
WordPress website design FAQ
A few FAQ about WordPress website design
Our UK and South African based WordPress website design team are often asked questions when we submit proposals. Here are a few answers which will help you to understand more about our WordPress Website design proposals.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is open source content management software and currently powers more than 1.4 billion websites on the Internet. That's over 43% of all websites built. The software is contributed to by thousands of developers worldwide, and it keeps growing. With a WordPress website design, we can develop flexible and customisable websites to meet modern standards and adhere to best practices.
Additionally, the WordPress community reaches far and wide, allowing us to tap into their collective experience and bring that to your project.
Furthermore, the community of web developers that use WordPress reaches far and wide and allows us to tap into this collective intelligence and bring that wealth of experience to your project.
What is a sitemap?
A sitemap is a visual tool designed to communicate how the different pages of a website are related to each other. Here is an example of a sitemap.
What is website hosting?
Your website host is the safe space that is used to store your website on the internet. Your website is built on software and that software is hosted online.
What is a website domain?
Your website domain, or URL, is the address your website uses on the internet. This is owned separately from your hosting and your website itself. We always recommend that a company owns their own domain, and doesn't let the website developer own it. This safeguards you should the relationship with your web service provider go sour.
Who do I call if there is a problem with my website?
If you are subscribed to one of our ongoing website care plans, we will be your first point of call should something go wrong with your website. We will determine whether it is something the hosting company needs to fix or something that is covered by your website care plan. We highly recommend a website care plan, as this will save you more in the long run.
What happens after my website is launched?
Once your website is launched, we will provide 30 days of support. This is to make sure any bugs have been ironed out and that you are confident using your new website. After this, you will need to subscribe to one of our ongoing website care plans to make sure your website is looked after and maintained. These website care plans include updating your software, regular backups, security checks and making sure your website is working well. More information on our website care plans is available upon request.
If you make changes to the website which fall out of the care plan scope, then maintenance to those sections will be quoted separately. This includes adding plugins, changing structure etc. If your changes "break" the website, this will fall outside of the website care plan scope.
How long will it take for me to appear at the top of Google page 1?
Firstly, we need to set your expectations. You cannot be guaranteed a spot on page 1 of Google, despite all the emails you will receive from spammy companies. Google have their own algorithms, and you can work to follow a best practice of ranking, but nothing can guarantee it.
The time it takes for your website to appear on page 1 of Google depends on a number of factors, all of which are influenced by SEM, PPC and SEO. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing and encompasses all forms of how your website gets found.
You can do paid advertising to be featured at the top. This is called Pay-Per-Click (PPC). You will see these marked with the text "Ad" at the start of the sentence. This is a paid positioning and the advertiser pays each time it is seen or clicked on.
You can do Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). These are the techniques that are used to make a website rank more highly for your search phrases. Our website builds have basic SEO, however, for companies that need ranking on the website, we will bring in a specialist partner. SEO is a full industry on its own, so it needs a dedicated strategy, budget and time allocation.
Ranking organically depends on the search phrase people are using to find your website and the number of other websites that are also available for those search phrases. Nobody can truly say how long it will take for your website to appear at the top of search engine results pages. There are a number of factors that can improve your chances. A WordPress website design is a good start as WordPress has some great Search Engine Optimization fundamentals built-in.

Why is it important to have regular content?
Creating unique and interesting content on a regular basis for your website is also critical. This increases your visibility amongst search engines. Launching your website and then forgetting about it is a surefire way to get lost amongst the noise. We are happy to talk to you more about your search engine strategy.
How will I know if anyone is visiting my website?
We will install Google analytics software on your new website and show you how to log into your Google Analytics account. This is a free service where you can see a wide range of statistics about your website. These include the number of visits, page views, amount of time people are spending on your website and where they come from. Advanced analytics can drill down even further.
What happens if I want to add some features to the website whilst it's being built?
Whilst we like to be flexible and responsive to your needs, we also like to deliver what we promise within the time frames and budgets we have allowed. If you ask us to add new features to your website while we are building it, we will treat this as a separate request and discuss it accordingly.
Why are WordPress software, themes and plugins updated so often?
Technology moves faster than you can blink. Websites that don’t stay current may be penalised by Google and are open to security threats. Additionally, they needed to be able to work on a wide range of devices so the software is continually updated. We recommend your site is updated at least once a month, with special attention paid to any security patches and update recommendations.
Why do we worry about website security and having the site updated all the time?
Well, we’re continually surprised by the number of bots, viruses, malware, spiders and other nasty hackers who target websites. We’ve been on the receiving end of one such hack with one of our own websites. Eventually, we had to rebuild our entire website, as untangling the issues would have been too long and expensive.
Thus, we spend a bit of time each month ensuring that our sites are secure. Are they impenetrable? No. A hardened hacker could get in there. But our systems warn us if someone is trying. The level of security we use now is higher than average. If you’d prefer, however, we can look at additional security measures and can discuss them with you.
If you are looking for a WordPress website design, then get in touch with us to discuss your needs.