A Domain name is basically the address of your website that people type in the browser bar to visit your website. It is by far the most essential part of your business website and acts as a digital visiting card for your business. You cannot have an accessible website without a domain name.
A domain name also behaves as an ID for all your business emails e.g. frank@domain.com that way your customers easily identify your email as they associate your email and website domain name. It also assists in giving a more professional representation of the business as opposed to having a Gmail email address.
To understand better here is a very clear example; instead of having frank@gmail.com you could have frank.sales@domain.com this can be done for all the departments the business has. Emails with domain names are more likely taken seriously compared to Gmail emails.
There are several types of domains that an institution can choose from e.g. .com, .org, .mw, .net etc. based on the kind of business you are running. E.g. domains for .com, are commonly used for any type of business, .org is used for organisation while .net is mostly used for network organisations etc.
A little confusion comes along when you are making a decision to pick up the right domain but one thing, you must always keep in mind is that picking up the right domain is the first step you can take to help set up a path for a successful online business journey. Considering all this, below are some helpful tips that a business should consider when choosing a domain name:
1. Choose a domain name that reflects your brand and what you do.
As a domain name represents your business, choosing one that clearly reflects your business helps enhance your digital presence on the internet. It is very important to choose a domain reflecting your brand so that your audience and targeted audience can find you easily.
2. Easy to read and remember
Make sure you choose a domain that is short and easy to remember. If your domain is long and complex, you risk customers mistyping or misspelling, which may result in landing on the wrong pages.
3. Use Keywords
Using keywords relevant to your business and industry can help to make it easier for people to track you among many websites, hence helping to improve search engine results.
4. Avoid Using Numbers or Hyphens
Numbers and hyphens are easily misunderstood when included in a domain name because people can easily misinterpret numerals, e.g., people can mistake a numerical 5 for spelled out as five.
In conclusion, the choice of your domain name gives a picture to your audience that you mean business, and it gives your business instant credibility while putting you in the same online marketplace as your largest competitors. So it’s very important to make the right choice when choosing a domain name.
At Freelance Web Solutions, you can acquire a brand–new domain name for your website for a cost you’ll love. You’re able to choose from universal and country–code domain extensions.
The digital world is getting enhanced every single day and with the look of things, companies in Malawi ought to prioritize having a digital presence. Research shows that having a website can increase sales by 45% and over 80 percent of consumers do research online before buying a product or acquiring your services. And, having a website that is effective – which accurately reflects your brand is very important.
However, having recognized the importance of having a digital presence, many companies and organizations have boldly come to us and the first question they ask is the cost of having a website and only a small percentage ask the benefits of having one.
To begin with, the cost of your website will depend on your requirements such as the number and type of features you need etc. It’s impossible to justify a certain price without having an overview of your requirements. We believe that every company has its own set of unique requirements that are in alignment with the company’s objectives. This is what determines the pricing strategy.
The nature of a specific company’s requirements also attracts the complexity or simplicity of the website creation which also determines the costs. For example, some companies just need to display their information and provide contact details, this would cost way less compared to others. It’s like going to a car dealer and asking about the cost of a car. Before you go any further the car dealer will ask about the kind of car you need and your budget.
Only when you describe what you need and your budget, will the car dealer help you to locate the perfect car for you. Your specifications will determine the cost of the car too. It works the same way with web development, unless you say what you want and the specifications you need, will you be effectively assisted. How much you will spend on your website project also depends on whether you want to build the website yourself or you want to hire someone.
Either way, the costs incurred are different. For example, if you hire someone, the cost will depend on what (Content Management System) (CMS) he will use if he is designing or developing from scratch, etc. This will determine how much time he will take to complete your project.
Nevertheless, there are four features that contribute to the costs of your website development namely;
Design and Development
Domain registration
Web Hosting
Website maintenance
Design and Development
Initially, before any steps have been taken to develop any website, developers need to understand what you want to achieve by developing the website. What specific goals you are hoping to achieve by developing your website? Do you just want your information on the website or you are looking for an advanced website that automatically does the work for you?
