Website Features & Components | Net Age

Website Features & Components

On this page, you’ll be able to find a comprehensive overview of the features, and available components, of Net Age websites. If you’re interested in adding any of the additional components to your site, please contact your consultant.

Understanding Your Website Features

Professional Website Design

Our websites are appealing, user-friendly and 100% standards compliant. Specially designed for ease of use and clear communication of your marketing message, Net Age offers clean, professional web design. Depending on your package, we’ll provide a number of variations to the design if necessary, based on your feedback.

You will have the option of up to 3 different design variations for your site. Minor design changes, such as moving an image from one place to another, or changing the colour of something, can be done as variations to a design. Major changes to layout or graphic elements will require an entirely new design.

Please note that all other pages will be based on the design you see. Different designs for different pages will be billed on a per hour basis at our hourly design rates if necessary.

Finally, please be aware that prices exclude flash, and multiple 3rd party images. We do not offer any Flash design, although if you supply it, we will include it in your site. All 3rd party images not included in your package will be billed separately.

Pages

To begin with, you’ll need to predefine for us the pages that your website will contain. Based on what you supply, we’ll design your site accordingly, and create your navigation and page structure. You’ll be able to add, remove and change content on these pages.

You’ll also be able to add new pages to your site if you like, or re-order your navigation. However, please be aware that additional pages may be limited by the navigation design that you’ve chosen. If necessary, we can later modify your navigation for you, at our usual hourly rates.

You’ll have full control over the contents of your website pages, and will be able to format the text, add headings, internal and external links, and modify the content to suit yourself. You can include images, and even video if you like.

Purchased 3rd Party Images

Ideally you should be able to provide the images that you would like to place on your website. However, you will need to own the copyright to those images in order to use them. If necessary, we will purchase the rights to use 3rd party images on your behalf.

One third party web-suitable image is included in your package. Additional 3rd party images will be for your account.

Project Management

You’ll have a project manager assigned to your project, who’ll be able to liaise with you regarding our requirements, and who’ll manage and co-ordinate the various processes involved in the design and development of your site.

Post Manager – Maintain Unlimited Articles

Add unlimited articles, resources, case studies and more to your website with the Post Manager. Categorise & tag articles for easy reference, and include images, and even videos in your articles. We’ll build the Post Manager into your site, and you’ll be able to add articles at your convenience.

Please note that each Post Manager allows only one set of categories. If, for example, you would like to include both articles and case studies on your site under different categories, it might be necessary to purchase additional Post Managers as required.

Contact Form

A standard contact form allows visitors to your website to contact you. Fields include name, company, email, telephone number & comments. You’ll receive enquiries to the email address of your choice.

Please note that you’ll need to supply us with the business contact details and address that you would like to appear on this page, for visitors who choose not to use the form to contact you.

Forge Platform

Required with all our websites, Forge is the proprietary development platform that gives our websites their competitive advantage.

Forge is a publishing and data management framework, that acts as a rendering engine for your website data. Forge renders the data of your website into HTML, and allows it to be displayed online.

In addition, Forge acts as a form of software insurance for Net Age Clients. As internet technology evolves, we improve and update Forge, in order to maintain our standards compatibility. And as we upgrade Forge, the framework on which your site is built gets upgraded as well, ensuring that your site is always up to date with the latest requirements for effective websites online.

Rails

Ruby on Rails forms the software development environment in which Forge, and our clients websites are designed and built.

CSS + HTML + Basic JavaScript

Our websites are built through a combination of CSS and HTML, web-specific programming languages that control the functioning and appearance of our websites. If necessary, we may include certain basic JavaScript functions.

Ajax + Advanced JavaScript Widgets

This type of development is quoted on a per project basis, and will depend on the complexity of your requirements. The time frame can run anywhere between a few hours, and literally hundreds of hours, again depending on the specific requirements.

Forge Training

Part of our service includes training you, or the appropriate member of your staff, to use the Forge content management system (CMS) to add content, articles or products to your website. This is usually done telephonically, and in addition, we’ll provide you with a series of tutorials as reference works.

Hosting

Net Age websites are hosted in South Africa, to ensure the fastest possible download times for your visitors. Your monthly Forge fee includes basic hosting, a monthly link report, and a monthly keyword report. It includes unlimited server space, 200Mb of download traffic, and unlimited upload traffic. Additional traffic is charged at R0.42 per Mb, and larger traffic packages are available on request.

