugin
Once the plugin is installed we carefully move through the site making sure that each page is correctly setup according to their recommendations.
Is this all the SEO I need?
No, SEO is not a one time activity. Because not all websites are the same, the ideal situation is to assign your SEO activities to someone who is going to work on it constantly. Monitoring analytics, keyword analysis, content strategies, content creation and site audits should be a monthly activity at the least, if not a weekly activity.
SEO is very much the kind of activity where if you are not watching it you can miss important opportunities. To find out about our SEO packages visit…
What is a stock photo?
Hiring a professional photographer is expensive. But thanks to a couple of really good image banks. its now possible to buy professionally taken photographs online.
Whats the difference between a stock photo and a photo that I took or paid to have taken.
The difference is that you don’t own the image outright. Meaning the image still belongs to the owner but you are licenced to use it on your website or in a pre approved publication.
In what situation would I not be able to use a stock image
For example, lets say that you launch a major advertising campaign where an image you purchased becomes synonymous with your brand. In a case like that you would need to either buy the copyright or an extended licence for that image.
What happens if I use images off the internet.
The days of downloading an image and using it in your website unnoticed are gone. Now days there are programs (similar to search engines) that scan through every one of the billions and billions of websites on the internet specifically looking for copyrighted images and videos.
And when they find you, they have the ability to have your entire website removed. Not to mention they are protected by each countries laws and can come after you legally.
Using legal images, audio and video makes sense in the long run.
Can I use free images?
Yes, there are plenty of websites that offer free images legally. Bear in mind though, that free image banks don’t have the same resources as professional stock image banks. Which means that finding the ‘right’ free photograph for your business can take much longer than expected. And as the saying goes time is money.
How do I work out how many words I need?
If you haven’t created any website copy yet, then a good rule of thumb is as follows.
Average Word Counts
As an example this popup contains 68 words.
What is copywriting?
Copywriting is the re-arranging of words to make things sell better. It is a text form of salesmanship. But there’s a lot more to it than that.
What is copy?
The word copy can have slightly different meanings depending on what industry is using it. In advertising and marketing, it means wording that is arranged in such a manner as to encourage consumers to buy goods or services.
But when it’s used in publishing for example a book or magazine, it’s generally considered as the text material found in that publication.
What is website copy or copywriting?
The text information you put onto your website will play a big role in your site visitors’ decision-making process. How you say what you say can be the difference between a sale or no sale.
However, website copy fulfills another purpose as well. To better understand this we need to look across into the field commonly known as SEO or Search Engine Optimisation.
Simply put this means, that in order to be ‘found’ online, aka appear high in search engine results. Your text content must also accommodate for the words and phrases your buying public use when searching for your industry online.
So not only must your website’s content be accurate and written in a way that is easy to read and gain knowledge from, but it must also include the words and phrases that someone who has no insight into your industry is most likely to use when searching for the service or product you provide.
How you write depends on your target audience.
The days of writing copy that appeals to everyone are gone. There are a multitude of audiences in the world. Each of them having the ability to click out and away from your website without explanation. Keeping your audience depends on speaking the right language.
For example, we would expect the text on an investment banker’s website to be very conservative, slang words would be considered inappropriate.
However, a website selling makeup products to the younger generation would need to be more snatched.
Definition Snatched in 2020: The word “snatched” has two common definitions. The first is when someone is wearing something that is very fashionable or looks really good. The second refers to ganging up on someone who has already lost an argument. So instead of giving the loser sympathy one supports the victor with the phrase Snatched.
Getting help with your website’s copy can make a huge difference in the long run and is well worth considering.
What is a banner?
For a good few years now the first thing you see when a home page opens is a banner image, also called a hero image. It fills the screen and normally has some sort of headline text.
Whats the difference between a banner and a slider.
Banners are static and sliders are animated. Meaning text and images move onto or off the page while the background image remains static. By adding sliders (images) a new arrangement of images and animations can automatically slide onto the screen.
