FAQ

There are 3 main costs to consider when launching a new website.

1. Hosting: This is the space upon which your website resides. Without hosting you cannot have a website. Cost can vary between R30/m – R160/m (or more) depending on the hosting provider and your website needs. NB: Make sure to select a hosting company that offers outstanding support - keep in mind that you get what you pay for.

2. Domain name: This is your .co.za needed for people to find your website online. Usually around R90 per YEAR – depending on where you buy it and the actual name of your domain.

This YouTube video I created shows you exactly how to easily setup new hosting and domain name for your business in South Africa

3. Website design: This varies in price depending on many factors. Can be as little as R3500 for a single landing page to R30000 (or more) for large ecommerce websites and all the way to R180 000 for really large ecommerce websites. It really depends on what you need and want on your business website.

Get quote here.

We don't offer hosting. One company we recommend to all our clients is HostAfrica.

• Based in Cape Town
• Rated #1 ISP on Hello Peter
• Amazing customer support

Here's a step-by-step video showing you how to easily setup hosting with them.

2025 Pricing is as follows from HostAfrica:

1. Hosting = R120/m (cheaper if you pay for 1 year upfront)
2. Domain = Free for first year. Then R90/YEAR (for a .co.za)

Warning: You can definitely find cheaper hosting but it's not worth the headaches.

Building a website is one service. Having that website show high in Google is an entirely seperate service called Search Engine Optimization. Read more about SEO here.

Website maintenance is optional and highly recommended.

Why?

The backend plugins (which make up your site's design and functionality) are constantly being updated by the developers of those plugins. We need to manually update those plugins on the website. An outdated plugin may cause problems. If you choose not to maintain your site then it becomes vulnerable to malware, virus attacks, design issues, etc.

What's included?

• Maintenance is 1 hour per month and completed once per month.
• Backup of your website (done before any updates are performed)
• Updates of all your backend plugins, themes, etc.
• Troubleshoot any issues/conflicts that may arise from the updating
• Backup after updates are completed (so we have the latest copy of the site)

More details: Website Maintenance Package

Other costs to consider - separate from the costs mentioned above (Hosting, Domain, Web Design & Maintenance):

1. SEO – helps your website get found higher on search engines
2. Logo Design or any other custom graphics (icons, images, etc.)
3. PPC like Google Ads or Facebook Ads
4. Social Media Marketing
5. Autoresponder setup & management (email list)
6. Other marketing services to build brand exposure and get more leads and sales.

No we don't - for a very good reason...

• Every single client has different needs & wants.
• This is only realized during the discover phase of the process.
• We ask a series of questions for you before giving a quotation.

Also, our process ensures we have a 100% success rate with our clients being completely satisfied with their website - because we deeply understand what they need and want.

Word of advice: I've had many clients come to me after a bad experience with a web designer that just 'threw' a price at them quickly without discussing their needs fully. This is a sign of desperation & lack of experience and often leads to results you don't want - frustration with a waste of time & money.

Let's do this right the first time around.

WordPress - for 2 main reasons:

1. Allows us to keep the costs more affordable than if we used a framework such as React.
2. It's much easier for clients to make edits themselves (if ever needed).

We use WordPress & Woocommerce for online stores.

You are stuck with us! 🙂

We understand that your company website is the beginning, and core, of your digital marketing system. Your website, while important, is actually a means to an end. That end may be…

1. More leads for your business or
2. More sales for your product/e-commerce business

This takes time and effort to achieve. We continue the journey with you and assist wherever we can.

Yes you can. We build websites using WordPress and offer basic video training if needed. This gives you the option to login and make minor adjustments by yourself (if you want to do this). E.g. Adding/deleting images in your Gallery or being in full control of your Blog posts.

Of course! We here for the long term. Pricing can be discussed when we get to the quote stage.

As shown in our portfolio we specialize in building...

1. Brochure style websites - perfect for any service-based companies and
2. Ecommerce websites (online stores) - perfect for selling your products online

We don’t do marketplace-type websites such as Amazon, Takealot, Ebay, Autotrader, etc. We also don't do social media style websites or apps.

Our passion will always be to help small – medium sized companies dominate on Google.

