Glossary
Successful companies use technology to complement their customer service, not replace them. As technology evolves, there is a definite trend towards automating even the simplest of functions.
DigiZen’s philosophy is to automate what you can, but never lose that human touch. So here, we speak human!
We hope that this glossary of website and internet terminology assists you in making sense of some of the How’s and Why’s!
Glossary
Successful companies use technology to complement their customer service, not replace them. As technology evolves, there is a definite trend towards automating even the simplest of functions.
DigiZen’s philosophy is to automate what you can, but never lose that human touch. So here, we speak human!
We hope that this glossary of website and internet terminology assists you in making sense of some of the How’s and Why’s!
Glossary
Successful companies use technology to complement their customer service, not replace them. As technology evolves, there is a definite trend towards automating even the simplest of functions.
DigiZen’s philosophy is to automate what you can, but never lose that human touch. So here, we speak human!
We hope that this glossary of website and internet terminology assists you in making sense of some of the How’s and Why’s!
Table of Contents
ToggleBrand
Your Brand is the visual representation of your business. What people think of or visualise when they hear your business name. The expression of the unique characteristics which represent your business.
Branding before Landing
A phrase coined to emphasise the importance of creating your Brand before your website landing page. It is essential to develop your brand identity before you have your website designed. Your website is an extension of your brand, not visa versa.
We advise doing a little research first. Look at what the top companies in your industry have used to create their brand. We are in no way suggesting that you copy or plagiarise, but you can ‘steal with your eyes’ and look at what works in terms of the colour choices they’re used and how they’re woven this into their logo.
Colour choice is really important. One of the first steps in the web design process is to decide on a visual look and feel. Without at least minimal branding, your designer is starting completely from scratch, and essentially has to create a brand identity for your business on the fly. This may or may not be consistent with the image you want to project. Development of your brand needs to come before a website, because the site is an extension of the brand and not the other way around.
Why your Brand is so Important
It sets the stage for everything you produce, visually and otherwise. It sets you apart from other businesses. It is authentic, a manifestation of the cultural values of what is being represented. If it’s not consistent with these values, it may appear inauthentic and this speaks to integrity. A reflection of all the things you are.
Proceeding without a Brand
Inevitably, some businesses simply refuse to invest in a brand or insist that the fuzzy logo they “designed” in 1992 is perfectly suitable as the basis for their R10,000 website. Or they may want to design their site and then paste in a logo at the end of the process.
If you’re looking at examples of logos and they look like they took about five minutes to make, they in all likelihood did.
Brand Equity
Brand equity is a marketing term that describes a brand’s value. That value is determined by consumer perception of and experiences with the brand. If people think highly of a brand, it has positive brand equity.
Cart-to-Quote Systems
A “cart to quote” system is a feature or functionality often found in eCommerce platforms or software solutions. It allows customers to add products to a virtual shopping cart, similar to a traditional eCommerce shopping experience. However, instead of proceeding directly to checkout and making a purchase, customers have the option to request a quote for the items in their cart before completing the transaction.
Here’s how a cart to quote system typically works:
Product Selection: Customers browse the online store, select the products they’re interested in, and add them to their shopping cart.
Request for Quote: Instead of proceeding to checkout, customers have the option to request a quote for the items in their cart. This is usually done by clicking a “Request a Quote” button or similar option.
Quote Generation: Once the customer requests a quote, the system generates a quote based on the selected products, quantities, and any applicable pricing rules or discounts.
Review and Negotiation: The customer can review the quote and may have the option to negotiate pricing or terms with the seller. This could involve requesting adjustments to quantities, exploring volume discounts, or discussing customization options.
Quote Approval: Once the customer is satisfied with the quote, they can approve it, typically by confirming their acceptance through the eCommerce platform.
Conversion to Order: After the quote is approved, the seller can convert it into an order within the eCommerce system, allowing the customer to complete the purchase and proceed to checkout.
Cart to quote systems are commonly used in B2B eCommerce scenarios, where pricing may be customised based on factors such as volume, contract terms, or negotiated agreements. They provide a flexible and transparent way for buyers and sellers to discuss pricing and terms before finalizing a purchase, facilitating smoother transactions and potentially reducing misunderstandings or disputes.
In addition to facilitating quote requests and generation, some cart to quote systems may also include features for managing and tracking quotes, integrating with customer relationship management (CRM) software, and providing analytics on quote conversion rates and sales performance.
CMS – Content Management System
A Content Management System (CMS) is software used to build and manage a website. Most small business websites are built using a web content management system. Some, like WordPress, require more technical expertise than the free a site builders that are readily available. A website designer uses the CMS tools wherever applicable to get the basic things done quickly. Then where the CMS tool’s usage ends, expert designers use custom hand coding to get the desired features. Therefore, a website designer and developer should have knowledge of using both to create a website as per your requirements.