Can I have a video banner?
Yes, A video banner uses slightly different coding but is essentially the same as a static image banner. This is because there are no animations that move across the screen.
Can I have a video slider?
Yes, although we would caution against this as a video set to autoplay with animated graphics moving across it can come across as being too busy.
Who provides the images or videos that go into a banner or a slider?
The images that make up the background of a slider or banner can come from you or you can purchase stock images through our stock image section. Bear in mind that this image must be available in high resolution. As any pixelation will be noticed on large screens.
How many animations can I have on each slider.
Our banner designs accomodate for up to 8 animations per slider.
What does animation mean when referring to a slider.
Slider animation is different to movie animation in that the element that moves eg text or an image is itself static. Behind the scenes it is encapsulated in an invisible container. This container is then moved onto the page in a variety of ways. For example it can slide in from the left or right or top or bottom. Or it can fade, or bounce or wobble onto the page. There are a multitude of ways sliders can be animated.
Can I Only have a banner on my home page?
Banners or sliders can be put onto any of your webpages. Although most websites tend to forgo full screen banner on their subpages.
What is a favicon?
A favicon /ˈfæv.ɪˌkɒn/ (short for favorite icon), also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, tab icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon, is a file containing one or more small icons, associated with a particular website or web page.
Favicons are the small 16px x 16px icons that sit to the left of your browser tabs wording.
Do you need a favicon?
All internet browsers are configured to include this tiny image alongside the tabs wording. Its the first thing visitor see as they wait for your page to load. When no favicon has been provided, browsers default to a ‘no favicon’ image which gives the impression that your webpage is incomplete or has a problem.
Overview of what is included in our new logo design package
We have two logo design options.
The first is a new logo. As you would expect we are looking to assist you to find the best graphical representation of your core values. Once the questions have been answered we design three separate logo’s in the first round of design mockups. From there we take the elements you like best and refine your vision through a further two step modification process.
Finally we present you with the following four file formats.
2. A logo refresh
It often happens that a company loses it’s original high quality logo file. Or that a logo designed in the 90’s is simply no longer up to the job required by today’s high quality screen.
When this happens you need your logo converted into an .svg file. You might also want to take the opportunity to get different arrangements. For example rather than having your company name appear below your logo’s symbol you want it alongside or visa versa. Or you could want design effects removed and a smoother more modern looking design.
Based on the brief, we present you with between two and three upgrade versions or your original logo. From there you have up to 3 opportunities to refine the design.
What is a Logo
Online Dictionary – ‘a symbol or other small design adopted by an organization to identify its products.’
Where does the word Logo come from.
The word logo goes all the way back to ancient Greek times, deriving from the word ‘logos’ which translates loosely as a combination of the word ‘word’ and ‘imprint’.
How is a website logo different from a normal Logo
Ideally your logo should stay the same across all your communication channels. However this isnt always possible, and today many companies create versions of their logo to suit the application they are being used in.
How has logo design changed since the internet?
If you need a website with more than 20 ‘web pages’. List them here.
If you’re not sure how many ‘web pages’ you need. Start off by including about 4.
Tip
Remember to include any special index pages you may want.
What does ‘Content Upload’ mean?
This section is for those who are upgrading their websites and already have a lot of online content that needs to go into the new website.
For example years worth of photographs or newsletters.
What is a Page Section?
Similar to most written documents, website pages are often broken up into sections. For example your first section could have information and images that you feel is the most important for your site visitor to see. Then as they scroll down the page to the next section they might find more detailed explanations relating to specific aspects of your product or service.
Page Sections as they relate to a One Page Website
You’ll probably already have noticed that all website pages have sections. What makes the sections on a One page website different is that instead of clicking a menu bar item and being taken to a new page, you’re instead treated to a smooth scroll down to that specific section.
