Is it worth getting a custom website?

17 September, 2021

Designing a new website for your business is exciting stuff. Your business is about to get plush premises on the web. The question is; should you get a custom-coded website or a template site?

To decide which option is best for you, you need to determine what you want your website to do for you. If you simply need a place to showcase what your business does, with some helpful information that you want prospective customers to know, a template site could fit the bill.

But, if you need more from your website, such as the ability to handle financial transactions and payments, or the functionality to easily add, remove or edit products and services, a custom build will be the better choice for delivering both functionality and scalability.

For some businesses, a custom-built website by a pro developer is a must. If you expect your website to generate between 60 and 100% of your income, it is likely to have more user demands and will need to perform multiple functions. You need a custom built website that can deliver on your needs and your users’ demands.

Generally speaking, the higher the percentage of revenue you expect to generate from your website, the greater potential ROI you’ll get from investing in a high performing website custom-built for your needs. Let’s look at the pros and cons of template and custom built websites;

Pros of a template website

• Little or no coding is needed for run-of-the-mill functions so you don’t need a hardcore coder
• Prebuilt sites are usually quicker to develop and set-up
• Template websites have lower upfront costs, making them easier on the budget

Cons of a template website

• Templates run on a structured system, which could limit the plugins that you can use, restricting future functionality
• Customisation of the site is limited
• There may be an inconsistent user experiences across different devices
• Depending on the template you use, it may not be built to be search engine friendly so it won’t rank on search engine results pages
• Although cheaper to develop than a custom site, you will still need to pay for extra services like themes, content management services and subscriptions
• You could battle to find support for bug fixes, upgrades and maintenance
• You will find other businesses using the same template so your website might not stand out from the crowd

Pros of a custom built website

• Your website will be built from scratch to deliver exactly on the functionality and user experience that you want
• Custom built websites are designed with search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind so they will rank higher on search engine page results, attracting more traffic
• Tools such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP and Customer Relationship Management (CRM tools can be integrated into a custom built website
• You are not restricted by themes or template boundaries which means your website will be designed to reflect your brand and stand out from the rest
• A custom built website has more support than a website built from ready-made templates because you have a direct line of contact with your developer
• As the name suggests, custom websites are highly customisable and scalable
• A website built from the ground up delivers better speed, efficiency and a great user experience across all devices

Cons of a custom built website

• Websites built from scratch are typically more expensive than template websites
• Development takes longer
• Specialised web development and coding skills are required

How to decide if you need a custom built website

Weigh up the pros and cons of template websites versus a custom build to figure out which would best meet your website goals. If you would like some more help with understanding the difference between a custom website and template website designs so you can make the best decision for your business, contact us.

#thefullstackers #digitalmarketing #webdesign #appdesign #SEO #SEM

Can your business benefit from an app?

24 August, 2021

Across the globe people hungrily use apps for everything. To track their activity, monitor what they eat, create music playlists, play games, manage their spending, book holidays and get rides to places. They also use them for work, to drive business processes, streamline productivity, connect with customers, make sales and enable payments. If there is a need, you can bet there is an app for it.

How an app could help your business

An app can help you to connect and communicate with your customer base, make it easier for people to do business with you, drive sales, build customer loyalty, and increase brand awareness. Your app effectively gives you an unbridled opportunity to directly communicate with your customers 24/7. It’s a powerful marketing channel and gives you the ability to deliver your services in more competitive ways.

Got an app idea?

A report from RiskIQ shows that the number of mobile apps has reached a massive 8.93 million. If you want yours to get attention, get downloaded and get used often, it needs to fill a need or solve a problem. It needs to have an enticing app design. It needs to have a fantastic user experience (UX). And, it needs to work on all the major operating systems like Windows, iOS, and Android.
For your app to be a raging success, think about what problem it will solve for your audience. Your users will be more likely to interact with your app if it meets a need they have, and makes their life easier.

The features of the best apps

People love using apps but they only love using the ones they love. Apps that people love using are,

Simple to use

An enticing design, seamless navigation and an intuitive interface make apps pleasant to use. When an app is difficult to use, it’s frustrating to users who will click to uninstall.

Quick and stable

Speed and stability are at the core of a successful app. It must perform and be snappy to use. If it’s slow and there are glitches, consider it gone.

Purpose-built

When it comes to apps, don’t have a leatherman approach. People prefer apps that are built to do one or two things really well. Don’t allow your app’s true purpose to be diluted by countless, unnecessary features.

Personalised

The best apps deliver a personalised experience that is tailored to user’s needs such as weather apps that give updates based on location and a shopping app that suggests items to view based on your purchase history.

Value-adding

Apps that don’t fill a need or provide value simply don’t survive. When you’re in the throes of developing your app, stay focused on creating an experience that delivers value by making your user’s lives easier, more convenient or entertaining.

Secure

While cyber crime and fraud burgeons, people are concerned about their privacy and are weary of sharing their personal details. Your app needs to be secure and reliable.

