The Advantages of Working With a Local Web Developer

If you’re looking to create a new website for your business, choosing between a local web developer and a remote developer can be a tough decision. Both options have their pros and cons, but there are several advantages to hiring a local web developer that you should consider.

  1. Enhanced communication and collaboration, tailored to your needs

One of the biggest advantages of hiring a local web developer is that you’ll have better communication and collaboration. When you work with a local developer, you can meet in person (or zoom or local phone call) to discuss your project and make changes as needed. This interaction ensures that your website meets your exact needs and expectations. Additionally, being in the same time zone and geographic location allows for more efficient scheduling of meetings and real-time discussions, reducing potential delays.

  1. Prompt and responsive support, with a local touch

If you have any problems with your website after it’s launched, you’ll want to be able to get help quickly. A local web developer will be able to respond to your requests more promptly than a remote developer, thanks to their proximity. They can address any issues in a timely manner, providing you with efficient support and minimizing any potential downtime.

  1. Understanding of the local market, reaching your target audience

A local web developer has a better understanding of your local market compared to a remote developer. They are familiar with the preferences, trends, and behaviors of your target audience. This enables them to create a website that is tailored to your local market, helping you connect with potential customers more effectively.

  1. Cost-effectiveness and localized rates

Despite the general belief that “outsourcing is cheaper”, in the long run it can actually end up being more expensive. I have encountered many clients who had their websites created by remote developers but after that launch, it was very difficult to get ahold of the developer to make changes and in many cases the quality of work and the post-launch charges made it difficult to maintain a working relationship.

  1. Personalized service and local expertise

When you hire a local web developer, you’ll receive more personalized service. You’ll have a dedicated point of contact who will be responsible for your project from start to finish. Their local expertise and understanding of your community can further enhance the customization and localization of your website, creating a unique online presence for your business.

If you’re considering hiring a web developer, I recommend interviewing several local developers before making a decision. This will help you find a developer who possesses the necessary skills, experience, and personality that align with your goals.

Here are some additional tips for hiring a local web developer:

  1. Seek referrals from friends, family, or business associates (click here for some of my testimonials).
  2. Request portfolios and references to assess their past work (you can see my portfolio here).
  3. Document everything in writing, including the scope of work, timeline, and cost.
  4. Clearly communicate your expectations.
  5. Exercise patience and understanding throughout the development process.

By following these tips, you can increase your chances of finding a qualified and experienced local web developer who can help you create a website that drives business growth.

Looking for a reliable web developer in Vancouver? We create customized, affordable WordPress websites

If you’re looking for a reliable web developer in Vancouver to help bring your business online, look no further! At Onur Kurtic Creative, we specialize in affordable WordPress website development that’s tailored to your specific needs. Here are some reasons why you should consider working with us:

  1. Expertise

Our team of experienced web developers has been creating websites for businesses in Vancouver for years. We have the skills and knowledge to create beautiful and functional websites that help businesses succeed online.

  1. Customization

We understand that every business is unique, and we take the time to understand your goals, target audience, and brand personality to create a customized website that’s tailored to your specific needs.

  1. Affordable Pricing

We believe that high-quality web development shouldn’t have to come with a high price tag. That’s why we offer affordable pricing options for our WordPress website development services. We’ll work with you to find a pricing plan that fits your budget and meets your needs.

  1. WordPress Expertise

WordPress is a powerful content management system that can help you easily update and manage your website. Our team specializes in WordPress website development, and we can help you get the most out of this powerful platform.

  1. Ongoing Support

We don’t just create websites and leave you to fend for yourself. Our team provides ongoing support to ensure that your website is always up-to-date, secure, and performing at its best.

At Onur Kurtic Creative, we’re dedicated to helping businesses in Vancouver succeed online through high-quality, affordable WordPress website development services. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help your business succeed online.

WordPress Website Development for Small Businesses on a Budget in Vancouver, BC

Are you a small business owner in Vancouver, BC looking to build a website for your company? WordPress is a great platform to consider. With its user-friendly interface and customizable themes, you can create a professional-looking website even if you don’t have a lot of technical expertise. Plus, with a variety of affordable options available, you don’t have to break the bank to get your site up and running.

Here are some tips for affordable WordPress website development for small businesses in Vancouver, BC:

  1. Choose a Good Hosting Provider

Your website’s hosting provider is the foundation of your site. Make sure you choose a reputable provider that can handle your site’s traffic and provide reliable support. Some popular options include Bluehost, SiteGround, and HostGator.

  1. Select an Affordable Theme

There are thousands of free and premium themes available for WordPress. While premium themes offer more features and customization options, there are many great free themes that can give your site a professional look. Some popular free themes include Astra, OceanWP, and Hestia.

  1. Keep Plugins to a Minimum

Plugins are a great way to add functionality to your site, but they can also slow down your site’s performance and cause security issues. Stick to essential plugins, like security and SEO plugins, and make sure to keep them up to date.

  1. Optimize Your Site for SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing your site to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This can be a complex process, but there are a few basic strategies you can implement to improve your site’s SEO:

  • Use relevant keywords in your content
  • Use descriptive meta titles and descriptions
  • Make sure your site is mobile-friendly
  • Use internal linking to improve site navigation
  • Use alt tags for images
  1. Hire a Local Developer

While WordPress is relatively easy to use, it can still be helpful to have a professional developer create your site. Look for a local developer who can meet with you in person and discuss your site’s goals and objectives. Ask for references and portfolio examples to ensure you’re working with a reputable developer.

