Deeg Consulting

Deeg Consulting – Website Development and Digital Marketing

Services

Website Design and Development

Website development and design in the following content management systems

WordPress
Squarespace
Wix
Shopify
ECommerce
Google websites
Website updates /content updates
Website maintenance
Backups and Plugin Maintenance

Social Media Marketing and Management

Strategy and content development
Content calendars
Schedule Posts
Drive engagement
Create brand conversations
Provide reporting
Training for platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Twitter)

Digital Marketing

Google My Business/Analytics
Search Engine Optimization
Google Analytics and SEM
Rank Math and Yoast SEO for WordPress websites installation and maintenance

Training and Coaching

Training with Teachable
Linkedin Marketing
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest
Google My Business

General Administrative Services in partnership with JL Administrative Services

Calendar and Schedule Management
Drafting Emails and Correspondences
Customer Support Management
Data Entry
Email Management
Database Maintenance
Lead Management
Respond to Social Media and Customer Review Site Postings

Link to JL Administrative Services LLC.Contact Debra – Make an appointment

Debra Gibson-Welch

Atlanta, GA

732-568-1499

debragw@deegconsulting.com

Website and Digital Marketing Services

Deeg Consulting offers a wide range of services from Website Development to General Administrative Services in partnership with JL Administrative Services

Deeg Consulting offers – Website design and development

Social Media marketing and management

Digital Marketing

Google Marketing Service s

Training and Coaching

Link to our Services Page for more information

The Ultimate Website Checklist

You have a new website, everything looks great, and then suddenly, one thing stops working, then two, then three. Why? Because you did not ask for or get a review of the ultimate website checklist with your web developer. A full review of what was done to protect your website should be one of the requirements at the end of the website building process, and now it is a part of my service offerings for businesses who may not have had this service for their websites. My top 25 checklist includes a site check on everything from security to site speed to SEO.

My 25 item checklist before launching a website or can be used as a maintenance checklist for completed websites. Either way, these are the items that must be done to ensure your website is easy to find, secure, and ready for visitors from all over the world. Must do and must-have, the best practices before you take off!

Time frame 1 – 2 weeks

To Purchase

How many hours does it take to build a website?

How Many Hours It Takes To Build A Website

Essential Web Design Considerations for 2021. Why you need one and why you need to hire a professional

Essential Web Design Considerations for 2021
You’ll want to aim for your pages in three seconds or less. That’s because many visitors will abandon your site if it hasn’t loaded within three seconds. But obviously, the lower you can get that number, the better.

Every second matters; if your site doesn’t load in four seconds or less, 25% of those who navigated to your site will have left.

39% of visitors will stop engaging with a website if images won’t load or take too long to load.

It takes only about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds!) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, whether they’ll stay or leave.

If given 15 minutes to consume content, two-thirds of people would instead read something beautifully designed than something plain.

It takes 6 seconds for a user’s eyes to land on the area of a website that most influences their first impression.

Users spend an average of 94 seconds looking at a website’s main image.

Users spend an average of 59 seconds looking at a website’s written content.

38% of visitors will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive.

57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile. #topdigital

We all have to be budget-conscious when running a business. The time invested in building that business is essential. Hours lost to preparing content, writing blogs, sending emails, and designing your website can never be replaced. The mental effort to grab everything and do it all is tempting, but in the long run, a thankless and often frustrating task for business owners. Build slowly, start with the website first, of course, and then add social media. Social media always seems to be the “easy” one for new business owners. It is the hardest one. It is relentless, frustrating, and the rewards are, at best, these days, negligible unless you have invested in ads. It takes a small business owner about 35 hours each week to work in a dedicated daily routine on their social media. It seems too much to hire an expert to do it, but it is worth it in the long run. The research content, write blogs (4 to 5 hours), schedule and post your business information, and run ads. It is challenging work and requires creativity, persistence, and optimism. Social media is branding, marketing, not sales. Be consistent, and it will pay off over the long haul. Once again, in the long haul, there is no magic trick to social media.

If built by a web developer, website builds average between 200 to 2,000 hours, depending on the size and scope of the client request.

If a business owner is building a website, it will take them about 400 hours or about 20 weeks to build a 6 to an 8-page website with all of the bells and whistles. An e-commerce website would be even more.

That would include:

For the web developer – based on project scope, experience level, and quality expectations

What drives development time: (from #impact)

Number of unique page templates
Sections per page
Content moving
Features – Front-End
Features – Backend

Quality expectations from a web developer would include (from #impact)

Easy maintenance
Easy backend navigation – training is usually a part of this for the client.
Fast and smooth animations
Optimization on all browsers and devices
Website page loading instantly
Perfect alignment, and spacing of the elements on the website.

