Welcome

Websites to go [for] Africa provides four services to busineses and individuals:

Website Language and Technical Correction Service
(with focus on electronic manufacturers from China).
Design and development of new websites.
Update, redesign and cleanup of existing websites.
Monthly maintenance, SEO and analytics for all websites.

Websites to go [for] Africa is a web design studio working with a few specialists. We have an alternative approach and focus a lot on ease of viewing your website on a mobile device and larger viewports like a notebook or desktop computer. We reduce page clutter as much as possible and make sure the core of your message is conveyed to your site visitors. We spend the time and commit the effort to get it just right. We make sure your website is always up and optimized. Look at our news section to see some of our latest creations. To get an idea of our rates, check out our cost structure.

Purpose

A website is important to showcase what you offer. Websites are flexible and unrestricted. A website is not limited like social media platforms. Your website is the core of your Internet presence. You can link visitors to your social media and any other platform. We don’t do shopping sites, other companies do a good job there. We focus on eye candy and quality content.

Designer

A creative web designer and developer with in-depth technical knowledge of the website stack can develop an eye-catching, functional and stable website. An engineer can arrange your content into logical sections. Engineers follow the keep it simple philosophy. That’s me. I try to isolate you from the technical jargon.

Cost

To give you an idea, a site like this will be R12000.00 (main page plus contact page). I designed it this way to illustrate what you get. Initially it is all you need. There is a nice guide on procompare.co.za showing the cost of various types of websites. You may need more (or less) and decide to build your website up in stages. Your website will take a month or two of development time. We only do a few each month.

Contact Information

SEO

Good SEO brings visitors to your site and places your website in a favorable spot. It is similar to renting space in a busy mall, except your visitors can be anywhere in the world. Most people use their phones to visit your site, so it must be mobile friendly. Google favors trendy, informative websites with fast load time. Sluggish search hits diminishes user experience and consumes more mobile data.

Maintenance

Monthly maintenance of your website keeps it current and stable. We check if your site is up and whether it is getting hits and from where. SEO optimization takes a few weeks. The process is slow and we want to check the response to each change. The search engine bots need to trawl your site and index the content. Any change to your content and SEO keywords needs to replace cached content. Most websites become unstable or fall off the search results in a few months when not maintained.

Pages

Your main page is most important. Additional pages are not found or visited frequently. Mobile phone visitors simply want to scroll down and often don’t take the trouble of finding and using the menu. That’s why we add strategic buttons. In some cases additional pages are necessary. A gallery of your previous work is quite functional.

Cost Structure

All development requires a 50% retainer at the start. The remainder is billed when you sign the work off as complete. The monthly maintenance includes hosting, SEO optimization and page updates. Top and bottom range cost depends on content volume.

Artisan/Small Busines Website for African/South African Entrepeneurs.	R2000.00 – R4000.00
Landing Page Website	R4000.00 to R6000.00
Comprehensive Website	R8000.00 to R16000.00
Additional Page	R2000.00 to R4000.00
Content Transfer from Existing Website	R2000.00 to R4000.00
Language and Technical Finishing/Page.	R1000.00 to R4000.00 CNY400.00 to CNY1600.00
Monthly Hosting, Maintenance and SEO	R619.00
Domain Renewal	As per specific domain
New Domain Registration	Free with main page

Websities to go [for] Africa costing structure. Inquire for anything else you may need.

Benefits

Your sales will increase and your business will flourish. Your passion project will get the exposure it deserves. We register your domain in your personal name and you have the freedom to move it whenever you want. We don’t hog your business. However, stay on and let’s see how cool your website can become over time.

Read Our News Articles

How It Works

Give me a call, send me an email or a WhatsApp message. Mention that you are ready to build a website. See contact information button below.

Contact Information

Your Business

Tell me what your business or passion is and I will let you know how we can build your website (hopefully your business is your passion). I am working with a Digital Artist and a Word Smith (Copywriter) in case there is something unique to do and it is a challenge for me.

Getting Started

If you are serious about the process, I will forward an invoice for the initial retainer (50%) as agreed, according to your requirements. You can forward the domain name you would like to reserve. I can help you choose a good relevant domain name and check if the domain is available.

First Payment

Once we receive your retainer, I reserve your domain and order your hosting package. I install your site and do the SSL certificates so it can be safely browsed with a computer, tablet or phone browser. If your email and existing site needs to be transferred, please discuss it with me (the costing is above). Our hosting provider domains.co.za is very helpful with this process. Some environments can not be transferred, but most can.

Email and Content

You can pick some email addresses and I will create the mailboxes for you. Send me some content in text files and photos to put on your site. I build the basic site and let you test drive it. I can choose a theme that is beneficial to what you need to present. I write copy and add media as required for the message you want to convey. From there we tweak the content to your liking.

