Facebook and other social media channels are great promotional channels for many businesses. People get to hear about your business as you share posts about the services you provide and products you sell.

How-ever posts get buried as time passes. If a customer visits your Facebook page they will probably only see a snapshot of who you are and what you offer. If they are seeking specific or detailed information they may not find it.

With a website your customers learn about your business as they pro-actively browse your products and services. They’re at your website to find information and can expect to see this in an easy to navigate format. They’re more in control of what they choose to read. They get to see the whole picture, not just a part of it.

Check out our pricing and portfolio page to find out more about how DIY Digital can create a website for you.

Prices for a custom built website starts at $1,200+gst. Cost can vary depending on how big the site will be and what functionality is required.

Check out our pricing page for more information.

Many start-ups and sole traders have a limited budget, low computer literacy or are inexperienced website designers. We’ve met many business owners who over-estimate the empathy clients will have for their lack of money, computer know-how or design skills. They often feel that customers will feel sorry for them as they are a small start-up business, and this empathy will translate to them forgiving them for having an unfinished or unprofessional website, or no website at all.

Potential clients don’t usually care about the back story as to why a website looks bad. They just see it as an unprofessional looking website. An unfinished or badly designed website makes your business look like you’re not very good at what you do.

People want to be confident their purchase, or decision, is in safe hands. People want to be able to trust you and your business.

A website is one of the easiest, and cheapest ways of making your business look professional. You’ll want a great looking website if you:

• want to land a big deal with a key stakeholder
• generate business through referral or word-of-mouth
• have a long lead time between a client thinking about making a purchase to actually making that purchase
• provide an urgent service
• provide an impulse or discretionary buy
• sell products

With over 100 website builds we are an experiencd team who can deliver your business a great site. Check out examples of our sites here.

Can I see 3-4 examples of websites you’ve previously developed?

Is there anything NOT included in the quote that I could require for this site?

How many revisions on the design do I get?

Have you developed a site with this functionality before?

Is website hosting included?

Is email hosting included?

What annual fees can I expect?

Can you explain what this item in the quote means?

What website building platform do you use and why?

Will I get full access to my site once it is live?

Do you provide training upon handover? If not, do you have any recommendations for training providers. If so, how do you provide the training?

Absolutely!

On handover, we will give you access to our unique and comprehensive step-by-step video course in how to edit and update your website.

You will also be given a free invitation to the monthly live Q&A website editing zoom sessions. Our clients find this ongoing access to training invaluable to their learning.

Find out more about our WordPress Divi website editing training course here.

You need to provide us with:

• the number of pages you’d like on the site
• any functionality (eg. shop, online booking) you need
• the words you want on the site
• your logo
• authentic images and photos of you, your team and your business.

Providing good quality photos is usually the hardest part of the process, however the more good, high resolution images we have the better the site will be. We can source stock images on your behalf, but we’d much prefer to have authentic images of your business.

We also benefit from seeing 2-3 other websites you like.

Feel free to book in a time to speak with us about your new website.

The quote is instrumental in defining the requirements of your site. It sets out what’s in scope and what’s out of scope.

Ask the website developer who gave you the quote to explain what the items mean.

Questions that will elicit informative answers are:

• What happens if I don’t have this item?
• Are there other options for achieving the same thing?
• Do I need this item from the very beginning or can I add it later?

Sometimes its hard to avoid using jargon in a quote as it is both a guide for you and the website developer when they build the site.

Over time it is beneficial to understand some the words being used. A Google search maybe able to tell you what some of the stuff means.

At DIY Digital we include the following SEO with our new website builds

• Installation of on-page SEO tool
• Add homepage title and meta-description
• Conduct page load speed tests
• Ensure for mobile responsiveness
• Verify site with Google Search Console and submit sitemap

The following SEO is not included

• Off-page (eg. links and citations)
• Keyword research
• Alt text on images
• Ongoing Google Search Console monitoring and fixing

At DIY Digital all of our websites are built to good technical SEO standards. However, if you are trying to compete for keywords which are in high demand, you are likely to need additional SEO services beyond what we can give you.

There are many platforms available for you to build your own website.

The ability for you to build your own website usually depends on your:

• Computer and technical skills
• Ability to identify and implement good design
• Willingness to stick with it and work through problems
• Understanding of how customers read and scan websites

If you’d like help building your own website book in for an advisory session with Fiona Blinco.

If the friend is a professional or experienced website developer – go for it – you’re on a good wicket.

If your friend is a do-it-yourself website builder, i.e. this is their first website, or they are at the experimental stage, the same issues apply as the do-it-yourself builder with the additional sensitivities that apply to friendships.

Will your friendship survive in-tact if the website is not good? Are you able to work through the sensitive communication, if it comes to it, that you don’t like what they’ve done?

Are they going to be your friend in 2 and 5 years time? Websites require ongoing maintenance and updates. You’ll want to update text and images. Depending on the platform and hosting you are working with, websites require back-ups and software updates. Is your friend providing this?