Content Creation
Providing useful content should be at the core of your marketing efforts. In today’s fast-paced internet driven world, traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective. It has given way to different forms of marketing. Content marketing through content creation is a form of marketing. Content creation can help your business in the marketing of your products and services.
There’s no hard and fast rule for how long it takes to assemble content, but for written material, allowing for an average of 300 words per page, consider how long that will take to write and edit. Then multiply that by the number of pages. For example, if it takes one hour to write 300 words, and a half-hour to edit them, that’s 1.5 hours X 40 pages = 60 hours. Good writing takes time, good photography takes planning and resources, and videos that people actually want to watch must be planned, scripted, shot and edited. Keep this in mind going in to your project, and schedule accordingly. A dose of realism about how long content creation will take is key to setting and meeting deadlines.
Unless you are creating the dullest, most technical site imaginable, your content should consist of more than just plain text. By using one or more of the following multi-media elements, you’ll greatly enhance the appeal and usefulness of the site: Photography Documents (usually PDFs) Audio, Podcasts, Interviews, Playlists and Video (i.e., YouTube, Vimeo, or self-hosted). Content feeds from other websites, for example: Twitter, Facebook wall content or Instagram photos, YouTube/Vimeo videos.
Cookies
Cookies are small text files stored in your visitor’s browser by your website. These files typically contain information about your visitor’s preferred language settings or location. They can also store a wide range of information including personally identifiable information.
Cookies basically perform two actions:
• they improve your visitor’s experience of your website
• they track your user’s behaviour on your site.
A Cookie Policy can be included in your website Privacy Policy or created separately. It details how you will use cookies on your site.
A Cookie Consent Manager …
is a solution that manages a website’s process of collecting and storing a user’s consent for the collection of their data through cookies. Cookie consent is not only necessary for transparency and best practice, and it is also required to fulfill the legal requirements of the POPI Act.
“Without Cookies it would be virtually impossible for any website owner to know who visits its website and this means that the POPI Act requires a cookie notice and policy. I know everyone hates them, but under current law in South Africa, they are required.” [Source]
Only cookies which are strictly necessary (essential) for the operation of your website can be pre-checked and do not need the user’s explicit consent. The Cookie Policy and Cookie Notifier are based upon the cookies used on YOUR website and are unique to your operation.
Crawl and Crawlers
The process of looking for new or updated web pages. Google discovers URLs by following links, by reading sitemaps, and by many other means. Google crawls the web, looking for new pages, then indexes them (when appropriate). Automated software that crawls (fetches) pages from the web and indexes them.
CRM – Customer Relationship Management
CRM is a strategy that companies use to manage interactions with customers and potential customers.
CTA – Call To Action
CTA is more of a marketing term, however, website designers often use them to evoke an action from the user, usually something like “click here” or “buy now”, you’ll probably be used to seeing the classic “add to basket”. All of these terms denote a call to action – essentially you are taking action. There’s a whole bunch of research that goes into the most effective call to actions.
Digital Marketing
Successful online marketing campaigns require a good amount of planning. From our first meeting, we will work with you to develop an online marketing strategy that works for your business.
Initially, a well designed and Search Engine Optimized website may be your goal, but without some form of Digital Marketing, your website is unlikely to be found.
Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of activities aimed at promoting products or services using digital channels and technologies. Here are some key components:
Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing websites to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords. This involves on-page optimization, content creation, link building, and technical aspects.
Content Marketing: Creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and engage a target audience. This includes blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, ebooks, and more.
Social Media Marketing: Using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others to connect with audiences, build brand awareness, and drive traffic to websites.
Email Marketing: Sending targeted messages to a subscriber list to nurture leads, promote products or services, and build relationships with customers.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: Placing ads on search engines (Google Ads) or social media platforms (Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.) and paying only when users click on them. This includes keyword research, ad creation, targeting, and bid management.
Affiliate Marketing: Partnering with affiliates or influencers who promote your products or services in exchange for a commission for each sale or referral they generate.
Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with influencers or thought leaders in your industry to reach their followers and leverage their credibility and influence.
Online PR (Public Relations): Managing a brand’s online reputation, handling crisis communications, and building relationships with online media outlets, bloggers, and influencers.
Analytics and Data Analysis: Using tools like Google Analytics to track and measure the performance of digital marketing campaigns, analyze user behavior, and make data-driven decisions to optimize strategies.
Mobile Marketing: Targeting users on mobile devices through mobile-optimized websites, apps, SMS marketing, and location-based targeting.
Video Marketing: Creating and sharing videos to educate, entertain, or inspire your audience. This includes YouTube marketing, live streaming, and video ads on social media platforms.
Website Optimization and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Improving website design, usability, and performance to increase conversions and achieve marketing goals.
