Making Your Website: What to Expect

Many clients don't realise what goes into making their website, and what is required of them to bring the project to a conclusion. We've broken the process down to help you plan ahead.

Consultation

Before providing a quote for making your website, we'll want to meet with you to get an idea of your individual needs. We can go to your premises, or you can come to us. For our overseas clients, a telephone meeting will do.

From this consultation we can see if one of our packages will meet your needs, or if a more tailored solution is required. We will then provide you with a full proposal detailing your site's features and their costs, along with a copy of our standard Terms and Conditions. If you require visual design concepts as part of the proposal, we can create these at our normal hourly rate.

We will also try to give you an estimated timescale of when we expect to begin and complete the work. Because our services are in high demand, our schedule is usually quite full. In some cases, we may have to timetable your work some weeks or months ahead. In exceptional circumstances, we may be able to move your work ahead at additional cost, but this will depend on the flexibility of other clients as their work will need to be rescheduled.

If you have any specific domain names in mind for your website, we recommend you buy them as early as possible.

Getting Started

Before we begin work, we will need you to give us a letter of engagement along with a deposit for a percentage of the quoted price. We can then supply you with an outline of the content required for the site.

Gathering Content

This can be the most challenging part of the project. While we'll do everything we can to help you, it is ultimately the client's responsibility to provide content. Without the basic information about your business, the website can't progress. Forward planning is key; you should begin gathering your information as early as possible.

When websites run over schedule, in most cases it's because the client has not been able to supply content. If you have the basic information that you want to get across, but no time to word it, remember you can avail of our copywriting service at our normal hourly rate.

Design

If you have a well established business identity we can base designs around that. We'll create mock-ups of the site's design for your approval. If a graphic designer has been brought in, we will work closely with them to establish overall themes.

Construction

This part of the process is normally relatively quick, assuming we have been supplied with all the site's content. This stage can't progress unless you have given us all the information required.

Going Live

Once the site has been tested and approved by the client, we'll make it live on the Internet at the appropriate domain.