Vodatrade Digital Agency

How much does it cost for a good website?

Sun, 15 Sep 2019 18:37:44 GMT

Everyone asks us - How much does a website cost?

The honest answer is - It depends!

A similar question could be how much does a car cost? - it also depends.

Do you want a new car? Do you want a big car or a small car? Do you want a Fiesta or a Ferrari? Depending on what you want, these cars can cost anything from €16,000 to the latest Ferrari which costs over €300,000. If you want a cheap secondhand car, you can get one for €400 on Done Deal.

Now let's get back to websites - There are technical and aesthetic design aspects to every website. Firstly, a website should be attractive as it could be a potential customer's first impression - and we all know first impressions last! Secondly, the website needs to be responsive so it displays and renders well on mobile phones and tablets as well as laptops and desktops.

Most modern web design tools will take account of mobile responsiveness, however some do it better than others! For example, a website designed in desktop format should automatically be perfect on a mobile phone display. It should but it doesn't always! However, there are various design and coding techniques that can address these issues and ensure the website looks well on nearly all devices. (There are literally hundreds of design sizes to cater for, due to the availability of mobile phone screen sizes and resolution types.)

When we design websites, we test the website on many different device types and screen resolutions. Typically, we test the most common screen sizes and start with the leaders in Ireland, typically Apple and Samsung - no offence intended if you have any other brand!

Instead of a one fits all solution, we look at the usability aspects of viewing a website particularly on a mobile smartphone. The design needs to take account of "human fingers" as this is essential for a good user experience while scrolling and navigating the website. You should be able to navigate a website with one hand and one thumb or finger! Don't get me started on "clickable" items when viewing a website on a mobile phone - menu items and "click buttons" that are microscopic and once touched with a human finger encroaches on another "clickable" item and sends the user to a page they did not want. This is all about designing a website where the "clickable" items have "white space" around the item, so that when clicked it will give the intended result. (it doesn't have to be white - that's just what web designers call it)

How often have you been on a website on your phone and the "navigation menu icon" is either too small or is hiding beside another clickable item - frustrating for you and frustrating for potential customers!

So, the moral of the story - design the website with the "User" in mind - don't decide on what you want to show, rather design for what the User wants to see - and make it easy for them!

If you've read this far, thanks for bearing with me - back to the price - frustrating I know but it still depends......it depends whether you want to ensure your website is designed in such a way to make it easy for your potential customers. Sometimes people say they want a "quick website knocked up" - and that's fine if that's what you want, but we don't do those kind of websites. If you want a cheap website fast, get any student to knock it up. The price for this - probably somewhere between €300 - €600 - maybe even less!

If you are looking for a good website, then it will have to address the following which I can assure you a typical student will either not do or more likely will not even know that it should be done. No offence to students, but you need technical and aesthetic design skills and experience to design a professional website.

A good professional website should take account of the following:

Responsive design for mobile, tablet and desktop devices
Appropriate text copy written correctly
Images should have Alt Tags
Images should be named appropriately
H1, H2 tags should be used effectively
The website images should be optimised for all screen resolutions
Website content should match the Heading Tags
The website should load fast
Basic SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) techniques should be observed
The website design should reflect your business and your industry type
Effective web friendly colours should be used
Website Analytics should be set up
Contact Forms should have a Security Captcha and GDPR Opt-in
SSL Certificate (Secure Socket Layer) for Safe Browsing and better Google Search Rankings

I could continue listing many more things that a website could and should have - but the above are the required elements of any professional website.

We take care of all the above in our website designs and we will not omit any of the above for any client, as our designs are our reputation. We have over 15 years' experience of website development and design and we know how to do it right. To do the above correctly not only takes knowledge and experience, but also time.

In most cases, the reason why a business invests in a professional website is to help grow the business by increasing sales. If you offer great products and services - potential customers need to be aware that you offer them! In 2019, most people trying to find a particular product or service "Google it!" This is where a professionally designed website pays off - a website should have an attractive design - but the nuts and bolts of the website must be set up with Google Search in mind. If your website is designed in accordance with industry design principles and structured in a "Google Friendly" way - then a good website will get you more business! Getting a cheap website might sound good from a bargain point of view but it will not yield results and often proves expensive in the long run.

You'll always meet the potential customers that find you - but you wont meet those who don't!

And finally.......

The Price: For a professional website to be done for Builders, Plumbers, Restaurants, Electricians and other Professional Services etc between €1,800 - €2,400 (depending on what the client can or cannot provide - text, images, logo etc)

Then we move on to the extras! Leather Seats, Upgraded Alloys, Upgraded Suspension - sorry that's the cars again!

