# assembler.com.au

> AI-optimized mirror of assembler.com.au containing 49 pages totalling 1,624 words of clean markdown content, structured data, and semantic HTML. Original source: https://assembler.com.au/. Last updated: 2026-06-12T13:50:48.993Z.

Each page is available as HTML (with JSON-LD structured data) and Markdown (text-only, ideal for LLMs and RAG).

## Homepage

- [Website Design and Development Perth | Assembler](/content/site-root.html): Assembler provides custom website design, development and hosting services to our clients. We are based in Perth, Western Australia. (1 words)

## Articles & Blog Posts

- [Website Support and Maintenance.](/content/services/website-support-and-maintenance/index.html): Without website support and maintenance, your site will become outdated, insecure and forgotten. Most businesses need ongoing support with their websites once they're launched, and we are here to help. (34 words)
- [You don’t find out a project has gone wrong until the end...](/content/blog/you-dont-find-out-project-has-gone-wrong-until-end/index.html): At the typical web agency, the product lifecycle goes like this: 


	Gather the requirements 
	Agree on the design 
	Build the website
	Client reviews and approves
	Launch


And in the typical web agency, steps 1 and 2 are quite collaborative, but step 3 is “behind the scenes”. Step 4 is often the first chance the client gets to see the “completed” product, and that is where all of the problems start.  (30 words)
- [Shopify Support and Development.](/content/technology/shopify/index.html): Assembler is here to help with your Shopify site. We can custom tailor our services to your needs, including custom design and development, strategic advisory services, or just simple ongoing support and maintenance. (16 words)
- [Wordpress Design and Development.](/content/technology/wordpress/index.html): Assembler provides a 100% managed Wordpress service, from design and development through to hosting, maintenance and support. (20 words)
- [Don’t forget your old URLs!](/content/blog/dont-forget-your-old-urls/index.html): When you’re launching a new website, a good agency will have a checklist they work to. There’s a number of things that should be on this checklist, some are specific to certain platforms and some are applicable for almost any deployment you could imagine, but one that you should never forget to do is to set up redirects from your old URLs to your new ones. 

An example of this might be, your website, www.example.com, has a series of products on it, and they live in the /shop/ directory. An example of a full URL might be something like www.example.com/shop/widget-123.  (39 words)
- [Are you a designer looking for a technical backstop?](/content/blog/are-you-designer-looking-technical-backstop/index.html): Recently I have been working with a couple of design agencies to help them get web development projects out the door for their clients. The people at these agencies are relatively tech savvy, but they’re not programmers. They can find their way around a Content Management System, but they also know their limits.  (41 words)
- [Custom Website Development.](/content/services/custom-website-development/index.html): Custom website development is our bread and butter; it’s at the core of everything we do. While we offer a comprehensive managed service including the full suite of design, development, hosting and maintenance, it’s the development that ties everything together and defines who we are as a business. (27 words)
- [Why I'm opting out of My Health Record - and why you should too.](/content/blog/why-im-opting-out-my-health-record-and-why-you-should-too.html): My Health Record is a great idea on paper, but the security implications are enormous. (36 words)
- [Our job is to help you get your job done.](/content/blog/our-job-help-you-get-your-job-done/index.html): I’ve spent over fifteen years building websites for clients, and one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is a simple one: if you leave it up to the client to get back to you with what you need, you can kiss the delivery date goodbye. (46 words)
- [User Centered Design.](/content/methodology/user-centered-design/index.html): One of the biggest challenges facing small businesses when trying to get started with a website is a deceptively simple one: what are you going to put on it? 

