Showcase, information exchange or brand?

A website is a vital part of outreach, engagement and branding.
Think of a website as an extension of any other outreach and branding you may be doing. The great benefit is that the site does the work for you – it is always there, inviting people in and sharing information about what you are about and what you are striving to achieve - and all this without repetitive effort on your part.

We assist environmental projects

If you - or your organisation - takes a custodianship approach to the environment, The Custodian Project will assist you to setup a cost effective website.

This offer is extended to conservancies, biospheres, initiatives on land under formal protection, conservation projects and environmental outreach programmes . We have even assisted schools who engage in greening and food production!

We know that people also earn a living in green places. If your product or service protects the environment or adds to the environment, you are welcome to contact us about our commercial offering.

The Custodian Project takes care of all aspects of a web presence with minimal cost implications.

In a nutshell, we will perform the registration and setup needed, we will design a site, and get it up and running. You need to send us information about what you do, including photographs and regular updates. We keep it simple for you.

If you don't understand what having a website entails, in this article we explain a little further, and give some pointers.

Domain registration

A domain is the unique name by which your website is known e.g. www.conservation.co.za
The last letters in the domain name indicates a category of domains - co.za. - signifies a company in South Africa, and org.za means an organization in South Africa.

Sometimes names have to be registered under a different category because your preferred name is “taken”. Other options include za.net, za.org, .net or .com. The latter two are international conventions and carry an additional cost.

Hosting through a reputable Internet Service Provider (ISP)

The Internet Service Provider makes sure there is sufficient infrastructure for people to visit your site. They provide the “always available” access. They also take care of backups and security. Consequently the “up time” (your site being available) is determined by the ISP. Our ISP strives for 98% availability, and generally meets this target.

A content management system (CMS) to organize, present and edit web content

Websites are interesting only because of the content. People visit – and return – because what you share is entertaining, useful, fun or informative. If your content is bland or outdated, your website will not be popular and will fade into the massive background of the internet.

The Custodian Project will make it relatively easy for you to add, edit and delete articles on your website. This allow you to set the pace, determine the flavour and style of your content. It also means you do not need to wait for someone else to be available to do the updating.

A design suitable to your purpose

Provide your logo, your background information, and specify any preferences you have, and the website design will be done for you. The design will be in keeping with the nature of your site and generally accepted norms on the web.

Tell us about your preferred fonts and colours. Send us photographs that exemplifies what you are about. Give us a list of websites that appeal to you so that we get a sense of what you like.

We advise against “bells and whistles”. These cause your site to appeal to a very specific audience, and to become outmoded very soon. We advise against, amongst other things, playing music or sound effects on your site, flashing text, flash introductions (a landing page that effectively plays a “movie clip”).

We do suggest organized text, a specific colour scheme, well-written text, clear presentation. If you do wish to publish clips, please ensure that the content is relevant, and that the size is optimized.
Your site should load as quickly as possible – images, movies and sounds take time to download.

Monitoring of your website

The Custodian Project will “keep an eye” on your site. We monitor things like:

• The visitor profile of your site – who is looking at what and how often
• The requirements of the search engines - Google, MSN, etc
• Malicious activity on your site (sadly, it happens!)
• We keep it clean and remind you to update when needed,

Support to improve ranking on search engines

Some of your visitor will come to your site because they know about you and are interested. These people type your address directly, or follow a link you have sent to them.

Other people “stumble” onto your site through search engines or - these days – through social networks like “stumbleupon” or “Facebook”

We assist you to obtain a significant “ranking” for your site. When visitors use a search engine, you want your site to appear somewhere in the first 5 pages of the search results. Few people look beyond those pages!

Guidance on content

You know your focus best. You are most likely to write with conviction about the events and issues you present on your website.
Where we spot that an adjustment to your style or approach will improve your website, we will let you know.