Building a new Website (or jump to themes)

Many of our clients come to us because they have not touched their website in years, or their business has simply outgrown their website's original usefulness. Sometimes it is a question of look-and-feel; other times it is the content that needs attention. Often, our client wants to recreate their entire website from scratch. If that is of interest to you, you've come to the right place.

Not surprisingly, the foundation for getting highly targeted traffic to any website is the website itself, so we start by moving our client's website to a modern SEO-enhancing Content Management System. It sounds complicated, but when you manage your website using a CMS, additions and changes are very easy to do. You can learn more about such systems from our White Paper Why Use a Content Management System?

"It's about search results, stupid!" - Anonymous

We create the new website using a CMS, structuring it to support Search Engine Optimization (SEO) from the beginning, which simply means we model your website to match the structure of your product and service offerings, with an eye to the best way to secure ideal SEO "Landing Pages".

We then clean up and enhance existing website content and place it in the new website. The last step is to 'throw the switch' that redirects the domain name to the new website, which only happens when we have achieved all agreed upon milestones. Training on how to add and change content on the new website, using the CMS system, is included. You'll see how incredibly easy it is to use the CMS system.

How much does a website typically cost?

Example:

Your existing website has 18 pages and you have about six email addresses associated with it (so all you need is a shared virtual server). At $100 per page, the conversion comes to $1,800. Add to that $6,000 for the Website Foundation, $1,100 for implementation of Google Analytics and $1,000 for the shared virtual server, and your new website would cost about $9,900. That assumes you wish to convert all of your existing content, and it entitles you to at least ten years free hosting. So you get your new, Search Engine Optimized website up and running for about $10,000.

How do I know how many pages I have on my existing website?

Visit www.websitegrader.com and type your home page URL (e.g. "www.acmeproducts.com") into the box provided and press Enter. After a few minutes, a report on your current website will be displayed. About half way down, you will see "C: Google Indexed Pages:". The number displayed is the number of pages on your website that Google could see.

Significant features included in the website rebuild:

• Automated support for visitors adding links to your website.
• Support for visitors leaving comments, automatically moderated through email.
• Support for RSS, allowing visitors to add your website to their Readers.
• Blogging functionality built directly into the website.
• Five different levels of content management security - from Administrator all the way to Content Writer.
• Support for the automated management of images, audio, video and other media.
• Google Analytics for every page, allowing you to securely view website traffic from every angle; where visitors are coming from, what search words they use, the most popular pages, how long they stay and much more. That's a free service from Google - we simply add it to each page of your new website.
• Automated content publication with automatic up- and down-scheduling.
• Ten years of hosting included in the price.
• Functionality to allow visitors to create Inbound Links to your site with one click.
• Full training for non-technical staff on how to use the CMS to add content. It's easy!

Benefits

• A website that is fully optimized for search engines on a 12-point checklist. Search engines will drive more traffic to your website. When your new website becomes active, your Visibility Index will take a significant jump. We prove this here.
• Changes can be made instantly, or scheduled to publish at a specific date and time in the future.
• A faster, cleaner website with a consistent look-and-feel across all existing pages and future additions.
• Automated support for all media types, including images, videos, PodCasts and more. No more tinkering with images or other media to make them fit!
• An easy and flexible means of adding and changing website content without the help of technical people.

How long will it be before our new website is up and running?

Usually about four to five weeks from the time we start work. We won't flip the switch to the new website until you're happy with it and you can see our progress on a day by day basis if you wish.

How do I sign up to get my website rebuilt?

We ask for a 20% deposit to get the ball rolling, but first, you'd probably like a quotation.

What will my new website look like?

We begin with a clean, consistent and useful look-and-feel that allows our client to make changes to their website content easily and immediately. This means, for example, our client can add an announcement relating to a new service in just a few minutes. So, we begin by selecting a general "Theme" and we enhance that Theme by incorporating our client's logo, fonts (if applicable) and other corporate identity characteristics that make sense.

Adjusting the Theme to match our client's visual, font, logo and messaging standards is included in the price of the website rebuild. The first step is to sit down with our client and decide which of the Themes will be our starting point.

Take a look at some of the current themes we like to begin with: