What is WordPress?

WordPress powers nearly 40% of all websites in the world, including Sony Music, Time Magazine, Disney, and Mercedes-Benz.

WordPress is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) widely used for creating websites. Originally designed for blogging, it has evolved into a powerful platform that can be used for various website types, including:

Blogs
Ecommerce stores
Business websites
Portfolios
Membership sites
Online courses
And many more

WordPress is easy to use, and easy to scale up, with thousands of free and premium plugins that can turn your website into an online store, real estate engine, lead generation machine and so much more.

The immense popularity of WordPress has also created a vast library of free tutorials which can help you easily maintain and update your site after it’s built.

Do you provide Web Hosting?

We provide web hosting packages, email hosting and domain registration for small businesses, and we also offer assistance in helping people set up their own hosting.

View our Web Hosting Packages here.

Do you offer website maintenance or can I maintain my website myself after it’s built?

Absolutely. With WordPress, you have the flexibility to manage your website yourself after the initial build, with just a bit of training. This means you’re in full control going forward.

Alternatively, we offer affordable monthly maintenance plans or one-time updates to suit your needs. Some of our packages include basic WordPress training, and we also offer additional video training as an extra service.

Furthermore, we have a free Quick Guide to Safely Updating Your WordPress Website (step-by-step + Video) 2024.

Keeping your website updated is essential for maintaining security and ensuring optimal performance.

Why is fast-loading Website Speed important?

Fast website speed is crucial for several reasons:

1. People won’t wait to load slow website.
Studies show that attention spans online are dwindling, and users expect websites to load within a few seconds (often around 3 seconds or less). If your website takes too long, visitors are likely to get frustrated and bounce away, hurting your chances of converting them into customers.

2. Rank higher on Google. (SEO):
Google and other search engines consider website speed a ranking factor. A faster website is more likely to rank higher in search results, leading to more organic traffic.

3. Higher chance of making getting sales and leads:
Speed directly impacts conversions (actions you want visitors to take, like buying a product or signing up for a newsletter). Slower websites can lead to lower conversion rates as users abandon ship before completing the desired action.

4. Improve brand experience:
A slow website can create a negative emotion for your users, like waiting in line at the bank or supermarket. It’s just a little bit annoying. A fast-loading site, on the other hand, allows your potential customers get the info they need without the bad vibes.

This is why speed optimisation is an included benefit of our website development process.

What is the best way to get potential clients to visit my website?

A website is only of value to your business if you can get customers to visit it.

There are many ways you can drive traffic to your website, but the best options will depend on your type of business. Here are some of the more common ways to drive website traffic:

Digital Marketing generated website traffic:
– Social Media
– Paid Social Media
– SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
– Google PPC
– Guest Blogs & Podcasts
– YouTube
– Email

Offline Marketing generated website traffic:
– Business Cards
– Referrals
– Networking
– QR Codes
– Billboards
– TV, Radio, Newspaper, Local Magazines
– SMS

In addition to Websites, we offer the following services:
Social Media
Paid Social Media
SEO
Google PPC

Is my website safe from hackers and cyber criminals?

Website malware is a very real and surprisingly common issue these days, even for small businesses and nonprofits (NGOs).

WordPress websites are frequent targets due to their popularity. Over the past six years, we’ve seen many of our current and former clients’ websites become infected with malware, which could have been avoided with regular maintenance and better password management.

While we can’t guarantee your website won’t be hacked, we can offer various security measures to significantly improve its security.

We can also limit the impact on your business due to website downtime by ensuring a good website backup plan.

We’ve written more extensively on this topic here:
1. Why (and How) Websites Get Hacked
2. WordPress Website Malware Removal & Prevention
3. 4 Main Reasons Why a WordPress Website Needs Maintenance

Do you set up Google Analytics data tracking as part of your website packages?

Yes, absolutely!

Setting up Google Analytics data tracking is a value-added benefit of our website development process.

We implement all the default tracking functionalities, giving you essential data reporting on page views, user behavior, traffic source, and more.

If you need specific goals tracked, we can set these up as an extra service and even put together a branded, easy-to-read, real-time Google Looker Studio report to help you keep track of your most important website business goals.

We also integrate Google’s WordPress Plugin which presents data from Google Analytics & Google Search Console in a user-friendly format within your WordPress dashboard. This makes it easier to understand website performance metrics, including reports on how people find you on Google.

Are there any ongoing website costs?

Potentially, yes. Even though WordPress itself is free to use, there can be ongoing costs associated with maintaining a WordPress website.

Web hosting & Domain name Renewal.

Web Hosting prices range from USD £3.50-35 / AUD $6-70 / ZAR 50-850 / USD $4-$44 per month. For a small or new website, you can expect to pay the lower cost mentioned above. But this will also depend on your website needs.

Domain registration & renewal prices vary depending on the type of domain you have, for example; a .com costs slightly more than a .co.uk or .com.au or .co.za.