For some businesses, the answer is self-apparent; a local pizza shop needs a copy of the menu and some contact details. But for any business more complex than that, it becomes a much more challenging proposition.  (28 words)
- [Is Drupal suitable for small businesses?](/content/blog/drupal-suitable-small-businesses/index.html): Out of the "big three" CMSes available in the marketplace today, Drupal is without question the most powerful - there's a reason why it has gotten the adoption it has among larger businesses and clients with deep technical requirements. But is it appropriate for use by small businesses with lower budgets and simpler requirements?  (28 words)
- [Managed Web Hosting.](/content/services/managed-web-hosting/index.html): Our fully managed web hosting services are design to "just work" - we monitor, manage and maintain everything so that you don't have to (27 words)
- [The day you sign a client is the day you start losing them.](/content/blog/day-you-sign-client-day-you-start-losing-them/index.html): If agencies can't get their support and maintenance offering in order, their customers will suffer. (35 words)
- [Agile Scrum Project Management.](/content/methodology/agile-scrum-project-management/index.html): One of the biggest complaints I hear from small businesses is that their web development agency doesn’t manage their project properly. At the beginning, it’s all sunshine and lollypops, but as soon as the paperwork is signed, they barely hear from them again until, some months later, they hand over a half-finished website that isn’t what the client wanted in the first place. 

There are two CRITICAL lessons that web development agencies must learn in order to effectively deliver projects:  (21 words)
- [Website Design Services.](/content/services/web-design-perth/index.html): As part of our comprehensive website design and development services, we provide website design capability to our clients. Our service is set apart from our competitors through a few key features: (24 words)
- [The truth about quality - it is subjective, contextual and largely hidden!](/content/blog/truth-about-quality-it-subjective-contextual-and-largely-hidden.html): As a web designer and developer, I have built a business that has a core focus on delivering "quality" work. The problem is... quality means entirely different things to different people.  (36 words)
- [Dynamic ways to work with your clients](/content/blog/dynamic-ways-work-your-clients/index.html): Sometimes the best solution for your client is to be the most flexible developer you can possibly be; do only what is required, in and around what it is they are doing.  (42 words)
- [Quality takes time! The video that every client should see.](/content/blog/quality-web-design-takes-time-video-every-client-should-see.html): In just one short minute, this video will show you exactly why quality web design takes time and costs money. (37 words)
- [Contact Us](/content/contact-us/index.html) (1 words)
- [Honesty means sometimes you turn away potential customers.](/content/blog/honesty-means-sometimes-you-turn-away-potential-customers.html): One of my favourite parts of being a small business owner is getting to talk to other small business owners. It’s remarkable, but no matter how different our businesses may be, we all face the same fundamental challenges, and I genuinely enjoy connecting with people and sharing my own experiences as a small business owner, and in the process, hopefully I can help them with theirs. (35 words)
- [Here’s one of my top productivity tips.](/content/blog/heres-one-my-top-productivity-tips/index.html): I’m not too proud to admit that sometimes I have the attention span of a toddler. I settle down for a work session, get something built, click on the deploy button and have to wait for a few minutes until it’s done… during those few minutes, I make the fatal mistake of going “oh, I’ll just check Facebook”. 

Forty five minutes later, panic sets in as I realise how much time I’ve just wasted, and I once again curse myself for being so weak. Closing Facebook doesn’t work either, I just absent-mindedly open it back up, and there goes another hour of my life down the drain…  (40 words)
- [Sometimes it pays to think inside the box.](/content/blog/sometimes-it-pays-think-inside-box/index.html): This week I’ve been working heavily with a client who has both a limited budget and somewhat non-standard set of requirements. These two scenarios normally elicit a sense of dread in even the most seasoned of web developers, but this time around, it’s we’ve been able to wrangle a solution to most of their problems by simply using the tools we have in front of us. (36 words)
- [Is your agency up front about licensing costs?](/content/blog/your-agency-front-about-licensing-costs/index.html): In the world of web development, for better or worse, Wordpress is king. And unlike with other CMS platforms such as Drupal, the ecosystem of addon modules for Wordpress is highly commercialised - in short, if you want the good addons for your site, you’re going to have to pay. 

