Website Design & Development Process
Quote Process
DOBE offers various website design options. We know that every project and client have unique requirements, therefore a website will only be built once we have agreed on a specified quote.
Discovery Meeting. During our discovery meeting we will sit with the client to determine their requirements for the website. According to what the client needs we will compile a quotation. When the client accepts the quote a deposit will be payable on the website design & development fee. Domains need to be registered and hosting needs to be set up before the design can be done.
There are 4 considerations when building a new website
Domain
You will need to secure a valid and available domain name for example www.dobe.co.za. We offer managed domain services where we register the domain on your behalf. We use our company details to register the domain but you the client will own the domain. We will require your contact details for the registration process. We cannot guarantee that the domain name that you want will be available, please ensure that you provide multiple options for a suitable domain name.
We offer .co.za and .com domains. All our domains include ID protection to redact your contact information from whois sites in order to minimise spam and unwanted emails.
Our domains are secured with Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates. An SSL certificate encrypts all communications between the server and the browser, ensuring that website visitors information is safe at all times. Connections are established through the https:// protocol.
If someone is interested in purchasing the domain from you they will need to contact us first. If you decide to sell the domain you will need to move any emails and websites to a new domain. DOBE will take a 50% fee on the agreed upon selling price.
If you already have your own domain and hosting set up, you can choose to keep your own hosting and domain as is and provide us with login details in order to upload and manage your website. Or you can transfer your domain and hosting over to us. We will have to check the amount of disk space, emails and bandwidth that you are currently using to determine a suitable hosting option with us.
Hosting
In order for your website to operate and for you to send and receive emails, you will require hosting. Hosting is the physical computer that runs your website. There are a couple of considerations for hosting:
- Disk space – The amount of physical hard drive space that your website, files and emails use. You will be allocated a certain amount of disk space. Websites normally require between 300MB and 1 GB of disk space.
- Emails – Depending on the amount of emails that you need, the email accounts will have to be set up on the server. You will then be provided with the email’s username and password as well as settings to set up your email on your computer or device.
- Monthly Bandwidth – This is the amount of traffic that your server can handle per month, it works like data, once you run out of bandwidth your emails and website will stop working or they will be capped meaning they will not receive priority. If you plan on having a lot of traffic to your website you will need to take this into consideration. Our standard hosting options work on a reseller account, which works on a fair usage policy. If you drive too much traffic during the month or at certain times your emails and website might stop functioning correctly.
Our hosting options provide you with the basic requirements to get your website and emails up and running. All our hosting options are subject to an annual agreement and are paid for annually.
Our billing runs from November to November, if you sign up during the year we will bill you a pro rata rate until the next November, you will then be billed annually from November. We do this to secure the best possible licence deals and rates from our suppliers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Website Design & Development
The website design and development fee is a once of fee that is paid for us to build your website. Once built you won the website, however we make use of certain software for your website to function. If you decide to move your website away from us at any point you will need to purchase and maintain your own licenses for the following products:
- Elegant Themes – Divi Theme ($199 lifetime licence)
- WPMU DEV – Website optimization plugins ($29 per month)
- WP Forms – Website contact form plugin ($199 per year)
Please note that the above prices are subject to change. If your website uses any other premium software this might incur additional license fees, such as WooCommerce extensions and other premium themes and plugins.
Building a website has two main aspects:
- Front End Design
- Back End Work
The front end design is the process of designing a website that is both visually appealing and provides a solid user experience. Before we build your website we create a quick wireframe layout to determine where all the content on the website will go. Once we are happy with the layout and structure our team will start designing the front end of the site. You will have 3 rounds of revisions to request changes, we place a time limit on the amount of work done during revisions. If you require more changes we will quote this separately. Please ensure that you provide proper examples of what you like and ensure that you work with us during the wireframe and planning stage to ensure that your site will look and function as you expect.
Back end work. Once the front end of the website has been built we need to optimise the website to ensure that it runs and operates smoothly. This includes optimizing the images on the site, optimising the files on the site with compression and caching, doing basic SEO on all pages (Search Engine Optimisation), checking all pages for mobile compatibility and responsiveness, checking the website on multiple common browsers and devices. The back end work is just as important, if not more as the front end work. A website does not only need to look good, it needs to run smoothly.
We make use of the WordPress platform to build websites. We believe that using WordPress offers multiple advantages including:
- Stable and Secure CMS Platform. WordPress.org is a free to use platform with loads of developers and support, almost a third of all websites on the web run on WordPress.
- Friendly back end and admin dashboard. When clients need to post content to their blog or manage their online store, the WordPress dashboard provides a friendly experience. We also have multiple training videos included on your admin dashboard for free!
- Upgradeable and extendable with plugins, themes and extensions.
- WooCommerce online shops. Although platforms like Shopify are great, they essentially lock you in and take ownership of your physical website. With WooCommerce and WordPress, you own your website
- More secure than a hand coded website. Hand coding a website can be an expensive endeavor. It takes a lot of man hours to code a website from scratch and If your coder is not a specialist in security optimisation, your site will be vulnerable to attacks and hackers, and while WordPress is not immune to this, it provides more affordable options of keeping your website safe.
Website Upkeep & Updates
When you take a website with us, regardless if you take your hosting and domain with us, you will need to purchase a yearly upkeep and updates plan. This ensures that we provide you with a functional website at all times. Your updates and upkeep service will include a certain amount of time each month to request changes. We also spend some time every month to update your software and check if everything is still working as it should. Upkeep and updates are paid for annually as described above.
Our Process Explained:
Your website is not a static piece of data. The content and software need to be kept up to date to ensure that it runs smoothly and is secure. The WordPress platform will need to be updated from time to time and the plugins and extensions will also need to be updated.
Discovery > Quote > Invoice > Deposit > Design > Changes > Approval > Back End > Publish > Launch > Test > Support
Building a new website or online store requires a lot of steps and has a lot of moving parts and things to consider and complete. We have developed our process to make the experience of building your new website or online store as simple as possible, while also being as thorough as possible.
Payments
When you accept the quote the following payments on the invoice are due:
Single Page & Multiple Page Websites (without eCommerce)
- Hosting Domain & Upkeep Pro Rata
- 50% Deposit on Website Design & Development
- 50% Balance paid before site is launched
Online Stores
- Hosting Domain & Upkeep Pro Rata
- â…“ – Website Design & Development Fee
- â…“ – Website Backend
- â…“ – Balance paid before site is launched
Lead Times
Websites take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks to complete, depending on the amount of work to be done and features required. Usually you can expect your 1st draft with 5 to 7 working days of deposit being paid. You can expect 3 to 5 days for changes to be made. Back End work requires 5 to 7 days to be completed. When the site is launched we allow 2 weeks for testing, if you or any of your customers or if anyone from our team picks up bugs and/or errors they will be fixed free of charge. After the 2 week testing period we may issue a new quote for any changes to be made.