Frequently Asked Questions

Why are you so much cheaper than most other design companies?

We keep our costs down in a number of ways. We don't put together fancy (and often unnecessary) animations or complicated menu systems - our fee is based on creation of striking, professionally designed static web pages. We are based at home, so we don't have expensive office overheads. We're not aiming our service at corporate bodies and large companies who can spend thousands on a significant web presence - we're aimed at the small business and home user who wants a good value, efficient service. We also have a small turnover, so do not need to be registered for VAT.

What do you mean by 'static web page'?

A static web page contains information that is fixed. As a contrast, a forum or chat room page is dynamic, because the contents of that page can change automatically. Similarly, on-line ordering systems, shopping carts and searchable product catalogues are all dynamic.

We have a small number of standard pages that are not strictly 'static' that may be incorporated into your site as part of the standard fee. For instance, we can include gallery pages, or we can password protect areas of your site for no extra fee above the standard charge. We also have a diary system, where a list of one, two or more upcoming events can be displayed depending on the current date; only future events are displayed, so the user never sees past events listed. We are always willing to consider adding new types of pages to this list; if you have a specific idea in mind, please get in touch to discuss your requirements.

What information do you need to start designing my website?

We can start designing your site with some basic information about colours, logos, names and style. If you have a particular logo, we can use that and match the buttons and site colours to that logo. If you don't have a logo in mind, we can design a simple logo for you for a small additional fee.

We then need to know what pages you want. For example, if you are selling a product or service, you may have an introduction page, a page describing the product or service in more detail, a list of frequently asked questions, a list of comments from previous customers and a contacts page.

If you don't have specific details in mind, or you're not sure what you should put on your site, then we can help you plan your site. We need as much information as you can gather - leaflets, advertising literature, photographs, letters from customers etc. We will then design your site based on the information you supply.

We can scan a small number of printed photographs as part of the standard fee (a maximum of 1 photograph per page). If you require a large number of photographs on your site, we can scan these for you for a small additional fee.

What if I only want 2 or 3 pages? Do I still have to pay your standard fee?

Yes. The majority of the development time goes into developing the basic site structure and graphics, so a 2 or 3 page site takes almost as long to develop as a 5 page site.

If that's the case, why do additional pages cost so much extra?

We've found that as sites grow larger than 5 pages or so, the page content generally becomes more and more complex, and it becomes harder to maintain the consistency of and links between the various pages. The price reflects this additional complexity. If you want a large number of additional pages, however, contact us to discuss your requirements further.

If I pay your standard site fee, will I have to pay anything else on top of that?

Yes. You will need to pay to register your domain name, you may need to pay a web hosting service to host your site, or, if you have free web space where you can host your site, you may wish to pay for URL Masking (explained below).

If you already have your own free webspace, you can have your site online for 2 years for as little as £6.

What do you mean by 'register your domain name'?

Your domain name is your unique internet address - for example, simplewebdesign.co.uk. There are many companies that will register your domain name for you. We currently use 1&1 (link will open a new window); they charge around £6 for 2 years for a .co.uk or .org.uk domain, or £8.99 per year for a .com. You may wish to register your own name, or we can do this for you at no extra charge; we will just add their fee to your invoice. We can also provide you with a VAT invoice from 1&1 if required.

What is 'web hosting'?

Once your site has been built, you need somewhere to put it. If you have an internet connection, you probably have some free web space provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) which you can use to host your site. If you don't have free web space, or if your site is large or becomes popular, you may need to pay a third party company to host your site for you. This can start from as little as £50 per year; again, you may wish to organise this yourself, or we can do this for you at no extra charge and add the fee to your invoice.

What is 'URL masking'?

The URL is the physical location of your site, and URL Masking is a way of utilising the free web space provided by your ISP without revealing to the user where your site is hosted. As well as looking more professional, it means if you need to move your site to a different host, the move will be transparent to the user. 1&1 include URL masking free of charge (which is one of the reasons we use them!).

I can get a better price for domain name registration / web hosting / URL masking from www.somewhereorother.co.uk. Why can't you?

We probably could, but we currently use 1&1 as they provide an efficient, good value and reliable service. If you prefer to arrange these aspects of your site yourself with a cheaper company, that's fine; if you want us to arrange the details for you, that's fine too!

So what if I register all my details myself and get you to put my site on my own web space. What's stopping me just refusing to pay you?

We ask that if you register your own domain name, you let us have the appropriate passwords, and we will redirect the registered email address for that site to our own account while we set up your site. This makes it easier for us to sort out any problems that may occur when we first make your site live. Once we have received payment, we will reset the account back to your designated address and hand control back to you. If you prefer not to do this, we will simply ask that you pay for the site design up-front.

What happens when my site has been designed and I want to change it? What happens then?

Once we've built your website, it becomes your site. If you want to maintain and modify the site yourself, we're quite happy for you to do that. As part of our fee, we will provide simple guidelines on how to modify certain aspects of the site. We can also provide additional consultancy if you need more information on how the site has been constructed. We will also be happy to make subsequent major modifications in the future if required, but this is provided any updates you make to your site yourself have followed our guidelines.

Alternatively, if you don't have the time or the knowledge to maintain your site yourself, we can do it for you. We don't charge a set monthly or yearly maintenance fee; instead, we charge £30 per hour for modifications to the site. Most modifications are simple and may take as little as 15 minutes, so we will keep a record of time spent modifying your site, and only invoice you at the end of every complete hour.

Why does it take you 15 minutes to (say) change an email address or telephone number?

A simple change may only require a 1 line edit, so may only take 30 seconds to actually modify the file. However, there are a number of overheads involved: your site is restored onto our development machine from our backups, the change is made, the site is checked for errors, uploaded onto the host and then archived. It is therefore much more economical to make a number of changes at the same time.

OK, now I have my website. What next?

What you do then depends on what you want your website for. If you site is a personal site, you will probably just want to email or write to friends and relatives giving them the URL (web address) so they can keep up to date with what you are up to. Similarly if you're a club, you may just wish to let your members have the address so they can keep up to date with what's happening. It's also a good idea to add the address to any advertisements, posters, newsletters or flyers that you produce.

If you're using your site to advertise a product or service, there are a number of things you can do to get people to visit your site. See our Introduction to Internet Marketing page for more ideas.