Not so many years ago, webmasters wrote HTML code by hand and clients needed to call on us for even the most minor updates. Then CMS (content management systems) were developed and became the trend, so webmasters were able to build websites on these systems which give clients the ability to perform updates and manage their sites themselves in order to save time and money. Today there are a few major players in the CMS arena – WordPress is one of the CMS giants, and the engine I specialize in and use for the development of all new sites. Websites now need to be ‘responsive’ and adapt across a wide variety of devices from desktop, to Ipad to mobile. They need to have unlimited functionality from business presence, to portfolios, to e-commerce stores. They need to have a user friendly back-end interface that is easy for clients to manage. Properly developed WordPress sites deliver all this and more.

It’s all about first impressions… studies have shown that people decide to stay or click away from a website in a matter of seconds, so your site needs to be engaging and looking it’s best at all times. Websites are primarily appealing in a visual way. A good website uses a cohesive color palette, a beautifully designed logo, images that are of high quality, creative use of fonts and well organized data. Many people that want to build a new personal website need a logo, photo images to be bought or shot, selected and/or retouched, and a general style direction that best exemplifies their image. Businesses with a clearly defined graphic chart need a designer that can seamlessly respect and apply their existing corporate guidelines to web. With solid experience in CSS, the Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator etc), many years in the advertising industry and an international flair, I can help your website ‘look good, feel good, do good’.

Many people ask me “Why is my website not on page one of Google?” for such and such a term, and I reply “Do those terms appear verbatum in your website headlines and texts?”. Ranking well on search engines is a mystery as well as a science – there is no guarantee where Google and other search engines will place you, but there are basic rules to be employed in your search engine strategy that usually deliver excellent results. I tell my clients that before they begin writing any of the website texts they should make a list of keywords that most accurately describe themselves or product, and words that they think people would use to search for them on the web. Who, what, when, where… These words or phrases are then used strategically within the site headlines and texts. No need to embellish or exaggerate, just be smart and honest – Google has an excellent B.S. meter and will penalize you if they think you are manipulating the system.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media are very important in presenting a cohesive interactive web presence; hence, I highly recommend integrating social media to most websites. If you have a website, your social media image and graphic content should be aligned for better recognition and branding, and I can assist with ensuring that. Social media marketing is a powerful tool and here to stay, so it’s only logical to use it to your best advantage. ‘Keep your buzz fresh with social media!’

Gathering visitor data via a newsletter sign up form is another great way to interact with your visitors. I use Mailchimp to create branded email templates for my clients to easily communicate their newsletters and to manage their growing email database mailing lists.

It’s not called the world wide web for nothing! As technology increases so does our connection to the farthest reaches of the globe. Many of my new website builds require multilingual functionality. I’m a tri-lingual (English, French & Spanish) citizen of the world and can help you create a multilingual website using WPML or Polylang/Lingotech, WordPress plugins that simplifies the task. ‘Are we speaking the same language?’

The only real way to know how your website is performing is to analyze your traffic. I implement Google Analytics & Yoast SEO on all my website builds. With Google Analytics you can see over time in stunning detail how your site is attracting visitors. The results are often surprising!

Yoast is an indispensable WordPress plugin which helps to verify that every element of your pages are optimized for the search engine robots, from titles and texts to image tags and more… It makes SEO fun actually. In a perfect world your website would rank on page one, but if it doesn’t – no worries! Google Analytics shows you exactly where you may need to ‘fine tune’ your strategies.

Google takes into consideration the amount of time your site has been live. Older established sites are considered ‘authorities’ because they have stood the test of time and will naturally rank higher, so you must be patient when launching a new site and not expect immediate results.

Google appreciates when you keep your website ‘fresh’ and add new content, which is one reason why many professional sites include a blog page. Your site will also benefit greatly from other reputable sites linking to yours.

There are many considerations in search engine optimization but it all boils down to having a strategy to get the results you desire.

Next comes the actual site build… Most non-developers do not realize the amount of work and substantial time investment that goes into developing even a basic site or blog : client meetings and consultations, determining content, design, photos, structure, layout styles, functionality, browser compatibility, testing and launch. Webmasters work hard for the money!

Beyond the start-up investment for your domain name and hosting server costs, the final price of your website is determined primarily by your needs, requirements and your vision of how you would like your website to look and perform. For example:

Do you already have content & design elements such as logo, high quality images and texts? Keep in mind that in low to medium budget websites, it is the clients responsibility to provide the logo, site images and texts, otherwise there are additional costs for graphics creation, photography and copywriting.

How big does the site need to be? Does it need to be multilingual? Is it an e-commerce with calls to action? Naturally a 10 page, 3 language e-commerce site would cost more than a simple one page website or blog with a contact form.

How comfortable are you with technology, and how much DIY time do you realistically have available to invest in the site build? If you feel at ease with computer programs, in that you could build the majority of the site yourself after I have set up the technical part, then my charges would be minimal.

All websites have different requirements and therefore must be estimated in detail after the client briefing describing their particular needs,