The more complex your objective is the more the costs increase. A small static information website can cost you from MK200,000 while a dynamic website with more functionalities can cost you around MK800,000 and above. But again, the cost of the design and development will totally depend on what type of website you want determined by your business goals.
Of course, there are website builders that allow you to create a simple basic website in no time with minimal costs however, if you have a plan to scale, it is not a recommended solution because you will end up paying more than expected as you will be required to hire someone experienced to add more complex functionalities on that platform. You can fill out our questionnaire here to get an accurate quote for your next project.
Domain Name
A domain name is a unique internet identity that can be used only by you. It is actually the address that people type in a web browser to access your website. To ensure you have intellectual rights to the domain name, you have to register it for a minimum of one year and it is expected to be renewed every year. If you don’t renew it, you lose the rights, and is available to be registered by other entities.
The price of the domain depends on the extension you want to register i.e .COM, .ORG, .MW etc. The charges generally cover the maintenance cost of the accredited domain registry entity. You can acquire your brand-new domain from us by clicking here.
Hosting
Web Hosting is defined as the service of providing the computer equipment and software for a website on the internet and making it available for people to see. This computer is called a server on which you can store all the files and data necessary for your website to work properly. The server is always connected to the internet so that your website can be found 24/7/365 as long as you continue paying for this service.
Without a hosting service, your website cannot be accessible on the internet. When buying a web hosting service, there are some factors you need to check properly. These include and are not limited to: Bandwidth – the limit of user traffic your website can have Storage – how much space you will need depending on the size of your website files Scalability – if you run out of space, can you easily upgrade without any hassles? Support – how quickly you will be assisted when you have an issue with your service Backup – does the website provide full backups in case you are hacked or run into a certain problem Business emails – Does your hosting package come with free business emails or do you have to pay separately?
There are many companies out there providing free hosting services however it is not recommended for business websites because the chances of people stealing your data is high. At Freelance Web Solutions we have affordable hosting packages from only Mk4,000 a month.
Maintenance
Your website needs to be updated regularly – either by uploading new content or fixing bugs. Take it as a car which needs service every now and then. You can learn more about website maintenance services here. The cost of this service from Freelance Website is between MK5,000 to MK55,000 a month depending on the maintenance tasks to be carried out on the website.
Other things to consider:
SSL Certificate
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a green padlock symbol that you see in a web browser indicating the website is secure to browse. It protects the exchange of valuable information visitors send to or receive from a website e.g through filling a contact or quote form. In 2017, Google started flagging websites with no SSL certificates – telling users that the website they are trying to visit is not secure and encouraging them not to proceed or do any action like filling out a form etc.
When you’ve got an SSL certificate protecting your site, your customers can rest assured that the information they enter on any secured page is encrypted and cannot be hijacked by others. So, it is a must that each website should have an SSL certificate. You can get an SSL certificate for free with any of our hosting packages. However, other websites like those offering payment gateways may need paid SSL Certificates. You can always reach out to us and ask which SSL certificate is right for you.
However, a free SSL Certificate is enough for small & medium-sized businesses and startups as they don’t need payment gateways.
By now I am sure you have a clear picture of how much your website may cost you and how far stretched your budget should be. Regardless of the costs, a website really elevates your sales experience and every expenditure returns to you multiplied increasing ROI.
Check out here the effectiveness of owning a website. If you have further inquiries, please don’t hesitate to inform us, we’d be glad to hear from you.
A website is an investment. Therefore, it should have a Return on Investment (ROI). You create a website so that it helps your business grow either by serving your existing customers or attracting new consumers. This means that a website with no ROI is useless.
A website can therefore only be deemed “effective” if it can give you returns. However, having an effective website is not easy. It requires a lot of effort.