Digital marketing is dynamic and constantly evolving, with new technologies, platforms, and strategies emerging regularly. Successful digital marketers stay updated on industry trends, experiment with new approaches, and adapt their strategies to meet the changing needs and preferences of their target audience.
Digital Marketing Systems
Having a WordPress CMS website custom created by us, offers you the opportunity to add Digital Marketing Systems as and when you’re ready to use them.
This highlights the importance of planning and strategy. All aspects of life need to be built on a strong foundation. Growth will then only require compatible add-on features to your website, not a complete rebuild!
ECOMMERCE ON-LINE WEB-SHOP You may be ready to put your products on-line as soon as your basic website is created. In which case, you will need an eCommerce On-Line Shop with a secure payment gateway that offers both EFT and credit card payments.
CART-TO-QUOTE SYSTEM If you offer products or services with that fluctuate due to the nature of the product having to be sourced elsewhere; or you have customised features; or your product or service varies due to the different options you can offer your clients, then a Cart-to-Quote System with no payment gateway is the perfect solution for your business.
EMAIL MARKETING SYSTEM An Email Marketing System is an invaluable feature. You are able to create newsletters and mailshots to your client list without spamming them.
Domain Name
A Domain Name is the address of your website that people type in the browser’s URL bar to visit your website. In other words, if your website was a house, then your domain name will be its address.
The internet is basically a giant network of computers connected to each other through cables. To easily identify them, each computer is assigned a series of numbers called IP Address. This IP address is a combination of numbers separated with dots. Typically, IP addresses look like this: 197.230.29.82
Computers have no problem identifying and remembering these numbers. However, it is impossible for humans to remember and use these numbers to connect to websites on the internet. To solve this problem, domain names were invented.
A domain name can have words which make it easy to remember website addresses. If you want to visit a website on the internet, you don’t need to type a string of numbers. Instead, you can type in an easy to remember domain name, for example, www.digizen.co.za. [Source]
Choosing a Domain Name
Most existing businesses that have a website, have a domain name. If your business is new, choose the shortest, most easily pronounceable name you can find. As they say about men, or women, “all of the good ones are taken.” That’s the case with domain names, too. You may have to get creative.
We can assist you with choosing a domain name that is suitable for your business address on the internet and we also do domain registrations and annual renewals on your behalf.
Should you choose to register the domain yourself, do consider these factors:
- Your website domain name is your address on the internet. Will it be easy for potential customers to find and remember?
- Research the best practices for choosing a domain name in respect of what search engines require.
- Avoid using domain names which are too long.
- Does domain name length matter? We recommend short domain names, typically between 3 to 4 terms. Short domains are easier to remember and type which helps users navigate directly to your site. [Source]
In general, when it comes to the length of your domain, shorter is better. According to research from Domain Registration.com, the most common name length is approximately 12 characters. This data shows that you should keep your domain name concise. Aim for 6-14 characters and avoid using hyphenated domain names. - Do a search on the various social media platforms too. Bear in mind that on the world wide web, especially social media platforms like Facebook, you’re up against both local, National and International business.
- Is your name unique and not too similar to other business names?
- Check that your intended domain name is indeed available.
- Say it out loud. Does it sound good?
- Will it be easy for potential customers to remember?
- Does it reflect your business identity?
Some well known blapses are:
Mp3shits.com = MP3s Hits
Choosespain.com = Choose Spain
Oldmanshaven.com = Old Man’s Haven
Speedofart.com = Speed Of Art
eCommerce
eCommerce, short for electronic commerce, refers to the buying and selling of goods or services over the internet. It encompasses a wide range of online transactions, from retail websites and online marketplaces to business-to-business (B2B) sales and online auctions. Here’s a brief overview of eCommerce:
Types of eCommerce Models:
Business-to-Consumer (B2C): This involves transactions between businesses and individual consumers. Examples include online retail stores like Takealot, Amazon and eBay.
Business-to-Business (B2B): In B2B eCommerce, businesses sell products or services to other businesses. This can involve wholesale transactions, supply chain management systems, or online procurement platforms. (See Cart-to-Quote Systems)
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C): C2C eCommerce involves individuals buying and selling goods or services to each other through online marketplaces or classified ads platforms. Examples include eBay, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace.
Consumer-to-Business (C2B): This model involves individuals selling products or services to businesses. For example, freelance platforms where individuals offer their skills or services to businesses.
Key Components of eCommerce:
Online Storefront: The digital platform where products or services are displayed, and transactions take place. This can be a standalone website, an online marketplace, or a social media storefront.
Payment Processing: eCommerce platforms integrate payment gateways to facilitate secure online transactions. Customers can pay using credit/debit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers, or other payment methods.
Product Catalog: A comprehensive listing of products or services available for purchase, including descriptions, images, pricing, and other relevant details.