Security:
Keeping your website secure is important as it’s increasingly common for websites to be compromised with Malware that can tarnish your brand, impact your daily business operations, and steal customer data. There are a number of free security measures we implement, but this doesn’t guarantee protection, and if your site’s theme, plugins and WordPress core are not regularly updated, your site’s risk of being compromised increases.

Most web hosting companies perform daily backups which can be restored should your website get infected, however, these backups might only go back 2-4 weeks. And sometimes, Malware can sit silently on a website for longer than that. So if you restore an old backup of your site, you might be restoring a version of the site which still has Malware on it. Another thing that hackers do is add a “backdoor” which enables them to regain access to your site, even after restoring a clean backup.

Another thing to consider is that it can be time consuming and expensive to try and manually remove Malware from a site and get the clean website back up and running. With all these things in mind, we actually recommend our clients to use a premium Malware prevention and 1-click instant removal service which is roughly £120 / AUD $230 / ZAR 2,800 / USD $150 per annum. We include this premium service in all of our website maintenance packages as a value added benefit. Alternatively, some web hosting providers offer additional firewall security to block bad traffic to your site.

Speed Optimisation:
As part of every website project, we ensure the site is optimised to be as fast as possible utilising freely available tools. However, this has limitations, and each website different variables that will impact how fast we can get it loading, including the quality of your web hosting, functionality requirements, and the size & design of your website. For websites with less than 5000 monthly page views, we implement an amazing free tool called Nitropack, which usually achieves a mobile and desktop website speed score of over 90 out of 100. For larger businesses which receive over 5000 page views per month, we use a premium version of the same tool which starts at £17 / AUD $33 / ZAR 400 / USD $21.00 per month.

Themes and plugins:
Themes control the design of your website, while plugins add new features and functionality. There are many free themes and plugins available, but there are also premium options that can cost anywhere from £25-160 / AUD $45-300 / ZAR 600-3800 / USD $30-$200 per year.

Website maintenance:
This includes tasks such as updating your WordPress core, themes, and plugins, backing up your website, and fixing any broken links.

You can do this yourself (Quick Guide to Safely Updating Your WordPress Website (step-by-step + Video) 2024.), or you can hire a professional to do it for you.

What is your website process?

Our tried and tested 4-step process lays the foundation for high-performing websites that not only look great but also actively drive results:

1. Uncovering Your Why:
We begin by understanding your core purpose. We ask “Why?” to define your brand’s mission and why a website is crucial to achieving it. This clarity leads to a website that effectively communicates your message.

2. Focusing on Value:
Next, we delve into your value proposition. What problem do you solve for your customers? What benefits do they receive by choosing you? Understanding this connection allows us to craft a website that positions your brand as the ideal solution for their needs.

3. Knowing Your Audience:
Effective communication requires knowing who you’re talking to. We seek to understand your ideal customer’s demographics, interests, and behavior. With this knowledge, we tailor your website’s messaging and design to resonate deeply with your target market.

4. Standing Out From The Crowd:
In today’s competitive landscape, differentiation is key. We help you identify your Unique Selling Propositions (USPs) – the factors that set you apart. This could be niche expertise, superior functionality, a unique design, or any element that makes you the clear choice.

How long does it take you to do a website?

In general, building a website can take from around one to six months.

Here’s a rough guide to how long website projects normally takes us:

1-Page website: 2-4 weeks.
4-6 Page website: 2-3 months.
7-9 Page website: 3-4 months.
10-14 Page website: 4-5 months.
15-20 Page website: 5-6 months.

With that said, if you need a website done faster, it is possible. We’ve done a website in a week, and even a day. Though we have rush fees for emergency projects like this, and the results are not usually as good.

How long have you been working as a Website Design Company?

In 2012, we started as a Web Designer working with other Website Design Companies in Durban, South Africa. After 2 years gaining experience with WordPress Website Development and building a reputation for quality, we formed the brand Weaverbird in 2014.

In 2015, we designed and developed our first client website which is still up and active today.

What started as a freelance design business has grown to become a well-regarded web design company, with happy clients across the globe.

But the story actually goes further back… to a land far, far away.

Born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, our founder Daniel Skaftouros started his career in design, completing his Diploma of Graphic Art at N.M.I.T. with top honours in 2006. He began his career in the advertising industry with Ogilvy as a Finished Artist, and later, Art Director working on Australia’s biggest retail account: Myer.

He then spent a year freelancing in Direct Marketing as a Graphic Designer and then in Auckland, New Zealand for 3 months, working on brands such as Penfolds, BMW, Hair Salon, McDonald’s and more.

After moving to Durban, South Africa in 2012, after a 2010 World Cup romance turned into a beautiful marriage and later 4 children, he was forced to start a business in order to gain a visa.

This all led to an exciting business adventure, that has empowered Dan real-world business insight working closely with business owners and entrepreneurs. Initially, we understood what good design was. Now, we know what good business is, and how web design should be used to drive real business goals.