Here are some things that you need to consider for you to have an effective website;
A Website Must Have Goals
Goals define whether you will succeed in every venture of life or not. It is the same with a site. The reason that prompted you to have one is the primary goal and must be broken down into smaller goals. Your website goals are what defines what you want to achieve with your website. What problems do you want to be solved through your website?
Do you want to serve existing customers with new products and services? Or do you want to attract new customers? Put them in black and white. If you don’t have them, it will be hard to measure the effectiveness of your website. Remember, goals will determine the structure of your website and its features to effectively reach your targets.
Listen to professional advice
The “the customer is always right” rule doesn’t apply in the technological world. If you want the website to be effective you have to take advice from your developer. The things you want as a client on a site may not match the technical needs or marketability of the site. An example of this would be asking your developer to add hundreds of photos on the home page, which might slow your website.
Nobody likes a slow website including search engines as it affects the user’s experience. Remember, the website is not for YOU but for your CUSTOMERS. Many websites fail because the company wants the website to serve them, not their customers. A professional developer who wants to help you won’t always say “yes” to all your requests. As a client, your role is to make sure you get the best developers to develop your site.
Blogging
When was the last time you updated your website? If someone visited your website today, what new things are they going to find? It becomes frustrating to users looking for new information when they see information from six months before.
In this competitive world, the chances are that there are also other people running the same kind of business as yours and it is, therefore, important to make sure that you always stay ahead of them. Make sure that when people search for the kind of products and services you offer, your website should be found on top of the first page of the search engine. This can only be possible if you update your website frequently to improve your search engine ranking.
Google hates outdated websites because it assumes you don’t exist anymore. The best way to ensure that your website is updated is through blogging. So, if you don’t have a blog page on your website, consider adding it now because this is where you will be publishing your latest news and updates. Apart from the latest news, you can also write anything interesting about your products and services.
Use the Power of Social Media
Social media is a very important tool to connect and interact with your customers. But it also helps you generate more traffic to your website. Social media is where you post links to your new blog posts because some people go there to see what’s new. The chances are that you have found this link from any of our social media platforms — that’s how powerful social media is. You can post manually or you can automate it. So if you don’t have a social media account, stop reading this now and go set up one.
Consider Advertising
If you have enough money and you want to reach a wider audience, consider promoting your website through online advertising. You can do this by boosting your blog posts on social media or by promoting your product and services with Google Ads. Either way, you will be allowed to put a link to your website, hence more traffic. If you don’t have enough budget, consider blogging frequently to continue generating traffic for free.
Clear CTA (call to action)
A CTA is what you want those visiting your website to do. Do you want them to make a donation to buy a product or contact you? Then add a call to action button on the page so that your audience knows what to do. Make this clear by adding specific buttons. If you want someone to request a quotation for a product- make it clear by adding a button. Do you want them to call you? Add active phone numbers which will appear on every page of your website. Do you want them to know where your offices are and your business hours? Consider adding a physical address (preferably with a Google map) and opening/closing hours.
Make it look professional
One way to make your website effective is to make it look professional. Make it visually appealing so that it entices people to stay. If you don’t have enough funds, wait till you have to engage a professional designer. Don’t be pushed to a cheaper alternative as it may prove not affordable in the long run if it is not helping you attain your goals. There is no way you can pay 50 bucks for a website and expect it to look like a 5k bucks website.
Hire a professional developer if you want a meaningful website. At Freelance Web Solutions, we help small businesses grow online by building effective websites and by providing them with professional advice throughout. Read the story of KB Accounting Services Ltd Here.
You can do many things to have an effective website, but let’s stop here for now. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest blog updates.
Despite the Covid-19 Pandemic, the company reports that their sales value has increased by 255.95% in the past 9 months alone because of the website.
In 2018, we were approached by KB Accounting Services Ltd. They are a great group of professionals offering Accounting, bookkeeping, taxation, audit, HR and recruitment, and accounting packages in Malawi.
