Why do I need a website?
We hope you know the answer to this one yourself! It’s an important question as it is the fundamental basis for developing the website. Are you trying to:
- sell a product?
- sell a service?
- promote an event?
- build awareness?
A clear understanding of what you want your new website to achieve is needed, along with a sound strategy. When we understand these things we can develop a clear site plan that will provide the user with the information they need to buy from you, make an enquiry or booking.
How long will it take to setup my website?
There honestly isn’t any hard and fast rule here. It depends on the complexity of the project, whether it is a templated or fully custom designed website, and our workload at the time. Even how quickly you can make decisions will affect things!
We have had sites up and running the same week, while other projects can run for six months before the site goes live. We can give you an expected ‘go live’ date when we have met with you and scoped out the amount of work required.
How will my site look on mobile devices?
It depends very much on how the site is designed. On devices down to tablet size every website should look fine. When you get to mobile phone size, many websites don’t appear great due to the very small screen size. Some web templates are designed to be ‘responsive’, meaning they automatically rearrange the layout to in response to the screen size of the device.
These are becoming more common and are a great option if you want to future proof your site, or think you may have many people browsing using their phones.
Will we own the website after it’s designed?
Absolutely. Once we have received final payment for the site it is completely owned by you, no strings attached.
How do I drive people to my website?
Once your new website is completed you need to tell your potential customers about it. There are many ways to drive people to your website:
- add your web address to your stationery and vehicles
- gain links from other businesses
- pay per click advertising (Adwords or Facebook)
- content marketing
- submission of your site to relevant, quality directories
- long term search engine optimisation activities
- run a sales promotion with an on-line entry form
How long until I get to the top of Google?
Of course everyone wants to get there but not everyone can. What you can do is be well indexed for a range of keywords, some of which you will be highly ranked on Google for. Ultimately it depends on the competitiveness of your industry and how much time, effort and money you are prepared to put into it. If anyone ever says they guarantee to get you the top spot on Google you should be very sceptical. There is no guarantee, it’s just a sales pitch.
However, we can help help you by using the best techniques and practices to ensure your website becomes favoured over time. You can learn more here.
Do I need another web host?
All new HyperCube websites will include our fully-managed, super-fast cloud hosting service. This allows us to offer you more services, have control over the server and resolve problems quickly.
However you do have the option to have our website hosted elsewhere should you prefer.
How long are your contracts?
Hosting is billed every four months, payable in advance. Other than that there are no contracts, so it is simple to stop your service at any time. We do not lock you in at all.
Where is my website hosted?
Our websites our hosted on redundant web servers in specialised and biometrically secured, professionally managed hosting centres in NZ. This ensures maximum site and email uptime. Most good NZ based web designers will host your site within NZ in a professional web hosting environment. If they host overseas or run their own server you should be wary.
Can I move the website to another designer / web host?
Yes, but it’s a very good question. Some web design companies build your site using systems owned by them. If you are dissatisfied with the service or you want to move for any reason this can cause problems.
With these proprietary systems you own the graphics and content, but because the CMS is owned by the company you can’t just pack up the website and move to another company. It won’t work anywhere else, and would require a full rebuild from the ground up.
But if we don’t look after you properly, you can move to any one of hundreds of designers around NZ. Don’t tie yourself to a company that makes it prohibitive to move your website.
What about registering domain names?
HyperCube provides a full domain name search and registration service. We register domains for a minimum of two years for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the longer you have the domain registered for the better it is for search engine optimisation. Secondly, it’s low cost and convenient to not have to do it every year.
What is a CMS?
A CMS, or Content Management System, is a web based application that provides you with control over your website and its content. We use it in the design and development process, and then you use it to maintain the site and its content once we hand it over to you.
We use WordPress, the world’s leading CMS, for all our sites. You can read more about WordPress here.
I’d prefer to get you to update my site content for me. Is that ok?
If you want to edit your website content yourself it’s easy enough to do. But some of our clients prefer to email any changes they require through for us to action. We’re happy to do that, and we simply charge based on the time taken to make the updates.
Can I upload photos, videos and documents?
There is a media library which stores photos, videos, PDF’s and other documents you may wish to have on the site. Although for most videos we recommend you store them on YouTube or Vimeo. There are a number of reasons for this and we can discuss these with you.
