Discovery
The owner was referred to us by our existing client. The online store has been operating for quite some time now. However, the speed was always laggy and sometimes it would stop responding completely. Right away we knew it is probably a server issue. And sure enough, the hosting provider he used was one of these big names. The website also did not have any SEO setup to interact with its social platforms. With these initial findings the business owner gave us these guidelines:
- Faster hosting
- Stable server condition
- Security hardening for online transactions
- Increase server response
- SEO Strategy
The website has already been designed and developed. We just need to make it run faster, more stable, and more secure. We found the application it uses was very heavy, which makes a pretty significant performance hit for its current server. Of course, the big-name provider’s hosting solution was as barebone as you can make it. On paper (ads) it looks good, only when he starts using it does all the issues surface. One of the issues also is that every time the owner needs to do an adjustment to the server to accommodate the app, the wait time to get things done on the hosting side was always long. Worse, the hosting company’s staff would get it wrong. So there go 2-3 days of wait time just to get one thing going. The site was also developed without SEO in mind, so a total SEO makeover was needed.
Consultation
There wasn’t much of a discussion needed. The owner knew something was not right and he needs to make a change. Good thing is that the website did not need to be redesigned, we just need to move it to a better hosting environment – us! We made the following recommendations:
- Website migration to our server
- Design a hosting solution that will work perfectly with the app’s requirement
- Fully managed for a true hands-off backend solution. The owner just needs to add products and maintain them
- Security upgrade for both server software and website software
- Increase security at the DNS level
- SEO plan to surpass the competition which has a similar name, but is always ranked higher
- Social media integration into the existing website
Solution
The very first issue we have to tackle is to make sure the design software is working flawlessly. We made sure we created a server environment that complies with the requirement. Next is speed. This is also an area the right server condition can help. DNS management plays a role in the speed as well. In this case, there were some restrictions in the DNS setup as the design software required some access to create sub-domains. Which presented some challenges in security.
As a fully managed solution, we were able to implement all of the requirements as we go. Both to the front end and the back end. We knew what we were getting into. We also monitored the site on the regular basis as part of the ongoing hosting.
SEO wise, we utilized a few techniques to make the search engines list this site ahead of another site with 80% similar names. This was achieved on the 3rd month of SEO plans. We got a little lucky with the efficiency due to the other site wasn’t doing anything complex on their SEO.
The owner was extremely happy with the time we saved for him. He’s now able to conduct his business the way he wanted to. No longer does he need to call several providers and wait for their responses. We became his consultant in a way that every time he wants to implement some service/product, he would call us to discuss the best practices for online marketing and use the idea to strategize product release.
Major Takeaway
Selling online is now a must for any business. While a lot of advertisements lead you to believe that you can just make it happen with a few clicks, it is not as simple as it looks.
- The business owner is actually quite knowledgeable about internet technology. However, he was severely impacted by just a few issues that he was not able to solve. This is a classic example of why DIY is never a good solution for any real business. His business would have had more than 4 months of extra exposure online. Instead, he spent those 4 months troubleshooting, and the issues were still there.
- Really understand what you are looking for in your website from the get-go. Again, nothing wrong with using any DIY offerings out there from the major players. And you get what you paid for – simple and limited. If this is ok with you, go for it. But are you doing something more “special”? well then don’t go for it.
- Think of it like a car – when everything is working, it drives fine. You have the knowledge about the need for oil changes, tire rotation, fluid/oil top-up etc, the basic stuff. But when something is not right, do you right away take it into a shop? or do you start doing diagnostic and trying to fix it yourself? You most likely will take it into a shop and have a car mechanic help you out. Because why would you spend the time on something you actually don’t know about? And perhaps in the process you will cause more damages. Same thing here.
- The big-name hosting providers are not going to provide you the speed you want unless you take their higher-end products. At that point, you might as well use us. You would end up saving time that way at least.
- Make sure the software/app you are going to use will work with the hosting package you buy.
- If you are a business owner yourself, perhaps it is not a good idea to spend time making a complex website. Focus on your business.