Question and Answer Time: Ask ASIT Group.

1. How much does a website cost?

A website can cost a little or a lot - that is, things like its appearance, complexity and purpose all have an effect. Web developers (like us!) will work with clients to understand their needs and wants, and following that, can put forward a proposal for pricing.  To get you started, we have an excellent guide to pricing on our website http://www.asit-group.com/ and if what you're searching for isn't listed or you feel you require something special, drop us an email and you will hear from us as fast as humanly possible!


2. How do i get people to visit my website?

One of the biggest questions we get asked, and the answer is complicated.  Driving traffic to your website can come in a variety of ways, the nature of your business also has a huge impact and can massively change how you get your visitors. Typically though, people that see your site have a chance to visit it, this is nice and easy, flyers, paper / billboard advertising, listed advertisements, all of these will help people see your site.  Additionally, connecting with sites of similar interests and having them link to you is also an excellent way to do it.  There are so many other ways too, but I feel these are my favorite!


3. Why aren't I at the top of Google?

Let's first start with how Google ranks sites, and why some are higher than others.
Google likes sites that have HUGE daily traffic, a site with a million daily visits will just about always be higher up than a site with a thousand daily visits (as long as they are both relevant to the search criteria).  Secondly, a site that has a lot of other sites linking to it will be very likely to be at the top of a search, see, a site with a lot of other 'backlinks' is more likely to be relevant and provide the searcher with valuable information pertaining to their search.
Finally, Google loves compliant, updated sites, and that is where we can come in, building your site in certain ways and using certain tools will allow Google to search and index your site easier, also, making sure you have a skilled web developer that doesn't have any errors in his code is very important.


4. How long does a website take to make?

This is again, a difficult question to answer, simple websites can be deployed in a few days to a week, whereas large, complex websites can take weeks or even months to finish, it is all relative to the needs of the client and the project that is undertaken. Getting in contact with us early allows us to establish a deadline and milestones early on so you are always in the loop. When
you choose ASIT Group, you are assigned your own consultant that is with you throughout the entire development process, our commitment to customer satisfaction and transparency is second to none.


5. How can I add things to my website - I'm not great with computers?

When your website is completed you will always have your own customer interface just for your (or your employees) to use to update, administer, and manage your site.  We create an easy to use interface that is well structured and labeled. If you can Google, e Mail, and Facebook (or any of the three) we can create a portal that you can use easily and without frustration.

Well, that't it from us, catch you next time!

Definitely and absolutely necessary

I'm going to do something a little different today. Normally we discuss a lot of different things related to web design and development. At ASIT Group we also do a lot of computer repairs and custom installations and obviously there are a bunch of different things we need for the various jobs. So for anyone in the same sort of situation or for those of you who are attempting a fix on your own computer (hardware or software) these are the absolute necessities.

A lot of people forget that computers are an actual physical thing and need to be maintained in order to function correctly.

• Screwdrivers, for unscrewing those tiny little screws that seem to be everywhere, a magnetic one would be best and a little tray is always nice to store the screws while you're working so you don't lose anything.
• Cloths, dust in a major issue and apart from being ugly and making you sneeze it also increases heat inside the computer and hinders working on the machine so cleaning it may be a necessity.
• Blank CDs/DVDs, these can always come in handy.
• Blank Flash Drive, again, always handy, you will really want a minimum of 8Gb.
• Ethernet Cables, for network problems, you'll want a minimum of two and make sure the cables you have do actually work.
• Hiren's Boot CD, this is honestly the most useful tool ever created, it's basically a bootable CD with a load of different tools on it ranging from anti-viruses/anti-spyware/anti-malware to optimisers such as defragmentation and cleaning software to disk image makers and everything in-between. I prefer to have it on a bootable USB purely for the durability and portability factors but I honestly can not praise Hiren's Boot CD enough.
• Install CDs, if we're doing a fresh install of an Operating System it's handy to have that operating system lying around because chances are the client won't have the discs. I like to keep Windows 7, Windows 8 and a Linux distro around. Don't forget that you will need any extra drivers as well to make all of the peripherals work properly.
• Live CDs, these are extremely useful because it boots to an almost fully fledged operating system while keeping the actual operating system completely off which mean you can do those deep scans and proper diagnostics.
• Mobile Internet Connection, just in case the client doesn't have an Internet connection or they think theirs is broken, it's useful to have a backup. Most people have a decent amount of data usage on their mobile phones nowadays so that is actually my go-to thing.
• Various Cables, just to be sure everything is actually working as it should and in case the client doesn't have the right one. I would recommend at least a micro USB and a mini USB to USB cables as well as a printer cable and lately, possibly even a proper USB 3.0 cable.

Obviously the list goes on but those are the absolute necessities. If you think of any others just leave a comment!

Till next time,

Alec

Template or Custom Solution when having a system designed

When our clients approach us, usually they have an idea in there head of what they want, and how they want the product to operate / look, whether this be a website, CMS package or anything else.  The biggest problem we then face is having the client decide if they want to go down the prefabricated ‘template’ path, or have us custom design them a solution, both have their advantages and disadvantages and these will be discussed below.

Custom Designed:

Having a solution custom designed for you is usually the best option, it allows complete control over the design and development of the solution and allows you to alter and change anything during the design phase before it goes to a finished product.  Clients opting for this type of approach usually are buying for a long term solution, so having a perfect ‘fit’ is a must for them.  Additionally, scalability / expandability can be built into the initial system allowing for future proofing and quicker deployment if additional features are needed down the road.   Custom designed solutions do have drawbacks though – universal maintainability cross business is not guaranteed as a custom solution may be very complex and abstract from pre-fabricated alternatives, furthermore, some plugins (small addons) to sites may not work correctly in a custom solution depending on the requirements of the initial project.