The best solution would be to build it yourself. You can use this free tutorial I made on YouTube. It's very basic but a good place to start. Just make sure to set the right expectations for yourself. Building a website with no real experience will most likely get very poor results because there's a lot more that goes into building a successful website. If you choose to go this route then I'd suggest continuous learning and working on your website regularly over months to tweak and improve it. Good luck.

Send me (Zaid) your questions and I'll get back to you with an answer: info@aligndesigns.co.za

There are 5 main costs to consider when launching a new online store in South Africa.

1. Hosting: This is the space upon which your website resides. Without hosting you cannot own a professional website. Cost can vary between R99/m – R199/m (or more) depending on the hosting provider and your website needs.

Ideally, select a local hosting company that offers LiteSpeed as a feature (improves load speed of your website)

2. Paid SSL Certificate (from hosting company): Yes you get a free SSL Certificate with most hosting providers. But you'll want a paid SSL Certificate for an online store because this further protects your customer's sensitive data stored on the backed of your website. Estimated: R250/YEAR

3. Domain name: From your hosting company. This is your .co.za needed for people to find your website online. Usually around R90/YEAR – depending on where you buy it and the actual name of your domain.

This YouTube video I created shows you exactly how to easily setup new hosting and domain name for your business in South Africa

4. Website design: This varies in price depending on many factors. Can be as little as R5000 for a single product with only a single landing page to R30000 (or more) for large ecommerce websites and all the way to R180 000+ for really large ecommerce websites. It really depends on what you need and want on your business website.

5. Website Maintenance: To prevent viruses and malware destroying your website or, worse, getting hold of your customer's sensitive information. Read more here.

Get a quote here.

Several things but two major factor that affects the price of building your new online store is...

1. How many products do you want added to your website?
   (100 products will take much longer to setup than 10 products)
   - How many variations of each product? i.e. various Sizes , Colors, etc. etc.
   - Do you have professional images of your products?
   - Do you have all the details: product titles, descriptions, pricing, etc. etc.
   - Do you want us to manually upload each product for you OR do you have it ready in a CSV file for quick upload?
2. Number of pages you want on the website?
   - Basics would be the Home page, About page, Shop page, Contact page
   - What other pages do you want?
   - What content do you want to display on the pages? Do you have the content or shall we supply it?

The best thing you can do is get a quote here.

We don't offer hosting. One company we recommend to all our clients is HostAfrica.

• Based in Cape Town
• Rated #1 ISP on Hello Peter
• Amazing customer support

Here's a step-by-step video showing you how to easily setup hosting with them.

2025 Pricing is as follows from HostAfrica:

1. Hosting = R120/m (cheaper if you pay for 1 year upfront)
2. Domain = Free for first year. Then R90/YEAR (for a .co.za)

Warning: You can definitely find cheaper hosting but it's not worth the headaches.

No we don't - for a very good reason...

• Every single client has different needs & wants.
• This is only realized during the discover phase of the process.
• We have a series of questions to ask you before giving a quotation.
• Also, our process ensures we have a 100% success rate with our clients being completely satisfied with their website - because we deeply understand what they need and want.

Let's do this right the first time around. Get the quote started here.

Website maintenance is highly recommended - especially for an ecommerce website because you are dealing with transactions which makes security even more important.

Why?

The backend plugins (which make up your site's design and functionality) are constantly being updated by the developers of those plugins. We need to manually update those plugins on the website. An outdated plugin may cause problems. If you choose not to maintain your site then it becomes vulnerable to malware, virus attacks, design issues, etc.

What's included?

Maintenance is 1 hour per month and completed once per month.

1. Backup of your website (done before any updates are performed)
2. Updates of all your backend plugins, themes, etc.
3. Troubleshoot any issues/conflicts that may arise from the updating
4. Backup after updates are completed (so we have the latest copy of the site)

More details: Website Maintenance Package

Other costs to consider - separate from the costs mentioned above (Hosting, Domain, Web Design & Maintenance):

1. SEO – helps your website get found higher on search engines
2. Logo Design or any other custom graphics (icons, images, etc.)
3. PPC like Google Ads or Facebook Ads
4. Social Media Marketing
5. Autoresponder setup & management (email list)
6. Other marketing services to build brand exposure and get more leads and sales.

