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About Trade and Lateral Development

WordPress Website Design, Website Strategy and Planning, and Search Engine Optimisation

Trade and Lateral Development is a WordPress website design and strategy company that also specialises in SEO. We started in May 2000 and have been operating for more than twenty years.

We started at a time when faxing was all the rage, and no one in South Africa saw the need for a business website. There were flyer drop services (the paper versions they used to shove in your home’s mailbox – snail mail at its worst!) and fax services where companies would send invitations to events by fax, in their thousands. Barely anyone used a computer. Outlook Express was about as advanced as it got, and not many people were able to send more than a very basic black and white text email.

Fortunately for us, times have changed!

Trade and Lateral Development grew along with the IT industry in South Africa. As our market grew more accustomed to all things digital, so we could improve and expand on our product offering. We were learning like everyone else, and we made just about every email marketing and website design mistake one can make, on the way to learning how to do it all the right way – the way that would get us the results we were hoping for.

WordPress burst onto the scene and suddenly there was a way for customers to update their own websites. It was revolutionary! Before, we built in code and customers had to ask us to change any tiny detail on their website but, with the advent of WordPress, they were now in control.

As the CMS (content management system) platform grew, so did our portfolio of websites. They all started as blogs, but shortly became information websites, portfolio websites, catalogue websites, and finally ecommerce online shops.

We still offer email marketing strategy if requested (why waste more than twenty years of experience?) but WordPress is now our primary love. As it’s grown, so have the range of theme and plugins available to customise it. You can now build almost anything on a WordPress website!

Covid shook the world, and everyone was forced to find ways to take their businesses online. eCommerce websites and online shops are now crucial for surviving in such a precarious world. As WordPress has grown, so has the support from critical services like payment gateways and courier companies. It is a joy to see this platform growing from strength to strength as more and more businesses and software developers get onboard.

Trade and Lateral Development has seen an industry rise out of nothing and has grown along with it. We have made many mistakes along the way but, as any IT person will tell you, you need to break it a few times in order to learn what not to do next time. Some things can’t be taught – they need to be experienced.

Now we offer our customers a holistic approach to their website, because now it’s so much more than “just a website”. It’s an online business, and it must have a clear strategy, a target market, a marketing plan, and a way to measure results. The days of a quick “Home, About, and Contact” website are gone. We are in a new era of service delivery.

Websites now have so many moving parts, and so many aspects to consider, that it no longer makes sense to attempt the project alone. It’s time to engage the services of a website developer who has been there, done that, and can steer you toward a future of rising sales and happy customers!

Why the company name?

It’s a weird name but it has a jumbled history that I love. Without delving into the minutiae of when and why, I love that it reminds me that our business is robust, original, and up for any challenge. We don’t appear to think like anyone else, and that has stood us in great stead for more than twenty years.

My favourite part is our commitment to lateral thinking, and this story perfectly defines why lateral thinking is as crucial today, as it was twenty years ago.

A wild dog is running through the jungle. While wandering about he notices a leopard heading in his direction with the intention of having lunch. The dog thinks, “Boy, I’m in deep trouble now.”

Then he sees some bones on the ground close by and immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the leopard is about to leap, the dog exclaims loudly, “Man, that was one delicious leopard. I wonder if there are any more around here?”

Hearing this, the leopard halts his attack in mid stride and slinks away into the trees. “Whew”, he says. “That was close. That dog nearly had me.”

Meanwhile, a monkey who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the leopard. So, he goes chasing after him. But the dog saw him heading after the leopard with great speed, and figured that something must be up. The monkey soon catches up with the leopard, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself. The cat is furious at being made a fool of and says, “Here monkey, hop on my back and see what’s going to happen to that conniving canine.”

The dog sees the leopard coming with the monkey on his back and thinks, “What am I going to do now?”

But instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers pretending he hasn’t seen them yet. And just when they get close enough to hear, the dog says, “Where’s that monkey. I just can never trust him. I sent him off half an hour ago to bring me another leopard and he’s still not back!”

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