Website Production in Hyogo and Okayama (WordPress & OctoberCMS)

A website is not finished on the day it goes live. It begins to matter only when the flow works: a customer finds it by searching, reads it, and makes contact. And after launch, information has to be updated, security maintained and functions added. We have our head office in Aioi, Hyogo Prefecture, and accept consultations about website production from companies and stores in the Harima area, including Himeji, and in Okayama Prefecture, including Okayama, Kurashiki, Soja, Setouchi, Bizen, Akaiwa and Wake. We also have an office in Tokyo, so please contact us wherever you are located.

The worries that come with choosing a production company

When people start thinking about commissioning a website, most of them share similar worries.

The first is cost. Which part is the production fee, and what is charged on top of it? After launch, will maintenance and updates keep costing money? Before asking for a quotation there is little to go on.

Next is whether you will be able to update the site yourself afterwards. If you must ask the production company even to correct a single word, information goes stale and the site gradually stops being used.

There is also security. Many sites look polished but are not adequately protected. When a contact form collects personal information, the preparation made during production decides later trust.

And clients find it hard to judge which CMS (content management system) suits them. Some end up with whatever the production company happens to be good at and feel restricted afterwards.

These are natural worries. We want to begin a conversation about website production by facing them one at a time.

Choosing a CMS without assuming WordPress

The CMS we use most is WordPress. It is one of the most widely used CMSs in the world, with abundant themes and plugins, and it is relatively easy to find people who can maintain it. For corporate and store sites it is often the first choice.

We are not limited to WordPress, however. We also support OctoberCMS, which has few specialist providers in Japan. OctoberCMS is a PHP-based CMS that lets us build a site simply with only the features required, which suits sites where ease of updating and security both matter. We have in fact built a corporate site for a professional services client on OctoberCMS.

What matters is not the name of the CMS but whether it fits your purpose. After asking how many people will update the site, how often, which functions are needed and what kind of information it will hold, we propose the option that is least burdensome for you.

Requirements discipline and security awareness from municipal system work

Our main business is developing subsidy and cooperation-payment application systems for municipalities. We have repeatedly built, within limited time, screens that applicants can use without hesitation and that staff can check with confidence.

That experience carries straight over to website production: the ability to sort out, in order, what a site is for, who will visit and what we want them to do; the awareness needed to protect a form that collects personal information from malicious submissions; and the habit of designing with an eye on what happens after an inquiry is sent. Alongside visual appeal, we treat safe and reliable operation as the base of our work.

What we care about for store and corporate sites

We have produced several websites. We do not disclose client names or site names, but our work includes a beauty and retail site (WordPress) and a professional services and corporate site (OctoberCMS).

For the beauty and retail site, we balanced visuals that convey the identity of the store with a structure aimed at attracting customers. For the professional services and corporate site, we emphasized ease of updating and security. Even under the same name of website production, what matters differs entirely by industry and purpose. See the selected work page for more.

Building the foundation for being found in search

However impressive a site is, it cannot achieve its purpose if nobody finds it. Most people start with a search when they look for something, so from the production stage the site must be built to convey its content correctly to search engines.

The foundation consists of basic things done consistently: a title and description that accurately describe each page; headings organized along the structure of the text; sensible links between related pages; a sitemap that helps search engines discover pages; layouts that read well on smartphones; and pages that do not load slowly. They look plain, but sites without them rarely produce results even when measures are added later.

Another essential is the substance of the text: does the page answer what the searcher wants to know? We begin by organizing together with you what the people reading each page want to learn.

Where store sites and corporate sites differ in design

Even among websites, the center of gravity differs greatly between a store site and a corporate one.

On a store site, visitors must be able to confirm the location, opening hours, menu or prices and atmosphere at once. They are often looking from a smartphone, away from home. How easy the map is to find and how easily a visit turns into a booking or an inquiry affects customer acquisition directly. How photos are made and shown also changes how much of the store's appeal is conveyed.

On a corporate site, the task is to explain business content and strengths clearly to someone visiting for the first time. Visitors arrive with different aims: looking for a supplier, considering a job, checking the company's credibility. The structure must let each of them reach what they want. Even the way company information and track record are presented can decide whether someone steps forward to contact you.

We propose where to put the emphasis according to the type and purpose of the site. If the budget is limited, we can also discuss setting priorities and building up the site in stages.