The best solution would be to build it yourself. You can use this free tutorial I made on YouTube. It's very basic but a good place to start. Just make sure to set the right expectations for yourself.

Building a website with no real experience will most likely get very poor results because there's a lot more that goes into building a successful online store.

If you choose to go this route then I'd suggest continuous learning and working on your website regularly over months to tweak and improve it. Good luck.

We use WordPress and woocommerce to build online stores - for 3 main reasons:

1. WordPress is the most widely used CMS (website platform) in the world
2. Allows you to keep your monthly costs more affordable compared to Shopify.
3. Easy for you to manage inventory using the free woocommerce app - we help you set this up.

If you want a 100% DIY solution then Shopify is perfect for you i.e. you do everything yourself from design to maintenance.

Why don't we offer Shopify website design & setup?

Truth is we could easily offer this service and make decent money BUT the major issue we have with Shopify is that YOU, the client, will be locked into the Shopify platform leaving you extremely limited.

What do we mean?

You'd be using Shopify's platform. So if they decide to change a policy that affects your business or up their pricing radically there's literally nothing you can do about it. And, if you want to move away from the platform you need to build a brand new website from scratch - costing you more downtime, money and headaches.

Our mission is to give small - medium sized businesses the best digital solutions long term. WordPress aligns with this mission.

Why is WordPress better for your business?

WordPress is open source. This means that you are not tied into any one hosting platform. You have total flexibility. If, for whatever reason, you want to move hosting companies you can. Best of all it's free to move and they do it for you in under 24 hours - with zero downtime.

Ownership of Data

The other major reason why we prefer WordPress is because when you use Shopify you don't own your data. Do a simple Google search "Does Shopify own my data?" and you'll find an article from Shopify explaining this.

With WordPress you own your data.

We've built online stores for all types of product based businesses such as...

1. Physical shops needing an online store to expand their reach in South Africa.
2. Entrepreneurs who manufacture their own products in SA and need an online store to sell their products.
3. Entrepreneurs who import unique products into SA and need an online store to sell these products

Two types of ecommerce websites we don't build

• We don't build marketplace-type websites such as Amazon, Takealot, Ebay, Autotrader, etc.
• We don't build dropshipping websites

Our passion will always be to help small – medium sized companies dominate on Google.

Of course you can. The more exposure your product gets the better chance you have of selling it.

Other marketplaces you could place your product:

• Facebook marketplace
• Bid or Buy
• Gumtree
• Amazon SA

I'm sure you understand that since you don't own any of these platforms you...

1. Need to play by their rules (get canceled any time)
2. Get lost in a sea of other products and distractions
3. Look way less professional because you can't really display your brand effectively

That's where a website comes in...

1. You own your website - way more flexibility
2. You get to effectively represent your brand
3. People trust you more and take you more seriously as a business
4. If you choose SEO then your website gets found for months/years to come.

Easy peasy...

You can offer several payment options to your customers such as EFT and a Payment Gateway solution.

For EFT we would need the banking details you want the customers to use.

Steps to get a payment gateway solution setup:

1. You setup an account with a SA payment gateway (some options mentioned below).
2. Send us the welcome email they send you
3. We connect the software to your website
4. We test to make sure it works
5. We make it live for you to start selling your products!

Notes:

• This is the very last step in the website building process
• It's really simple and quick to get this setup

Which payment gateway should you choose?

Our suggestion would be to look at 2 main factors:

1. Cost you pay per transaction? Check their websites.
2. Do they charge you a monthly fee over and above the transaction fees? Check their websites.
3. Trust worthiness - are people familiar with the payment gateway. If they are not familiar with it they may hesitate to complete the transaction on your website.

My clients use the following:

In no particular order...

• Yoco - see fee structure here
• PayFast - see fee structure here
• PayFlex - contact them for fee structure

Easy peasy...

You have two main options:

Option 1: We add a courier company's software into your website (most accurate).

This software will automatically calculate the courier fee on checkout based on the customers delivery address.

NB: We recommend Fastway Couriers because their software is the only one in SA that integrates well with WordPress at this point in time i.e. the other options mess up the website's design or functionality.