Order Management: Systems for processing and managing orders, including order fulfillment, inventory management, shipping, and tracking.
Customer Service: Tools and channels for providing customer support, addressing inquiries, handling returns or refunds, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Marketing and Promotion: Strategies and tactics for driving traffic to the eCommerce website, increasing brand visibility, and converting visitors into customers. This can include search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, and online advertising.
Benefits of eCommerce:
Global Reach: eCommerce enables businesses to reach customers beyond geographical boundaries, expanding their market reach.
Convenience: Customers can browse and shop online at any time, from anywhere, without the constraints of physical store hours or locations.
Cost Efficiency: Operating an online store can be more cost-effective than maintaining a brick-and-mortar retail location, with lower overhead costs.
Data Analytics: eCommerce platforms provide valuable insights into customer behavior, preferences, and purchasing patterns, which businesses can leverage to optimize their offerings and marketing strategies.
Overall, eCommerce has revolutionised the way businesses and consumers engage in commerce, offering convenience, accessibility, and new opportunities for growth and innovation in the digital age.
Email Marketing Systems
An Email Marketing System is a software platform or tool designed to facilitate the creation, management, and analysis of email marketing campaigns. You are able to create newsletters and mailshots to your client list without spamming them. Attracting customers is important, but you need to keep them coming back.
Email marketing has stood the test of time and proven itself to be an effective method of communication, if used correctly. The importance of email marketing comes down to it being an effective solution that gives you the power to reach customers in a place most people visit every day, their inbox.
Some key components and features of email marketing systems include:
Email Campaign Creation: Users can create and design email campaigns using customizable templates or a drag-and-drop editor. They can add text, images, buttons, and other elements to create engaging emails.
Contact Management: Email marketing systems allow users to manage their contact lists or subscriber databases. This includes importing contacts, organising them into segments or lists, and maintaining subscriber information.
Automation: Automation features enable users to set up automated email workflows based on triggers or actions taken by subscribers. For example, sending a welcome email series to new subscribers or follow-up emails based on specific subscriber behaviors.
Personalisation: Personalistion features allow users to tailor email content based on subscriber data, such as name, location, or past interactions. This helps improve engagement and relevance for recipients.
Analytics and Reporting: Email marketing systems provide insights into campaign performance through analytics and reporting tools. Users can track metrics like open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and more to evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns.
Compliance and Legal Features: Many email marketing systems include features to help users comply with regulations such as the POPI Act (South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act), GDPR (The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation) or the CAN-SPAM Act. This may include built-in unsubscribe mechanisms, permission management, and data protection measures.
Integration: Email marketing systems often integrate with other tools and platforms, such as customer relationship management (CRM) software, e-commerce platforms, or social media channels, to streamline processes and enhance campaign effectiveness.
Google Services
Googlebot
Googlebot is the web crawling bot (also known as a spider or web crawler) used by Google to discover and index web pages across the internet. It plays a crucial role in the functioning of Google’s search engine by systematically visiting web pages, collecting information, and adding them to Google’s index, which is then used to generate search results for user queries.
Googlebot plays a critical role in the search ecosystem, helping Google provide relevant and up-to-date search results to users around the world. Website owners and developers can optimize their sites for Googlebot by ensuring crawlability, providing high-quality content, optimizing site speed and performance, and adhering to best practices for search engine optimization (SEO).
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free web service provided by Google that allows website owners to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot their site’s presence in Google Search results. Formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console offers a range of tools and reports to help website owners understand how Google’s search engine views their site and identify opportunities for improvement.
By regularly monitoring and using the insights provided by Google Search Console, website owners can improve their site’s visibility, performance, and user experience in Google Search results, ultimately driving more organic traffic to their site.
Google Site Kit
Google Site Kit is a WordPress plugin developed by Google that enables website owners to integrate various Google tools and services directly into their WordPress dashboard. It streamlines the process of implementing and managing Google products, providing users with easy access to data and insights to optimize their website’s performance.
Google Site Kit integrates seamlessly with Google Search Console, allowing users to monitor their website’s performance in Google Search results. Users can view search analytics data, track search queries, monitor indexing status, and receive alerts for critical issues.
reCAPTCHA
reCAPTCHA is a free service provided by Google that helps protect websites from spam and abuse. It uses advanced risk analysis techniques to distinguish between humans and automated bots attempting to access or submit forms on websites. When implemented, reCAPTCHA presents challenges or puzzles to users, such as identifying objects in images or solving simple math problems, to verify that they are human.
reCAPTCHA v3
Unlike v2, reCAPTCHA v3 operates in the background without requiring any user interaction. It assigns a score to each user action based on their behavior on the website, helping site owners identify suspicious activity and protect against automated attacks without disrupting the user experience.
reCAPTCHA is commonly used on various types of websites, including registration forms, login pages, comment sections, contact forms, and e-commerce checkout pages, to prevent spam submissions, fraudulent activities, and bot-driven attacks. By implementing reCAPTCHA, website owners can enhance security, improve data accuracy, and safeguard user privacy while maintaining a seamless user experience.
