Zwartberg R&D website design

Zwartberg Research & Development is a small company based in the Karoo. We design web sites that are attractive, interesting, informative and functional. We can also design sites that communicate with a server, with forms, login, or an entire back-end database application.

We are well aware of all the design issues involved in web sites and the back-end servers. We have 20+ years experience in the industry.

Following are some examples of our work:


		Some issues with web design that we consider important: it must fit nicely in the browser when the browser is resized... try it on this page, notice how the text will wrap around the circle at the top right, it must be quick to load, even over slow connections, yet still have pictures to grab your customers' attention, your style, and brand, must come across uniquely, and attractively, and it must be concise and to the point.

Complete Website service

We don't just create the web pages, we are a "one stop" shop for everything to do with the website:

Graphic design of logos and brand image
Creation of the website or web application (including the back end)
Hosting of the website
Submitting to Google (so that people find you when they surf)
Genuine consultation with you regarding how make your website visible
Maintenance of your site

Regarding Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

We don't claim to be "Search Engine Optimisers" ... but we can give you genuine advice:

The very existence of "Search Engine Optimisers", implies that search engines can be tricked... you pay someone some money, and they will do some minor tweaks to your web site so that when anyone searches for whatever your site is about... they find it immediately.

This sounds pretty good, but it defys the facts:

Its not in the interests of people like Google, to be so easily tricked,
Search engines like Google are far from incompetent, and
There are probably thousands of sites out there like yours.

Some time ago, Google replaced its web crawler with a new (much smarter) one. It simply ranks your site based on the relevance of the content, the popularity of your site, and the maturity of your site. It does a very good job of this.
To show what I mean, type "prince albert" into Google. This will bring up a tiny Karoo town in a remote spot in South Africa... simply because there are a couple of really good web sites written by a local lady. She probably has never done anything to promote the sites: patourism.co.za and princealbert.org.za.

Her website has lots of useful content, and its been around for a while, and this tiny Karoo town probably is what most people are looking for when they type "prince albert" into Google, becaise its a great tourist location, one of the best in the world.

First make a good website. Write good content, get to the point, don't be verbose, but put a lot of relevant information on the site. Make sure the site is standards compliant. Then seek advice from a SEO. They can tell you about domain names, headings, etc... Then you can also "prime" the web by advertising on Google Adwords. Try to get as many links into your site as possible. The best way to do that, is to make your site great so that other people want to link to it. Think about it, if your site is kind of simple, and new, and yet you could trick Google, and lots of people get directed to your site: chances are its not what they were looking for... they will be annoyed, and leave it immediately.

More information...