Iterations

We do a few iterations on the content and add what you need. Site visitors need to understand what your business is about and be able to contact you. You can include some of your past work to show what you do (something like a gallery page).

Sign-Off

Once the basic site is ready and you are happy, I send the invoice for the remaining amount agreed upon and we officially launch the website. At this point I start with the SEO. We don’t want to have incomplete content indexed by the search engines.

Maintenance and Hosting

From the first month-end after your last payment, you will receive an invoice for R619.00 each month. As long as it is paid, I can pay your hosting and we will be available for updates, changes and monitoring of how well your site is doing on the search engines.

Moving On

Of course we would like to keep you as long as we can. If you want to give up the website or move to another developer, please give us notice a few work days before the end of the month. We need to give notice at the beginning of the calendar month to the hosting company and pay the last month. There will be then 20 or so workdays in which your data can be retrieved and moved. The notice period is therefore one month plus a few workdays.

Read Our News Articles

What’s Included

Here’s what you get in addition to the pages you order. This is not a comprehensive list and you are welcome to ask for other features. We can negotiate the pricing. Everyone’s requirements are different and we will try our best to accommodate you.

Domain name transfer or registration (*.co.za domains are free).
Registration of WordPress Optimized Hosting package from domains.co.za.
A free WordPress theme of your choice.
A child theme to contain any tweaks we do on your theme.
Initial SEO using a free WordPress plugin.
Free SSL Certificate as offered by the hosting provider.
Email spam filter by domains.co.za (they seem to be quite good).
Cookie Notice for POPIA and GDPR.
Image processing on the media you provide.
Images from my own landscape image library.
Social media integration as provided by your theme.
Google Analytics registration and implementation.
Google Search Console registration.
Creation of email addresses on your domain.

Monthly Maintenance

Here is what you get for your monthly payments of R619.00. This is where most web services fall short. Nobody works for free and often your website will go unattended and become less effective, outdated or unstable over time. A monthly management fee therefore enables us to spend the time required on your website to make sure everything runs smoothly.

WordPress Optimized Hosting (R119.00).
Up to 25 GB storage.
Unlimited website traffic.
WordPress, Theme and PHP updates when released.
Continuous SEO optimization (we learn, we apply for all).
Search Engine Performance monitoring and tweaks (part of SEO actually).
Weekly site metric monitoring (visitors and conversion rate).
Monthly content updates to existing pages.
Small changes any time (phone numbers, addresses, hours, etc.).
Site status monitoring (is it up?).
Free SSL Certificate renewals (yearly).
Daily off-site backups (part of your hosting package).

In essence the goal is to let you go about your business, while we tend to your website. Let’s do what we do best and love the most every day.

About Me

I am a digital nomad, content creator, inventor, rookie vlogger and electronic engineer. I have worked for 35 years in corporate, developing electronic products and writing software (firmware) for embedded systems. Website development became my passion over time. The screen is my canvas and the keyboard is my paintbrush. It is the place where I lose track of time to get it just right.

Meeting The Web

In the year 2000 when I was working for the CSIR, I was offered a free HTML course. From that time on, the web grabbed my interest. I developed some pure HTML websites in early days and loved seeing how website capabilities improved over time.

Leaving Corporate

After quitting my last corporate job in the year 2009, I developed a hand wash reminder alarm for restaurants, hotels and medical facilities. Check them out here: www.handwash.co.za.

Changing Gears

In the year 2012 I needed to reinvent my career. Electronics was getting dull in Cape Town, so I started learning Ruby and later Ruby On Rails. As a result of that journey I became lead developer for IMB, a fintech company. Learn about IMB here: imb.co

The Rat Race

After the pandemic, I had enough of the rat race and quit corporate life for good. I wanted to slow down a bit and get into nature more often. Of course you need to adjust your lifestyle to do such a thing. I chose web development, because it is so flexible and satisfying. I can work from anywhere and even travel to do photographs and see clients face to face.

About Ruby On Rails

Ruby On Rails is a Model, View and Controller stack for web servers. I mostly developed on the back-end where transactions are processed and records are updated. The back-end servers also communicate with external systems via APIs. Things like debit card transactions as well as airtime and electricity purchases. You can have a look at my pet Ruby On Rails project here (needs an update): www.squarebookmarks.com

Linux is the Web

I have been using Linux since 1995 and have in-depth knowledge of web servers, programming languages and how a web page reaches your screen after clicking a link. This should help, I guess?

Digital Content

To observe my digital content, you are welcome to follow the channel on YouTube @TheWhiteJeep and on Instagram @the.white.jeep. With your permission, your business and website will get a mention on the YouTube channel and a post or more on Instagram. Websites to go [for] Africa also has an Instagram profile @websitestogo.africa.

~Andries Holtzhausen (August 10, 2024)