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web design FAQs
Web design Frequently asked questions
If you don’t see your answer below please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
To place an order, simply fill in the online form. This is the quickest and easiest way and will provide me with all the information I need to build your site. If you’ve got any questions and prefer to contact me first, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Your domain is included for the first year. After that it renews at £20 a year. If you prefer to register the domain name yourself that’s no problem. I always register the domain name in your own name, so that you own it.
Your website also needs to “live” somewhere. A website “lives” on a server and this is called hosting. You can either host the website yourself which will cost around £4.50 a month, or I will host it and also carry out software updates for you for just £12 a month.
It’s important to know that if you decide to host the website yourself then you will need to carry out regular updates to keep your site safe, in the same way that you need to update Windows PC’s, Android etc. You will also need to make sure you have extra backups of your website.
Great question. A website “page” is what you can see on one screen by scrolling down as far as you can. If you then click elsewhere, you move to another page. A 4 page website will include Home, About, Services and Contact.
Of course! I offer the 4 page package because that’s what most small businesses need and I know how tight budgets can be when you’re starting out.
If you think you need more pages, this can be discussed when we chat or you can have a look at the Pricing page.
Yes! You will receive training videos on how to update your own website. You’ll be amazed how easy it is, even if you’re a technophobe. It means that you can edit your own site if you want, add pages, images etc.
The first draft is sent to you within 5 working days. I make any tweaks you want and then it’s ready to go live. Exciting stuff!
Absolutely! I can get the first draft to you in 24 hours. There is a £100 surcharge for this service as it involves working outside normal office hours.
You’re right, it is very cheap. I have 16 years experience of building websites so I work very efficiently, plus I’m also harnessing AI to help with the process. This means that it takes me less time, which in turn means that I can pass the savings onto my clients. I used to charge a minimum of £550 for a 4 page website in my old agency because I built everything manually from scratch. AI is amazing and can really help speed the process. A lot of it is still manual, so you still get that personal touch.
If you want more info about how I can offer such cheap websites, please visit this page.
The payment for the website is made by BACS or debit/credit card.
If you choose for me to host and manage the site (£12 a month) this is paid on a recurring payment by debit or credit card each month.
A non-refundable deposit of £50 is paid for me to get started. The final balance is paid when you are 100% happy with the site and ready for it to go live.
If you choose any extras, such as extra pages or a blog or ecommerce, then 50% of the cost is payable as a deposit. So for example if you wanted one extra page (£80), then you would pay the £50 deposit plus 50% of the extra (£40), so £90 in total.
SEO Frequently asked questions
SEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimisation. This is the process of optimising a website to help it get found in Google.
Every single website needs SEO otherwise your site can’t be found in Google. Some web designers (myself included) include SEO as part of a web design build. In my opinion SEO should always be done as part of the build. It does takes extra time to do SEO properly however, so unfortunately not all web design companies include it.
Some websites will rank with a 4 page website and just the included SEO and won’t need any other SEO. However other sites will need to be much larger (Google loves good content) and will need extra SEO in order to rank. How much SEO your site needs really depends on the niche you are in and the amount of competition. For example a client ranks on page one of Google for “small animal boarding Blackpool”, “rabbit boarding Blackpool”, “hamster boarding Blackpool” and lots of other related keywords because there isn’t much competition for small animal boarding. Her site ranks with just the SEO that I include as standard, so she doesn’t need to pay for extra SEO.
Sorry to say “how long is a piece of string” but it’s really impossible to say. Most local businesses start to rank in around 4 months. However ranking a site for a local plumber or electrician for example will take much longer because websites such as Checkatrade, Yell, MyBuilder, TrustaTrader etc dominate page one and they are very hard to beat. It is still possible to rank these sites. It will just take a lot longer.
If you want to rank a site nationally or internationally then it is an absolute minimum of 6 months.
If you get in touch I can give you an estimated time of how long it will take before your site starts ranking.
No. Nobody can. There is something called black hat SEO that can get short term high rankings. However in the long term using these techniques will get your site completely black listed. If anyone is guaranteeing rankings, beware. I have seen black hat techniques ruin businesses overnight.
No. You can cancel at any time. However ranking takes time so I’d recommend at least 6 months or 4 months for a local business that doesn’t have much competition on page one.
A keyword is basically a word of phrase that you type into Google when searching. For example a client ranks on page one of Google for “rabbit boarding Blackpool.” “Rabbit boarding Blackpool” is what is know as a long tail keyword (basically a longer keyword). It’s important to do keyword research so that the site can be optimised for keywords that people are actually looking for. I include keyword research as part of my SEO package.
Google loves well written, good and useful content. While it is possible for your 4 page website to rank (depending on the niche and competition), generally speaking the more content a website has, the easier it is to rank it.
I add pages or posts depending on which will work best for the site. For example a builder website. I would add extra pages for each of the services offered. For example a whole page about extensions, another about renovations, another about rendering etc. This means that when someone searches “house renovations [whatever town]” then Google will see a whole page dedicated to house renovations and are more likely to show that page in the results.
If adding extra pages for services wouldn’t apply to the site (or all the service pages are already built) then I add a blog page and blog posts. Again this would be content relevant to the site, based on relevant keywords to get the site found.
Case studies is also another great way to help the site to rank. For example if you are a kitchen or bathroom fitter than I would create pages with before and after images and some great written content. This is not only great for SEO but also for converting site visitors into paying customers as they can see lots of examples of your work.
In a nutshell, the SEO that I do is different for every single site. I use my 16+ years of ranking websites to do whatever SEO is going to be best for each website.
No. Other companies tell you that if you stop paying them, then the site will stop ranking. However in my experience once a client site is ranking, it tends to stay ranking. This is because I always use SEO best practices, so when there is a major Google algorithm update it’s unlikely that a site will be penalised.
It is however worth keeping an eye on your rankings. Sometimes Google updates are a bit crazy (earlier in 2024 a major Google updated adversely affected millions of websites).
I’m sorry to hear that your site has a Google penalty. This usually only happens if you’re site has stepped outside the Google guidelines. Unfortunately helping a site recover from a penalty is not something I offer. Most businesses find that they need to start again from scratch. Feel free to reach out to me if you’re looking for a cheap website with SEO included as standard.
