Frequently Asked Questions

On this page, when the word "business" is used, it also means a club or not-for-profit organisation.  If we tried to include all our target markets then it would get too wordy.  So, for example, if you are a club looking for new website, then when you see "business", read "club".



How come KitSites! websites are so cheap?  Others charge thousands of dollars for less?

Our websites would cost you between $3,000 and $10,000 if you were to pay to have them built by others.

Why?  The others hand-build a custom-website for you to own.  Kennis Limited computer-builds a kitset-website for you to rent.  The others are like an architect designing and building a house for you to own.  We are like a landlord building a kitset house for you to rent.

What website developers do.

They build the "framework" of the website pages from pieces of previously created "code", plus they create any necessary extra "code" when you want something they haven't done before.  Next they convert your text and image "content" into "HTML code" and insert that.  That's all done by hand, with some software help, and takes many hours.  It's laborious, boring, error-prone, and a lot of time is spent at the end finding and fixing errors.

When it is done they charge you the full cost of the work they did, because once it is done you own it.  Then you find someone who will put it on the Internet for you for a rental fee.

What Kennis does.

Our websites are also from pieces of previously created code, but we limit ourselves to a few specific, common styles of website so we don't need to create any extra "code".  If we don't do what you want, we can't help you.  The big difference between us and the others is that we just tell our KitSites! software what model and options you need and it does all the work of building it.  It never gets bored and makes mistakes.  Although it takes us a few hours to sort out what webpages you need, what the page headers should be, and your colour scheme, it only takes minutes to build the "framework" of all the webpages.

KitSites! also converts your plain text and references to your images to "HTML code", and inserts that into the website "framework".  That takes a few minutes per page.  Then we look at what it did, and if something isn't quite satisfactory we tweak things and KitSites! does that bit again until it is right.  Our work is easy, interesting, and error-free.  It doesn't require detailed testing.

Why we are so cheap.


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How are KitSites! "rental websites" different from the "budget websites"?

Although every small website on the Internet is different, there are similarities between them.  They all have Home, About Us, and Contact Us pages for example.  Some websites have a good mix of webpages and some haven't.  Some websites have a good page layout and some haven't.  In fact there are only a few good mixes and layouts that work well, and dozens that don't.

We took four of these good webpage mixes and layout styles and took them apart to see how they worked.  Then we rebuilt them to be easy to handle, and loaded the (over 200) pieces into our computer.  Our KitSites! software builds all of our websites from these pieces, from a "model website" plan and the Client's chosen options.

The "budget websites" offer a cheap solution by supplying the least number of webpages that you can get away with.  This is often three or five pages.  Some offer up to ten, but they will cost you a lot of dollars more.


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Do websites really increase your business?

A report published in July 2011 suggested that two-thirds of New Zealand businesses are failing to achieve the revenue they could because they do not have their own website.

The MYOB business monitor report of 1000 local companies showed that between April 2010 and April 2011, businesses with a website reported revenues 5% - 9% higher than those without.

However, only 32% of businesses had their own website and 70% of those without a website had no intention of getting one.

See the Radio New Zealand news report, 28/07/2011 for more details.


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How much help will Kennis Limited give me?

As much as you need, but we won't do it all for you.  We will not do any business analysis, or an in-depth study of what you do.  If you really need that, you really need someone else.  When we accept you as a Client we assume that you know your own business well, and know how to present it.  If you do not know what your website should contain then we will either not start or we will stop the process.

Firstly, we will talk to you, find out what you want to achieve, and advise you on what pages you need.  We will also advise you on suitable page headers and the colour scheme.

Your text and images are called "content".  We will send you some notes to help you to write this.  They tell you the sort of things which should be on each type of webpage, plus what works and what doesn't.  You just follow our advice and put down in writing what you do.

If you are ever unsure then contact us.  We want all our KitSites! websites to look great because that is good for our business too.  However, we will not write your text for you.  We cannot do that as we don't know enough about your business.

When we receive your "content" we will look at it and point out improvements that you could make.  When you've done the best that you can then we'll do whatever editing is necessary to make it look good.  In particular, we will correct errors in spelling and grammar, as that always looks bad.

If you aren't very good at in then we'll help you more.  The more we help though, the longer it will take to get it finished.


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I'm using business directories.  Isn't that enough?

Business directories such as Finda, NZS, HotFrog, and all the rest have their use.  Kennis advertises KitSites! in them.  They are free.  That's great!

However, they aren't easy to update, partly because every one is different.  More importantly, you cannot put everything you want onto your entry.  Most importantly, those who pay extra appear before you do.  You can pay the extra, but you'd be better off to rent one of our websites for about the same money.

The biggest problem with these directory websites is Google.  Google changed the rules it uses for ranking who appears first towards the end of 2011 to handle what are known as "content farms".  The eHow.com website is an example.  "Content farms" are websites which include lots of useful things (how-to's and recipes) but the sole purpose of the site is to lure you within sight of their adverts.  They have lots of content, but most of it is copied or adapted from elsewhere.