Theme Customization

Home – 10 hours plus – 3 to 5 sections, plus a header and footer (subject to change based on customization). A single section without special features takes about 1 to 2 hours.

Front End features – Sliders/Parallax/ animations and trendy web design add ons. 2 to 8 hours. A custom scroll is 1 to 2 hours.

Back End features – Event calendar (8 hours), Premium themes (8 hours), user roles (4 to 16 hours)

Woo Commerce (8 to 16 hours avg) – Most projects could take up to 20 hours for customization and adding additional features.

Services – 6 hours plus

Blog page – 6 hours plus

Blog post – 4 hours plus

Content moving – 15 minutes to 20 minutes per page. / 6 hours per 20 pages

Factors to calculate

Overall – hourly rate, # of unique page templates, # of pages to be moved.

Front End Features – custom responsive menu, sliders, pop-ups, custom scroll and scrolling effects, custom animations, background video, parallax per page, AJAX load more, AXJ filter forms

Backend features – woo-commerce, event calendar, WPML, premium theme, user roles, groups.

It takes time and hard work to develop quality websites for clients. If you have questions or comments or need a quote for a website or digital marketing, feel free to contact me at any time!

Credit: Impact

Disclaimers

This focuses on a WordPress project. (Expect about 10 hours less for Wix or Squarespace)
Design, SEO, content creation, social media are factors that add time to the project and cost more. Add 30 hours.
These hours assume no scope creep (client requests and content from the client are on time as per the project). Add 25 to 30 hours for scope creep.
Estimated hours are internal quality assurance that works and not a first revision (scope creep). I allow three modifications for clients.
No cost is involved here, just time and how that may then affect cost.

Why hire Deeg Consulting – What I do for you.

I offer several options for high-quality websites from basic to e-commerce at competitive prices and quick delivery schedules, find my pricing page here. I am available to answer your questions and concerns. Contact me at deeg consulting.

How does having a website impact your business success?

How does having a website impact your business success? Let’s look at a success story for a small business entrepreneur.

Why do you need a website?

Less than 64% of small businesses have a website. 70-80% of people research a company online before visiting it or making a purchase. 58% of small businesses without websites plan to create one in 2019. 94% of small business websites are mobile-friendly.

81 percent of U.S. small businesses say that a website has helped to grow their business. With a website, you can reach a greater number of potential customers and opportunities. #verisign

79% of entrepreneurs with a business website expect to grow at least 25% in the next three to five years, compared to 64% of those without a site. #topdigital

30% of small businesses with a web presence generate more than 25% of their revenue online. #topdigital

The U.S. is expecting to have 300 million online shoppers by 2023. That’s 91% of the entire country’s population! Statista

2021 Small Business Website Statistics – Reasons for Not Having a Website – #topdigital

35% of small business believe they are too small to have a website

31% of small business use social media instead of having a website

26% of small business believe their customers are not online

25% of small business lack technical knowledge

23% of small business believe it is not relevant to their business or industry

22% of small business lack human and financial resources

21% of small business use a mobile app instead of a website

19% of small business owners never got around to it

11% of small business don’t see value in it

How did this small business change its formula for success

Fiona’s Handcrafted Soaps CA

I was introduced to Fiona Garrett years ago by a mutual friend. She lived in Vancouver, British Columbia, and I lived in Atlanta. Fast forward two years ago, and our mutual friend shared on Facebook that Vanessa had a thriving business making artisanal soaps which she sold locally through her Facebook page, direct referrals, local markets, and other distributors in Vancouver. Her brand name is Fiona’s Handcrafted Soaps CA. She started making soaps for a personal reason. Her mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and she needed a milder alternative to the harsh soaps available on the market. Besides being made with natural ingredients, they are almost too beautiful to use. The soaps are visually stunning, individually handcrafted, they smell delicious and come in the most unusual flavors, like Bourbon, Beer, Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows and Bubble Tea! Each one is a stunning little masterpiece made for your bathroom and pleasure at home. But she did not have a website, but she knew it was the next step for business growth.

Together, we set out to create something that she could use to reach new audiences worldwide. For more than three months, we worked together creating, changing, and perfecting a Woo Commerce website for Vanessa. She chose WordPress Studio Press Refined Child Theme, and I got to work. Vanessa hired an excellent freelance photographer HyeJun to take the stunning images now on display on the website, and after some hiccups (getting international shipping and credit card payments takes time and patience). Fiona launched the website earlier this year.

