Website Design Questions Answered by Webcouk

Q) My key question, specifically how does bespoke and non-bespoke designs differ?

As this is your key question I will answer this first – as it may help understanding in other areas. By definition bespoke is “made to order”, “custom built”, “built to specifications”. This can be confusing as it appears to imply that any non bespoke package offered is the opposite- i.e. not built to spec, however this is not the case.

When we use the term bespoke it is used in the context as any additional functionality added to the website, that we do not already include within a package.

Q) Do people use templates or are the designs 100% custom or customised templates.

How do your designs/service differ from others?

We build all our websites from scratch and do not use templates. A lot of web companies provide a library of templates to choose from and some choose from such a library and don’t mention it. This probably is a good way for them to cut the costs and doesn’t mean that your website won’t work, however the question to ask yourself is whether you’d be happy having a website that looks just the same as so many others. Perhaps not the best marketing approach. So your son has raised an important point.

Q) So I can compare prices accurately please give me an idea of what other people might hide as extras within their prices or where cheaper quotes might cut corners. The website will be very important to us and we need to get it right first time.

There are thousands of web companies to choose from and how they market their websites will vary to a large extent. An example of cutting corners is the use of templates, however there are countless others from the hosting they use, to not using images that they have the rights to, from outsourcing the development to incompetent developers to misleading you to purchase a product that you don’t require….and it goes on and it doesn’t necessarily mean that if you pay more for a website – that the company you are using isn’t still cutting corners.

I’d argue that the most important question in your selection process will be – “who can I trust to build a website to fit my requirements?”.

Q) What is the order process and how long will each process take until completion?

On agreeing to a specification and price we normally split each website into 3 sections:

Design: Here a design is constructed for you and agreed on before progressing to the next stage.

Build: Here the design is turned from a static picture into a working website.

Go Live: Here the built website is uploaded onto a web server and your website is accessible for everyone to see.

Time for each stage can vary depending on several factors:

      a) The website specification.

      b) The time it takes for a client to respond on queries.

      c) Developer availability.

A more accurate ETA can be provided at the time of agreeing to a specification.

Q) We have a logo and can provide 2 or 3 images, will this be enough? How do you compose the text for the site or do we have to write it?

As important as the website design is the content of a website. Not only does it provide a better purpose for people looking at your site, but good content helps in gaining a good place in search engines. The amount of content you have available will also govern your page requirement. If it was only a few paragraphs available then you’d be better advised to start with a smaller amount of pages. The way a website is designed will need to take into account the amount of text or pictures you wish to display. A few marketing companies will write the text for you, although they normally come from a “Marketing” background rather than a web design and development one, and this could mean perfectly phrased text on a not so great website.

That said we do have our own marketing specialists in house – for a chargeable extra we could help you out on the text if required. Generally companies have brochures or previous marketing campaigns etc that they use.

Q) Please advise on what our specific requirements might be, what does your price include which others might not? I am thinking of an 6 or so page website providing details about our business and the service we offer plus a contact page?

As afore mentioned – it would not be in your best interests for anyone to guess at your requirements, as a few more questions would need to be asked to better define your specification – otherwise you will not be getting a like for like comparison. So I suggest perhaps if you would like to call us we can discuss further.

You mention that you just want to know how much it will cost to be up and running and any annual/ongoing fees thereafter. I’ll make several assumptions to help regarding budgeting, although definitely recommend a chat, because your real requirements may turn out to be a 3 page website!

I return to the most important question – can you trust us to deliver?

We have designed websites for multinational companies who we are proud to retain as our customers.

All our developments we are creating in-house by our own competent UK based development team.

Webcouk is part of JPC Infonet Ltd – which means we can securely host all websites we create in our own secure hosting centres – with residual connectivity ensuring your website will be accessible and in safe hands.

How to choose a web design company?

Whether looking for a website design to launch your new business venture or considering a redesign to re-establish your web presence, how do you choose who to go with and how much should you be paying?

With so many companies to choose from and such a range of prices, we are including a few of the considerations that should be taken into account.

Establish exactly what you are trying to achieve and your available budget.

When establishing your requirements imagine you are designing and building a house, it is a lot less costly to make changes to the design before the build has started, it is same with web development. So the more detail you can establish now, the better. A good web design company will give you an indication as to which of your requirements are straight forward and which will put the quoted price up. Taking the time to describe how you would like parts of the website to appear (design), and what you would like them to do (functionality) are very important, otherwise you are relying on other people interpretations. Professional web companies will let you discuss this with a developer. Taking the time to communicate during web projects is both the responsibility of the client and the design company and can have a big impact on a successful completion.