Tracking & Reporting Services

The following tracking and reporting services are included, or available, depending on your package:

Monthly Keyword Report

A monthly report that provides you with an overview of where your website is ranked in the search engine results for the keywords that you’ve chosen to monitor, the keyword report comes standard with your Forge platform.

In addition to being able to monitor your own performance for certain keywords, you’ll also be able to keep track of how your competitors are performing on search engines, for those same keywords.

Monthly Link Report

A monthly report that provides you with an approximate overview of the links currently pointing to your website. This report comes standard with your Forge platform, and provides an insight into how well optimised you are, and who is linking to your site.

If you create articles that people like for example, they may link to it, improving the credibility of your site. The link report will let you see who is linking to your site, which lets you find what they’re saying about you.

Conversion Optimizer Compatible

All Net Age websites are pre-configured to be compatible with the installation of a conversion optimizer tool. A conversion optimiser analyses your website data, and provides information about how often each type of action leads to a conversion. Net Age offers conversion optimisation services, which can be quoted for separately.

Google Conversions Compatible

All Net Age websites are pre-configured to be compatible with the installation of Google Conversions for tracking purposes. This website tool tracks how many conversions were performed on your site by visitors who arrived through your Google advertising.

Google Analytics Enabled

This website tool monitors your website statistics, and allows us to gather information about the actions and behaviour of the visitors who come to your site, including where they came from, what they searched to find you, and how long they spent on your site. All Net Age websites have Google Analytics code pre-installed in order to monitor and track website performance and statistics.

Additional Website Components

Add any of the following components to your site:

Basic Forms (Max 10 Fields)

A form consists of pre-defined fields that a visitor uses to fill in information that you need from them.

Forms can contain anywhere between 1 and 50 different fields, and can incorporate features such as drop-down menus, tick boxes, text boxes and radio buttons. You’ll need to tell us in advance what type of field options you want, and where the completed forms should be sent. You can add as many additional forms to your site as you like.

The basic form has a limit of 10 fields. Additional fields will be quoted separately.

Image Gallery

Upload and caption unlimited images on your site in a gallery your visitors can view. Images can be categorised with the built-in tagging system, and even configured to run as a slide-show.

Each gallery allows unlimited images, and one set of categories which you will be able to control. Additional galleries can be added if necessary.

Post Manager

As explained earlier, the post manager allows the addition of unlimited articles to your site. Each post manager allows one set of categories with unlimited articles, which can contain any information you would like to add to your site.

Since each post manager only has one set of categories though, you may wish to include more than one in your site. For example, you may wish to use separate post managers for news, and for case studies.

Catalogue

A catalogue lets you put almost any item, product or service on your site, to let your visitors browse through them and request quotes, order, or even purchase, directly from your website.

Unlimited Catalogue Entries

Maintain an unlimited number of entries in your catalogue. Examples of catalogue entries can include products, properties, cars, job specs, business listings, etc.

During the catalogue set up, you’ll need to pre-define all the information that will be displayed for each entry, to enable us to set up your custom database. Examples of the database fields can include product names, codes, short descriptions, long descriptions, price, images, files etc.

Because each business is unique, every database will be different. The necessary fields for your database will depend on the items you’ll be entering into your catalogue.

Unlimited Catalogue Categories (Tags)

Each catalogue item can be categories according to the characteristics of the item. For example, a category could be “sales jobs” if you’re adding job specs, or VW, if your catalogue items are cars.

You can create unlimited categories for products, and each category will act as site navigation as well. If a user clicks on a category, all items in that category will be displayed. Items can have multiple categories, and each category can be given a description that will appear as an introduction to the page which displays the items in that category.

Please note that each catalogue supports only a single level of categories. Multiple levels of categories will require custom development, and will be quoted seperately.

Catalogue Design

The design and layout for each catalogue will be unique, and will depend on the information you’re adding to your database. Most catalogues use a short view, from which users can click on a “more information” link, in order to see the long view. You’ll be able to choose what information is displayed in each of these views.

Design for additional levels of catalogue entries will require custom development, and will be quoted seperately. If you require more than one catalogue design, or more than one set of database fields, additional catalogues will be required.

Additional Catalogue Functionality

The following functionality can be added to your catalogue:

Order / Quote Basket

Add an order or quote basket to your site, to allow visitors to order products, or request a quote from you. This allows people to add products to the basket, and instead of purchasing them, the basket will send the information to you, either as an order, or as a request from a quote.

The system will generate a unique order number for each order, and the information is stored in a secure online database, which you can log into through your Forge admin, in order to process orders or quotes.

Shopping Basket

Add a shopping basket to your site to allow visitors to buy multiple products from you directly online.