Extras for websites would be items like integrating the website with payment integrations (Stripe, PayPal), a booking engine, reservations software, dynamic feature requests, database integrations etc. Once established, these can be costed in advance.

It could also be an eCommerce website or a website displaying product listings - we cannot give a price for these types of websites, as a full specification is required to give an accurate quotation. Typically, a "shopping cart" website would start at €3,500 at a minimum.

So, how much will your website cost - it depends what you want! Contact us and we'll go through the options with you and you can decide whether we design your website - or you can go to another website designer and get them to do it for you. (You are welcome to use this blog post when checking prices from other web designers.)

And there's more... we’ll work hand in hand with your business to gain a full understanding of what we can do to develop a comprehensive SEO strategy that generates more traffic on every device. More traffic means more enquiries and more business!

Contact us on 087 444 3955 or Book a No Obligation Appointment here .

Thanks for taking the time to read this post!

Why You Need a Digital Media Strategy to promote your business

Sun, 01 Sep 2019 23:00:00 GMT

Integrate Your Digital Marketing Stategy

Everyone needs a digital media strategy, and not for the reasons you may expect. In fact, if you think digital strategies are just promotional, think again. Typically, small businesses have a limited marketing budget yet their products and services could be competing with with national and international brands who have deep pockets and very large marketing resources and budget.

In this digital era, smaller businesses need to take advantage of digital marketing techniques and choose to market their business efficiently. To do this requires planning. Most start up businesses get all excited and start posting on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and just about any other platform - presuming this will increase awareness and drive sales - if only it was that easy, then I wouldn't be typing this blog post!

In my experience, businesses who start digital marketing start without a plan. So why do you need to plan your digital marketing activities before you begin? There are many reasons why this is recommended, some of which I will outline below:

1. Give you business Direction
If your business has established a clear strategic plan and sets out precisely what the business wants to achieve through digital marketing the the activities and resources can be applied consistently and efficiently. Should you have an emphasis on gaining new customers or building deeper relationships with your existing customer base?

2. Determine your online audience
Demand for your products and services need to be researched so you understand the "Online Marketplace", compared to traditional marketing the dynamics regarding digital marketing can be very different. The digital market provides both challenges and opportunities enabling you to better understand customer profiles, customer behaviour, competitor strategies, competitor propositions and available options for marketing communications.

3. Existing and Start-Up businesses can gain market share
If your business is not allocating enough resources to digital marketing but your competitors are - your business will be at a disadvantage - the unfortunate thing is you won't even realise it!

Digital Marketing across the organisation needs to be integrated
Quite often digital marketing activities are kept effectively separate to the business as an add-on function. Digital Marketing activities are seen as an isolated function and more often than not a costly expense. If the marketing function is not integrated with the organisation it's activities will be much less efficient.

Insufficient Resource Allocation
Digital Marketing is extremely important - if you do not provide enough people resource/time or budget then it simply will not be effective or efficient.

Lack of In-house Specialist Marketing Skills
Most small to medium size businesses do not have the specialist e-marketing skills to carry out effective marketing activities. A common approach that some small business owners take is to hire a "Marketing Graduate"Marketing Graduate has indeed passed the necessary exams but do they have the experience - you decide. My view would be to determining what aspects of digital marketing can and should be done in-house and what cannot be done in-house.

Wasting time and money through duplication
More relevant to larger organisations, quite often different parts of the marketing function are using different digital tools to carry out similar similar marketing tasks. There are so many software tools available for digital marketing and communications. The best solution for your organisation should be chosen and deployed across the organisation to avoid duplication and ensure efficiency.

Keeping up with Digital Trends
You have seen the top brands lead the way with different types of digital marketing promotions and you would like to do the same. look at the top online brands like Coca Cola, Amazon, Google, Mercedes - yes they are dynamic and innovative when trying to gain new customers and keep their online audiences engaged. But consider the resources they employ including the world's largest marketing and advertising companies - however, you can adopt their tactics but you need to have the specialist e-marketing resources to do this. For most smaller business this will require outsourcing some or all marketing activities.

Digital Marketing & Website Analytics
Most businesses have a website in 2019 - surprisingly not all! Of those that do, many will use website analytics (mostly Google Analytics) but managers don't have or make the time to review and act on the analytics. This is very much an overlooked opportunity and for those that do analyse their website analytics - this gives them huge competitive advantage.

Once you have a defined strategy in place, it enables you to get the basics right early on. After that you can look at more specialist digital marketing analysis like Search Marketing, Website User Experience, User Interface, Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing.

For most businesses in 2019, a digital strategy is essential. There are so many options available for digital marketing, so many marketing tools and digital platforms but thy all require resource - if you plan it right and allocate sufficient resources the your strategy will succeed - if not who knows - you competitor strategy may succeed!

