Everything you need to know about working with us

How much time will this take?

From experience we allow about 8-12 weeks, and will confirm this once we have your final requirements. The timing also depends on how quickly you provide feedback, decisions and content for the website throughout this collaborative process.

How much time do I need to dedicate to this?

Consider investing at least 2 to 3 hours per week. This is essential to doing your branding work and enables you to get the best out of our expertise and experience. You will also need to set aside time to write your content, with our help. If you need to commission new images, you’ll also need to factor this in.

How much contact will I have with you and what method of contact?

We will communicate throughout the process via email or phone – with Zoom calls if required, at the key phases of the project – allow up to 5 calls of up to 60 mins each. If more calls are required we may have to provide an estimate of fees for this. If you want to talk to us in person there may be extra costs for time and travel.

What happens if I’m not happy?

The way we work means that we discuss the work at every stage of development. You’ll sign off the work at key stages before moving forward to the next step.

Can I change things on the website myself?

At the end of the website build we provide a number of video screen recordings showing you how to edit basic content on your website and add new images and blogs. Clients find this really useful. If more in-depth training is required, then this is charged at an hourly rate of £45. 

Can you change things for me?

Yes, we charge an hourly rate or competitive daily rates for extra changes – or we can look at on ongoing monthly retainer.

What are your websites built on?

All our websites are built using WordPress and are hosted on your own hosting or on our recommended hosting. We use WordPress because it allows anyone to pick up the work should you choose to go elsewhere or we are not around, and is also flexible and scalable.

What theme / plugins do you use?

We use a premium theme which is highly flexible, customisable, well supported and easy to update. It is also clean, fast and SEO friendly. Clients find it very easy to use.

We also use a range of reputable free WordPress plugins to provide extra functionality, depending on the needs of your project (some are free, some you may need to pay for depending on your requirements). In all cases we source from reputable developers and ensure we have tested plug-ins before adding them to your website. We can advise on options and costs before using a premium plug-in if needed.

Can I use my own theme and plugins?

We only use our own proven premium theme. When it comes to plug-ins, however, by all means please do let us know and we’ll look and see if this is possible. 

Where will you host my site and does the cost include domain names?

We offer our own reliable UK hosting which is fast, 100% uptime and is powered by 100% renewable energy. It also includes a free Let’s Encrypt SSL Certificate as standard (required now for all sites) and you can add on email addresses for a small cost – or you can use your own paid for Gmail or Office365 emails. Hosting costs from £100 a year for a standard website or is included in our WordPress Support Packages starting from £30 a month.

Domain names are not included. We recommend you purchase domain names yourself and can advise where to buy so you are in control. Prices range from £10 up to £30 per year or more for a specialised domain. We are always happy to advise before you purchase, so do get in touch.

Can I use my own hosting provider?

Possibly, but there may be additional costs as it means more time on set up, moving the website over from test to live and learning new systems and processes. You may not get free SSL (security certificate which is required now) included.

Please note that in these cases, we may not be able to help with optimising and speeding the site up, or carry out ongoing maintenance and updates for you. 

We have often encountered many problems with different hosting companies: these include being slow, sites going down often, the SSL certificate expiring every 3 months leaving the site insecure, servers not being updated and so on. Also be aware that the hosting you use may affect the speed of your website, SEO and search rankings, depending on how reliable they are, how fast they are and where the datacentres are located. We can discuss this with you in more detail so you can decide what suits you best.

Do you include emails with hosting and help set these up?

We offer IMAP/POP email addresses with our hosting up to 1GB per email for a small yearly fee. We create the email addresses and provide you with configuration details which you can then use to set up email on your phone, computer or email client (Outlook, via Gmail etc). We can help you set up via free Gmail only and there is a small cost for this.

Many clients find it more reliable to go with a provider like Office365 or G Suite which are paid solutions. For this we would refer you to an IT specialist to help you get set up if you cannot do it yourself. 