Once a person has added the relevant products to their shopping basket and provided their details, the order is stored in a secure online database. Once the purchase has been approved or declined, you’ll receive a notification. Then you’ll be able to log into your Forge admin to process the pending orders.

You can view current orders and purchases, failed payments, and other relevant information. Please note that custom delivery areas are limited to 10 entries. (Requires a payment gateway & catalogue.)

Payment Gateway – Single

This payment gateway integration allows visitors to use their credit card in order to purchase a single item via your website. You’ll receive an email notifying you of the order and payment, which will also be recorded in an online database. Using the database you’ll be able to log in to your Forge admin and process your orders.

Integration with 3rd party providers will be necessary for payment gateways. Our preferred providers are VCS or Net Cash, but we can integrate a PayPal account into your site as well if necessary. If you select a different provider, please be aware that additional integration costs may apply, and keep in mind that these gateways only support direct payments, and not recurring ones. (Includes testing.)

Payment Gateway – Multiple

Integrated into your catalogue, this payment gateway allows the purchase of multiple products from your catalogue. Once the purchase has been approved or declined, you’ll receive a notification. Then you’ll be able to log into your Forge admin to process the pending orders.

Integration with 3rd party providers will be necessary for payment gateways. Our preferred providers are VCS or Net Cash, but we can integrate a PayPal account into your site as well if necessary. If you select a different provider, please be aware that additional integration costs may apply, and keep in mind that these gateways only support direct payments, and not recurring ones. (Requires a shopping basket & catalogue.)

Voucher Management

You can use the built-in system to generate a voucher, or you can import your own. You’ll be able to allocate a value and a time period to each voucher, and when visitors use a voucher in their purchase, the system will mark it as used.

This allows you to offer customers discounts or incentives. (Requires a product catalogue.)

More Additional Components

Google Search

Embed a Google search code into your site, allowing users to search your site using Google.

Basic Search

Visitors can use this feature to search up to 5 fields from your catalogue database, using preset filters. Examples might include price, code, colour or category.

This functionality requires a product catalogue. We suggest that only catalogues with a minimum of 300 items use this search, as searches which produce zero results are bad practice online.

Advanced Search

Visitors can use this feature to search all fields of your catalogue database, using preset filters. Examples might include price, code, colour or category.

This functionality requires a product catalogue. We recommend this search only for large catalogues, with at least 1,000 catalogue items.

Dynamic Database Search

Dynamic database filtering adds a search function that allows users to search through your products using your predefined database fields. You’ll need to pre-define the fields for your database, and specify which should be searched by.

The basic database search works best for large catalogues or where products sold according to codes. Advanced search functionality will be quoted on a per client basis, depending on complexity.

User Management System

Basic user management allows users to register on your site, and gain access to restricted pages, as agreed upon in the design stage. Visitors can register themselves, or you can control the registration. They’ll receive a confirmation email with a link, and clicking on the link will activate their account.

Once active, they’ll be able to log onto your site and access pages unavailable to the general public. Predefined member information will be editable inside their profile, and you’ll be able to maintain and control their accounts.

Content Writing

The following content services are available:

Professional Content Writing

If you would prefer that we write and upload your content for you, our team of professional content writers will create your website content according to information you will need to supply. The amount of time required will depend on your site, and the how much information you’ve provided. Large sites, or sites where we are required to do research for writing will require additional time.

SEO Content Articles

We write articles for your website based on SEO keyword research which serve to increase the likelihood that search engines will associate your site with those particular keywords. These articles are written on the basis of keywords related to your business, and require no interaction or input from you. You will not be able to alter these articles.

Consulting

The following consulting services are available:

Project Management

You’ll have a project manager assigned to your project, who’ll be able to liaise with you regarding our requirements, and who’ll manage and co-ordinate the various processes involved in the design and development of your site. This can be done telephonically, or at the Net Age offices.

Internet Marketing / SEO Consulting

Meet with an internet marketing or SEO consultant to discuss your strategies and ways of improving your search engine optimisation or online marketing efforts. This can be done either at the Net Age offices, or at your own offices. Travel time however will be billed if you prefer to carry out this consultation at your own offices.

Custom Design And Development

If you need anything for your site which is not covered in this document, contact us to find out about custom options.

Custom Design

If you require additional design services, which do not fall under the website design parameters, such as additional shell designs, logo designs or additional visual elements, we offer the services of a professional graphic designer for our hourly design rate.

Custom Development

If you have development requirements that are not included in your website package, from modifications to advanced functionality, we offer custom web development at an hourly rate.