DigiZen utilises the above Google Services on all of our clients websites.
Https – Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure
Https stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure and uses an SSL security certificate. This certificate encrypts the communication between the website and its visitors. This means that the information you enter on the website is processed securely, so that cyber criminals cannot intercept the data. The information you send or receive via an https website is only visible to you and this website. That’s good news. Because when you enter your password or make payments, you can be sure that others will not be able to get their hands on your data. This of course only works if the website where you enter your data is reliable and has a good reputation.
Index
Google stores all web pages that it knows about in its index. The index entry for each page describes the content and location (URL) of that page.
Keyword Density
Most SEO experts believe that an ideal keyword density is around 1-2%. This means the target keyword appears about one to two times per 100 words. At this rate, the keyword appears enough times to show search engines what the page is about without engaging in keyword stuffing.
Keyword Stuffing
This refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results. Often these keywords appear in a list or group, or out of context (not as natural prose). Filling pages with keywords or numbers results in a negative user experience, and can harm your site’s ranking. Focus on creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context.
Some SEO Experts will try and trick search engines with keyword stuffing, rather than focusing on the quality of the content. It’s important to choose the right keywords related to your website, to ensure you appear in the results for your target customers and target location. Keyword stuffing is considered web spam or spamdexing and is an attempt to gain an unfair rank advantage in search engines. Keyword stuffing may lead to a website being temporarily or permanently banned or penalised on major search engines.
The repetition of words in meta tags may explain why many search engines no longer use these tags. Nowadays, search engines focus more on the content that is unique, comprehensive, relevant, and helpful that improves the overall quality.
Many major search engines have implemented algorithms that recognize keyword stuffing, and reduce or eliminate any unfair search advantage that the tactic may have been intended to gain, and oftentimes they will also penalise, demote or remove websites from their indexes that implement keyword stuffing. This method is outdated and adds no value to rankings today. In particular, Google no longer gives good rankings to pages employing this technique. [Source]
PHP – Hypertext Preprocessor
PHP is a recursive acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP is a widely-used, open source scripting language. PHP scripts are executed on the server. In its simplest form, PHP is a server-side scripting language that is embedded in HTML. PHP allows web developers to create dynamic content and to interact with databases. PHP is known for its simplicity, speed, and flexibility — features which have made it a cornerstone in the web development world.
PHP is used by 79.1% of all websites with known server-side programming, and its use has been on the rise in the last decade, up from 72% in 2010. PHP is used on some of the largest web properties and platforms including Facebook, Wikipedia, WordPress, and Zoom. [Source]
Plugins
Plugins are software components that extend the functionality of a larger software application, platform, or system. In the context of content management systems (CMS) like WordPress, plugins are additional pieces of code that can be installed to enhance or add new features to a website or application.
Plugins allow web designers to add specific features or functionalities to websites without having to write custom code. This can include features such as contact forms, social media integration, e-commerce capabilities, SEO optimization, security enhancements, and more.
Plugins follow a modular architecture, which means they can be added, removed, or updated independently of the core software. This flexibility allows designers to customize their website’s functionality according to their specific needs and preferences.
Developers frequently release updates to address security vulnerabilities, add new features, or improve compatibility, so it’s essential to keep plugins up to date. [See DigiZen’s Monthly Maintenance Plan]
Overall, plugins are powerful tools that enable designers to extend the functionality of websites or applications with ease. By choosing and managing plugins wisely, designers can enhance their website’s capabilities, improve user experience, and achieve their specific goals more effectively.
POPI or POPIA
The Protection of Personal Information Act
The POPI Act is South Africa’s data protection law. In 2013, South Africa passed the official POPI Act. Although it predates the GDPR (European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation), it’s often referred to as South Africa’s GDPR equivalent. The POPI Act, however, only became enforceable in July 2021. The goal of the POPI Act is to protect ‘data subjects’ from security breaches, theft, and discrimination.
What does the POPI Act have to do with my website?
Most websites collect some form of customer or user data. Data collection from a website can come from: cookies, comments, email newsletters, contact forms and buyer’s personal details which include contact information and address details. In terms of the POPI Act, there are certain legal requirements that must be implemented on your website.
One of the legal requirements is to display a Privacy Policy or Privacy Statement on your website. This document is required to detail how your website or organisation collects, stores, protects and uses the personal information that is provided by the users of your website. Personal information generally includes the following: Names, Date of birth, National Identity Numbers, Addresses (physical, postal and email), Location information such as IP addresses and geolocations.
Other legal requirements include: a Cookie Policy, a Cookie Notification Banner and the Opt-In clauses that are required to appear on the your website’s contact forms.