Do you include SEO and will my website show up on Page 1 of Google once launched?

SEO is a complex process and it does not mean you will suddenly show up on page 1 for certain search criteria, especially if there is a lot of competition for those search terms. SEO takes time and involves a lot of variables such as keywords, content, how many people visit your site, how long they stay and more.

We include fundamental SEO which includes using WordPress which is SEO friendly, a clean theme, good hosting, optimise images, and use headings correctly. We can then give you advice on what you can do to improve it.

If you want us to add SEO titles, focus key phrases and meta descriptions for search that you provide, we can add them in (using Yoast SEO). This will only apply to main pages on website.

For further SEO optimisation and link building we can refer you to an SEO specialist who can help improve your search results and where you show up.

What about ongoing updates to WordPress, themes and plugins and other updates?

Like every computer needs regular updates to anti-virus software, so your WordPress website needs maintenance to keep it updated and secure. The backend system, plugins and themes are regularly updated by the developers/makers (sometimes several times a week) in order to fix security loopholes and bugs or to be compatible with other plugins and software. This keeps your website more secure and running optimally. 

It is crucial to stay on top of these updates or risk compromising the site – and possible hefty costs to clean it and restore it.

Most people find these regular updates overwhelming and also are nervous that doing an update could break the site (which sometimes it can if the system and plugins have not quite caught up with each other in order to be compatible).

We can take care of that for you if you sign up to one of our WordPress Support Packages which includes hosting:

• Eco Hosting – you take care of the backups and regular updates to WordPress, themes and plugins – £100 per year
• WordPress Support Package – £30 per month – includes updates to WordPress core, theme and plugins (not content), regular backups, checking server and cache settings when changes are made to keep site optimised.
• WordPress Support Plus Package – £60 per month – Everything in WordPress Support Package plus 30 minutes per month of content and page edits or additions or this could be used for tech support.

Please note – these updates support packages are only available if you use our hosting. This is because we know it well and how to quickly get good support. We cannot guarantee this service when dealing with other hosting companies, or we may not have full access to the server control panel.

Please note – we cannot fully guarantee the site from being compromised or hacked. Likewise if you make changes and something goes wrong and we need to fix anything, there will be a cost involved for either of these situations. Sometimes it is fairly quick and we can just reinstall a backup but in some cases the website may need to be cleaned and so we have to outsource this and it will cost more.  We also recommend that if you are making edits to the site, that you use very secure passwords, do not use public WiFi, and have protection or anti-virus software on your computer. Things like this rarely occur but we need to make you aware.

What extra costs are involved on top of the fees given in the proposal (unless mentioned in the deliverables)?

• Cost of domain names and hosting
• Ongoing Support and Maintenance
• Help with setting up emails on your device or via Outlook/Gmail etc
• Any paid for email like Office365 or Google Workplace or help with setting up
• Premium plugins / integrations such as bookings, events, shopping cart add-ons – many are free but it depends on what you require
• Setting up various systems such as Mailchimp, Eventbrite, YouTube, Google Business Listing, Social Media channels
• Extra pages, landing pages, complex sliders, loading of products and galleries
• Moving old blogs to your new website
• Doing redirects from an old site to new site
• Copywriting and images (including searching for images)
• Custom graphics and icons
• SEO – we include fundamental SEO as previously mentioned in the FAQs

Will there be any hidden costs, or will I get a surprise bill for extras?

There is always a degree of flexibility in the way we work but we like to give a good framework and have an open and honest conversation about when things are going out of the scope of the project. So, if during the process things change or something new is added we will raise this with you.

Please note that sometimes what seems like a small simple thing to do, can require quite a lot of work, and needs to be costed as extra. Other changes may be just a small job so we may include within agreed fees.

Either way we will always discuss items with you first, and advise on costs and work to find the best solutions depending on budgets or requirements. So, you are never going to just get a surprise bill after the work is done.