How has her business changed since having the website?

The potential to reach almost 4.54 billion people, 59% of the global population who use the internet, and more are getting online. Her business would have been invisible to those people.
Adding the website made it easier for customers to find Fiona’s Handcrafted Soaps. Getting more customers is always the number one goal, and she can reach people worldwide. The brand exposure is enormous.
Social media is excellent, but having the website gave Fiona flexibility and branding she could not get with social media platforms. Now people worldwide have a chance to see, buy and make purchasing decisions—Fiona established her place in the beauty industry with her website.
SEO – Enhanced SEO, including Google My Business and Google Analytics and Rank Math, and ads put her website information out to people who may be searching locally in Canada and internationally for soaps and unique creations. Using specific keywords helps to boost her ranking in search.
Smush – Large images load faster for customers and helps to make purchases more manageable. Having a platform to showcase the products makes a big difference.
Payments / Woo Commerce – Put direct, credit card payment flexibility
Shipping – She can now ship products worldwide and sell locally as well.
Customers can order and connect with her via the website for special requests and more. The website makes it easier for customers to contact her.
Family, customers, and friends can now refer potential customers to the website to purchase products, and they can do that any time of the day or night. That is the difference a website makes.
Having excellent products and great photography makes web development look great.

Happily, I can report that Fiona has seen about a 60% increase in business with her website. That number speaks for itself. Get a website today.

Thank you Fiona, for your time and hard work getting your website completed! She is ready to take on the world.

Deeg Consulting – What my services can do for you

I offer several options for high-quality websites from basic to e-commerce at competitive prices and quick delivery schedules, find my pricing page here Questions, comments, or information about building a website and more contact me at deeg consulting.

How much does a website cost?

After seven years in the marketing business, like many other small businesses, I have made the same mistakes as others when deciding how much to charge for my services. However, it is essential to realize that you have a talent, a unique skill, and charge accordingly. With that in mind, many people do not understand what it takes to build a website, a good website, and this provides a good breakdown of what it takes.

From WP Beginner, 2020

A typical custom WordPress theme for business or personal website theme could cost between $1,500 – $5,000.

A custom WordPress theme with additional built-in features or companion plugins can cost anywhere between $6,000 – $10,000.

If you have a complex enterprise level project, then is not uncommon for the prices to go above $30,000.

There are two main areas.

Design and functionality – What the visitors see and interact with, like the overall design and functions.
Infrastructure – What powers the website, hosting, domain, software

People have chosen to be economical, but I always suggest consulting with a professional. They may have experience or invaluable advice, which may help to make this easier. Not all of the companies are reputable or credible.

What you pay for in infrastructure

Domain name – Purchase from a domain register like Site Ground or Blue Host (monthly or annual )

Website software/ Content Management System – Free (WordPress, Squarespace, or Wix) / However, a builder is either a monthly or annual fee. A builder is a good option if you are new to website design and need help getting it done.

Hosting – Usually starting at $5 per month.

Total – Usually, the total can be from 80 dollars to more than $200 annual.

Functionality

All CMS platforms like WordPress Squarespace and Wix offer free options and premium options for themes that offer more customizations. If you are on a budget, use a free choice; there are many out there. My favorite themes are from Studio Press (Premium) and Elementor (Free and Premium), and I like to use Beave Builder for some websites. I think that people should have the best websites that they can have to start. Sometimes the companies offer free lifetime sales, sporadic but take advantage of them when you can.

Total – $0 to $100.00

DIY – This would be off the rack, no fuss or frills with no major customizations, and no web developer to make it customized for you. This would be for a one-page blog or a business page. $80 to $500 if you add premium extensions.

Web Developer

It depends on what you what and whom you are working with. Websites can now range from as little as $100 to over 10,000 depending on what you what in a competitive market.

With the lower prices, expect not to get the following, once the website is delivered, you are on your own.

A Wix website
No SEO
No Social Media
No Training (I offer two sessions)
No, Follow up maintenance

The average cost today for WordPress (10 to 15 pages)

36% – $2k to 3K

26% – $4K to 5k

20% – under 1,000

8 % – $6K to $7K

10% it depends

Numbers from #themeisle.com

For a “plain” WordPress website

32% – $1,000 to $1,500

28% – More than $3,500

15% – less than $1,000

13% – $1,500 to $2,000

7% – $3,000 to $3,500

5% – $2,000 to $2,500

Numbers from #themeisle.com

Overall if you are looking for an essential website, at a bare minimum, according to #themeisle, $2,000 is the range. E-Commerce and advanced functionality would be even more.