Steps to get it setup:

1. You setup an account with Fastway
2. Send us the welcome email they send you
3. We connnect the Fastway software to your website
4. You discuss all nitty gritty detals with Fastway (package sizes etc)

Option 2: We manually add the areas and cost for each area (least accurate)

Woocommerce only allows us to select provinces - not specific cities and towns in SA.

We can select areas by postcodes but that would be entirely seperate project on it's own because there are 1000's of postcodes (this project would be seperate and not included in the price)

So this is what we can do for you...

• We allocate 4 main delivery areas
  - Local pickup (if you have location for collections)
  - Local delivery (province)
  - Other large provinces
  - Other areas (not covered above)
• You give us a price to alocate to the 3 areas above (local pickup would be no cost)

We recommend going with option 1 because it's more accurate and less work for everyone involved.

We help you connect and setup the free woocommerce app.

This allows you to completely manage your inventory from your phone. You'll be able to edit/add/delete all product related details. Full control.

Yes you can. We build websites using WordPress and offer basic video training if needed. This gives you the option to login and make minor adjustments by yourself (if you want to do this). E.g. Adding/deleting images in your Gallery or being in full control of your Blog posts.

Of course! We here for the long term. Pricing can be discussed when we get to the quote stage.

Not immediately. It takes Google anywere from weeks to months to INDEX your website ie: to place your website into Google.

Once your site is indexed the website will be in Google but far down (nowhere near page 1 of Google). It takes time, investment and SEO strategy to get to the top of Google.

NB: Building a website is one service. Having that website show high in Google is an entirely seperate service called Search Engine Optimization. Read more about SEO here.

Send me (Zaid) your questions and I'll get back to you with an answer: info@aligndesigns.co.za

Simple answer: getting your website/brand higher on Google. Therefore more visible when people search for your type of product or service.

Longer answer: SEO is a series of ethical activities done to increase the authority of your website and brand in the 'eyes' of Google and other search engines. It includes tasks such as

• keyword research,
• content creation,
• on-page SEO,
• internal linking,
• setting up analytics,
• citations,
• and much more.

These activities are related to but separate from the task of building your website. i.e. two separate services.

They compliment each other for best long term results. Think of it like a car. You drive a car (website) and need fuel (SEO) to get where you want to go. We offer both SEO ('Align') and web design ('Design') because we want the best long term outcome for our clients.

SEO is totally optional i.e. you can own a website without any SEO. Just be aware that no SEO means zero results in the search engines. So you'll have a pretty website but you'll miss out on tons of future (free) leads that come via Google search. And trust me, there's nothing better than consistently having people reach out to you for your services/products.

Firstly, how your site is built absolutely matters.

1. Keyword research is done BEFORE the website is built...because the keywords are used to build the structure of the site.
2. On-page SEO is done DURING the process of building the website.
3. Most of the actual SEO activities are done AFTER the site is created and gone live.

This is a once-off service done immediately after launching a new website. (Keyword research before building).

• These are the absolute basics needed for Google to know that your website exists and understand what your site is about.
• Without this foundation Google won’t even know your website and brand exists.

It includes the following 9 steps:

1. KW research for Home Page
2. KW research for Services/Product Pages
3. Create a Gmail/Google Account
4. Setup Google Analytics
5. Setup Google Search Console
6. Setup Google Tag Manager
7. Submit Website Sitemap (within GSC)
8. Setup & Configure RankMath Plugin on your Website
9. Setup & Configure Google Sitekit on your Website

A brand new website won’t show on Google at all for the first 1-3 months. This is because Google needs to first discover that your website exists.

This is 100% up to Google. All we can do is be patient during this time.

It could take longer or indefinitely if the Foundational SEO has not been done.

Step 7 (of the 9 steps) is to Sumit your website's sitemap. This is the first and most important step to helping your website get indexed by Google sooner.

No. These are the basic steps every new website needs for Google to know that it exists and to understand what the site is about.

To show higher on Google you need to build the AUTHROITY of your website & brand in the 'eyes' of Google. So you'd need more advanced SEO activities - this takes time and further investment.

As stated before this is a seperate service.

