Is yours a website – or a business tool?

Is yours a website – or a business tool?

by | 29 Dec 2017 | Website Building, Website Design

There's a bit of pressure on a business, any business, to have a website. Is your website there because you felt you should have one, or is it there as an active promoter for you and what you do?

Have a scan of your competition's websites. You'll quickly be able to rank them according to first-impression - the good, the bad, the ugly! Which ones do you think are a 'positive' for the business they are promoting? Which of your competitors have a website that encourages more business in some way? Put the competitor websites in order, best down to worst (find at least half a dozen).

Now take a look at your own website, and slot it into the rankings. Is it a website with a bit of information, or is it actually trying to 'sell'? Does it give a good first impression? Does it tell visitors what you do and equally importantly, what THEY should do next if they want to find out more or even buy your product/service?

Your website is a business investment, which by definition means you should be getting more OUT of it than you put IN. It's easy to say "measure everything", but if you don't already have a gut feel on whether your website is pulling in new business for you, then you need to find some easy ways to get that information. Ask people how they found out about you, whether they referred to your website, what they thought of your website if they did. Make it part of the conversation when you get a new enquiry or customer.

A poor website built just to tick something off a to-do list will lose you business as potential clients go elsewhere. A good-looking website built to encourage customers to do business with you is a business tool that builds and promotes and sells.

(Another way to look at website "investment" - how much do you need to sell to generate enough profit to pay for a $3,000-$5,000 website? Read the Price or Value blog-post to find out more)

 

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WordPress Updates – Distracting But Essential

WordPress Updates – Distracting But Essential

by | 21 Dec 2017 | Web services, Website Care

WordPress is a software package that makes it easy (well, easiER) to build, manage and maintain a website. About a quarter of the world's websites are powered by WordPress. If your website is powered by its own independent WordPress package, then someone needs to make sure that software is kept up-to-date. Some frequently-asked-questions (FAQs) about all this;

How Do I Know If My Website Uses WordPress?

Ask whoever built your website for you - "what content management system does my website use?". This is something you ought to know, as a bit of background info. There are lots of other systems around, of course - some are for building 'independent' websites where you are free to do as you please with it eg. add whatever bells & whistles you like - some are 'umbrella' systems, where you get a set of facilities and tools but can't add your own eg. Wix, Weebly, Shopify, Squarespace and many more.

One clue though is what you see when you login to manage/administer your website (and if you don't login, then either someone else is looking after your site for you OR you aren't maintaining it at all. Get in touch if it's the latter, because someone needs to. Read on!). The typical WordPress Dashboard looks something like this;

What's an "Update"?

There is a very high chance that your WordPress-powered website has more than just the base WordPress system installed. The WordPress package by itself definitely provides all you need to build and launch a website - but you really, really shouldn't. It's a bit like buying a new computer with the latest version of Windows or Mac OS and no other software packages installed. You just need more tools and facilities for it to be really useful. For WordPress, essential extras include things like security (much like a PC has to have internet-security software), search-engine-optimisation boosters, webpage speeder-uppers (nobody will wait 10 seconds for your images to load). These extras are called "plugins".  There are THOUSANDS of plugins to choose from. If you want your website to do it, there is bound to be a plugin to make it happen!

So we have this WordPress software package (the "content management system"). And we have these extras on top of it (the plugins). Like any software, the developers that created them are constantly improving things - fixing errors or bugs, adding new or better features, preventing the bad guys from doing bad things. So an "update" is simply a newer version of WordPress or a WordPress plugin that has been improved in some way.

How Do I 'Do' An Update?

Nowadays, you can set your WordPress to automatically update itself to the latest version of the package whenever a new one comes out (every couple of months or so). Alternatively, when you login to your website as an Administrator, you can click a button or two and make it upgrade. It's really that easy.

Likewise the plugins - when a newer version is available for your website to retrieve and install - click a link or button, and it gets done. Easy. You will probably find updates for your various plugins several times a week.

Do I Have To?