They have the services and products but struggled to reach out to a bigger audience with their lucrative products through their previous website which was failing to meet their goal– sales generation.
“We approached Freelance Web Solutions in 2018 when we realized that our previous website was failing to generate sales. So, we needed a website that would help turn our dreams into reality,” says Mr. Kadzakumanja, the Director.
Upon hearing their challenges, we sat down together to review their goals. We proposed that the best way to achieve their goals was to revamp the whole website which they agreed.
At Freelance Web Solutions, we believe that businesses that have a website with no Return On Investment (ROI) are the same as those who don’t have one. This is why we are tough in our client onboarding process. We ask you a lot of questions to find out your business goals and objectives so that we can see how we can factor into your new website project. What we did was to redesign the website.
We offered advanced search engine optimization so that they rank well on certain keywords they provided. The company was a sole proprietorship then and in 2020 it had grown into a limited company.
Here is what the Director says: “Today, we can say since we switched to Freelance Web Solutions, our sales have increased tremendously. For the past two years, our website has managed to generate over 90% of our sales with more prospects on the table. In the past 9 months alone, our sales value has increased by 255.95%. It is a big achievement for a small business like us.”
He adds, “Our business is growing every single day such that in the next two months, we are planning to open a branch in the Capital Lilongwe.”
However, this achievement didn’t just come on a silver platter. It involved a lot of effort and he has some advice to small businesses reluctant to have a website;
“My advice to Entrepreneurs and Business individuals is to embrace technology and avoid the mistakes big companies made in the past years. A website is a sleepless, boundary-less and tireless sales and communication agent that tries everything possible to grow your business. All you have to do, is to keep your agent (website) alive by writing articles/blogs, updating content and sharing it on other social media platforms.”
If you want to be the next KB Accounting Services Ltd, don’t hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to offer effective solutions.
Actually, the number of small businesses that have a website is quite low in spite of the growth and expansion of technology. It does not matter how small your business might be, having a website proves to be a key when it comes to modern exposure and marketing.
Following are the reasons why your small business requires a website:
1. More Professionalism and Credibility
In general, websites offer a sense of credibility and it helps in establishing your brand as a reliable and professional service. Without a website, your services or products will not be acknowledged by most people because they cannot really be found online. When you have a website, it offers an opportunity to build a long-lasting relationship with your consumers. It gives them the reassurance that is required for trusting your brand.
2. Increase in Consumer Reach
In recent times, online shopping has proven to rise significantly. It implies that the number of online shoppers has increased significantly and since there is no closing time for the internet, sales are rising even after hours. Since you are capable of accessing a website almost anytime and anywhere, the reach has become significantly wider. It enables your business to grow globally and target demographics beyond your specific location.
When you have a traditional store, your reach is quite limited. In fact, it is limited to only a specific geographic area and it is quite difficult to go beyond this area. However, it is not the same when you have a website. When you have a website, you are able to extend your reach significantly. For instance, you can target not only a regional audience but also an international audience.
3. Effective Marketing
Actually, your website is working when you are sleeping. It means your website is always promoting and marketing your services and products when you cannot directly. It potentially generates sales almost all the time. Therefore, paying that one-time development fee for your website is quite beneficial when it comes to ensuring the relevance of your brand.
You might be surprised to realise that your website alone functions as an advertisement for all of your services and products. You can further increase your reach by considering social media. It might be a big spend on your budget but it is worth the investment.
4. Saving Money
Another important benefit that you get by having a website is you save money on distribution and printing costs. A website is capable of acting as your online catalogue or brochure that can be updated and changed any time you want. In addition to it, if you make use of a content management system, you can quickly make changes without paying anything.
Let’s suppose that you are updating your services, you don’t need to go and have brochures or flyers printed in large numbers. Instead, you can just update information on the website and that would be it.
5. Easy Access to Customers
It is quite important for a business to continue making customers. If it does not make customers then it would not be possible for the business to survive. However, making new customers can prove to be quite difficult. However, when you have a website, it becomes a lot easier to make customers. For instance, your website is online and anyone on the web can come to your site.