By following these tips, you can create an affordable WordPress website for your small business in Vancouver, BC. Remember to prioritize user experience and SEO to ensure your site is both user-friendly and easy to find in search engines.

Why your small business in Vancouver needs a website

Whether you are selling a physical product or providing a service, having a strong web presence is a vital component to your overall business strategy. Your small business needs a good website to be competitive.

How are consumers searching for businesses?

According to Recent Data, over 80% of customers rely on the Internet to find a business near them. To put this in context, your first impression with 8 out of 10 potential customers is made through the Internet. If you are not present in the sphere where majority of consumers are, you are missing 8 out of 10 potential customers for your business.

Is having a website enough?

With the widespread availability of high-speed Internet and mobile data, it has become ever more important for any business – small or big – to have a website. However, according to a 2018 data, only 64% of small businesses have their own website.

When you think about the mismatch between the number of consumers using the Internet to find a business (8 out of 10) and the fact that only 6 out of 10 small businesses are out there on the Internet to be found, it paints a picture full of opportunity! According to a report by GoDaddy, 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.

That being said, just having a website, any website, is not going to give you the results you are expecting. If this was 2005, it might have been a different story but today’s competitive landscape is quite different. There are more and more businesses on the Internet competing for customer attention and it takes more than a simple web page to capture them.

Is any web presence good presence?

While some argue that having a bad looking website is better than having no web presence at all, others claim that an outdated website might do more damage than good when it comes to your brand image and credibility in the consumers’ eyes.

Having worked in marketing and web development for quite some time, I tend to side with the latter argument. I have worked with small businesses in Vancouver that had old, outdated websites that didn’t work on mobile devices and just overall reflected badly on the company.

A colleague of mine used the analogy of showing up for an interview in your shorts and flip flops and expecting to get the job. In a lot of ways your first interaction with a potential customer is a job interview of sorts. When a potential customer lands on your website the interview starts. First impressions are crucial and customers make snap judgements about your business based on what they see on the website. Especially with the short attention span of today’s culture, you have a mere 7-8 second window to convince them to stay and browse some more.

What is a good website?

It comes down to providing quality content with compelling visuals and a nice, clean design. You know your business better than anyone and it is important that you craft your website copy with your customers in mind. What are they looking for? What problem(s) are you trying to solve? What might they be searching on the Internet to find your business? These are not easy questions to answer but they serve as guidelines to keep you focused and provide quality content.

The other piece of the puzzle is where I come in: designing and developing your website with best practices in mind. Some things that are important for a modern website are:

  • Mobile responsiveness
  • SEO friendliness
  • Flexible backend content management
  • Scalability

This list can go on but the above points provide a good starting point for any small business that is looking for a website. Mobile devices account for over 50% of web traffic worldwide, which means your website needs to be responsive to all kinds of device screens out there. Furthermore, your website needs to be built with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. This is how search engines like Google and Bing find and index your website so that it shows up on search results.

If you are looking to get a website for your small business in Vancouver or you are looking to update your old website, contact me to discuss your project!

Why website speed matters for your business

Whether you are selling a product/service through e-commerce on your website or you are trying to drive traffic to your site to get potential customers to contact you, website speed is a crucial piece of the online presence puzzle.

Website speed has always been a critical measure for user experience. But often times it is overlooked to accommodate better aesthetic design, new nifty functionality or to add more content to web pages.

According to Kissmetrics, 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less.That means if your website takes more than 2 seconds to load, you could lose half of your prospective customers before you even get a chance to tell them your story.

 

Why does speed matter so much?

1. First Impression

Your website is the first impression you make on potential customers and as we all know, first impressions matter. Generally speaking, we associate speed with professionalism and efficiency. It is no different on the Internet – a fast loading website conveys reliability and promotes confidence. 79% of online shoppers say they won’t go back to a website if they’ve had trouble with load speed the first time.

2. SEO

We know Google’s obsession with speed. They are “striving to make the whole web fast”. In their quest to achieve this, they are promoting faster websites on their search rankings. They announced in 2010 that they in fact do take website load speed into account when ranking websites.

Here is the real kicker:

“Google will reduce the amount of crawlers it sends to your site if your server is slower than two seconds.”

This means if your website is slow, Google is a lot less likely to pick up your latest content update and index it on its search rankings.

It is important to mention that speed alone will not get you to the top of search rankings, however SEO is the coming together of many different moving pieces and speed is one of these pieces.

3. Conversions

Converting a visitor to a customer is essentially the reason why we have websites. We want users to visit our websites so that they can buy our product/service or contact us.

According to the same statistics published by Kissmetrics, 40% of people will abandon your site if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. To put that in perspective, if you have 1000 visitors per month, you could lose 400 of them due to slow loading time. That is a lot of business lost…

What to do

So then what is the magic solution to website loading speed?

Much like with everything else in web presence, there is not a silver bullet that will resolve everything in one swift motion. A fast loading speed is the combination of several factors including hosting server, image sizes, number of HTTP requests, caching and other technical aspects. When using a platform like WordPress, hosting server becomes an even more important element for website speed due to the way WordPress works. Most hosting companies out there offer managed WordPress servers that are optimized for speed.

If you have any questions about website speed and how to make your website more fast contact me today.

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