Of course not. You don't have to have internet-security software for your computer. You don't have to have home insurance. You don't have to put petrol in the car. But if you want to avoid potentially BIG trouble, you should. Really should. A website that gets built and published and then left is a website that;

  1. will sooner or later stop working - reflecting badly on your business and you as its owner
  2. could well be abused by hackers, to attack other computers and/or websites, spread spam, or publish nasty stuff on your website
  3. threatens the other websites that share your webserver (you are very unlikely to be the only website on a webserver) - because the many blocking services protecting people from bad websites will block the entire webserver
  4. will cost you an arm and a leg to fix when things do eventually go wrong, and you're in an emergency-repair situation

What A Pain...

It is. Looking after WordPress updates is probably not what you regard as a core activity for your business. Luckily, it IS a core activity for Winch Websites. We will not only make sure that your WordPress system and its plugins are all kept up-to-date, we do a few more things too (like take backups every day, perform security scans, monitor your site 24/7, and more). Get in touch to find out more, or see our Websites Care page.

Interested in working with us?

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SAAS – Perfect for Small Businesses

SAAS – Perfect for Small Businesses

by | 6 Dec 2017 | Web services

First - What is SAAS??

SAAS is huge, and it IS changing what you do and how you do it. SAAS is Software As A Service, a collective term for anything that you can do online where you used to have to buy, install and manage software packages on your computer(s). If you made the move from Outlook to GMail/YahooMail/Hotmail, you started using SAAS. If you moved your accounting from MYOB or Reckon to Xero, you started using SAAS.

Second - Why SAAS?

Software As A Service provides you with the tools, facilities, functions that you need via the internet - while someone else does all the maintenance, management, backups, security, etc etc etc. You'll nearly always pay a monthly fee for the privilege, although there are other charging models of course.

SAAS can give you exactly what you need to run an efficient, effective, low-cost business where you can start small and grow as you need to. Take up the lowest-cost plan, and as you need more, you simply change to the next plan up (and pay a bit more). Perfect for systems to grow as you grow.

What Can SAAS Do For Me?

Well, the world is your oyster. There are literally thousands of SAAS providers covering an immense array of tools and functions. Just a few examples that might pique your interest;

  • Accounting - see Xero for a completely-online small business accounting system. Invoices (including automated followups of unpaid ones), payroll, superannuation, bank-account feeds & reconciliations, BAS reports, contacts.
  • Webmail - if you are still using Outlook on a desktop to do your email, it's time to think again. Yes, the transition is a pain. But switch to an online-only email system like the business version of GMail and you open up possibilities that allow you to integrate with all sorts of other things. Plus you have easy access from anywhere on anything (internet-connected, of course!). And usually better anti-spam, anti-virus protection.
  • Contact Management - looking for somewhere that keeps track of your customers and potential customers? CRM (Customer Relationship Managment) services store the usual info (name, address, email, phone) but also notes about each conversation, you can automatically store any emails to/from them too, and even classify as Leads (possibly interested), Prospects (actively interested) and Customers (purchased) then add auto-reminders to prompt you to get in touch at appropriate times. Lots more to CRM... Insightly is a great example.
  • Image & Video Editing - save on graphic design costs with DIY online tools that make it easy AND look good! For example, Stencil for fast & effective social-media graphics, Rocketium to make short attention-grabbing videos for your website or social media outlets.
  • Surveys - find out what your customers ACTUALLY think or want! Survey services are not only easy-access for the people you want to survey, but they help guide you to get meaningful results. SurveyMonkey is a popular one, but upcomers like SparkChart are pushing the boundaries.
  • Webpage Customiser - so you have a website already. What if you could easily make it adapt your webpages according to who is looking at them,  when, and why? Without changing the webpages... So you send an email out to a selected group of potential customers, and when they click that email to visit your website, it greets them with "Good Morning Sally!" This is what Unless does.
  • Email Campaigns - you'll have seen a lot about growing your email list so you can market to them. There are quite a few services that make this easy and automate in fabulous ways to save you time AND make you more effective. Automatic personalisation ("Hi Bob..."), automatic removal of invalid emails, automatic recording of who opened what when and clicked on what. Automatic grouping of contacts into whatever categories you choose (customers-who-bought-x, customers-who-visited-website-did-not-buy, etc).