6. Improve Productivity
When you have a website, it serves to improve the productivity of your business because generally, less time is spent in explaining the service or product details to your customers because all of this information is available on your website. Your customers can visit your website anytime and they can gain the information they need.
7. Educate Consumers
Actually, when you have a website, it serves to provide free advice about your services and products to the customers. It should be noted that this information can be delivered in a consistent and well-thought-out manner at any time of day.
8. Two-Way Communication
When you have a website, customers can easily and quickly contact you, provide you with feedback, and ask about anything that confuses them. It implies that having a website plays quite an important role in facilitating your communication with customers. Usually, consumers have to consider numerous steps before they can reach out to businesses.
However, there is no need for customers to follow such a long process when they can just reach out to you from your website. If you need a website for your small business, you can let us build a website for you. We will deliver a functional and responsive website for only MK200,000. With such a small investment, you can avail all the opportunities that you need to grow your business effectively.
Since the Coronavirus outbreak also known as Covid-19, a lot of things have happened. Many companies have taken bold decisions by adjusting how they operate and some have even told their staff to work from home as one of the precaution measures.
If you are reading this message from a country with confirmed cases, please feel it in your heart that the entire Freelance Web Solutions team and I are with you during this difficult moment. To be honest with you, we at Freelance Web Solutions are also concerned with how devastating this pandemic has been.
Nonetheless, this letter is to assure all our customers, that so far, it is still business as usual. You don’t need to worry about anything in regard to the services we are offering to you. Although we may be taking a bit of time in responding to some queries that won’t have much effect on any of our services offered.
Please subscribe to our newsletter in order to get updated on some upcoming exclusive services that we have which we feel might assist your business to not completely shut down during this traumatic period.
Lastly, let’s sensitize our friends and family that they should no longer live in denial or in Limbo.
Rather, accept that Covid-19 is here but at the same time be optimistic that whatever the case (if God willing), we will all pass through this together if we follow what health experts are advising us.
In this post today we are going to discuss Website Maintenance Service. If you have a Website I am very sure that this is not a new term to you. However our ten years of experience on different website design projects, we have discovered that most of our clients still don’t understand the importance of this service and how lack of it can affect the performance of their website.
In a nutshell, website maintenance is the act of regularly checking your website for issues and mistakes and keeping it updated and relevant. Regular monitoring of your website is a must for checking your business running smoothly. This service contains very important things outlined below:
Software update: this helps your site to use the latest software always.
Security: it gives 100% security to hackers & other problems that occur like the website being down.
Fresh Content: this helps your site to contain new information always.
SEO: it helps your site to rank in a high position & it helps a lot of your customers to find what they want easily.
Back up: helps you to keep your important information easily without giving you the headache of losing it when something bad occurs.
The advantage of having new features.
It improves visitors experience.
Reach every client.
Still confused? Let me put it this way:
Let’s assume you have bought a car from a car dealer. We all know that after some time for that car to still perform well you take it for a service. Even if it does not have any problem, you always pay a little something for it to be serviced. This is what exactly happens to the website. Before something bad happens, you need to maintain it often.
You may wish to know that a website is made from a combination of different tools that need to be updated always — otherwise, you risk it down whether through hackers or outdated code. When a website is maintained regularly it attracts and retains customers, maintains search engine ranking, and presents new information, products, and services to the public.
Website maintenance is also required to maintain the value of the website over time as the outdated website tells your customers you no longer exist or you don’t care about your business anymore. I hope by now you understand why websites need maintenance.
Freelance Web Solutions is pleased to announce a special offer for website design services. With only MK200, 000 you can claim your responsive website of up to 40 pages.
The offer includes free one-year domain registration, free one-year web hosting (1GB Disk Space, unlimited emails, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited hosted domain etc), and free one-year maintenance. Terms and conditions apply.
