As Web Design Brisbane specialists, we know that the first decision you need to make when planning a new website or upgrading an existing one, is if you are going to do the work yourself or have a professional do it. Quite often budget is a determining factor, so let’s look at what sort of price range you can expect, depending on what your business needs and who builds it.

For some businesses, the biggest investment they’ll make after stock is their website. The cost of a beautiful, free-flowing and functional site can be eye-watering, especially if you’re not aware of market prices. But rather than a financial burden, a high quality, well designed, custom website can be a smart investment, repaying its initial outlay many times over. It’s all in the planning.

Who Can I Get to Build My Site?

Brisbane web design specialists Agile SEO follow a simple process; we look at the brief provided by our client, determine the number of man hours required for designing and building the site then factor in internal business costs such as labour and general overheads in order to determine a price.

Unlike many of our competitors, Agile SEO Brisbane has put in place systems and processes that allow us to work more efficiently while still maintaining our exceptional level of service and quality. This includes allowing some staff to work from home on certain days, reducing our expenses. These savings are passed on to you when calculating our prices.

Freelancers, as a one-man band with reduced overheads due to working from home, may also be a little more flexible on price however difficulties you may face can include a lack of expertise in the various skills required to build some sites as well as an inability to meet all of their deadlines if they’ve overcommitted. You don’t want the launch of your website to be delayed because your freelancer got sick, had a family emergency or underestimated the hours involved in building a site for another client.

Some web design companies use offshore staff, thus lowering their rates however challenges include delays in communication due to time zone differences as well as general quality and reliability issues.

There are also web design companies who offer website ‘packages’. While this is an effective way to sell a website, it’s often not ideal for several reasons –

1. In order to sell a site and make a profit, the inclusions have to be very limited with little flexibility or scope for change.
2. These kinds of deals frequently include an ongoing arrangement whereby this company will ‘manage’ your site for you, allowing them to overcharge for additional (yet basic) services such as hosting, maintenance, SEO, etc.
3. These companies tend to rely on several templates, meaning that your website is going to end up looking a lot like every other website they’ve built, just with your logo and colours. It hasn’t been designed with your customers in mind, so is less likely to impress.
4. If that wasn’t enough, many businesses who offer this kind of service retain ownership of your site and/or domain, meaning that if you want to leave them at some point in the future, you may need to start from scratch.

Finally, you can build your site yourself. There are many different options available, but if you’re going with a self-build, we recommend WordPress. With a variety of themes, features and plugins available – not to mention a ton of information available online to assist you in building your site – if you decide you’d like an expert to finish the job or take over the role later on down the track,  WordPress is easy for a professional web developer to walk in ‘mid-job’ (so to speak) and take over.

What Type of Website?

For the purposes of this post, let’s assume that you, as the client, will provide the Agile SEO Web Design Brisbane team with a logo and text content, as well as product photos and information for the e-commerce sites.  Now let’s look at some types of website and the general going rate for each:

1. A simple, informational style site, generally no more than 6 pages in total. No online store but may include features such as a blog, newsletter, gallery or slideshow.

The market says expect to spend between $5000 – $10 000          Agile SEO Charge: $3 000 – $7 000

2. A mid-size informational style site, with up to 20 pages. No online store, but may include features such as a blog, newsletter, gallery or slideshow.

The market says expect to spend between $11 000 – $20 000       Agile SEO Charge: $5 000 – $10 000

3. A simple e-commerce site, generally no more than 6 pages and the online store includes up to 100 products. May include some general features such as a blog, newsletter sign up, gallery or slideshow.

The market says expect to spend between $8 000 – $15 000         Agile SEO Charge: $4 000 – $8 000

4. A mid-size e-commerce site with up to 20 pages and up to 500 products in the online store. May include some general features such as a blog, newsletter sign up, gallery or slideshow.

The market says expect to spend between $16 000 – $40 000       Agile SEO Charge: $7 000 – $12 000

Once I’ve Been Given a Price, is There Anything That Could Cause it to Increase?

There is always that possibility. The biggest cause of increases that we encounter are clients who are unsure what they want and / or cannot make up their mind. When quoting, Agile SEO Web Design Brisbane allow a certain number of hours for design, including additional design work and revision, however sometimes a client will request significant additional work that takes us over the allocated time.

Clients can also be unaware of the cost of certain features, so they may give us a brief for a ‘simple’ site but then, mid-build, direct us to an example site that contains certain elements they desire but which are, unfortunately, well outside of their current budget.

The second biggest cause we encounter is clients not having content ready for the site or sending through unusable content. This can not only impact the delivery date of your site, it can impact your budget, especially if we have to write all the content ourselves.