These just scratch the surface of what you could do in your business to grow it and manage it - the old 'doing more with less'. SAAS offers you great potential to extend what you do, save you time, save you costs, and scale up as your business needs more. Keep your eyes peeled, there's a good chance that there are tools out there now that could make a big difference to your business!

Interested in working with us?

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Just quickly send us your contact info and what you're looking for - eg. why you want a website (starting from scratch, remaking an existing one, etc) and any particular features or questions you have in mind.

<form name="insightly_web_to_lead" action="https://googleapps.insight.ly/WebToLead/Create" method="post"><input type="hidden" name="formId" value="yZfvVUI4kYNi98miu9+atw==" /><label for="insightly_firstName">First Name: </label><br /><input id="insightly_firstName" name="FirstName" type="text"/><br/><label for="insightly_lastName">Last Name: </label><br /><input id="insightly_lastName" name="LastName" type="text"/><br/><label for="insightly_organization">Organisation: </label><br /><input id="insightly_organization" name="OrganizationName" type="text"/><br/><label for="insightly_industry">Industry: </label><br /><input id="insightly_Industry" name="Industry" type="text"/><br/><br /><label for="email">Email: </label><br /><input id="insightly_Email" name="email" type="text"/><br/><label for="phone">Phone: </label><br /><input id="insightly_Phone" name="phone" type="text"/><br/><br /><label for="Description">Briefly tell me what you want from a website: </label><br /><input id="insightly_Description" name="Description" type="textbox" style="height:100px; width:100%;"/><br/><input type="hidden" id="insightly_ResponsibleUser" name="ResponsibleUser" value="1250783"/><input type="hidden" id="insightly_LeadSource" name="LeadSource" value="1455128"/><input type="submit" value="Submit"></form>
PHP – What it is (and why you care!)

PHP – What it is (and why you care!)

by | 24 Nov 2017 | Webhosting, Website Care

PHP is a bit like the petrol in a car engine. Without petrol, it stops. Dirty petrol, it stutters and stops. Stale old petrol, it stutters.

For another way to look at it, PHP is like the interpreter between your website's coding and your webserver. The webserver actually carries out the gruntwork for your website, receiving requests from your visitors ("send me the Home page again") and doing what's necessary to retrieve everything that your website says makes up the 'Home page', then sending it all back to the visitor's device. Your website is highly likely to be a software package that assembles pages and carries out functions as and when requested. It will be passing instructions to the webserver computer ("get me that logo image"). However, the webserver needs something in between that understands website-speak on the one hand, and webserver-speak on the other. Enter PHP.

Your website has a webhosting account, like its own apartment in the overall skyscraper that is the webserver. It shares many resources with all the other occupants - PHP is one of those resources. So your PHP translator is also being used by other websites simultaneously. PHP is a busy bee.

Now as is always the case with any software, new versions keep coming out. PHP Version 5 has been around for a long time, gradually moving from 5.1 to 5.2 to 5.4 to 5.6... Well, there's a big jump happening at the moment, up to PHP Version 7. Does this matter to you? Absolutely!!

PHP 7 is twice as fast as PHP 5. That by itself is plenty good enough reason to make the move. However, just as importantly, at the end of 2017, PHP 5 is no longer supported (in other words, won't be fixed if the bad guys find a hole or if it stops working in certain situations). Odds are, PHP 5 will keep going for a bit longer, BUT it is definitely a good idea to move to PHP 7 as soon as opportunity permits.

How easy is changing to PHP 7? Sorry, but it's that old chestnut, "it depends". It can be very easy if you have up-to-date webhosting, and your website is up-to-date. Simply change a setting in your webhosting, and you're done!

  • If your webhosting is a bit behind or restrictive, you will probably need to change webhosting service (it's worth asking them if you can be upgraded, you never know).
  • If your site is a bit behind, there's a good chance it will stop working when you move to PHP 7. A test is definitely on the cards. At least it is usually easy to immediately change back to PHP 5 and carry on as normal.

