Frequently Asked Questions

SEO is an abbreviation for "Search Engine Optimization". This means that your website, when optimised, can be found by search engines such as Google when certain keywords are used in a search phrase. The idea of a website is that potential customers can find your website to obtain goods, services or information about services you provide. It is great to have a good website but if customers can't find it then it may not be of much use.

Your website is an important part of your business. It acts as a shop front for your customers online. More than ever people are using search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN to find products and services. Chances are, if your competitors are found on a search results page before you, it is likely they will get the call for potential business.

In addition, if your website is not designed correctly, for instance, find the site hard to navigate , they may leave before contacting you.

Ranking websites for search engines is a very important part of the the overall design process. A good web developer will explain this in detail and incorporate good design and SEO practices into your website upon implementation.

See our SEO Explained explained article to find out more detailed information on search.

When planning a website it is good to have as much involvement as possible, after all you know your product and customer better than anyone else. In most cases you will need to provide content, a logo and/or images for your website. You will also need a registered domain name and hosting.

With regards to content, Joogle can assist with suggestions and we may also assist with ideas about what type of images to use but ultimately it is you at the end of the day that needs to be happy with what you are putting out to your customers.

If you don't have a logo we can design one for you and if you are not sure about what content you need to write we can assist with this too.

Our web-developers will consult you each step of the way from colours to content, discuss functionality and encourage your input from start to finish to ensure the website is tailored for your business

A website is like a store front for your business AND it works for you while you sleep. Ask anybody who is looking for a product or service. Where do they look first and how did they find it. You will probably find most people first go to the internet and use local business search, Google or some other search engine to find what they are looking for.

If your website is designed correctly your visitors will find what they are looking for and call you for information, or perhaps order online.

Websites provide information to customers when they need it, offer specials, sell products and reach a much larger audience at much cheaper rates. It is one of your best resources if used to its potential.

In today's technology age, most businesses have websites to distribute information to their clients. Forms or brochures can be downloaded saving on printing or mailing costs, news letters can be sent to keep in touch with your customer base and much more. In short, if you do not have a website you are at a major disadvantage.

Generally there are three main setup costs involved when setting up a website. Domain name registration, hosting and website development. Web Development costs  can vary depending on your requirements.

1:   Domain Name registration: A Domain Name Registrar will register your domain name for a period of time usually between 12 – 24 months. Domain name registration can vary in price from $10 per year to $50 or more depending on who you choose as a registrar and what name you require.

2:   Hosting: Hosting costs can range anywhere from $10 per month to around $40 depending on what the website is used for and how much space you need. This is decided upon usually with your web developer. Generally speaking, in Australia the average starting price for an informational website is $10 per month upward. 

3:  Website Design and Development: Costs for web development vary, there is no set price. Some developers start from as little as a few hundred and can move into thousands. There are many web developers, experienced and not so experienced, offering web services. The choice will depend on your needs and the type of website you choose. 

Search the internet and have a look around at different prices and packages, find out what support is available and most importantly what it will cost for future updates. Websites in today's technical climate will more than likely require some form of maintenance, especially if your site uses content management (CMS) such as Wordpress or Joomla. In addition, security is another significant factor that needs attention.

Questions to ask a developer

• Will they incorporate SEO as part of the web development project
• What type of CMS will be used
• can you update content yourself
• How often will the site require maintenance
• what are the security issues associated with your site
• Is there support or training for site updates
• Is there ongoing support
• Are there any ongoing costs

See our Website Development page for more on website costs

Generally there are 2 standard ongoing costs once a website project is complete. These include, but are not limited to; Hosting and Domain Name renewal.

Ongoing costs for websites are monthly or annual depending on your provider. Monthly Hosting fees can start from $9.95 per month and up while Domain Name renewal will generally be every two years, however, this depends on your provider.

If you need to update your website and can not do it yourself you will have to pay a web developer for updates as an extra expense. If your website needs changing constantly then a content management website might be a better way to go and is of no cost provided you are willing to learn.

In summary

Hosting - paid monthly or annually

Domain Name Registration -  every two years, or one year if the name is .com

Website Development - one-off unless another arrangement are made.

Do I own my website when it is complete.