Updated and maintained

If you commit to building an app, you must commit to maintaining it. Apps need to be updated regularly to fix bugs, improve the interface and add new functionalities.

Build your app

Building an app is definitely worthwhile and can reap big rewards for your business if it’s done right. It’s a process, from defining your goals and your app’s purpose, to analysing your target audience, understanding their needs, and finally getting stuck into development and testing. We understand it well.

#thefullstackers #digitalmarketing #webdesign #appdesign #SEO #SEM

SEO vs PPC: What’s best for your business?

17 August, 2021

SEO or PPC? It’s a question we hear often. There’s no hard and fast answer. It all depends! Where your focus should be depends on your current status quo and what your goals are. Our opinion is that SEO and PPC aren’t mutually exclusive.

You can choose to market your brand or business online by paying for top spots on search engine results pages. But, you’re not winning if the people clicking through to your site are frustrated by slow page downloads, poor quality content and lack of functionality, causing them to exit before they have ordered anything. Without a solid SEO strategy, your website just won’t function properly. On the flip side, you could have the world’s best, most engaging content on your website but nobody is seeing it because there’s no traffic to your site. PPC is the most immediate and targeted way to boost your marketing qualified leads.

SEO and PPC are both part of search engine marketing artillery. There are many ways in which SEO and PPC efforts complement each other to bolster a more successful search engine marketing strategy. You might just need more of one than the other at different junctures.

Find out how to get the best of both for your business. Contact The Full Stackers.

#thefullstackers #digitalmarketing #webdesign #appdesign #SEO #SEM

What to do about a website with no leads

4 August, 2021

Your website is the most important tool for creating a marketable web presence. It is the cornerstone of any online branding strategy. It is your brand’s home on the web and the place that anyone in the world can come to do business with you. You understand this and you have ploughed a fair amount of time and resources into developing a website that generates business for you. But it’s not happening. Why?

Why is your website not generating business?

There are a few reasons why websites fail to convert visitors into customers, leads into sales...

Content isn’t valuable

When a website is created with a design-first approach rather than a content-first approach, it might look fantastic but won’t provide value to users. A website is one of an organisation’s main communication channels. So, it should be maximised as part of the overall marketing strategy, and be aligned with brand messaging as well as current marketing activities. Products, discounts, offers, promotions and other important marketing info should be easily findable on the website.

No clear goals

Which brings us to the next issue common to websites that don’t perform; no clear goals! It should be clear to visitors what you want them to do on your website. Whether it is to sign-up for your newsletter, buy something, get information, participate in your community or register for an event – make it clear.

Too slow

Speed is very important. Slow page download times frustrate users, and you lose them. Websites must be responsive, fast to download, work well on poor connections and perform on mobile devices. Many websites load slowly because they weren’t optimised to load faster.

Nobody knows it is there

You can have the best website on the world wide web, with the best content, but if nobody knows it is there, you’re unlikely to get much traffic. No website traffic ultimately means no website business. Everything that you do from an online marketing perspective is about raising awareness of your website and driving traffic to using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies.

Your website needs SEO

A website with poor SEO will never be a powerful lead generator. Done right, SEO will secure the visibility of your website and its content on search engine results pages. SEO consists of different strategies, tactics and best practices which conspire towards an end goal of improving your website’s placement by search engines. The closer to the top, the better!

Get your on-page SEO right

On-page SEO involves everything that you can control on your own website to make it more visible on search engine results pages and improve your rankings. Here we are talking about site speed (as we have said, this is very important), keyword presence and headers amongst others.

Use off-page SEO

Off-page involves anything that is done on other websites that could influence your website’s rankings. In a nutshell, this refers to links from other sites to yours. Off-page SEO, via quality back links, improves search engine and user perception of your website’s relevance, trustworthiness, credibility and authority.

The benefits of SEM

SEM covers a range of paid-for marketing tactics to get your brand, website and content seen by your target audiences. The big advantages of SEM are that it is immediate and guaranteed, unlike SEO which leads to longer term organic growth but takes time and dedication to accomplish. The thing about SEM is that you have to pay for it. SEM encompasses Pay-Per-Click advertising, social media marketing, sponsored social posts, email marketing and promoted content on third-party websites.

Why you should combine SEO and SEM

There are many ways in which SEO and SEM efforts complement each other to drive online visibility and website traffic which generate leads and business. You can market your brand or business online by paying for top spots on search engine results pages. It’s a way to get visibility fast and boost marketing qualified leads. However, if the people clicking through to your site are frustrated by slow page downloads, poor quality content and lack of functionality, you could fail at converting them into customers. You need a sound SEO strategy to get organic growth in the visibility of your brand online, and website traffic. Organic growth is longer lasting than that which is paid for. Can you see why SEO and SEM should be combined?

Got questions?

If you are still baffled about why your website is not getting traffic, converting visitors into customers, or generating business, get in touch. Let’s look at where you’re at and where you want to be. The Full Stackers will develop a solid strategy to help you get more business from your website.

#thefullstackers #digitalmarketing #webdesign #appdesign #SEO #SEM