Your budget will give you something to work from later when you seek quotations.

Establish what is important to you in your relationship with the chosen web design company.

Your choice of web design company can have big connotations to the cost of the project, however is cost really the most important aspect to you? In any case it is worth considering how your typical web design company will decide on what price to quote you. The biggest cost will be the time used of human resources (designers, developers, admin, project  management).  This is a big reason why you will find a lot of the cheapest web quotes are from overseas developers. Other companies (either openly disclosed or not), choose to outsource parts of their web projects overseas, in a bid to compete with the lower costs provided by overseas developers. In the short term both of these options sound more appealing then maybe paying a bit more for an entirely UK based operation to build your website and if you have a new website every few months, maybe this option is for you. However please consider a month or two down the line when:  a new requirement to have a new section added to the site or you need a hand with the web admin section that you have just tried for the first time, or a bug is discovered in the site, or maybe the designer didn’t use royalty free images and now you are being sued. If your cheap and cheerful overseas developer has now moved on, it will be costly to repair the damage. Hence “you get what you pay for” and “if you don’t pay now, you’ll end up paying later” are relevant.

Other cost cutting methods that some web companies use are templates. They have a library of semi built sites and you are given the choice of designs from this library, they then change the title and a picture or two. Sounds cheaper, so what are the draw backs? The main draw back is that your website will look exactly the same as countless others on the Internet. If establishing an Internet identity is not so important and your site is purely for personal use, then this is an option that might be worth considering. For any business that is serious about properly representing their brand, ensure that the web company you approach, not only does not use templates, but makes each design from scratch.

Webcouk is a UK based design company. Currently using our own UK Web Development team only for all projects. Every design is unique and templates are not used. Webcouk have a strong portfolio of quality built websites and are happy to discuss your website design queries. As a UK based web design company, Webcouk believe in providing the best service for our customers. Please call free on  0800 5426 555 or email info@webcouk.co.uk if you have any enquiries.

 Further friendly advice to follow.

Best Regards,

The Team at Webcouk.

ABOUT US

Designing a website is probably one of the most important aspects that any business needs to consider.
 
Our web designers and bespoke programmers take considerable pride in making sure that when a website is developed by WEBcouk not only does the website look professional, but also follows good website design usability practice, in order to ensure your potential and existing customers can use the website with ease.
 
At WEBcouk we have built many types of website. These can range from simple brochure type websites, to highly sophisticated, ecommerce, content editable websites for small, medium and large companies.
 
Our UK based website design and development team have many years of experience, and will be able to design a website that not only looks great, but operates to your bespoke website design requirements.
 
Once the web project has been completed, we are even able to host your website, provide business email, domain name registration (for search engines) and secure website user statistics within our very own UK website design multi-server hosting environment.
 
At WEBcouk there is no middle man, just a group of web designers, project co-coordinators and programmers, with a 13 year proven track record for delivering superb websites at affordable UK prices.
 
Our web designers will ensure that we speak plain English and ensure that your project is delivered to the specifications as agreed at the very start of the web design project.
 
Our designers understand the need to listen to your feedback along the web development cycle and relish your input at any given stage. In order to ensure that you have complete visibility of the development of your website, you can logon to our very own secure development server and view progress anytime you choose.
 
We have won many prestigious website design contracts and have highly successful relationships within both the private and public sector. Trust is a word that symbolises our ethos as professional web designers, which is why we continue to work with many customers who repeatedly utilise our skills on a continual basis.
 
The design team wish to make your life as easy as possible, and at WEBcouk you will find a web design team committed to your project as if were their very own business. The phase ‘websites with passion’ is a saying used by our web development team, that has helped WEBcouk to become one of the top website design companies in the United Kingdom.
 
All of us at WEBcouk hope that you enjoy looking over our website design portfolio and please do not hesitate to contact our friendly website design team for a free (no commitment) website design quotation.
 

WEBcouk

Website:	www.webcouk.co.uk
Email:	info@webcouk.co.uk
Free Phone:	0800 5426 555

UK Development Vs Oversees Development

What makes a UK company choose a website design company who create websites in-house as opposed to using a website design company who outsource their projects to the likes of India?

The answer (in my opinion) is simple – because any company who outsource projects oversees simply cannot control the project as well as if created in-house and as such the work performed is simply not as good as if created by a website development team in the UK.

www.webcouk.co.uk