This is not an entirely bad thing; by commercialising, the businesses behind these products can afford to take them to the next level of maturity, something that doesn’t always happen when the products are backed by open source advocates funding their development through support services alone.  (41 words)
- [Understanding the Content Management System landscape in 2018.](/content/blog/understanding-content-management-system-landscape-business-owner.html): There are literally thousands of Content Management Systems (CMS) out there, and if you came into it as an amateur and tried to pick one, you'd get hopelessly lost in the first five minutes. In order to make this process a little easier on you, and / or to help you understand whether the CMS you're being recommended is right for you, I've broken the thousands of choices down to a few basic categories which will enable you to make a much more educated decision.  (38 words)
- [The scope of your project WILL change over time.](/content/blog/scope-your-project-will-change-over-time/index.html): One of the hardest lessons for clients to learn is that no matter how much planning goes into it, no matter how many scenarios you try to envisage, no matter how much work you put into it, as soon as you start working on the project, things are going to start changing.  (32 words)
- [Email is holding us back as a society.](/content/blog/email-holding-us-back-society/index.html): Email holds a genuinely interesting role in the history of the Internet. If word processors and spreadsheets put a PC on every desk, then email got that PC connected to the Internet. Email had a powerful business use case even as the web was still in its absolute infancy, and there's no doubt that it helped drive the digital revolution in which we are all now playing a part.  (31 words)
- [How does your website fit into your marketing strategy?](/content/blog/how-does-your-website-fit-your-marketing-strategy/index.html): Probably the first thing I talk to a potential client about when they ask about websites is their marketing strategy. What sort of a business are they, and how are they marketing themselves? 

As a web designer and developer, I probably shouldn't be saying things like this, but the truth is some businesses don't need a website. Or if they do, a perfunctory website is absolutely fine.  (30 words)
- [Why a single point of contact is so important.](/content/blog/why-single-point-contact-so-important/index.html): On of the key structural elements of the Agile project management methodology Scrum is that there is only one point of contact on the client's side, usually called the Product Owner. The reason for this is simple; the people who developed Scrum have learned, over the course of many many projects, that trying to run a project where the vendor has to appease several key stakeholders is deeply inefficient - at best.  (43 words)
- [Your first website should probably be cheap...](/content/blog/your-first-website-should-probably-be-cheap/index.html): Your first website should probably be cheap, but it's your second website where you should start to spend some money. 

Over the years I've spoken with hundreds of small business owners just trying to get their start, and nine times out of ten they would be far better off spending their initial startup funds on things other than their website. In most circumstances, you're just as well off using something like Squarespace, or working with a low-end agency that does off the shelf templates. Why is this?  (39 words)
- [Why should you pay for code review and quality assurance?](/content/blog/why-should-you-pay-code-review-and-quality-assurance.html): Why should you pay for Quality Assurance to check someone else's work? Shouldn't they just do it right the first time? (38 words)
- [Should I use an off-the-shelf website template?](/content/blog/should-i-use-shelf-website-template/index.html): There are countless well-designed and pre-built website templates to choose from. Are they a good choice for your business? (33 words)
- [Why I don't offer SEO services to my clients.](/content/blog/why-i-dont-offer-seo-services-my-clients/index.html): Branching out into complementary services, like SEO services, seems like a great idea, but it may not always be the right fit for your business. (41 words)
- [The number one thing clients forget when adding new content.](/content/blog/number-one-thing-clients-forget-when-adding-new-content.html): One of the challenges that web design agencies have with the websites they build is that once they've handed them over to the client, they lose control of the carefully crafted experience. Modern Content Management Systems allow the client to easily add new pages to the website, but all too often, the power that is placed in the clients' hands leaves the web designers wringing their hands in frustration.  (39 words)
- [Frequently Asked Question - Isn't User Centered Design expensive?](/content/blog/frequently-asked-question-isnt-user-centered-design-expensive.html): User Centered Design is an extremely simple concept, but one that is almost never followed: Simply stated, it is the process of designing a website (or anything for that matter) with the needs of the end user being the primary concern during the design process. 

This sounds stupidly obvious, but so often design is driven by appeasing internal stakeholders, or by a misguided attempt to "beat the competition". Users are often the LAST people to get a say in how the website is going to work, and yet they're the ones who have to use it!  (37 words)
- [What does it mean to have an effective website?](/content/blog/what-does-it-mean-have-effective-website/index.html): The first two adjectives we use to describe our the websites we build are "effective" and "beautiful". I think "beautiful" is relatively self explanatory, but what does an effective website mean? 

Most people would answer this question something like "it generates sales and inquiries", which is true, but it's only part of the picture. 

