Web Design & Development

SuproNet provides web related services from domain registration through web hosting, design and development, online marketing and management (including social media), analysis and reporting, to maintenance and updating. This is supported by a strong graphic design capability.

DOMAIN REGISTRATION

A presence on the web usually starts with registering a domain name of your choice, e.g. www.yourdomainname.co.za.

SuproNet can register your company name or derivative:

As address for your website
To use as e-mail address. It creates a more professional image than when using generic addresses such as gmail or the e-mail address provided by your ISP. It also advertises your business with every e-mail you send.
To prevent others from registering the name, causing it to be unavailable when you want to register it.

We can register .co.za, .com and other domains such as .biz, .net, .info, .org and .org.za.in your name.

WEBSITE HOSTING

Every website requires hosting. We provide website hosting and associated e-mail services that can be set up according to your needs.

Our web server is hosted, managed and supported by one of South Africa’s major web hosting companies. We have been using their services for more than 15 years and are impressed with their service and support, prices and continuous product improvement and development. If you have a special hosting requirement, we can also provide other hosting.

We will recommend a web hosting package that suites your specific requirements. Usually this is determined by the size of the website and the functionality required.

The three packages used most often are:

PACKAGE	DISK SPACE	E-MAILBOXES	OTHER
Entry*	150 MB	20	mySQL Database
Medium	300 MB	50	mySQL Database
Large	1 000 MB	100	5 x mySQL Database

*This package is adequate for most websites and clients.

All these packages include the following:

Online access to visitor statistics.
E-mail service.
Control panel for setting up and managing services.
Linux, Apache platform.

The e-mail service includes the following:

POP mailboxes
Spam filters, white- and blacklists and the ability to adjust the filters.
Automatic responses (e.g. for “out of office”) and forwarding of mail.
Access to webmail so that e-mail can be accessed via a web browser – to read and send mail.
Aliases – more than one e-mail address for the same mailbox.

Other hosting configurations can also be provided.

WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

SuproNet develops websites according to your needs and budget and that will carry your message across while reflecting your business’s unique identity and style. Visit our portfolio to get an idea of the work we have done. Updates and maintenance of the site could be done by us, you or a combination, to suite the specific circumstances.

Each website is developed for a specific client with unique requirements. Therefore we do not have a standard price list for “website packages”. After we have discussed your requirements with you, we will prepare a free proposal describing how we understand your requirement, our proposal for the website, a description of the process and other relevant information. We usually charge a once-off fee for the development of the website. We do not charge a monthly fee for the website as such, even if it runs on a platform that enables you to maintain and update it yourself. There may be other regular fees for hosting and maintenance and these will be set out in the proposal, if relevant to your situations. Also see Website Hosting and Website Maintenance .

Our services and websites include the following:

Develop a unique appearance or style that fits in with your business’s image as reflected by your logo, colours, and other marketing material such as business cards, letterhead, brochures, email signatures and advertisements.
Description of the business such as background (“About Us”), products and services and contact information. Usually clients provide this content but we can also assist with research, writing of content, translation, proofreading and editing.
Photographs and Photo Galleries: Include photographs on your web pages and create photo galleries of your products, events, personnel, members, etc. If you do not already have photos, we can assist with taking of pictures and photo editing or buying stock photography.
Video: Integrate video with the content of your website.
Blog: If you want to write articles or other opinion pieces on a regular basis and want to invite visitors to participate in a discussion, we can integrate a blog into your website.
Discussion Forums: Create a discussion forum to communicate with your clients, members or any other group.
Contact and other forms: Create forms for general contact, enquiries, requests for quotation, or for any other purpose.
Maps: Create custom graphics containing maps or integrate electronic maps such as Google Maps into your website.
Links: Include links to other sites that may be of interest to your visitors. This can include links to your social media pages, suppliers (e.g. for product information), industry information and other sources of information.
Documents: Make documents such as product specifications, brochures, price lists and instructions available on your website in formats such as pdf.
Mailing Lists and News Letters: Integrate subscription to and management of your mailing list with your website. We recommend that a separate mailing list service be used but can lead visitors who want to subscribe to it.
Website banners: Design unique interactive banners that complement the website.

The list of functionalities and features above is just an example of the more common elements found on a website. You may have other or additional requirements that we can accommodate.

While developing your website, we give advice about content and how to create content with a view of increasing search engine visibility. We also include selected “META tags” on your web pages and after we have completed your website, register it with search engines such as Google, Bing and Ananzi. We can provide additional search engine optimisation (SEO) services and assist with other marketing and advertising activities, including using social media and AdWords. Please also see Marketing .

Our hosting packages include online (website) access to visitor statistics so that you can, at any time, see how many visitors your website has had. By default we include code on the website that will enable more comprehensive or in-depth analysis of visitor statistics, should you require it – from the onset or later.

WEB MAINTENANCE

Website Maintenance
SuproNet caters for a wide variety of website maintenance and update requirements. Maintenance can be done by SuproNet, by yourself (or somebody you nominate) or a combination. It is important that maintenance and update needs and requirements be discussed before we make a proposal for development of a website since it can have an impact on the selection of the technology used and the way that it is configured.