It takes time and regular SEO activities to get found on the first page of Google. It also depends heavily on what you're up against - your competition online matters because to get past them you need to be better than them in the eyes of Google.

If you are in the following niches then it will take longer with more investment to win in the search engines: attorney, insurance, debt review, real estate, etc. simply because these types of companies invest over a long period to get great results.

For less competitive niches it may take anything from 3 months to 2 years depending on many factors.

Nobody can (ethically) guarantee you first page results. Run away from those that make such a promise.

That being said, we have helped many clients show on the first page of Google…and stay there! See our SEO case studies for more details.

For best results you’ll need to be willing to do your part too… Eg: asking your clients to post reviews for your services/products on your Google Business Profile.

We recommend Google Ads to all our clients who want to diplay their brand in front of people on Google quicker (while waiting for the SEO to show results).

Citations are strategic listings of your business details on other websites. Think "Yellow Pages". The key is accuracy of your business details and volume - many listings i.e. adding your business details to a dozen directories won't be enough. We aim for at least 100 citations for our clients.

The purpose of Citations is to increase the authority of your website/brand online which may lead to higher search results.

Shoot me (Zaid) your question and I'll get back to you with an answer: info@aligndesigns.co.za

There are 2 main costs to consider when running Google Ads.

1. Our Service Fee: We setup, manage, improve and report on your Google ads. This is a no-contract, monthly fee that starts from R1500/m.

2. Google Ad Spend: You pay this directly to Google. The amount spent is controlled and totally up to you. All our clients start on R50/day. This allows you to 'dip your toe' and is a good start for Google to work it's magic.

Naturaly you would want to gradually increase that amount based on performance/results and your budget.

Simple and easy...

1. We setup, manage and improve your Google Ad on a month to month basis.
2. We charge you a set monthly rate for the service (payable before work commences for the month).
3. Payment for your Google ad is directly between you and Google - you'll be charged by Google at the END of each month.
4. We send you monthly reports.

One word - INTENT.

When done correctly Google Ads allows you to display your product/service directly in front of people who are looking for exactly what you have to offer.

Also, if done correctly, can have a great ROI.

• If you are spending more on Google ads than the revenue you earn from it then Google Ads may not be suitable for your type of product or service.
• In the case of really low margin products.
• Or in the case where the life time value of a client is really low.

There are cases where I have clients request Google Ads purely to run targeted traffic to their website. This is especially useful for brand new sites who want to get people "roaming" around on their site (Google sees this activity).

Nobody can ethically guarantee results. We recommend starting small for the first couple months to test the results. You can then decide if you want to continue or not. We have very satisfied clients paying for this service.

It really depends on several factors.

• Your competition i.e. other companies bidding on the same keywords will affect the price you pay per click.
• This cost per click will determine how many clicks you get per day - based on your daily budget.
• All of this can only be assessed once we have your ads running.

If done correctly, the more you invest in Google ads the more results you should get. More traffic, more conversions, more leads, more sales.

It's best practice to start smaller and increase the ad spend while we test, improve, test, improve and repeat the process until we have a great ROI.

Yes, we set the daily ad spend based on what you want to spend.

E.g. if we set it to R50/day and run it for one month then Google should bill you R1550 (31 days). It might be less or more than R50 on any given day but it averages out to R50/day.

NB: In some cases Google may over spend on your budget in order to get more clicks. Especially in the case where your set budget is R50/day but each click costs more than R50/day.

In this case you need to decide what you want to do - stop the ad or increase your budget.

• Mont to month
• No refunds
• Cancel any time

We do request that you inform us at least a week before the next due payment (for the coming month)

• No because our clients do not want this information exposed to their competitors.
• All our Google Ad clients started as web design & SEO clients. They then requested our Google Ads service because they trust us.
• They are all extremely happy with their ROI with our Google Ads Service.

Many factors including the following...

• How your Google Ad is setup, maintained & optimized is big factor.
• Your landing page/website i.e. the place where you send people after they click on your Google Ad.
  - This is why we offer Google Ads to our SEO and Web Design clients. We've already optimized their websites for Google Ads.
  - If you have a poorly optimized website you'll spend more on Google Ads.

Send me (Zaid) your questions and I'll get back to you with an answer: info@aligndesigns.co.za