NB: This offer doesn’t apply to e-commerce website design services.
Grab your offer now before September 30, 2019. Contact Us on +26521226352 or Call/WhatsApp on +265885096052
As one way of giving back to the community, Freelance Web Solutions is offering free website design and development services to non-profit organisations in order to help them use the web to drive their missions forward. Proposals are solicited only for Non-profit organisation. Proposals from other sectors, will not be considered.
It’s an undisputed fact that the world is going digital. Over half of the world’s population is already online. This is an opportunity for every nonprofit organization to showcase their activities online thereby attracting potential donors and volunteers. Up to five websites will be granted this year. For over ten years, we’ve worked with several nonprofits.
Along this journey, we have learned a lot especially how we can build a useful nonprofit website. You can appreciate our work by checking www.factmalawi.org, www.merchildren.org, www.focold.org or www.askamuslim.com just to name a few.
Website Design Features
Up to 10 pages i.e Home, About, Projects, Gallery, Contacts and Get Involved
Online Donation System Online
Volunteer Recruitment
Newsletter System
Social Media Integration
Requirements
The organizations should be from indigenous Malawians
Must be ready to meet direct costs i.e for domain registration, web hosting and web management services.
Be able to mention why they need the website
Application opens: March 16, 2019
Application closes: April 15, 2019
If you have any questions on how to apply, please contact Faith Chisale at faith.chisale@freelancemw.com
If you are reading this article, it is either you want to start a new Facebook Advertising campaign or you already have one but you are failing to know how to measure its success.
You are not alone. Many people spend hundreds of dollars to run Facebook ads but don’t have a clue as to how they can measure the success of their campaigns. So, if you are one of them then continue reading this article.
To begin with, measuring the success of Facebook campaigns are pretty straightforward because Facebook provides you with an abundance of metrics that allow you to track your ad’s results.
However, one thing I have discovered is that most business owners find it difficult to measure the success of their ads because they fail to set clear goals and objectives for their campaigns.
Just like any other marketing campaign, you need to have a clear goal as to why you are running a campaign. What is your goal? More Clicks? More Likes? More Video Views? The choice is yours. However, the point is, without a clear goal for your campaign, you won’t be able to measure its success.
The good news is that Facebook helps you to come up with a formula to measure the success of advertising campaigns. That’s why when you start a new campaign, from the ads manager you are asked to choose one objective.
Your choice determines the kind of data you will receive as the main result to measure. For example, when you choose “boost post,” you’ll see a cost per interaction. By choosing “send people to your website,” you’d get a cost per link click and when you select “promote your page,” you’ll get a cost per like, etc.
Setting Up a Facebook Campaign Goals
Yes, you might be wondering as to how you can set an effective campaign goal. One thing you need to understand first of all is that a goal is something you want to achieve at the end of the campaign.
Therefore, the following are some of the common goals of Facebook Ads:
Brand Awareness
If you want to promote your business to reach many people, then brand awareness can be ideal for you. This means that your success will be measured based on the number of people who have seen or reached by your Ad. So, even if people don’t comment and like your posts, it won’t be an issue.
Lead Generation
Do you want to generate new potential customers? Then, you need to set up an ad campaign in which you will be able to collect customer information such as phone number and email address in exchange for a product/service discount or something valuable.
The success of this campaign can be measured by looking at the number of people who have shared their information by messaging you or signing up for your newsletter.
Driving Sales
Sometimes you may need your ads to give you more sales. Therefore, your campaign can contain a direct product link to your online shop for online purchase or a text which simply asks your customers to visit your physical shop in exchange for a discount or something valuable.
You can measure this based on the number of people who have actually purchased the product by clicking your link. Link clicks only doesn’t matter on this. It can also be a number of people who have visited your physical shop and bought your goods.
So, as you can see, it all depends on your campaign goals and objectives to be able to measure its success.
If you want to know more information on this, our certified online advertising professionals are here to help you.