If you do not expect that the website will require regular or planned updates, we offer 1 hour of updates per term of 12 months at a very low fee. This is usually sufficient for small, ad hoc changes such as changing a telephone number, adding or changing a paragraph or replacing one photograph with another. It gives you peace of mind that such changes will not cost you an arm and a leg. If you select this option and you then require changes of more than 1 hour to be done in one term, we will provide estimates or quotes for the additional work.

If you plan regular updates or changes to the website, we can propose any of several models for handling this, based your specific requirements. These include the following:

Fixed price per maintenance period (e.g. month, quarter, year), based on a clear specification of the updates to be done in each period.
Quote per change: For each change required, we will provide a quote and make the change upon acceptance of the quote.
Charge per hour: We will quote an hourly rate, make changes as they are requested and charge based on the time used to implement the change.

Website Platform Maintenance
Some websites are built on relatively complex software platforms, typically using content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress. Just like any other software (e.g. Windows on your PC or your browser), these platforms and their plug-ins or modules require regular updates (“patches”) to fix functional problems or plug security holes as soon as they become known.
Dynamic websites (websites with changing configuration and content) also require regular backups to be made so that they can be restored, should something go wrong.
If your website is built on such a platform, we will provide this maintenance service and usually include a fixed annual fee for the service in the proposal.

VISITOR ANALYSIS & REPORTING

If we provide the hosting for your website, online (website) access to visitor statistics is available so that you can, at any time, see how many visitors your site has had. If required, we can provide services to capture these results and report it to you with or without additional analysis and interpretation.

In addition to the online reports provided with hosting, we include code on the website that will enable more comprehensive or in-depth analysis of visitor statistics, should you require it. Using these tools we could provide you with reports on aspects such as:

Number of visitors, visiting sessions and page impressions.
The source of visits, for example:
- Search engines
- Links on other websites
- Facebook
- Directly (typing in your website address in their browser)
The keywords and phrases used in search engines that resulted in visits to your website.
The flow of visitors through of your website, for example:
- On which pages do visitors enter the website.
- How many exit the website directly after entering it.
- What are the second, third, fourth pages they visit.
The devices visitors are using to view your website, e.g. PC or mobile device.
The region (geography) visitors come from.
The time visitors spend on a page or one visiting session.

We tailor our feedback according to your needs. We could:

Report just selected results.
Report and analyse selected results to indicate possible patterns and possible explanations for them.
Report and analyse results and provide advice on possible actions to improve your benefit from the website.

The service we deliver can also be adjusted as your needs change. You might want intensive reporting, analysis and advice to start with and then tone it down or start with basic reporting and analysis and then require more detailed reporting, analysis and advice on certain aspects that require more attention.

The information we gather from website statistics can be combined with measurement of business success (enquiries, proposals, sales, etc.) to measure real impact This type of analysis is useful to gauge success of other on- and offline marketing channels (e.g. Facebook, e-mail campaigns, print advertising, etc.) to drive visitors to your website and convert them to sales. It can be used to fine-tune your marketing effort for most effective spending of your marketing budget.

Measuring and analyzing visitor statistics is also an important component of a search engine optimization (SEO) effort.

E-MAIL

SuproNet’s hosting services include e-mail facilities with the following features:

POP mailboxes
Spam filters, white- and blacklists and the ability to adjust the filters.
Automatic responses (e.g. for “out of office”) and forwarding of mail.
Access to webmail so that e-mail can be accessed via a web browser – to read and send mail.
Aliases – more than one e-mail address for the same mailbox.

The number of mailboxes is usually linked to the hosting package but can be increased if required.

Even if you do not need a website, your business can benefit from using an e-mail address unique to you ([email protected]). We can register your domain and set up minimal hosting and the e-mailboxes you require.

ONLINE MARKETING (SOCIAL MEDIA & OTHER)

For most organisations, social media does not offer the versatility, functionality and customisation required to replace a website. However, these platforms can be useful channels to bring visitors to you site and augment the website in different ways and engage with different audience groups.

SuproNet can assist you with your online marketing strategy in various ways, from simply setting up these pages (e.g. Facebook and Google Plus) to reflect your image in a professional way to developing a strategy and helping you to implement it. Please see our Marketing pages for information about how we can help you with your marketing.

ADVICE & CONSULTING

SuproNet likes to engage with our clients to really understand their requirements and provide advice before the web development process starts. This enables you to understand the issues and make informed decisions.

In addition to this services we can help with analysis of existing websites and give advice on possible improvements, analyse visitor statistics and write specifications for development of websites, even if we do not develop or host your website.
Aspects with which we could be of service include:

Advice with regards to the design, style, content and functionality of your website. Usually we provide this advice for free when we communicate with you to determine your website requirements and goals but we can also provide the service separately, for example if you wanted advice before developing the site yourself or contracting another service provider.
Analysis of visitor statistics to provide indications of which pages are being visited, where visitors come from (geographic and in terms of links and referrals from other websites and search engines), search keywords and –phrases that visitors used to get to your website, which pages are most often visited as entry page, how long visitors stay on pages, etc. Also see Visitor Analysis and Reporting .
Reviewing and analysing existing websites on aspects such as style and appearance, function, navigation and content so that informed decisions can be made regarding possible changes.
Develop specifications for websites. This can include guidelines regarding best practices. Such specification or user requirement statements could be used to contract with a third party or as requirement for an internal website development department.