Google wanted to put those who created original content high on their listings, and shove the "content farms" down the bottom.  Since then, our KitSites! listings on all the directories have disappeared, and only our official website is there.  This hasn't happened yet on Yahoo! or Bing, but they will be considering it as everyone follows Google eventually.

The same thing will have happened to you.  Unless you only use one of the directory websites, you will be down-ranked by Google and off the first page.  If you only use one directory then your content won't appear to be duplicated in multiple websites and will be treated as original content.  Alternatively, you can try and make the content of each one different.


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Does Kennis provide ranking optimisation (SEO)?

"Search Engine Optimisation" is a term which involves the Search Engines, such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing.  After you put in your search keywords and hit Enter, the Search Engine provides a list of webpages which seem the most suitable matches.  The first one on the list (the "first ranked") is the one which seems to it to be most suitable.

The problem here is that the Search Engines use software, not people, to figure out suitability.  That software can only do so much to figure things out.  It can miss out suitable webpages if the information on them is not presented clearly enough for it to understand.  When one webpage has a higher "ranking" than another it does not mean that it is actually more suitable.  It just appears to be.

Search Engine Optimisation is simply knowing which words to put in what places on a page to supply the right information to the Search Engine software which reads and processes the page.  If no attempt is made to optimise then the page won't be processed correctly, and won't appear on the list where it should.

The "holy grail" of Optimisation is for your website to appear at the top of the rankings.  Well, those who do Optimisation (at a price) say so.  If you are not right at the top then your website is failure, you will never get any business, and you are doomed!  However, there is more to it than that.  Our February 2012 Newsletter gives illustrations.

Basically, no-one who gets a list of matches from a Search Engine starts at the top and works their way down.  They look at the summaries offered and make their own list from those.  If your page is not physically at the top, but the summary is coherent and inviting, then you are going to be high on the searcher's list of places to try.  This is the only ranking that matters.

If we spent lots of time, we could get you very high up the rankings for a while, but as we make low-cost websites we won't.  In any case, the Search Engines keep changing the rules for making rankings (the algorithms) and what works to get you high up today may not still work next year.  Getting and keeping the top ranking over opposition websites is like playing "I'm the King of the Castle"  on a sand dune.

Kennis aims to provide each webpage with sufficient optimisation to get it high up (but probably not top of) the rankings, whatever changes they make.  What we focus on is to make your list summary look coherent and inviting so that the searcher puts it on top of their list.


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How do I work out which model I need?

You don't have to.  Just tell us which looks the most likely and we'll start from there.  If you chose the wrong one we'll soon find out and get you looking in the right direction.  The demonstration models are there to give you an idea of what can be done, but could be misleading about what they can or cannot do.  There are lots of possibilities.  The demonstration sites are just one of them.

Talk to us, tell us what you want to achieve, and we'll work towards doing that.


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How do I update the website?

The answer depends on whether you mean the website's "content" or the website's "structure".

You supply your text and images.  That is the "content".  We send you back a set of simple text files containing each piece of text that has been used.

When you want to change some "content" you find the right file, and make your changes with any simple editor such as Notepad.  Then you send that file to us as an email attachment.  We do the rest.

In the future we shall set up a "Content Management System" which will allow you to make the changes through the Internet if you want to.  Until then we do it a slower way.

Even when we get a "Content Management System" we will still offer the simpler email attachment method.  We want to keep it simple for those who aren't brilliant on a computer.  "Content Management Systems" are supplied by rival companies.  They say that they are simple to use.  We notice that they often offer training in how to use them.  If they are so simple, why do you need training?

We'll keep a simple update option there for you.


If you want to change the website's "structure", you get in touch with us and we'll talk about it.  The structure is our property and only we can change it.

When it comes to the "structure", it isn't possible for you to easily know what is hard to change and what isn't.  It is really simple to have a new header on each page, or a different colour scheme.  That won't cost you anything.  Larger changes would have to be charged for and we'd give you a fixed quote for the work in advance.


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Where is Kennis based?

In New Zealand.  To be precise, Lower Hutt near Wellington.  We aren't operating from offshore.


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Where are the websites "hosted"?

The website is "hosted" (the pages are stored on a computer) in New Zealand.  There isn't going to be a long delay while the pages are fetched from overseas.


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Can I have my own "www" name?

Yes.  We don't supply them for you, but we'll advise you on a name to get and how to get it.

If we were to supply them we'd have to buy it in your name, then get that money off you.  When it expired then we would get the reminder, which we'd pass on to you, and chase you to pay us to pay them...  No, to keep the costs down for you we are cutting out the middleman.  That's us.


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Can I transfer the website I have to one of yours?

If your current website can be converted to one of ours then we can transfer the "content" easily.  We just view the pages in a browser, and copy the text and images for insertion into your KitSites! website.  We won't use any of your current website's HTML or anything else.