So to summarise, your website is highly likely to be using PHP, and you will need to change to PHP 7 in 2018 or risk a broken website and a panicked reaction to fix it. The good news is changing to PHP 7 gives you a more secure and noticeably faster website. Look into it sooner rather than later. If you need any help, Winch Websites is here.

Interested in working with us?

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Just quickly send us your contact info and what you're looking for - eg. why you want a website (starting from scratch, remaking an existing one, etc) and any particular features or questions you have in mind.

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Website maintenance – Why & What

Website maintenance – Why & What

by | 15 Nov 2017 | Website Care

Keeping Your Website Going

Websites need care & attention if they are to continue providing value to you (the website owner). Just like owning a car, a house, a computer - if you don't maintain it, gradually things degrade. Small problems become big problems. And sooner or later there will be a failure, which of course is bound to happen at the worst possible time...

So the question is, what needs doing and why? (NB. the "how" very much depends on what you're website has been built with, and can vary hugely).

1. The 'Content Management System'

It is a rare website these days that is not powered by a content management system (CMS) of some sort. WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Shopify and on and on. They are all basically a software package that assists you in creating and managing a website without having to do coding or computer programming. Some of them allow you to run your own independent system (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal), some of them are large umbrella systems managed on your behalf (Wix, Weebly, Shopify, Squarespace).

So you need to know if you are responsible for keeping this underlying software package up-to-date, or if someone else is. If it's someone else, all good - just make sure they're are doing what they said they would. If it's your job - make sure you are checking for updates on at least a weekly basis. The content management system is like the engine for your website, it powers it and drives it and makes it work. A stuttery engine will give you stuttery website performance.

Why update the core CMS? Because there are frequent fixes and updates that address security issues (people breaking into or abusing your site), bugs (things that don't work properly) and improvements (making things work better and more smoothly).

Website maintenance

2. The Add-Ons & Extensions

You are quite unlikely to be using the base-level CMS. For a website to be useful to you and what you want to do with it, you are going to add extra functions to the site - called 'add-ons' or 'extensions', or maybe 'options' in the big shared systems. For an independent website, these add-ons also need the same upkeep as the underlying website system. Again, is that your job or is someone else doing it? You need to know or you could wake up one morning to a day that is going to be wasted on fixing a broken website (not to mention the potential loss of business while it's down, and the cost of repair).

Why update the add-ons? Because there are fixes and updates that address security issues (people breaking into or abusing your site), bugs (things that don't work properly) and improvements (making things work better and more smoothly).

3. The Webhosting Account

Often overlooked, the webhosting is where the website 'lives'. Think of it as renting office space in an office block - there are multiple businesses not connected to you all sharing the same office block, and you have rented one corner of one floor. Your rented space is your own webhosting account, and the other businesses are other independent websites.

What if the owner of the office block never did any maintenance? And worse, you can't do it yourself even if you wanted to because your contract forbids it? Now you've got a beautiful office in a shabby building with poor security. Not good.

So it's important to know if the webserver that manages your webhosting is being maintained and managed for you. Once more, there are always ongoing changes, fixes, updates to the webserver software - and you are nearly always not allowed to do anything to the webserver (because you would affect all the other inhabitants too). Ask the question of your webhosting provider - "do you managed and maintain the webserver, and keep it up-to-date?"

Why update the webserver? Because there are frequent fixes and updates that address security issues (people breaking into or abusing the entire system), bugs (things that don't work properly) and improvements (making things work better and more smoothly).

Effective and ongoing website maintenance is as optional as business insurance. You might not want it or have it, but you are exposed to serious business and financial risks without it. Prevention is definitely better than cure in this situation.

Winch Websites manages its own webservers and definitely keeps them up-to-date with the latest recommended systems and software, and follows industry best-practice to provide high-functioning, roomy webhosting with lots of bells & whistles.

We also offer a 'Website Care' service - you have a website, we'll look after it. Updates, backups, monitoring, security and more - and we'll even make changes to the pages for you. Saving you time, hassle and mental energy so you can get on with your business and leave the web stuff to someone else.

Interested in working with us?

Get In Touch Now

Just quickly send us your contact info and what you're looking for - eg. why you want a website (starting from scratch, remaking an existing one, etc) and any particular features or questions you have in mind.

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