Wait … what are cookies again?
POPIA and Email Marketing Systems
Under the POPI Act, organisations using Email Marketing are required to provide a clear and easy mechanism for individuals to opt out or unsubscribe from receiving further marketing communications.
This means that:
Opt-out Mechanism: Marketers must provide a conspicuous and easily accessible option for recipients to unsubscribe from future emails. This can often be in the form of an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of marketing emails.
Prompt Action: Upon receiving an unsubscribe request, organisations must promptly cease sending marketing communications to the individual who opted out.
Confirmation: It’s good practice, though not always legally required, to provide a confirmation to the individual that their unsubscribe request has been received and actioned.
Retention of Records: Marketers should maintain records of unsubscribe requests to demonstrate compliance with the law, should there be any disputes or regulatory inquiries.
Compliance with these requirements is essential for organisations to avoid penalties and ensure they respect individuals’ rights to control their personal information. It’s important for businesses to familiarise themselves with the specific provisions of the POPI Act and seek legal advice if needed to ensure full compliance.
DigiZen’s POPIA Services Disclaimer:
The POPIA services we offer to implement on your website, do not in any way claim to make your business ‘POPIA Compliant’. Compliance, especially in the case of POPIA, is by definition, an ongoing business practice which involves the consistent business practices of all the requirements as laid out in the Act. We do however offer to ensure that your website will be, what we have termed to be “POPIA PREPARED”.
RWD – Responsive Web Design
A responsive website dynamically adapts to various screen sizes and orientations, ensuring optimal viewing experience across devices. Responsive Web Design (RWD) is a development methodology that triggers automatic adjustments to a website’s layout, depending on the device’s screen dimensions. 73.1% of web designers believe that a non-responsive design is a top reason why visitors leave a website. (GoodFirms, 2021)
We create Responsive Websites. This is essential for creating a modern, user-friendly, and accessible website that meets the needs and expectations of today’s diverse online audience who browse the web on a wide range of devices, from desktop computers to mobile phones.
SEO – Search Engine Optimisation
SEO is the simple activity of using keywords and phrases relevant to what the website is offering, thereby ensuring that the website can be found in search engines. Search Engine Optimisation is crucial to being found by the Search Engines, like Google. We focus on assisting you in creating useful, information-rich content that uses keywords appropriately and in context. Google officially states that filling pages with keywords or numbers results in a negative user experience, and can harm your sites rankings.
Nowadays, search engines focus more on content that is unique, comprehensive, relevant, and helpful that overall improves the quality and user experience. We do not practice or recommend “Keyword stuffing” [See Keyword Density]. This refers to the practice of loading a webpage with keywords or numbers in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results. This practice is now frowned upon and results only in a negative user experience which can be detrimental to your website’s ranking.
SERPs – Search Engine Results Pages
SERPs are the pages that Google and other search engines show in response to a user’s search query. They’re made up of organic and paid search results.
Sitemaps
A well constructed sitemap, acts as a roadmap of your website. This enables search engine crawlers to find your most important pages. Sitemaps also help in understanding your website structure, making it easier to navigate your website.
The first step to getting your new website on Google is to be sure that Google can find it. The best way to do that is to submit a sitemap. A sitemap is a file on your website that tells search engines about new or updated pages on your site.
When DigiZen creates your website and as soon as your website structure (navigation menus and links to different pages or websites) have been completed and all the pages have been filled with content, we register then verify your website using Google Search Console [See Google Services]. We then create a sitemap and submit this to Google. We also use some very clever software that pings Google on a daily basis, just to remind them that your website is out there.
SSL – Secure Sockets Layer
A SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection. SSL is a security protocol that creates an encrypted link between a web server and a web browser. This makes your website secure and trustworthy.
A SSL certificate ensures that no eavesdropping happens on traffic between your website and your site viewers, as the data is encrypted using end-to-end encryption. It is a must for good search engine rankings and one of the first steps in gaining trust from your online viewers. Today’s customers will only give you their data if you promise to protect it. SSL encryption helps you keep that promise.
Visitors and potential leads, who find you via Google, will trust you by default. This will have positive impacts on your lead generation and conversion rates. Once you get an SSL certificate for your website, your chances of ranking higher on Google, will also significantly increase. SSL certificates give you and your customers the peace of mind that’s very hard to find these days.
Every other day, you hear a new cyber-attack or breach compromising millions of customers. Without an SSL certificate, you are at a much higher risk of attack. Your website traffic can get intercepted or tampered with, at any time. And it won’t even take much effort. However, if you use SSL certificates for websites, malicious actors won’t be able to make sense of your data, even if they somehow manage to catch it.