If a client is unable to clearly articulate their vision, make up their mind, provide content as required or find a compromise between their design goals and their budget, then we may need to increase the time allocated, thus impacting the final cost. At all times, we will work with our clients to do our level best to ensure that budgets, design goals and deadlines are met.

How Can I Make This Easier (And Avoid Blowing My Budget)?

The single biggest thing that you can do is be absolutely clear on what you want to build. Look at competitors websites and bookmark or screenshot things you love. Do the same for things that you definitely don’t want on your site – the team at Agile Web Design Brisbane can assure you that knowing what you don’t want is almost as much help as knowing what you do want.

Questions to Ask Yourself:

What sort of look and feel do I want?

When my customers land on my home page, what are the first things I want them to see? What best tells the story of who we are and what we do?

What are my objectives? Do I want to sell a product or service? Collect potential leads? Publish content that results in high engagement and frequent return visits? Am I helping customers find information? Am I raising brand awareness and loyalty?

What are my priorities for my site? Of the 10 different things that I want, which ones are ‘must have’s’, ‘like to have’s’ and ‘nice to have’s’?

What sites do I love using? What design elements do those sites have that would be useful for my site?

Who are my customers? Are they used to getting online?

If I use this design element, are my customers going to be able to navigate my site easily?

What things do I want on my website to be easily editable? I.e. Do I want to be able to add / remove things easily? How customisable do I want my site?

We can’t emphasise enough how important it is to provide set specifications of exactly what you want – without this, it will be very difficult to get an accurate price from any web design / development company. Clear requirements, along with an overview of your company, including brand goals, products/services and desired features all help give your design company a clear picture of who you are and what you want, meaning  you’re that much closer to getting the site you want.

Here at Agile SEO Brisbane, our Brisbane web design team use a standard document that all of our web design clients need to complete in order to provide a clarity for both them and us of just what our clients are looking for, saving them time and money.

So if you have any questions, or you’re looking to get your site built or re-vamped, contact us to find out how we can help.

The post Web Design Brisbane: What’s The Cost of a Website in 2016? first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

When it comes to internet marketing, the first choice is often the hardest – to use an SEO firm or DIY?

Search Engine Ranking Matters Because If it Can’t be Found, It Can’t be Bought

No matter how great your product is or how user friendly your site, if customers can’t find you then to them, you don’t exist.

63% of people never search past the first page. Most of those 63% never look any further than the top 3 results. With more business being done online, your website and your search engine ranking are key to your business thriving, not just surviving. You’ll find a lot of conflicting advice online on how to improve your rankings but the very first decision you need to make is clear: get a specialist SEO Firm or DIY?

1. Hire a specialist SEO firm to do the work for you.

Use an SEO firm that is happy to educate you on what they’re doing and why. Look for an organisation that is happy to answer questions rather than trying to shut them down. You need an SEO company that is consultative and open.

Beware of any company offering guaranteed page 1 ranking – they’re usually going to rank you for a low volume search term – or worse, a new term they’ve made up which won’t actually drive any business your way. Beware of lock in contracts and actively avoid any company that claims to have an ‘inside track’ or a ‘special relationship’ with any search engine company.

As with anything else, make sure that you shop around; a cheap price doesn’t always mean substandard service but be cautious of companies who offer ‘pay on achievement’ style deals; rightly or wrongly, these kinds of ‘bargains’ are most often associated with less ethical SEO firms and you may find yourself paying more in the long run.

2. DIY your SEO.

Read everything you can find on SEO. I know when you own your own business you do long hours – you finally close for the day and you get to go home and do book work, or read industry journals, or try to write something for your website or social media page but if you plan to DIY, you need to invest time into reading everything you can on SEO. You’re going to read a lot of conflicting advice. You’re going to be confused by poorly written articles. You’re going to start drinking lots of coffee.

But in amongst all of the fluff, you’re going to find tools and techniques that work. Try to remember that when it comes it SEO there is no right or wrong, there are just techniques and some work better than others for you and your business. No one knows exactly how the search engine algorithms work, most SEO is the result of studying the often limited information that the Search Engine companies release, then making educated guesses and running experiments. Don’t be afraid to run your own experiments to see what works best for your industry. Commit to spending a set amount of time each week on your SEO, whether that’s reading articles, creating content or doing keyword research, consistency is key.

SEO is not a quick fix. Even when you know what you’re doing, it can take months of painstaking work to get to where you’re going. The most important thing to do, is start.

Not sure if you want to hire an SEO firm or DIY? Want some more info on what Agile SEO can offer? Contact us today to find out how we can help you grow your business!