My Prices and Packages – Deeg Consulting

So how do I match up with the costs with other developers?

Time

And remember, time, hiring a web designer means that you have the time to work on your business while we get the job done for you. You cannot replace the lost time it will take for you to design your website. It is irreplaceable.

I am pretty competitive, in the middle to lower end of the scale. I am very generous with my clients, especially with my time.

My cost for a basic 5-page website is $1200 for a Wix or Square Space website with additional services in the package.

My cost for a basic one-page website is $800 for WordPress with some additional services.

My cost for a 5 to 10-page website is $1800.00 for WordPress with some additional services.

My cost for an E-Commerce website with WordPress or Shopify is $5,000

I always suggest a consultation even if you do not plan to retain my services. I am always willing to provide assistance and answer any questions to help make your decisions easier. My consultation fee is $50.00 for 60 minutes.

Overall the DIY route is affordable, but you lose essential time focused on your business. Can you afford it? Is it worth it?

Questions? Contact me at www.deegconsulting.com.

Why a child theme for your WordPress websites?

Why a child theme for your WordPress websites.

What is a “child theme”? Why do you need it?

I have worked with many clients over the last six years, and for me, this is the bridge I do not cross when working with them. I do not work on websites if there is no child theme. Many small web design companies looking to make money quickly, with low-cost WordPress websites, are low-cost for a reason. They use low-quality templates and build websites without child themes. Today, many people are designing websites in WordPress on their own, and they are having a great time doing it. I applaud them for working within a budget and being creative at the same time. The problem? Many of them have never heard of a child theme before. Why would the website companies tell them about it? It means that without a child theme, they could be back next year building a new website from scratch and shelling out more money. The reason they were designing their websites in the first place was to save money.

Do you remember the parent /child relationship from coding school? That applies to content management system development as well.

According to WP Beginner

“A child theme in WordPress is a sub-theme that inherits all the functionality, features, and style of its parent theme. Child themes are a safe way to modify a WordPress theme without actually making any changes to the parent theme’s files.”

A parent theme doesn’t need a child theme to work, while the opposite isn’t true. On the other hand, a child theme works as an additional layer on top of the parent theme. It allows your developer to tweak, add, remove an existing WordPress theme without worrying about losing your customizations.”

Or from Codeable

“A child theme is a theme that inherits the functionality and styling of another theme, called the parent theme. Child themes are the recommended way of modifying an existing theme.”

A child theme is a layer on top of your existing WordPress theme that allows you to make modifications. You can change part of its functionality, you can change its style, how it looks, all being sure you’re not ruining your parent theme.

In order words, it is an extension of your current theme, “the parent.”

“Using child themes is the best practice when it comes to adding extra features or style to a WordPress theme. You should never edit directly: WordPress core files.

Plugin files. Theme files, except for starter themes which are a special kind of themes meant for theme developers” Codeable

Benefits

Child themes bring you customizations without the fear of losing them

“Let’s say you bought a theme a year ago that you’re still using on your WordPress site. It still looks acceptable to you, but it should need a design refresher because you’d like it to focus on conversions, and currently, it’s simply a leaky pipe.

If you make edits directly in your header.php, function.php files, the next you’ll update your theme with its latest version – and there are lots of important reasons to keep it up-to-date -, you’ll lose all your customizations. All the changes you have done will get overwritten by the newer versions of those duplicate files, and you will lose what you have done. Having a child theme means that you do not lose your customizations.” Codeable

Child themes allow customizations without slowing down your site.

Limits

Although they give you the freedom to make changes, you would not have been able to without one; if you want a complete overhaul with more customizations, that means a fully customized website with an experienced web developer.

Why are they important?

Because it makes sense from a budget standpoint that you can have extra functionality, make edits to your theme, not lose customizations you invested in and still stay within a decent budget. Fully customized websites require skilled developers and higher prices based on their skills.

Companies have made the concept of developing websites something easy and within reach for everyone, and we are all lucky to be able to take advantage of that. Not knowing what it takes to build a good website with a child theme (something they never mention) is an awful lesson that too many of us have learned over the years.

My best advice, you may not have the budget to pay someone to design a website, but pay for a consultation with an expert, someone you can trust. Don’t leave anything to chance; ask lots of questions and start your website journey the right way.

If you have the budget and hire an expert, not the hosting company (they will not dispense any parent/child advice), make sure you ask them, no, tell them that you expect your website to have a child theme. You are investing in your future, and they need to understand that you intend to be an intelligent investor.

If you have questions or comments about this topic, contact me at debragw@deegconsulting.com.