Will you out-run your favours with your friend? How much, and for how long, will they be willing to work on your website? Will they want to take your calls once a week, once a month or once a quarter as you change your mind or want to update information on the site? Will they teach you how to update it yourself and what happens when something goes wrong?

People can often get frustrated with technical stuff. Will your website and business needs put undue pressure on this friendship, if there are frustrating moments?

If your friendship is strong enough to withstand the ups and downs of the process and your friend is an experienced website developer you’re in luck. Ask away!

There are many online sites that have freelancers who can build a website for you.

Most websites that are built by freelancers look good, although the use of stock images can generate a generic looking site.

If the site is a simple, uncomplicated one with no functionality beyond information and pictures, it will generally be ok.

There are several considerations for working with online freelancers, including:

• Communication method
• What you want is what you get
• Homepage coding
• Ongoing servicing
• Shop Local

Communication method
Communication with an online freelancer is via the online sites messaging system – very much like email. Some sites may allow for video calls or online chats. The process of building a website frequently benefits from you, as the client, being able to ask questions and get answers in real-time. The stilted use of messaging and online chats can take the comments out of context and richness out of the conversation. Some people thrive within this communication environment, but many of our clients don’t like it.

What you want is what you get
Sounds great doesn’t it? But there’s downside.

If you ask an online freelancer to add:

• an online shop
• an online booking form
• calendar integration
• an events set-up
• a membership only area
• an email sales funnel

Or other types of functionality they’ll do it.

Adding in functionality, that is, adding stuff beyond text, images, buttons and links, almost always requires a conversation about the pros and cons of how that functionality works. Why would you choose one piece of software to deliver that functionality over another? What’s the experience on the ground with using this over that?

Your online freelancer may give you this feedback, but in our experience, they rarely do.

Most online freelancers will give you what you want without further conversation as to the pros and con’s of different options.

At DIY Digital we provide you with personal service and articulated responses to your emails and phone calls. We talk with you about the different options you have and why you would choose one option over another.

If you prefer to have that richness of conversation take a look at our pricing and portfolio page to find out more about how DIY Digital can create a website for you.

Homepage Coding
Many sites we see built by online freelancers have a homepage that is coded from the ground up. They’re smart cookies and this is often why you get a website that looks great – because they’ve coded every piece of it to be just perfect.

If, in 3 months or 3 years, you want to move on from the freelancer to a local website developer, for updates and changes, you’ll need to find, and pay for, an equally smart cookie who has advanced coding skills. They’re a bit hard to find, and they’ll come with a top notch hourly rate.

Ongoing servicing
A website is rarely a set and forget proposition.

Most business owners at some point, will want to update their website with new information or new images. Many businesses change their service offering or product lines, and the website needs to be updated to reflect this.

Very few local website developers will take on a site that has been developed by someone else.

Consider how you wish to proceed with ongoing management of your site and who will be your go-to person, should you need professional assistance.

Shop Local
Working with a local developer supports business and the economy in your local neighbourhood.

Web hosting is the computer your website is located on.

Email hosting is the platform that connects your email inbox to the cloud.

Web Hosting
The computer your website is located on is often called a server. The server is usually located in a big data centre.

You want your website to be hosted on a computer, or server, that is:

• on 24/7
• on 365 days a year
• floodproof
• fireproof
• has high cyber security
• located in the country where most of your customers are

Theoretically you could host your website on your personal computer or your friend’s computer in their garage – but generally speaking that’s not recommended.

Hosting costs from $150 – $350/year depending on the various options you choose.

If you have a Wix or SquareSpace website you may not even be aware that your website is being hosted – but it is – it’s just that its all done-for-you.

If you have a WordPress website you’ll hear about hosting as you’ll need to make some decisions about where your site is hosted.

If you have your website built with us we will arrange the hosting for you, or you can use your own reputable hosting provider if you already have one.

Email Hosting
A business email address (that is, not a free gmail or yahoo email) will make your business look professional.

There are two major players for email hosting

• Office 365
• Google

Visit our business name email article for more information on email providers.

The domain name is that part of the website address that appears after the www or https.

It typically is followed by .com

In Australia, it is typically followed by .com.au

You need to purchase a domain name through a registered, authorised provider.

The domain name, once purchased, is unique to you. No-one else is allowed to use it.

The domain name should match your business name.

Domain names typically cost $20 – $30/year.

You must continue to keep paying for your domain name in order for your website and your business emails to work.

Visit this article for more information.

We onboard WordPress websites, that is we will look after sites that we didn’t build, that meet our technical standards, or, we can get them into shape to meet our standards.

You can read more about websites we onboard and the process for doing this on our website repair page.

At DIY Digital we do not take on websites that have been built in Wix, SquareSpace, Weebly or Shopify.

However if you’d like help with your Shopify or Wix website, or any other website platform, book in for an advisory session with Fiona Blinco to receive guidance for your situation.