Building in stages to fit the budget

If you try to build everything at once, cost and time both grow. When the budget is limited or the direction of the business is still being explored, it can be effective to launch with the minimum structure and grow the site through operation.

For example, you might open with only the company profile, the business description and the contact page, then add news and case pages as you see the response. For a store, you could first set up the location, hours, menu and the route to booking or inquiry, and add photographs and functions later. This approach avoids unnecessary polish and lets you improve on the basis of real response.

Even when building in stages, however, the initial design must not block later expansion. A structure that collapses when pages are added forces a rebuild. We propose what to build first with future expansion in mind.

Things that make a project easier if you have them

You do not need to have everything decided when you contact us. Still, a few things in hand will make discussions smoother and reduce wasted time and cost.

One is the purpose of the site and the result you expect: more inquiries, more store visits, or more credibility. A clear purpose makes it easier to decide the structure and the priorities. Another is a reference site. Concrete examples, such as "I like the feel of this site" or "I would like to adopt this way of presenting things," convey an image better than words.

We may also ask you to prepare material to publish, such as a logo, photographs, existing documents and descriptions of your services. If you have no text or photographs, please tell us, and we will think about how to proceed together. Finally, it is reassuring to decide early who will update the site after launch, because the best CMS and the best design of the administration screen depend on who will do the updating.

Security and operation, realistically

For a CMS-based site, operation after launch determines security. A widely used CMS such as WordPress has many users, so when a defect or vulnerability is found, it becomes widely known. If it is left unaddressed, the site is that much easier to attack.

The basics of operation are therefore keeping the core and the add-on plugins updated at appropriate times, taking backups, and protecting access to the administration screen. Contact forms are also often targeted by unwanted submissions and need protection against abuse.

Taking on all of this yourself can be a heavy burden. We accept security updates and minor fixes after launch, so please consider asking us about maintenance as well.

After launch

When changes or fixes are needed after production, whether there is someone you can rely on makes a great difference to how long a site stays useful. We handle security updates, feature additions and minor fixes after launch.

For those who update the site, how easy the administration screen is to use decides whether the site keeps being used. Routine tasks, such as correcting text or adding news, should be possible without specialist knowledge. We ask about update frequency and the familiarity of the person in charge during production and reflect it in the design of the administration screen. Guidance on updating is also available on request.

We also respond to consultations about moving an existing static site to a CMS or migrating from an older CMS. If you already have a site and are thinking of rebuilding it, please see our page on how to renew a website, which lays out step by step where renewals tend to go wrong.

Areas we serve: from Hyogo and Himeji to Okayama, Kurashiki and the Seto Inland Sea coast

We accept consultations about website production mainly from companies and stores in the following areas of Hyogo and Okayama Prefectures.

• Hyogo Prefecture: Aioi and the Harima area, including Himeji
• Okayama Prefecture: Okayama, Kurashiki, Soja, Setouchi, Bizen, Akaiwa and Wake

All of these lie along the Seto Inland Sea, where everyday trade areas and business dealings cross prefectural lines. For local companies and stores, a website is the entrance through which people searching in that area find them. Someone looking for a store in Okayama and someone looking for a supplier in Himeji use different search words and want to know different things. We begin by sorting out, together with you, which people in which area the site is written for.

If you are located outside these areas, please contact us as well. Ideas for reaching local customers, such as wording that reflects place names and how to present maps and access information, are proposed during production.

How a project proceeds

A project proceeds in the following steps.

Discovery

We ask about the purpose of the site, the target audience and your budget. What we hear here becomes the standard for every later decision.

Structure and design proposal

We propose a sitemap and a design concept. At this stage we also check ease of updating and the functions required.

Production

We build the CMS, code the site and implement the content.

Launch and operational support

You can also consult us about maintenance and operation after launch.

Start by telling us your purpose and budget

A website takes good shape more easily when its purpose is clear. What do you want to make it for, by when do you need it, and about how much do you expect to spend? It is fine if these are still vague; we will begin by sorting them out together. If you feel there is a problem with a site you already have, you can consult us from the stage of confirming together where the problem lies. Deciding whether to rebuild or merely to make adjustments is itself an important task before production begins.

For a new site, a redesign, CMS introduction or migration, or a quotation, please use our contact form.