Template Based:

These type of solutions are typically the cheapest and easiest to build, maintain, and replace.  There is not a large investment of time / money in a template based system and therefore can be swapped out and replaced if needed.
Template Based solutions are typically best for small scale operations or projects where unique specifications are not required; a big limitation of Template Based solutions is that they are just… template based, there is limited customizability.
Limited customizability alone is the biggest drawback to Template Based Solutions.  These types of solutions will typically only let you update certain aspects of the template.  In the case of a website, you may only be able to update the color of a button, not now it looks, or the font of a text area, not how big it is or swap out the text for a picture of movie.

So which is best?

Well, that depends on the situation, and the situation depends on your needs, and your needs depend on your goals.  We will work with you to understand what you are trying to achieve and how you imagine the solution that achieves that.  We are experts when it comes to Systems Analysis and Design, so why not give us an email and see what ASIT Group can do for you.

Multimedia Elements on the Web

This week we’re going to cover something that everyone loves but not too many people think enough about. When thinking about having their own website, people immediately just want to put as much content on as possible without considering the consequences. “I want pictures and videos and sound and games and moving things and…and…” That is a sentence web developers hear far too often. In this topic we’ll have a quick look at some of the different media types possible on the Internet and why you probably shouldn't use them on your website.

First up is graphics, pictures, images, whatever you want to call it. Graphics are a basic necessity in most websites and frankly the Internet just wouldn't be the same without the 14 million pictures of cute cats. Websites can be made to look extremely appealing with the appropriate use of graphics, but sometimes…well people just go over the top. Layering a hundred different images is not a good idea. Having a huge image as a background is not a good idea. Although the speed of the Internet around the world is slowly improving having a website that takes longer than a couple of seconds to load will mean that visitors will abandon it before they see your first “amazing ocean view”.

The second media type we’ll touch on is animated graphics. The primary type of animated graphic on the Internet is the trusty “gif” (with varying pronunciations) but now there is a newer type that goes hand in hand with modern browsers called a “webm” (although it still has a few issues). These file types are, in my opinion, very over used. Moving things on a website is usually a distraction and honestly if there were lots of moving things on a website I would leave the site quite quickly. Obviously you can use them if you wish however, please, for the sake of all Internet users, use them sparingly and tastefully.

Something that is pretty close to animated graphics is animated text. Text flying in from the side belongs in a music lyric video and not on your professional website. If you feel the need to have scrolling text or make it look like your words are burning then you seriously need to reconsider that idea. I’ll admit, when this sort of thing was all new and exciting it was awesome to have words that dissolved in front of you but after about five minutes it got boring. Really boring. In terms of the Internet animated text is extremely old fashioned and there are a lot more opportunities available with modern technologies to make your website look clean, classy and professional.

Videos are a bit of a hit and miss. On one hand they can add some wonderful content to a website and do not add to the loading time at all if you allow the user to choose when to play the video because all modern standards mean that the video is streamed piece by piece and not all at once. On the other hand you have videos like those on Facebook. You know those annoying things you see because one of your so called “friends” liked something? It automatically plays in your news feed unless you choose to turn the feature off (which the option for is buried deep in account settings). If you are on a mobile device this chews up your data allowance faster than anything else and a lot of the time the video is not something you actually want to see.

The final media type I’ll look at here is sound and the answer is no.

Never. Just don’t do it. The fact is that sound or music on a website is horrible. The majority of the time the user is already listening to music and/or doesn't want it to be interrupted by your “soothing whale noises” that you have automatically playing in your website and of course you didn't include a button to turn it off because “why would anyone want to turn it off?”. If a user specifically went to your website to hear noises or sounds or music then they will not be bothered by one more button that says “Play” on it and that is the end of the discussion right there.

Till next time

Alec :)

Online Stores and why YOU need one

The nature of business has changed so much in the last decade, it seems that the days of visiting every retailer to find the best deal, or the newest car are long gone – we now just jump on our smart devices or computers and 'google' it. It is so common to shop online now that we even buy our groceries online, we bank online and find a new TV online, see a trend here? We are looking for convenience and ease of access, buying online seems to be the best way to buy right? Today we will discuss.

Ease of access & information-

Your customer wants to know what they want to know, whether that be who is the cheapest, who has the item in stock, who ships free, who has the most detailed specs, who has the color they want, who has …..... and the list goes on. Having an online store gives your customers ease of access to your product, and allows you to tell the customer everything you would in person, but from the comfort of their device.

Cost effective selling-

Having an online store adds little cost to your daily operations but allows for a huge increase in sales. You won't need numerous new staff members, you won't need a new shop floor, you won't need a lot to get an online store up and running.

Extra revenue-

Customers that buy online are easy – they won't take large amounts of employee time, or ask to look at your 20 circular saws out of the box, they have everything in front of them that they need to make the purchase, additionally your customer doesn't usually have the provision to 'bargain' with you from your website, if your pricing is competitive, the customer will buy then and there.

Simple to Set Up-

Setting up an online store is so much easier than setting up a physical one, you hire a web developer to build you the store, you pay for a domain name (www.mystore.com.au), you add in your products, organise freight and you are done.

Increased traffic to your website-

Customers shopping with you online are likely to browse just like regular shoppers, this leads to more traffic through your site and more prominent presence in the digital space.

Having an online site is not a one day project though, it takes a skilled web developer with an adequate understanding of your goals, a well thought out plan in place for the management of your business in the digital marketplace, a properly developed marketing strategy and most of all a wide range of product at a competitive price.

If you have any questions or comments please leave the below or contact us via our website.