The post SEO Choices – Hire an SEO Firm or DIY? first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.

Article Writing is Important

Multiple methods are used by web developers to develop a website’s profile but some methods yield better results than others. Article writing and submission to web directories, as well as link building are tried and tested methods that have always yielded better results for a website. While the website will gain recognition, its greatest benefit is the potential to convert potential customers to real ones.

Things to Look For

Things that a webmaster or entrepreneur should look for while searching for the best SEO content writer for their business are as follows:

• The provider should offer 100% original writing and should not indulge in plagiarism of any type;
• They should only use white-hat tactics, no black-hat techniques, to gain online recognition;
• Reputable companies will only offer original content and once offered and paid for, copyright is automatically transferred to the buyer;
• Finally, the content offered by the article writing service should be interesting and entertaining, after all, it won’t do you any good if the readers lose interest halfway through and head to some other site!

In the event of plagiarism and duplicated content, your website may be badly penalised by search engines and may even be blacklisted, resulting in your good intentions (that lead to you hiring a content writer in the first place) going up in smoke.

Content Writers Must Be Skilled

Getting a reputable content writer or copywriting company alone isn’t enough, you also have to find out whether or not the writers deployed to write the articles are skilled enough to do the job.

Knowledge of the language is a given, but grammar, spelling & punctuation as well as paragraph construction are all equally important. Unless the writer is more than competent in the fundamentals, they may end up writing something that is unusable on your site for fear of diverting readers, rather than attracting them.

Ideally, a fluent and skilled content writer will keep the reader glued to the screen until they finish the article; with luck, they’ll even come back looking for more content or share it with their friends.

So there you have it, the key things you need to keep in mind when you go looking for a content writer for your site. As always, there are a range of services and a range of price points available, so make sure you find the right company for you and your business by keeping these things in mind. Then, before you know it, you’ll have a site full of engaging, valuable content that customers will keep coming back for. However, if you prefer to DIY, here’s some handy tips for you.

Key Points To Remember

• Capture the attention of your audience. Most people will do an initial scan before deciding to read the whole article, use headings to give them a basic roadmap to decide if this content is valuable to them.
• Take the time to learn how to format an article or website for SEO. There can be a lot of contradictory information out there, but there’s plenty of great stuff too, keep looking!
• Content is KING. Demonstrate your in-depth knowledge and experience but keep it simple, address issues particular to your niche market and offer good solutions and advice. By doing this, you’ll reassure the reader that you do indeed know what you’re talking about. You don’t have to give every answer or solve all of their problems, but giving a little away and helping them solve some of their problems will make your readers happy and that’s the most important thing!
• Happy readers are one step from being happy customers. If you’re giving them valuable information, they’re going to keep coming back and at some point, they’re going to provide you with a lead. It may not be them personally, but they may share your article or tell a friend about your product and service. At that point, your great content writer has done their job and it was money well spent (unless you write your own content, in which case, well done!)
• Remember that you’re there to improve your reader’s quality of life, people come to your site to save/make money, save time or improve their life in some way. Every purchase, no matter what it is, comes down to these basic motivations. Tap into them. Give your reader something they want and you’re going to be well on your way to creating a dedicated following.
• Be prepared to spend a LOT of time writing, to build your reputation and drive solid traffic to your site you need to be regularly producing articles. I know one SEO specialist who is adamant that you need to be creating 100 articles a month! While few of us have the time (or inclination) to write that much, it gives you a good feel for a basic principle of content writing – too much great content is never enough.
• Publish your articles to major e-zines as well as using the content for your website and blog, however, be careful to avoid duplication as this can also carry search engine penalties!
• Set yourself a goal – write 3 – 4 articles per day (at an average of 400 words) or better yet, make enough income to pay for a content writer!
• Be organised. Write a plan that makes maintaining a program of writing and publishing content easy to do. Allow 1 – 2 hours a day just for this. Remember that practice makes perfect!

Can’t be bothered doing it yourself or do you just want to know more about how Agile SEO can help you create a site full of valuable content that will keep people engaged? Contact us today!

Agile SEO Recommended On-Line Course

Get 1000 Visitors to Your Blog Using On Page SEO

Get more traffic and profit by writing optimized content that help you rank for hundreds of buyer keywords.

Instructor Biography

Endy Daniyanto, Internet Marketer

I have made a full time income from internet marketing, particularly affiliate marketing, since more than 2 years. I have extensive knowledge on search engine optimization (SEO) best practices and also on writing

The post Content Writer Tips & Tricks first appeared on Agile SEO - Search Engine Optimisation.