Frequently Asked Questions
- I think I need a website but all of the technical jargon scares me rigid/bores me to death. What should I do?
We aim to speak to you in fairly plain English because we understand that techy babble probably isnt your thing. When we build you a website, we try to gauge your level of computer skills and work to make sure that you understand what's happening with every part of the site since we understand that as the customer, the site must become part of your business. So get in touch with us and see what we can do together for your enterprise.
- How long does it take to build a website?
A basic site, where the client can provide a reasonable amount of information (promotional copy, images - digital or print) can take under 5 days to produce. More sophisticated sites, such as dynamic sites or those with lots of content and search engine optimisation will take longer - typically 2-4 weeks.
- What do I need to do during the development of the site?
Things work best where you can provide lots of information relating to what you want the website to do. Thus, if you want a brochure site that lists the services provided by your business, it would be great if you could provide us with any existing print materials that do the same or similar jobs. Even better, you may have lots of this sort of stuff sitting around on a computer somewhere and you can provide us with copies of them. This information should be provided before we start work on the site as it helps inform our design direction.
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If, however, you have absolutely no source materials to provide us with, we can work with you to generate marketing copy and digital images although this may incur an additional cost.
- Do I need to pay you up front?
Sort of. Which is to say that we ask for a 15% deposit plus any expected disbursements (if, for example, we are buying the domain name or web hosting on your behalf) because we can't really be expected to front money on your behalf.
- Why do you insist on a written contract?
Written contracts enable both us and our clients to see what our respective obligations are and to ensure that intellectual property rights are respected.
- Why should I consider a dynamic site over a static one?
If you think that your site is going to require frequent updates to it's content then it will almost certainly be more cost efficient to have a site that you can update yourself without needing to know any HTML.
- Why do dynamic sites cost more than static web sites?
Because they are much, much more work to create. It's significantly more complex to build you tools that allow you to update your own site's content than it is to simply place that content once.
- What is a search engine and why do they matter?
Search engines are things like Google. They matter because they are what most people use to find what they are looking for on the internet and that is why it is important that your website is constructed in a way that performs well on them.
- How can I make the most of my website?
The most basic advice is that you should ensure that your URL (website address) appears on every piece of printed matter that leaves your premises, from carrier bags to letterheads.
- Can I check to see how many people are using a site that you have built?
Yes. We generally place our client's sites with web hosts who provide site usage statistics showing all kinds of information about who is viewing your site and when.
- Will a website that you build be visible on any sort of computer?
Yes! That's pretty much the purpose of web documents they ought to be readable by any combination of computers/operating systems/browsers. In practice, this means that we test our sites on Windows and Apple machines, on the principle browsers on those platforms - Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
Beyond this, minority browsers will only be supported by specific request although the techniques we use to lay out our sites mean that they should be perfectly visible on most platforms.
- Can you sort out email/internet access for us?
Yes we can. This will incur a charge which will largely depend on what sort of IT infrastructure you have in place already (office net access/number of PCs and so on).
- What's a domain? What's hosting? Where can I find good definitions of these terms that may be in a language I can recognise as English?
To massively oversimplify, a Domain is the name used in a web address: e.g. www.thisisadomian.co.uk. Hosting is the service provided that actually holds web sites and related documents & images and makes these available on the internet. A Domain name 'points' to a hosted account so that when people direct their web browsers to an address they are shown the right documents.
A good online encyclopaedia is the wikipedia and they have clear definitions for domain names, web hosting and pretty much any other piece of technobabble we may try and bamboozle you with shortly before hitting you with a quote...
- Why do you favour open-source technologies over brands like Microsoft, Unix & Apple?
Cost & stability - by using open source solutions & software such as the Apache web server, significant savings can be accrued versus a similar hosting package based on proprietary operating systems & servers without compromising reliability or security.
- Are you currently looking for staff?
We are not currently looking to hire any staff so please do not expect a reply to any unsolicited CVs.
