Frequently Asked Questions

Website Design & Development

What is the difference between a Website Designer and a Website Developer?

There are two separate skills sets that are required to build a website, each is characterised by the terms Website Designer and Website Developer.

The Website Designer creates the concept of the website normally in the form of a image(s) representing all the graphical features of the website.

The Website Developer uses the designs created by the Designer and then uses HTML and other media to produce the final website.

What do I need to provide you with to produce me a website design?

Simply your likes, dislikes and requirements.

Take a look around the internet and make a note of all the websites you like, listing what parts of these websites that you like, such as colours, textures, and features. It is also very useful to know what you don't like too.

In addition if you are planning on having additional features, such as E-commerce or a Search these features should be designed into your initial design as adding these features later may require amendments or even a redesign if they cannot be accommodated by the initial design

The more information you can provide your designer with the more likely that the first design will be what you are looking for, and will last you a long time.

What stages do the development of a website go through?

The development of each website is different but they all go through the following basic stages:

Stage 1 - Website Design - A flat image is produced which gives an accurate representation of what one or more pages of the website could look like.
Stage 2 - Template - Once a design has been agreed upon the design is converted into a template from which the web pages can be constructed.
Stage 3 - Content - Once the template has been built the web pages can be created and the content (text, images etc) are added.
Stage 4 - SEO - Often done after the website has been created, but can be done at the same time as the content is being added. Small changes and additions are made to the web pages with each pages targeted search engine keywords.
Stage 5 - Additional Content - After optimisation most websites go live and then any additional features are added, such as E-commerce or Newsletters.

How quickly can you produce a website for me?

The development time required to build most websites is short, only a few days. However most website take longer to produce as there are several stages of development that cannot take place without client approval, such as the finalisation of the design and the delivery of the content.

How much will a new website cost me?

There are quite a few factors that are going to affect the cost of your web site. The main ones are:

The number of pages your website will have
The graphic (image) work involved
How interactive your website will be

You will also need web hosting and a domain name.

If you want an estimate to the cost of developing your website contact us on 01626 853 672.

Can you take over the day-to-day updating of my website?

Yes, if you have the connection details for your current website and you have access to any additional files or information.

What is site maintenance?

Site maintenance is the process of keeping your website up-to-date with the latest information.

This fresh content is what will keep your visitors coming back to your website, and helps with your marketing.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search Engine Optimisation, also commonly known as SEO, is the process of increasing the volume of traffic arriving at a given website through natural search engine listings. This is done by increasing the overall ranking of web pages and through increasing the ranking of targeted keywords or phrases.

To learn more about Search Engine Optimisation click here.

How often should I optimise my website?

It can take several weeks for the search engines to update the listings for your website, so any changes you make to your content may not be found for several weeks. This makes changing your keywords to trying to improve your listings is a slow process that you should revisit every couple of weeks.

I've optimised my website but I'm still not getting more visitors?

Search Engine Optimisation is not an exact science, you will not get it right first time, take a another look at your keywords, have a look at your website tracking and see if you can target your marketing more. e.g. adding locational words such as Towns and Villages.

I have increased my website traffic, but not my business, what have I done wrong?

The most common reason is that your visitors are not finding what they are looking for from your website. There are two reasons why this can be:

Badly Targeted Keywords - Any visitor is not good visitor. You want to attract visitors that could be interested in the service you provide, if they are not looking for what you have to offer they will contact you.
Inadequate Content - Once a visitor finds your website, you have to convince them to contact you. One of the biggest causes of this is unreadable content caused by trying to fit in too many keywords and no longer being human readable.

Website Hosting

What is Website Hosting?

Website Hosting is a form of Internet Hosting Service that allows people access to your website via your domain name.

Do you provide website hosting?

Yes, our website hosting package starts from £30pa, and are all hosted on servers provided by Demon, and are located on the Superfast London Fibre Optic Internet backbone.

What facilities are available?

All our hosting packages include access to MySQL, PHP 5, Perl, POP3/FTP.

How much will it cost me to host my website with you?

Our website hosting package starts from £30pa.

I'm currently hosted with another provider, is it difficult to transfer?

Most website can be moved without too much problem, please contact us on 01626 853 672 to find out more.

Domain Names

What is a domain name?

A domain name is a specific web site address that you choose, this name should either have relevance to your business or be the name of your business.

Where should I go to buy my domain names?

There are many registration companies available on the internet, all offering different packages, some include hosting and others don't.

You do not need to host with the same company that you register your domain names with, so I would recommend the cheapest place you can to buy your domain names. For this reason I recommend 123-reg.

Is what I call my website / domain name important?

Yes, a short easy to remember web address is more likely to draw you visitors. Also the search engines give very high emphasis to keywords in your domain name.

Additional

When can I contact you?

Standard opening hours are Monday to Friday 9:30am - 5:00pm.

I need to contact you out of hours is this possible?

Out of hours contact can be made via appointment. In the event of an emergency contact may be made without appointment, but availability cannot always be guaranteed.

Do you offer any forms of discount?

Yes, we offer discounts for schools and non profit organisations.

We also run a recommend a friend scheme click here for more details.

Allied Surveyors West Midlands

Residential Property Surveying and Valuations