In most countries, SSL certificates are legally required for websites that deal with sensitive data. They are still not mandatory for all websites, but that may change very soon. Soon it’s expected that browsers will only trust websites with SSL certificates. [Source]
Website Hosting
Website hosting refers to the process of storing and making web pages and files accessible via the World Wide Web. It involves renting space on a server from a hosting provider, who then stores the website’s files and serves them to visitors when they access the site through their web browsers.
Here are some key aspects of website hosting:
Server Infrastructure: Hosting providers maintain large data centers with powerful servers designed to store and deliver website content efficiently. These servers are connected to the internet via high-speed network connections to ensure fast and reliable access to hosted websites.
Domain Name: In addition to hosting space, website owners typically need to register a domain name, which serves as the address for their website on the internet (e.g., www.example.com). Domain registration services are often offered by hosting providers or specialised domain registrars.
Control Panel: Hosting providers often offer a control panel interface (e.g., cPanel, Plesk) that allows website owners to manage various aspects of their hosting account, such as creating email accounts, managing databases, installing software, and configuring server settings.
Technical Support: Hosting providers typically offer technical support to assist customers with issues related to server configuration, website setup, troubleshooting, and maintenance. The level of support provided can vary depending on the hosting plan and provider.
Security: Hosting providers implement various security measures to protect websites and server infrastructure from cyber threats, such as firewalls, malware scanning, and regular security updates. Website owners are also responsible for implementing security best practices, such as using strong passwords and keeping software up to date.
Performance and Reliability: Factors such as server uptime, network connectivity, server hardware, and server load impact the performance and reliability of website hosting. Hosting providers often advertise uptime guarantees and use redundant infrastructure to minimise downtime and ensure reliable service.
Choosing the right hosting provider and hosting plan is crucial for the success of a website. Factors to consider include cost, performance, reliability, scalability, technical support, and specific features required for the website’s needs. By selecting a reputable hosting provider and appropriate hosting plan, website owners can ensure their website remains accessible, secure, and responsive to visitors.
We make use of HOSTAFRICA as our preferred web hosting company. We are an approved re-seller, thus we are able to offer you the full benefits of managed hosting services which ensure that your website, email accounts and backups are done regularly. We also make the monthly payments to HOSTAFRICA on your behalf and we ensure that annual renewals are carried out.
Another important function of having your website hosting manged is that security certificates (SSL) are kept updated and that your website domain has the latest and most compatible version of PHP.
How are Domain Names and Web Hosting related?
Domain names and web hosting are two different services. However, they work together to make websites possible. Basically a domain name system is like a massive address book that is constantly updated. Behind each domain name, there is an address of the web hosting service storing the website s files. Without domain names, it will not be possible for people to find your website and without web hosting you cannot build a website. [Source]
Website Maintenance
We provide website maintenance for WordPress Websites. Our MMP (Monthly Maintenance Plan) Service includes updates for bug fixes, new features, performance improvements and efforts to stay up to date with industry standards.
Regular website maintenance has become a fundamental part of brand development and success. A company’s website not only determines its credibility but also makes the crucial first impression that can turn potential prospects into loyal customers.
As the digital world evolves, owning a webpage is no longer enough. No matter how much time and money you spend on creating a page that ideally reflects your company’s virtues and values, further maintenance can still have a tremendous impact on how your products or services are perceived.
A well-maintained website can be likened to an inexpensive salesman that never sleeps. And just like a salesman needs a suitable outlook and continuous training, your website also needs care and maintenance. Basically, it comes down to safeguarding your initial investment.
Businesses can achieve their growth potential more easily and even override certain challenges by owning a well-maintained website that represents an efficient marketing opportunity, as well as an affordable investment.
Unfortunately, many businesses overlook the importance of the constant work required on their websites. Thus, they face the consequences of outdated software, hacking and no or low customer returns.
When hiring a digital marketing agency to develop and maintain your website, most believe they need the agency to be responsible for:
1) developing the site
2) managing the content, and
3) administering users and configuration.
Whether it’s WordPress or another open source CMS, many don’t realise the importance of enforcing regular security updates and a long-term site maintenance plan. While the most obvious risk is having your site hacked, there are smaller scale problems that could arise if you fail to, or even just wait too long, to make site updates.
Why are regular software updates so important?
Here we outline just a few of the reasons that make running updates as soon as they’re released, essential.
Security and Hack prevention
Many website owners believe that it wont happen to them because their sites are too small or insignificant. There are many reasons why your site could get hacked. These include mining Bitcoin, stealing bandwidth, drive by downloads, or Black-hat SEO spam campaigns. There is usually a common denominator in all these instances, an old or outdated website. The likelihood of an older site getting hacked is a lot greater due to it having less secure coding and modules that are not up to date. Hackers simply view the page source code and are able to see which version of WordPress you’re running. It’s that easy for hackers to target outdated sites.