The short answer is yes, however, we have come across situation where this is not the case. This is one important question to ask your developer at the time of agreement. Joogle does not own your site when we develop. You own your site unless negotiated otherwise. This means you are free to do with it as you wish after development is complete

Depending on your needs a basic informational website with less than 10 pages can take anywhere from 2 - 5 days. Some customers request shopping carts or would like news letters, blogs or other functionality. Extra functionality can increase the time it takes to finish your website. More complex websites can take a few weeks or more. In addition to development time, often clients need to provide content or feedback that we request. Sometimes this can cause a delay resulting in longer development time.

Joogle allows you to view its progress within a few hours of starting the project. We provide a temporary URL so you can view progress as we develop. This allows for quicker development and we can correct things as we go rather than wait for the finished product before making change requests.

Updating your website will depend on whether you decide to use a content management system to perform updates yourself or pay a web developer to do it for you.

If you decide to use content management then your web developer will provide you with a link to the administration area where you can log in and make changes, alternatively, you can request your web developer update the site for you, however, that may attract an hourly fee.

If your website is developed by us we provide training manuals and on-site support to get started. See our downloads section under the support link to view some of our free tutorials. If you have a tutorial request, please Contact Us and we will create one for you.

Content Management Websites

So what is content management and how will it help you?

Content Management System, also known as CMS, provides an administration area on your site that allows you to log in and perform site updates yourself using a graphical user interface. For example if you want to update product information, write your own articles or create new links, then content management is for you.

Content management takes out the technical difficulties most people face when having to make quick changes. It allows you to login and do it yourself, thus, reducing web development costs in the long run. The downside of CMS is security maintenance to keep the site secure.

So what is a good content management system?

• Allows you to make content changes easily
• instant site updates, whereby, you can see the result instantly
• requires no knowledge of HTML 
• provides an easy and simple interface

If you are interested in content management for your website contact us today and find out how to get started.

Depending on the plan you purchase, support is generally provided via our website or contacting us by phone.

Support is provided for both your website and hosting. You can contact us 7 days a week for technical assistance via our online ticket system under the Support link.

If you are an existing customer you will have a member log-in and can access your account to submit support tickets. If you have forgotten your password click the forgot password button at the bottom of the log in box or send us a quick email and we will reset it for you.

For Website changes or enquiries - Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm

There are a number of ways to get your site listed on a Google search. Basically, the bottom line is, good web design and well thought out content. Google is changing rapidly and its primary focus is site content, therefore it is important to write content for users not search engines.

There are two kinds of search, Pay per click (Google Ads) and organic (free) search. 

Free Search

Free search, otherwise known as organic search, is when a search query is entered into a search engine, such as Yahoo or Google, about a particular topic or business. Search results are displayed on the left hand side and under the sponsored links. You will notice for some search queries the results listed at the top of the page or the right hand side have small text that states sponsored link. These are paid searches and not organic. The organic results are directly below the sponsored Ads whereby search results are found without any advertising. 

All websites have equal opportunity for free search.  There is no way to pay to get a higher listing for free search at least with Google. Google do not guarantee anyone results. It all comes down to relevant content about your business and good web design.

Some hints ans tips for a good search result when writing content

• Think about the key words your customers are likely to search for when looking for your business and place them throughout your content. For example, say a client is looking for a cake decorating service, think about what they would type into Google  More than likely it would something like "cake decorator in perth", in which case you can target your keywords around that phrase.
  
  Another thing to consider when writing content is what page the visitor is likely to land on, for example a visitor might type in "how to decorate wedding cakes". If you have a page that contains relevant content it is likely to show up in the search results so it is always a good idea to write your content in such a way that it is relevant to what people are searching for.
  
  It is important not to inject to many keywords or phrases within the content, this can result in your site becoming banned from search. Over the years Google has picked up on keyword spamming and deals with with this appropriately.
  
  
• Give your article a title that reflects what the page is about, include your search phrase in the first paragraph and possibly the last. If the page has only one paragraph then one mention of the phrase is sufficient.
  
  
• Ensure all images are named correctly, for example a cake on a page about wedding cakes would be better to have a name of wedding-cake-showcase.jpg rather than myimage.jpg. Images should always use descriptive text and alt text to describe the image.
  
  
• All links to other pages should include a "title" attribute, for example a link to My Cakes would look like this.
  <a href="/mycakes.html" title="My Cakes">My Cakes </a>
  
  This tells users and search engines what content the link is pointing to, it is very useful for screen readers and is good practice.
  
