Websites
PROBLEM:
How do I easily and affordably grow the online presence of my business, and get a better connection with my customers?
There is a disconnect for many small business owners, who are typically very short on one valuable resource that is sorely lacking in most of our lives today – TIME. The disconnect for these intrepid individuals, such as farmers, farm-to-table restaurant owners, and many nonprofit administrators, is between what they DO to help others and how to GROW that life with an effective web presence. They know they need a well-done website, and may have even tried a "do-it-yourself" option promising that you'll be able to build your own site in a couple of hours, but probably found themselves lost in the process and needing much more personal attention. They needed a higher level of assistance and guidance from a fellow small business owner who shares an appreciation for this kind of mission… a relationship that allows both parties to grow at the same time! They also need someone who has a strong understanding of the particular pain points that they face in their specific industry, and a respect for what they're trying to accomplish with their endeavors.
- More visibility in my community
- Simply put, nobody will find you these days without a quality web presence!
- Make a better impression on my customers
- 15 seconds – that's how long the average reader will spend on your site before moving on. Shorter if it is slow-loading or doesn't hold their attention.
- Smoother running of my business
- The multitude of "must-have" tools available to improve your business processes can be daunting.
- Grow my business to keep doing what I love!
"Dammit Jim, I'm a (farmer/gardener/chef/personal trainer/etc), not a web developer!!"
Most common considerations for a new website project
- Time
- How much time and effort will it take on my part to build it?
- Cost
- How much will it cost to make it happen?
- Customizability
- Will I have the ability to make the website look and function just right for my specific business and audience?
- Usability
- How easy will it be to maintain and make changes?
The claims of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) sites, with red-flag quotes
- It's convenient! Quick! Easy!
- "Only requires a FEW CLICKS!"
- It's low cost!
- "All the tools you need! Avoid expensive designers!"
- It's customizable!
- "Simple and intuitive, hundreds of settings to choose from!"
- It's perfect for any business!
- "No generic themes, just beautiful websites!"
- Most well-built websites of 5+ pages take a minimum of 30-40 hours to build
- There's no indication with DIY of exactly how much time and effort goes into building a good website.
- You get what you pay for with DIY
- Their packages are typically very automated and focused on self-service, with very little in the way of customer relationships.
- With DIY you don't fully OWN your website as you do with WordPress
- This makes it difficult to expand your site later as desired by adding new functionality. You are limited by what the DIY platform actually allows you to do.
- There is usually no specialization with DIY sites
- No differentiation between different kinds of customers, and no understanding of the customer's particular industry or space.
WHAT DOES GYW OFFER?
The value you get from Grow Your World Web Connections
- Personal service. Save yourself precious time and effort on your web project.
- Packages that are affordable for professional web development services.
- Specific experience assisting clients in many industries, such as farms and food.
- WordPress is open-source (free) and gives you complete control over your website.
- Coaching, training and support after your website is live.
- See much more on how GYW can help solve your web problems!
FAQs
Why WordPress? Where should my site be hosted? What's the difference between a domain and a host? What about security? What about SEO? What about support?
WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that currently powers over 40% of all websites on the Internet, and 60% of websites that employ a CMS. At 20 years old, it is way older than Facebook and Twitter. WordPress is often called the most "democratic" platform on which you can build your website... it is open-source software, meaning that anyone anywhere in the world can download the source code and use it for free. No one "owns" WordPress, and it has no CEO culture. Tens of thousands of developers all over the world contribute to the project and it continues to grow in strength, with almost 60,000 plugins available. In addition, WooCommerce, WordPress’s most popular eCommerce plugin, has a 25% market share and generates 7% of all online sales, including those from low-traffic websites. WordPress allows us to develop flexible and customizable websites to modern standards and observes web development best practices. Furthermore the community of web developers that use WordPress reaches far and wide, and allows us to tap into this collective intelligence and bring that wealth of experience to your project.
Aside from a web developer's labor, there are a few 3rd-party costs associated with getting a new website. You will need a domain name and a host. My favorite analogy is that if your website is a house, your domain name is the street address and your host is the piece of land that the house sits on. A domain name (such as "GrowYourWorldWeb.com") typically runs about $15-20/year, depending on its availability. 
Once your website is launched, GYW will provide 30 days of support to make sure any bugs have been ironed out and that you are confident using your new website. See much more about my 
Provided you subscribe to an ongoing 
The time it takes for your website to appear on page 1 of Google depends on a number of factors. It depends on the search phrase people are using to find your website and the number of other websites that are also available for those search phrases. Nobody can truly say how long it will take for your website to appear at the top of search engine results pages (including people who actually work for Google), however there are a number of factors that can improve your chances. Building your website on WordPress is a good start, as WordPress has some great Search Engine Optimization fundamentals built-in. Creating unique and interesting content on a regular basis for your website is also critical to increase your visibility amongst search engines. Launching your website and then forgetting about it is a surefire way to get lost amongst the noise. I am happy to 
I will install Google Analytics software on your new website, which will give you lots of traffic statistics right in your WordPress Dashboard! I will also show you how to log into your Google Analytics account where you can dive even deeper, seeing a range of data about your website including number of visits, pageviews and the amount of time people are spending on your website. Once you subscribe to one of my WordPress Care Plans you will regularly receive a summary of your website performance included in your detailed report.