Website Integrity and Avoiding Reputation Damage
The longer you wait between doing updates, the more you increase the risk of encountering conflicts when you do run the updates. The more often you update, the less likely problems will occur. Skipping updates (like 3.0 to 5.0), is not advisable. You will reach a point where you will be forced to update and the likelihood that other modules will have become obsolete and unusable is very high.
Needless Extra Development Costs
When you fail to make updates when they become available, but then need to go back and make them later, it turns into a much larger effort on the part of the website developer and thus result in extra costs that could have been avoided. Much more time will be needed to makes these updates later as opposed to when they are released because the impact to the site is greater due to the increased number of updates and module changes over time.
Unusable Features make for poor User Experiences
Site updates provide new features and functionality to your website. The sooner you implement the update, the sooner your users get to experience the new features. Consider how often and why you take the time to update your phone. The same principle applies to the software used to power your website.
Decreased Speed
Each new release comes with various performance improvements that make your website more efficient. If you’re using an older version of WordPress, your overall experience is a lot different and often slower than competitors using the latest versions. When you visit a site, and it takes too long to load, do you get impatient and navigate off? Website performance goes hand-in-hand with conversions and site results. Speed also has an impact on SEO.
Performing regular updates will help you avoid potential downfalls, save you time and money, and ensure that your website is as secure as possible. If it seems like an overwhelming and intimidating process to handle on your own, don’t be concerned! That’s why we’re here.
WordPress
WordPress is a popular website building platform [known as a Content Management System] that lets you create any kind of website you can think of. It’s extremely flexible, meaning you have complete control over the design and functionality of your website. You will need to be proficient at coding, however, to setup, use and manage WordPress.
Using WordPress plugins means you can really push the limits of what sort of website you want to create.
However, the freedom and versatility that makes WordPress so awesome is also the main cause of headaches for newbies trying to use it. Because WordPress can do so much, you’ll find that it has a much higher learning curve and is harder to get to grips with.
It’s just not as easy to customise and design if you don’t have any coding skills, especially compared to *free drag-and-drop website builders.
WordPress is an extremely popular website building tool that, at last count, is being used by more than 80 million websites. [Source]
WordPress is used by 45.8% of all websites on the internet. (W3Techs, 2023)
According to data from W3Techs, WordPress was used by 45.8% of all websites on the internet in 2023. This is an increase from 43.2% in 2022. That means that more than two out of every five websites use WordPress.
WordPress is used by 65.2% of all websites using a CMS, which is a huge market share. The second most popular CMS, Shopify, has a market share of 6.6%. [Source]
The pitfalls of using *”FREE” Website Builders
While free website builders can seem appealing, especially for those with limited budgets or technical skills, there are several inherent dangers and limitations associated with their use:
Limited Features and Customization: Free website builders often come with limited features and customization options. This can restrict your ability to create a unique and professional-looking website that accurately represents your brand or business.
Brand Advertisements: Many free website builders display their own branding or advertisements on your site. These ads can detract from your site’s professionalism and credibility, potentially driving away visitors.
Restricted Domain Options: Free website builders typically provide subdomains (e.g., yourbusiness.freebuilder.com) rather than custom domains (e.g., yourbusiness.com). This can make your website appear less professional and hinder your branding efforts.
Limited Support and Updates: Free website builders often offer limited customer support and infrequent updates. If you encounter technical issues or require assistance, you may find it challenging to get timely help or resolve issues efficiently.
Data Ownership and Security Concerns: When you use a free website builder, you may have limited control over your website’s data and security. Some builders may reserve the right to access or use your data for their own purposes, potentially compromising your privacy.
Risk of Platform Closure or Changes: Free website builders may shut down or change their terms of service without warning. If the platform you’re using goes out of business or undergoes significant changes, you could lose access to your website or face challenges migrating it to another platform.
Limited SEO Options: Free website builders often provide limited options for search engine optimization (SEO). This can impact your site’s visibility in search engine results, making it harder for potential visitors to discover your website.
Scalability Issues: As your website grows or your business needs evolve, you may encounter limitations with free website builders in terms of scalability and flexibility. Upgrading to a paid plan or migrating to a different platform may be necessary, which can be time-consuming and costly.
Lack of Ownership and Control: With free website builders, you may have limited ownership and control over your website and its content. This can pose challenges if you want to move your website to a different hosting provider or switch to a different platform in the future.
In summary, although free website builders provide a convenient and economical option for building a simple website, it’s crucial to carefully consider their potential drawbacks and constraints in relation to your individual requirements and objectives. Depending on your needs, opting for a paid website builder or enlisting the services of a professional web developer/designer could deliver enhanced flexibility, customization, and sustainability for your online platform in the long run.
URLs – Uniform Resource Locators
Just as buildings and houses have a street address, webpages also have unique addresses to help people locate them. On the Internet, these addresses are called URLs.
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