Three Essential Basics for any good modern website

Thu, 29 Aug 2019 12:11:01 GMT

Why every small business needs a website

First impressions last! Looking good on the web is important for your business because your website is often your first impression you give to potential customers. First time website visitors will form an opinion about your business based on your company website. Of course, with further research they will look at factors such as customer service, quality, price, etc but only if they overcome a poor first impression.

Can you recall a shrunken down version of a desktop website on your phone? It was probably not an optimal experience! That was your first impression of that website and possibly your impression of the business represented by it. It's a given nowadays that your website is responsive on desktop, tablet and mobile devices but there are other factors you need to consider.

1. Your website needs to be user-friendly on a smartphone.

Mobile design elements need to be considered such as:

Readable text without requiring pinch and zoom
Optimal space for finger tap targets
Clean design using appropriate white (blank) space
Clear navigation layout to enhance user experience

2. Your website needs to be Secure with an SSL Certificate installed.

Mobile design elements need to be considered such as:

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate needs to be installed
This provides the https instead of the http in the website's url and a green padlock icon
Clean design using appropriate white (blank) space
Clear navigation layout to enhance user experience

3. Make sure Google likes your website and that it loads fast.

Google crawls your website to decide on your website ranking:

Google looks at website usability in terms of layout and design elements
Websites not optimised for smaller screens will experience a decline in search engine rankings
Website Speed of loading is a factor in Google Search Rankings

Above are just three of the basics for a modern website to represent your business online.

Why You Need a Responsive Website for your business

Wed, 24 Jul 2019 14:36:24 GMT

One Website That Works on Desktop, Tablet and Mobile

Traditional desktop only sites simply won’t cut it anymore. One study from ComScore found that 49 percent of digital media time is spent on mobile devices, with tablets accounting for an additional 12 percent. With just 31 percent of time left over for desktop devices, it becomes clear that websites should be built mobile-friendly, tablet-friendly, and desktop-friendly. That’s why we employ what’s called responsive web design.

Traditionally, responsive design means stretching and shrinking your site to fit different screen sizes. However, we take it a step further by tailoring different features for different devices as well. For example, a Click-to-Call button will appear on a mobile device, but not a tablet or desktop. The experience and the needs of a visitor can differ greatly between a mobile and desktop device.

Currently, mobile devices are winning the battle for supremacy in local search, and these searchers are looking to take action. According to a study from Google, four out of five consumers conduct local searches on search engines and 88 percent of them are doing it on smartphones. What’s more, 50 percent of these people will visit an online store within a day.

But we don't’ stop there. We’ll work hand in hand with your business to gain a full understanding of what we can do to develop a comprehensive SEO strategy that generates more traffic on every device. More traffic means more enquiries and more business.

We make sure that our content and website designs consistently reflect these requirements.

Google's New Algorithm Update May Affect Your Website Search Rankings

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 14:33:54 GMT

Google's March 2019 Core Algorithm Update

If you noticed a change recently in your website's search engine ranking or the traffic you are getting, a recent algorithm update from Google is possibly the reason.

On March 12th, Google launched its "March 2019 Core Algorithm Update". As with all algorithm updates, the changes will have an effect on the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) of most websites.

Google regularly updates its algorithm often without announcing it or indeed stating what has changed. SEO experts usually notice the algorithm updates when they notice a significant shift that is impacting websites. We have noticed substantial shifts within the past few weeks.

Most small business owners would not be aware of these updates. Unless you regularly check your website analytics and site visitors, your search ranking could be suffering without you being aware.

What can you do?
Diagnosing why a website has dropped in the rankings because of the March 2019 update begins with trying to figure out where the disconnect is between your website content and the search terms and phrases that the web user is using to search. Keep adding new content to your website so that the content matches your target audience and what they are actually searching for. Google's algorithms are programmed and designed to find content that matches the queries of web users. This places an huge emphasis on producing relevant content for your website.

Google can be a mystery for many business owners and marketers alike, however, core search results should still focus on quality content and good design. Particularly when it comes to User Experience on a mobile device.

You'll never get it perfect and don't forget - if there are 20 websites with highly optimised SEO in your area promoting the same product or service, they can't all be on Page 1 of Google. But it's worth trying to be in that top 10!

And yes Google are at it again - they are rolling out the Google June 2019 Core Update - more on this soon when we have had a chance to analyse the likely effects.

Why you need a Data Backup Plan for your business

Thu, 30 May 2019 23:00:00 GMT

Data Backup Planning

As a business owner, you know how important it is to protect your business - in many cases your data is your business. No doubt you have business insurance and protect your premises using security applications, but do you have a backup plan in place when it comes to your data?