Effective website design isn't as simple as generating leads. An effective website is one that executes its role within your overall marketing and digital strategy.  (36 words)
- [How do you define quality web design and development?](/content/blog/how-do-you-define-quality-web-design-and-development.html): Quality web design is hard to define, but in the world of web development, there's one key giveaway to look out for... (36 words)
- [The number one piece of advice I give my clients.](/content/blog/number-one-piece-advice-i-give-my-clients/index.html): I develop custom websites for a living. I charge my clients for the time it takes to produce the work. That is the absolute sum total of my business model. The more work I do, the more I charge. The less work I do, the less I charge. 

This is why the biggest single piece of advice I can give a business owner is this: don't screw down your vendors on the price! You're not getting one over them and tricking them into making the same product for a lower cost, YOU'RE GETTING A WORSE PRODUCT.  (35 words)
- [How do I tell when I've outgrown my small business website?](/content/blog/how-do-i-tell-when-ive-outgrown-my-small-business-website.html): There's one easy way to tell when you've outgrown your website, and it might be staring you right in the face... (39 words)
- [The simplest question with the hardest answer - what should you put on your website?](/content/blog/simplest-question-hardest-answer-what-should-you-put-your-website.html): For anybody who's ever sat down to work on the content for their website, you'll know that at first, it seems like the answer will be obvious, but as soon as you start digging into it, you realise that it's an open-ended problem; there's dozens of perfectly acceptable solutions to the problem, so how are you supposed to know which one is best?  (44 words)
- [Frequently Asked Question - Can this CMS do this thing?](/content/blog/frequently-asked-question-can-cms-do-thing/index.html): If you spend any time at all reading about web development on the Internet, you'll very quickly realise that one of the most common questions is "Can (Drupal / Wordpress / Joomla) do (insert trivial task)?" 

It's easy to get frustrated with the endless stream of such questions, but it reveals an underlying challenge that people out there in the real world struggle with: they want to make sure they're choosing the right software to do the job!  (40 words)
- [It's 2018 - what's better, Wordpress or Drupal?](/content/blog/its-2018-whats-better-wordpress-or-drupal/index.html): Much has been said in the Wordpress vs Drupal debate over the years, but with both platforms maturing at such a rapid rate, it's time to take another look at it and ask ourselves the question once again: Which CMS should I choose, Wordpress or Drupal?  (33 words)
- [Fully managed hosting - what does it mean for your website?](/content/blog/fully-managed-hosting-what-does-it-mean-your-website.html): Why should you pay upwards of a thousand bucks a year for something you can get from GoDaddy for $2.99 a month? (40 words)
- [Understanding the price differences between web development agencies.](/content/blog/understanding-price-differences-between-web-development-agencies.html): If you've ever gotten a website built, you'll know that the price difference between agencies can vary tremendously, even for what is ostensibly the same thing; one agency says $10k, another comes back $50k. Why can there be such an enormous variation? 

The reality is that both companies are pricing the website according to the costs they'll incur to deliver the project. The agency with a $50k price tag isn't doing it because they're going to squeeze you for $40k profit - they know they're not "competitive" at the price they've offered. They're doing it for a reason.  (42 words)
- [Designing for User Experience.](/content/blog/designing-user-experience/index.html): User Experience, or UX, is widely spoken about in design circles, but not always well understood. How do you design the experience someone will have? (36 words)
- [Why do high-end web design agencies charge so much?](/content/blog/why-do-high-end-web-design-agencies-charge-so-much/index.html): There's an enormous gulf between small web design agencies and the top end of town. What do you get for your dollar working with a big agency? (43 words)
- [Is website accessibility important for your business?](/content/blog/website-accessibility-important-your-business/index.html): If you've ever built a website for your business, you may have come across the term "Accessibility". What does website accessibility mean, and is it important to you? (42 words)
- [The three types of business who will build you a website.](/content/blog/three-types-businesses-who-will-build-you-website/index.html): Out of all of the different options out there for getting a website, you can break them down into three main categories.  (35 words)
- [sitemap-xml.html](/content/sitemap-xml.html) (1 words)

## Resources

- [Full Page Index](/index.html): Browse all cached pages with rich metadata
- [About This Cache](/content/about.html): Methodology, technical details, and usage guidelines
- [XML Sitemap](/sitemap.xml): Machine-readable sitemap for crawler discovery
- [Robots.txt](/robots.txt): Crawler directives