  
• Changing content is always good, it keeps search robots coming back to visit the site regularly so be sure to update your website frequently. A good way to do this is to install a blog and frequently write useful content relevant to your audience.
  
  
• Get going on Facebook, Twitter and Google plus to help generate more leads to your website. See our blog post Google+ and why you should pay attention
  
• If possible, get a YouTube channel and link to your website
  
  
• Register on free directories such as gumtree. There are many directories that will list your site for free.
  
  
• Register on Google Maps and Google Places. Google Places, also known as Google Local Business, is extremely important for search results. Every business should have a listing.
  
  
• swap links with similar websites. For example, if you are a cake decorator it would be a wise move to try and get links to wedding websites. It is important to note that is is not much use to place a link on a car dealership because a car dealership and cake decoration have nothing in common. Google is very smart and you can actually lose ranking for irrelevant links. The key here is to have link-backs to websites that reflect the content on your website.
  
  
• internal links on your site are a great way to increase your ranking, linking between pages on your site will help.
  
  
• Ensure you have relevant Browser Titles and Page headings 

These are just a few hints and tips. SEO is a very large topic and there are now professionals who do just SEO all day everyday. You can always consult an expert to see what your options are.

If you need an expert or need to take your SEO one step further Joogle recommends Media Blitz as a trusted and professional company for SEO.

Google Pay per Click 

Google Ads are a pay per click advertising campaign.  You sign up with Google Ads, create your ad, enter some keywords and then appear in the sponsored links section of the search results.

As described above, the sponsored links are generally located on the right hand side or at the very top of the page.

This is fast and effective but depending on your competition it can sometimes be costly if your keywords are to broad. Google Ads allows you to zero in on your customers using geographic targeting so your Ads only show in areas you select. You can pay as you go and opt out when ever you like.

Visit Google Adwords for more information

So what is content management and how will it help you?

Content Management (CMS), is an area on your website that allows you to update, edit or delete your own content using a friendly editor. For example if you want to update product information, write your own articles or create new links, then content management is for you.

Content management takes out the technical difficulties most people face when having to make quick changes. It allows you to login and do it yourself, thus, reducing costs to pay a web developer to do it for you.

So what is a good content management system?

• Allows you to easily make content changes
• instant site updates, meaning, you can see the result instantly
• requires no knowledge of HTML 
• provides an easy and simple interface

If you would like content management on your website contact us today and find out how to get started.

So what is a Domain Name?  

Think of it like registering a business name. Before you can start trading you need to register a business name, then you need a premises to work from so you can store  stock, office equipment, take phone calls etc (hosting).

When a business name is registered generally speaking, you apply for the name via the governments website and register it as a business name. Domain Names are much the same except the name is used for the web.  In other words, to have an internet or www address you need to register a particular name for your domain.

How do I register a domain name?

Start by going to a domain name registrar who can register a name for you. Some popular registrars are Crazy Domains  Melbourne IT and of course Joogle can register a name for you.

You can use our domain name registration and checker here

In Australia in order to register a .com.au domain you must provide your ABN.

When you find a name that is available you can the proceed to register. After registration you will receive an email with all the domain name details, for example how long it is valid and when you need to renew it.

This email is extremely important and must be kept like any other business registration, without it your website can not function.

Domain Name registrars manage your Domain name.  In the registration email details for management will be provided. You have the ability to log into their website check your details are correct, update account information and renewal the domain name when it is due to expire. The Domain name registrar is also responsible for what is called Domain Name Server or DNS listings . This ensures your website can be found on the internet and points the name to the correct web server for delivery to the internet. This is where the hosting of the website will be.

So why do you need hosting?

To deliver website pages to the internet they need to be stored on a web server. You must have a domain name registered. Once this is done you can set up a website on a hosted web server to deliver content. Think of hosting as a business Premises to lease. You have a business name (domain name) and then you need some where to operate your business (hosting), to store files, content and email.

Hosting packages vary in price depending on where the web server is located and how much space is required. Some websites require more space than others. For example, online shops will require more storage than a standard website. In addition you may have a mobile site and multiple email accounts. 

Whatever the requirements, we have a package to suit your needs. Whether it is for basic email or more complex solutions such as shopping carts. As your website grows we can tailor solutions to match your requirements.

Our servers are located in Australia and not overseas providing faster service and better support.

We offer a complete solution so you can concentrate on running your business and leave the hosting hassles to us!