Section Limits
Here at Limenco Design we set a 4 section limit for One Page Websites. This doesn’t mean that your web page cant have more sections, just that we’ll need to find out more about what you need in order to provide you with a competitive quote.
What is a Website Page?
A website page is an online document with it’s own unique address. To see this for yourself watch how the address in the website address bar changes each time you click into a new page.
A One Page Website
As you would expect choosing the one page option gets you a one page website. One pagers have become very popular with the mobile device generation. Instead of clicking and having a new page open, all your content is placed on a single page and clicking simply scrolls you to the relevant section. These websites are designed for mobile but look just as good on a desktop pc.
How much content can I put onto a webpage?
Technically a web page can be as long or as short as you want it to be. Please bear in mind though, that here at Limenco Design we have a 400 words per page limit. This doesn’t mean that your web page cant have more sections or words, just that we’ll need to find out more about what you need in order to provide you with a competitive quote.
Web Pages on an e-Commerce Site
Besides your products, your website will also need to give site visitors information about your company and how you do things. For example you can have an About, Contact, FAQ or Blog page. There really is no limit to the number of pages you can have on your website. Links to these pages will appear in your sites Menu bar.
Page Length
Every page can be as long or short as you want although please bear in mind that here at Limenco Design we have a 400 words per page limit. This doesn’t mean that your web page cant have more sections or words, just that we’ll need to find out more about what you need in order to provide you with a competitive quote.
Tip
Do not include products in this selection. There is a section further down where we ask about how many products you have.
“Siri (or Alexa ) deliver 6 muffins to the office.” And that’s it, the transaction is done, you carry on driving. Half an hour later the muffins get delivered. If you’re a bakery that delivers fresh hot muffins, where does that leave you? The answer is nowhere. Unless you paid Siri to use you. Instead imagine if this future buyer said, Siri get 6 muffins delivered to the office from Joe’s Bakery.
The key is that he specifically asked for Joe’s Bakery. Because Joe’s Bakery had done a really good job of connecting and staying connected with the community around them. While there is still much to be done before we can enjoy this level of convenience. Thinking with this approach now, sets your business up for the future. The solution is brand building.
Reasons why we decided on a single location specific service.
1) Location: Probably the best reason for adding a location is understanding the intent behind it. As consumers we tend to get location specific the closer we get to the buying decision. So even though web design is not an in store purchase this location intent has worked it’s way into the Google algorithm, now when you type “web design” into Google a recommended search term drops down.
2) Single Service: Pinning ourselves down to a single service. This was a tough one. In the end we established that what our target audience really wants to know is whether or not we can build them a website.
The logics behind using the location Johannesburg
It’s ones of those things that us Joburgers do without even thinking about it. Visit with anyone from another province or country and when they ask where we’re from we’ll say Johannesburg. Not Ekurhuleni or The West Rand. Why? Johannesburg is South Africa’s most well known city. Plus there was also the not so small question of how many people search for Web Design Johannesburg as opposed to Web Design Gauteng for example. Research showed that 96% of online searchers prefer the words Web Design Johannesburg as opposed to Website Design Gauteng.
Who is searching for Web Design Johannesburg
Establishing a target market is a key aspect in any advertising. For many, the first place we start is with an age category. According to research the majority of people who search for the term Web Design Johannesburg are between the ages of 35 to 44.
That’s Perfect For Us!
Not only is this an age category we understand well but it is also the age category of most of the managers and directors responsible for procuring their companies web design services. Our ideal client!
Web Design Johannesburg Search Volume and CPC (Cost per Click)
A keywords search volume and CPC is often a strong indicator of how hard that keyword is going to be to rank for. In the case of Web Design Johannesburg ranking for this keyword is not for the feint hearted. With a search volume of over 1000 pm and a CPC of over R70 this keyword is highly sought after and well worth every effort to rank organically for.
Getting to page one and maintaining that position remains a vital part or our business strategy.
If you’re interested in getting the data you need to make the right keyword decision, talk to us.