Astagatech is a full service web design and development company priding itself on the elegant development and user friendly sites sensitive mobile Web, on time and on budget. We meet with the general manager, Andy Roberts for more on the world of web design and build and Search Engine Optimisation.
When astagatech was created and why did you feel the need to launch a design and web development in Jakarta?
We started until fairly recently, in 2014. We were already working on fresh ideas for other startups online from ours, and had a very good team together. We could see that there was a huge gap in the market for funky, stylish designs that have web full advantage of open source technology to reduce both the cost and development time.
Let's talk about your business name. Was there a particular reason why you chose the Indonesian word for astaga?
Yes! We also have the astaga.com area, which was the initial inspiration. I also like the energy you get from the party 'astaga' (for speakers Bahasa not a free translation is "oh my God").
How many people do you have on your team today? On what basis you hire your web developers and coders? What are the coding capabilities they must have
We rapidly growing - we currently have about eight people working full time on astagatech. We also have about five startups operating out of the office, so it starts to get a little crowded.
We have a mantra here - we do not recruit jerks! First, you need to enter the corporate culture, which is innovation, inspiration and be proud of the work you do. Obviously the design and coding skill is extremely important, but we prefer to hire someone who is a little inexperienced and full of passion rather than someone who is technically brilliant, but jaded and lacking spark.
We have come a long way over the past five years in Indonesia in terms of Internet speed, availability and the design and functionality of websites. What problems do you still see Indonesia regarding web design?
I think businesses are still getting their heads around the concept of "mobile first". Each of our sites are mobile friendly 'out of the box ", so to speak. has recently implemented "mobilegeddon" in its search algorithm, which means non-mobile-friendly sites are automatically pushed down the pecking order. However, for many companies still put on sites that are not sensitive mobile. It's crazy, especially with the amount of smartphones against laptops / desktop Indonesia.
What are you doing to astagatech to really struggle with who your customer is and what their brand represents?
We still run a business first test, and understand that your success indicators for the site. In other words, allowing you to get a promotion? Whether sales, branding, unique visitors, sessions or page views, or even shares - we gather an understanding of what your main engines before we see the same technology that could help
. 
Well, we have always focused on the customer, their business and their customers to start. Often, depending on the size of the task, we will divide it into several stages, with the 'must have' part comes first, and the "nice to have" items delivered in the later stages.
We try to use open-source platforms such as WordPress or Joomla! as much as possible, depending on customer requirements. That means there are a ton of cheap plugins that can do amazing things, and to give the customer the option of moving to another web designer without having to rebuild the site from scratch. Fortunately, none of our customers has never left us, but it gives them just that transparency.
"Prior planning prevents poor performance" is a motto of your business lives. Do you feel these five Ps differentiate your business from the crowd
Yes - that was a motto one of my former IT managers had to return to Australia. Ex-army guy. I'm kind of fly (thank you Ian!) Because it really saves time and money. If you are not 100% sure on how the work will continue, not to send the quote.
You use the "sprint methodology" to communicate well with your customers. Can you explain what this is and why it is an integral part of your business?
Sprinting is a term used in Agile software development. In plain terms, this means that we shared projects upwards in the short sprints for a week or two each, resulting in the realization of some of the work. Some work is completed in a single sprint, while others may take a few. The overall objective of this method is to agree on what should be done in a short period of time, and just get it done! If it seems that we're late on a sprint, which is when we put on the afterburners and clock overtime. This means that jobs are usually completed in time, since we do not allow eruption along the way.
In your expert opinion, what is the most effective way to deliver a message to targeted audiences online today?
Keep it simple and visual. Nobody has time to click through the text of the mountains, and we often 'eat with our eyes. "
Furthermore, it is interesting to understand that different demographics have browsing habits.
What is the hardest part of building a website?
I would say that communication, which is something we work very hard. So many customers are angry at their web designer since their communication was cut off from the beginning. Sometimes the client does not really understand what they want.
I remember a returning customer in Australia asking "Can I please just have more, you know .." and exit in "jazz hands", snapping his fingers. it is therefore my duty to break this into concrete objectives, often by asking the customer to show me the websites they think nail that indefinable look.
How do you ensure that your projects are completed on time?
Sprinting and ensure that we communicate well within the team. Do not tell me something rusak near the end of the sprint. - Let me know immediately, and we can try to mitigate the problem and to find other approaches
Your company is also focusing on engine optimization research. what kind of things we should do as website owners? for example, what is a good goal to set for our SEO?
Always use plain text URLs and ensure your XML sitemap is updated correctly. Be friendly mobile. For example, we just completed a promotion on our yacht charter site for Thousand Islands (of www.spiceislandcharters.com/pulauseribu~~number=plural) with a decent text and is already appearing in organically a week later.
What SEO has changed in recent years?
There was a huge amount of black hat 'link builders operating worldwide which would create phony sites link to yours to increase your engine rank research, often with only repeated the same keywords over and over again. The web was in danger of falling into a pile of garbage sense. cottoned on to this and stamped on it with some updates that have caused these dubious companies to go bust almost overnight and to penalize sites that use this method.
is getting better at identifying real vs fake content. It is almost scary - it can not be far from the stadium "Skynet". In any case, the real SEO secret is not a secret - he is dynamic, engaging content that people can share on social media
.And we'll conclude with a personal matter. What attributes do you think are important for successful business in Indonesia?
Patience, tenacity and a high tolerance for being stuck in traffic.
Thanks, Andy! To contact, please email: info@astagatech.com