Website Design

You need a domain which looks like this: example.com, and you need hosting. Even though they are both needed in some way to have a website, they are sold separately for many reasons! For example, I have many domains but only a handful of hosting packages that those domains point to. Some customers have two or three websites with unique domains running on one hosting package. As we said earlier, some hosting is more powerful and capable than others, so can host many websites.

You could also register a domain such as yourname.com and direct it to your Facebook or Twitter page if you were so inclined. A domain is fairly versatile because you can use it in many different ways.

Yes, we buy and set up the hosting and domain for many of our customers and then create and manage the website. This gives you the benefits of never having to look under the bonnet or worry about security patches, updates and backups. We can tailor the service to your needs, but we can also take care of as much or as little as you want us to. We are here to help when you need us.

No, not at all. We can advise on the best hosting for the project you are working on. For example, the bigger the site, the better the hosting should be, more memory, faster processors etc., so we are always happy to advise you on what you need. Since GDPR and general website security have become increasingly important, it is also a good idea to get a hosting solution that includes an SSL/TLS certificate as standard, as it can work out cheaper getting it all at once than at a later date.

With a domain, yes, you can use that. It doesn’t matter where a domain is registered; there is always a workaround to get that working (if you have access to the account it was registered in).

Hosting is different; if you want to run a static HTML website, then you need the bare minimum hosting. If you want to run any kind of PHP or a fully-fledged CMS (content management system) such as WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Magento etc., you will need hosting with more power under the hood.

But with most modern hosting packages, that should be fine. We can often build and deploy a website on pre-existing servers or hosting packages without issue.

That depends on a few things, but the simple answer is as many as you want! We have built 1-page “business card" websites and helped set up sites with hundreds, if not thousands, of unique pages. But the standard is in-between.

Firstly, what are the goals of your website? Are you an online shop or a business just starting and trying to reach an audience?

Standard pages are the home page, the first page you see, and therefore the only page every website has, without a doubt. Other standard pages include: About us, services, contact, or a version of those pages. Whereas any other pages may depend on your market or area of expertise. While you may have the services you offer, you may also have a portfolio of previous work, gallery, or similar.

Some businesses have more than one location, so it can be helpful to list your locations or coverage areas.

But do I NEED a page for each of these?

No,  you should have a page limit that you are comfortable with, and each of these could be condensed onto page one, but it is a good idea to spread them out, so people can find exactly the information they require. For example, having 'contact' in the menu of small business websites has become more than a trend - it is a design axiom. And it helps would-be customers get to the contact page quickly and easily, as they can click the link within seconds of the homepage loading.

There is also something to be said for SEO, and Google’s algorithm has been shown to favour websites with more pages, and it believes it is a valuable trust/longevity factor. So, for example, Ford, Facebook, Mercedes, LEGO, and Wikipedia sites have thousands of pages. Though the algorithm's value on the number of pages might be small when trying to rank higher than your competitor, every little help.

The simple answer is yes! SEO is a separate discipline from website design; however, as part of our web design and website development process, we always ensure that we create a website that ticks the SEO best practices checkboxes.

There are a lot of parts to a good SEO strategy. Still, when it comes to designing and building a website, optimisation is about using search engine-friendly URLs, careful metadata optimisation, speed, and security.

Our UK-based SEO team optimises your website to ensure that your website and company have the best start possible to being found online.

Once the site is live, we offer ongoing digital marketing solutions, including SEO services tailored to your requirements to help your business grow online.

We offer standard customer support with every website design project. We have 30 days of free support after the site goes live in case you missed anything before we flicked the switch. And we offer a year of managed hosting, ensuring everything runs smoothly. After that, we have various affordable options covering hosting fees, management, etc. We also provide training, walkthroughs and documentation on request.

We use one of the internet's best platforms as our CMS of choice, mainly for its vast community of people that share their knowledge freely.