Most large organisations have stringent and comprehensive data backup and recovery processes in place. They tend to deploy sophisticated software and cloud technology to ensure data loss is prevented and downtime recovery minimalised.

Smaller organisations don't have the know how or the resources to deploy sophisticated backup and recovery architecture. in fact, a lot of small businesses feel that they can avoid having a data backup strategy in place, but that could prove a very costly mistake. Without an effective reliable backup you risk substantial and permanent data loss, lengthy downtime and in severe cases business closure.

You may not consider your data valuable but ask yourself the question: How long would it take to enter that data again? Hours, weeks, months...and that's only if you have an audit trail of the data. es are your data is fundamental and losing it may cause severe disruption to your business. This makes data backup and recovery extremely important.

Practical Steps to increase Website Security

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT

It's important to address website security to ensure you protect your reputation.

Your Website is your showcase to the online world

Your website is your reputation!
A website should be properly maintained and updated to ensure the website technology is reliable and secure. There is a lot more to a website than the aesthetic design. Data needs to be kept secure and interactions between web visitors and your website should also be secure.

There are various ways to ensure your website is protected. Large organisations with big budgets can afford to implement several security layers to protect their website and the visitors.

As a smaller organisation, you will not have such a large budget, but there are some basic methods that will help keep your website secure.

Use a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Certificate on your website (HTTPS)
Use a reputable hosting company to host your website
Ensure your website technology is kept up-do-date
Monitor your website to identify unusual site traffic
Ensure you implement Captcha security on contact forms
If you are using a Content Management System (CMS) ensure you maintain and change strong passwords

Regularly we hear news of a major corporation or public institution suffering from a web security attack. Web security is a challenge for all organisations even for those with big resources. It's even more challenging for smaller organisations with fewer resources - but you have to start somewhere.

The above steps will not give you the most secure website possible - but it will certainly add a level of protection for your website and website visitors.

GDPR: What you need to know and how it affects you

Fri, 15 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT

GDPR Compliance is essential for all organisations

GDPR and how it affects Your Business

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force on 25th May 2018.
Its impact on business owners, marketers and data controllers is substantial and if you are not GDPR Compliant, you will need to address this as soon as possible.

Failure to meet the compliance levels of data protection detailed in the GDPR can lead to very severe penalties. Current legislation could see organisations incur fines of up to €20 million or 4% of annual revenue, depending which is greater.

it's important to realise that it is your business or organisation that needs to be compliant and that includes your website - but not just your website!

The following is a basic checklist to assist with GDPR compliance:

Have you nominated someone in your organisation who will be responsible for GDPR?
Depending on your organisation - do you need a dedicated Data Protection Officer?
Do you have a plan to deal with data breaches as and when they occur?
Have you got a plan in place detailing how you will deal with data access requests?
Have you conducted an audit of existing data practices including storage of data?
Are your employees aware of GDPR obligations and the compliance that needs to be adhered to on an ongoing basis?
If you have forms on your website: Do the forms have option boxes to allow website visitors to give you permission to collect their personal information? e.g. Name, Email Address, Phone Number
Have you updated the Terms and Conditions, Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy on your website to reflect GDPR compliance?
Can website users easily unsubscribe from communications using an easy accessible unsubscribe link?

There are many other factors involved with compliance with GDPR regulations and should consult with your legal advisors for clarification.

GDPR is not something small businesses should be afraid of...it's all about protection of "Personal Data". There is a distinction between Personal Data and Business Data that needs to be retained. In essence, only retain Personal Data for the required time (normally 30 days), ensure your data and computers are kept up to date. Ensure you have strong firewall and anti virus protection to minimise the chance of a security breach. And if there is a breach ensure you follow the reporting procedures immediately.

For further information visit The Data Protection Commission (DPC) website here.

Why Technology Isn't Enough for Your Digital Campaign

Fri, 01 Mar 2019 00:00:00 GMT

Digital Marketing is essential in 2019

Digital Marketing is not just technology it's an approach

So, you have a brand new website and you're posting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This doesn't mean you have your digital marketing covered. There's a lot more to marketing than just posting on social media. It is wise to plan to use both digital and traditional marketing activities ensuring the marketing message is consistent and timely. Quite often traditional marketing and digital promotional techniques can work well together and even compliment each other.

Technology is important and you should use technology efficiently to increase your online presence, but you also need to look at off line activites to help boost awareness.

Along with the digital tools, you also need people! After all it's your business you are marketing and not your website per se. Business managers need to collaborate with Digital Marketing Specialists to ensure the strategy is a business one and not a technology one.

Technology is available to be used to achieve your business goals and nothing else. Technology is great as it can drastically reduce manual operations but the technology should be deployed only when it adds value to your business objectives.