If you have a website then you probably have your own "www" name.  We would have to transfer that from its current location to our domain area.  Your visitors would use the same address and view our KitSites! website instead of the previous one.


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What about "extra" costs?

If anything extra to normal is required then we'll discuss it before doing anything.  No-one likes surprises in their bills, and we don't want hassles with Clients not wanting to pay us.  We will find out who the bill-payer is early on and all "extras" will have to be approved by that person.

BTW.  There are no cancellation fees.  If you want to stop, say when to do it and we will pull the plug on that date.


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Do the rental websites include adverts?

We do not allow any "Pay per click" adverts on our websites.  Adverts are not a way for us to make extra money from you, and you are not allowed to do it either.  You can advertise your own products and services, but not other people's via agency adverts.


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Can I have the website on my own server?

No, nor on anybody else's.  The website can only be hosted where we can control it.  It does, after all, belong to us.  Only your "content" belongs to you.


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Can I have my website on your server?

No.  We will only have KitSites! websites on our server.  If you already have a website and want us to support it then the content text and images will have to be extracted and put into a new KitSites! website.


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I have a website. Can Kennis support it for me?

No.  We only support our own KitSites! websites on our own server.  We aren't interested in looking after other developers' efforts.  If you already have a website and want us to support it then the content text and images will have to be extracted and put into a new KitSites! website.


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Can I have emails with my website?

Our normal rental websites use a "sub-domain".  That is a part of our Kennis.co.nz "domain" which we specially set up for you.  Your web address would be something like "yourname.kennis.co.nz"

Email addresses always have the format "yourname@domain.co.nz".  There is no possibility of setting up a "fred@yourname.kennis.co.nz".

Therefore you will have to use Gmail or whatever you are using now.

To have "fred@yourname.co.nz" emails you must have your own domain name.  If you "buy" a domain name for your rental website then we can set emails up for you.


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Can I have e-commerce tools and sell with a shopping basket?

No.  We don't offer that.  That isn't easy to set up, so cannot be done on a low-cost website.  You can have an order form and arrange for them to pay you through bank transfer or cheque, but we see no shopping baskets in KitSites! websites on the horizon at present.


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Can I see how many people are looking at my website?

Yes.  We can register your site with Google Analytics for free.  They provide free information on website activity.


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Can I have more than one website?

Yes, but each one will cost you an up-front fee and a rental fee.  If you have two businesses, you can have two websites.  Why not?


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Will the website look good in all browsers?

Webpages display differently in different browsers.  We ensure that our websites look good in Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome.  These are the most-used browsers.  We don't check them out in any other browsers.  Hardly anyone uses them, and everyone has Internet Explorer available to them.


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The pages don't print properly in my browser

If you are experiencing poor printing in a KitSites! website it is not our fault.  Webpages don't print properly in any browser!

This is a gripe of all web developers.  In any one browser, some pages will print perfectly and others will not.  In another browser, it will be a different set of pages which print perfectly or not.  The browser makers focus on displaying pages, not printing them.  Their A-Team does the displaying, the B-Team does the printing.

The only thing we can do is to get the webpages printing reasonably well in one browser and hope that the other browsers do a reasonable job.  We aim to get them printing well in Internet Explorer, since it is still the most-used.

Tip: If the pages don't print well and you are not using Internet Explorer, bring them up in Internet Explorer and try printing them from there.  If you are using Internet Explorer and they don't print well, bring them up in Chrome or Firefox and try printing from there.  Install Chrome or Firefox if necessary.  It won't hurt your computer if you do.

Note: Our pages are designed to print at 100%.  Some pages have "page breaks", where a heading is forced to start on the next page.  They will make it look "wrong" when "Shrink to fit" is used.  Print those pages at 100%.

The Future: What Kennis is planning to do is to find a piece of software which will easily make a PDF of each webpage we generate.  Then, when someone wants a printout of a webpage, they can click on a "Print page as PDF" button and a perfect version of the page will come up in Adobe for printing.

Unfortunately, we have't found anything yet that works properly.  Not all items which appear on the screen should appear in the printout, such as the menu on the left.  At present (early 2012) all HTML-to-PDF software we have seen include everything on the screen, so are unacceptable.  Regretably, this isn't something which we can write ourselves.

Note: If you get a KitSites! website now, when we find out how to make webpage PDFs, we will change your website to offer them, for free.  You want customers to have a perfect printout of your pages.  So do we.  We are working on it.


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Your websites aren't very flash

Flashy websites cost a lot of money to design and create unless you use one of those 3- or 5-page templates.  A website is nothing more than a way to supply information.  Bland is good.  Your visitors are there to read about what you do, not to have a "visual experience".

It can also irritate the visitor if they don't share your taste.  Flashy colours and designs are only appropriate where that is what you are selling.  Otherwise there is a good chance of putting visitors off you.  We don't do it.


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