We design is such a generic term and can be anything from graphic design for your website through to the look and feel of a whole website. Designing a website needs care and attention, especially because you are wanting visitors to not only love the look and feel of your website but ease of use and visitor flow needs to be considered.
There are templates that you can use to design your site and there are many resources available to do this. It should be noted though that not all aspects of all templates are editable and at some point the frustration of not being able to edit a feature means that you could hit a brick wall and have to start again with a different template.
The web design process should not be confused with web development. Developing a website involves coding and a certain amount of skill to do so. Additional functions such as booking forms, e-commerce functions and process flows on a website can take a lot of development.
Our design process follows the 3 steps below every time and this is a good starting point for you to use to design your website.
The first step is to get a logo. This is important as it will determine the colour scheme of your design. It can prove very difficult to decide what your logo will look like but choosing colours first can help. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel here, make sure your logo is both simple and pleasing to the eye. Get this right and your website will retain the visitors interest.
A big part of any website is images. Get these wrong and it will immediately turn people away from your website. Images should be high in quality and relevant to your business. Decide where your images will go, so for example if you have a number of pages that you will be designing in to your website you will need to set out your image selection based on each page.
Too much text on a page can again put a visitor to your website off. But not having enough text on your website will stop search engines ranking you for the content. There is no hard and fast rule here but have a look at some of your competitors to see what they do for your industry. There is no shame in getting valuable inspiration from your competitors.
There are a number of online software and of course builders to consider. By far, the most commonly used and industry accepted is WordPress. The ease of installation and use makes WordPress the best in class to design your website. There are many online resources available to learn about WordPress and how to install and use it.
Once installed, there are a number of themes available to you for free and or to purchase. Themes normally come with templates to use to assist with the the design your website. In most cases these will come with online help and a number of supporting documents to give you pointers.
WordPress can also be provided by your hosting company in some cases. GoDaddy is one such resource that will provide you with fully managed WordPress. This takes the requirement away from having to install WordPress yourself and is a very good starting point for most start up businesses.
Below are the top 3 reasons to use WordPress
From installing yourself and using themes to using on online WordPress hosting company, this platform is by far the easiest to learn and use. The flexibility of WordPress makes it easy to design a stunning looking website to your exact look and feel requirements.
Yep, WordPress is free and is supported by an open community around the world. There are many resources online to obtain self help with installation through to more complex issues such as getting a contact form to work in the way you need it to.
There are many plugins to use with WordPress. There are free version and paying versions. Most free versions will give you the option to upgrade to the pro version but normally the free version will give you the functions that you need to make your website run.
To install and use WordPress you will need two things:
This is the address of your website and is always what comes after the ‘www’ bit such as www.example.com. There are many registrars but we always recommend 123-reg for ease of use.
Normally hosting can be provided by your Domain registrar but we always advise our clients to have their Domain and hosting separate. If your hosting goes off line your email will not be affected.
See the three steps below to starting your website journey
It is so important for you to own your Domain and you will hear us talk about this throughout our website. Far too many times we hear and have to deal with clients who have let their web company register their Domain for them. This affectively lets your web company own your Domain and can cause issues if you ever wanted to leave them.
Choosing your hosting again should be done carefully. It is normal for your web company to set up hosting for you if you are engaging with them in designing and supporting your website for you. If you are doing this yourself, you will need to find a hosting company that has a good support score and has good feedback from its current clients.
Once you have your hosting and Domain it is time to point your Domain to the hosting. This is where the website will reside. There are normally two records to update, these are @ (Sometime blank) and www. These will need to be pointed to the hosting server IP address. If in doubt then there is a lot of online self help available.
Whether your are embarking on a journey to build your website yourself or you would like us to do it for you, at Brown Booth we have you covered. We can provide hosting through to full website design and development services. Our emphasis is on transparency at all times hence the reason why we always advertise our prices online.
We can provide professional hosting at a reasonable monthly cost which includes a fully managed hosting service. All support is done through our team and our hosting servers are based here in the UK.
In terms of web design itself, we do this at three levels which can be seen below together with their pricing.
Our web design process follows a strict customer journey as shown below.
Our web design process is very strict and flexible to suit our client requirements. All designs follow an iterative process starting with the home page. Once the home page design has been signed off we then move on to the second stage which is development of the rest of the site.
Following a consultative approach, we communicate with our clients every step of the development lifecycle of a website. Once again this follows a strict internal process which ensures that the web development is carried out affectively and to specific requirements.
All of our websites go through a complete audit which includes ensuring that the website is mobile responsive and all elements are working as required including such things as contact forms. Finally, and just as we go live, we fully submit the website to Google for indexing.
We take pleasure in our design capabilities, which are highly adaptable and can meet any customer need or imagination. We provide website design services in Poole, Bournemouth, and Dorset. We can accommodate the design brief of any demands, from those who simply require a web presence to others who want something different.
Below you can see our web design and development prices from basic through to more complex e-commerce style websites.
If you have any questions about anything on this page, please feel free to use the contact form below or call us on 01202 937080.
We have 3 package prices which we have illustrated below. Our talents don’t just stop there, we also build bespoke project based websites to match exact client budgets and requirements.
Nothing is standard about what we do, each website is designed to our client design remits or we can design from scratch. Includes multiple pages, built on WordPress which is the number one content management system used world wide. Benefit from a modern looking website without the cost.
£475 +vat
Everything that is included in our standard service but can include additional functionality that you require to run your business. We can development additional elements such as a booking system and dynamic forms. These can then be linked into your internal systems such as CRM and members area.
£850 +vat
We provide this service on a full consultative approach in terms of a web presence solution. This can include customer journey flows through to full colours, branding and video content. Website will be built in an SEO friendly process including content to improve SEO prior to the site going live.
£POA +vat
We offer three pricing tiers, which we’ve detailed below. Our skills don’t end at website creation; we also create bespoke project-specific websites based on precise client budgets and necessities.
There are many factors that make up an e-commerce website but at the heart of it an e-commerce site is made up of a shop, categories and products. Our standard e-commerce service is specifically aimed at those clients who require a commerce solution which will be built as a framework for them to add categories and products themselves.
£1250 +vat
Everything included in the standard offering but for clients who require next level commerce which includes but not limited to data entry, import/export, data mining services from existing website. We can also include integrations with accounts, store channels such as Amazon, eBay and Autotrader as well as internal stock control and full ERP systems.
£2,750 +vat
We provide full consultative service in terms of a project based website solution, including customer journey flows, colour schemes and video content. Customer journey flows will be incorporated into the site design prior to its launch. This service can include all product optimisation ready for SEO related services.
£POA +vat
Once your website is built and live on the web, we offer comprehensive support from simple day to day technical support through to on site content and design updates as and when required.
We offer two levels of support:
Fixed monthly cost which allows our customers to budget this in to their business. This includes all technical support and changes to the website depending on what fixed cost is agreed. Hosting and SSL security certification are also included.
Standard Brochure £35 +vat per month
Advanced Brochure £50 +vat per month
Standard E-Commerce £60 +vat per month
Advanced E-Commerce £99 +vat per month
Ad-Hoc support can be provided, but as with all of our services we like to be fully transparent with how we work. With Ad-Hoc support we will provide technical support for the website and changes to the website on an as and when we can get to it basis, dependent on our contracted customer demands at that time.
£45 +vat per hour (Minimum 1 hour)
£99 +vat per year hosting
£99 +vat per year SSL Certificate