FAQ's

Q. I know I need a website, but I have no idea where to start or even exactly what I need - can you still help?

A. YES. We don't aim to dazzle you with techno-babble and will endeavour to help you make decisions every step of the way, offering advice and expertise where needed. We are able to offer you a full requirements analysis service where we will assess your business's needs and will come up with a suitable web proposal. You don't need to know anything about IT, the internet or design to work with us.

Q. I already have a website but it needs some updating - do you offer that service?

A. YES. We will update website's with fresh content or with new graphics and navigation. All we ask is that we are given full access to the server by your ISP so we can update your pages. We'll need the address and a username and password before we can access your site on another ISPs server. For a quote please contact us directly with your requirements here

Q. Do you offer web hosting?

A. YES. CWD can host your website for you and if you wish, we can arrange all of this side of things for you. This service is subject to an additional setup and hosting charge unless stated otherwise.

Q. What is a domain name / What is a URL?

A. A domain name is the name that a business or individual uses to represent them on the internet. Your domain name forms the basis of your web address or URL i.e. www.yourbusiness.co.uk and you can choose from a variety of suffixes including .co.uk, .com, .info and so on.

Q. How do I get a domain name?

A. The easiest way is to let us do that for you. We can both register your domain and host your website for you as part of our website package for you.

If you would prefer to do things yourself then to obtain a domain name you first need to find a name that is free. Make sure that your chosen domain name is either your business name, or contains key words that will enable people to easily find your site. For example a cake shop called 'Hillaries Designs' would be much better off with a domain name like www.hillariescakes.co.uk or www.cakeshop.co.uk as you can get a good idea of what the website is about just from the URL (this is particularly important for SEO purposes).

Once you have found a domain name that is free you will need to purchase it. There are lots of companies that will register a domain name for you - you pay them a fee and they arrange the legal ownership, typically for a 2 year period, after which time you will have to renew your domain name.

For domain name registration , we recommend the following:

Cheap Web Hosting & Domain Names from 123-Reg >>

Web hosting & Domain names from Brinkster >>

Q. I have a domain name but have been told I now need a host, is this right?

A. Once you have a domain name, if you are going to do anything with (i.e. have a website) and providing you didn't buy it as part of a hosting package then yes, you will need to find somewhere to 'host' your website. For this you need to find an ISP. As with domain name registrations, prices vary. Many people look to their existing service provider (the person who currently provides you with internet access via a modem or via broadband) for this service but looking around can save you money.

Please rRefer to 'Do you offer hosting?' above.

Q. How long will it take you to design my website?

A. This depends entirely upon the size and scope of the individual project. Once you have filled in a website brief form we will give you, as part of your quote, a timescale indication. We endeavour to be a flexible as possible and if you have a specific timescale in mind let us know and we will tell you if we think meeting your needs within that timescale will be possible or not.

Because of the way we work with our clients a lot of time can be taken up waiting for clients to approve various stages of design or to come back to us with amendments. The overall length of the project is heavily influenced by how quickly you communicate back to us and how quickly you are able to get content to us.

Q. What if I don't like the website you design?

A. To try and minimalise any nasty shocks we offer a pre-design service which means we provide you with 2 visual website mock-ups before we go ahead and build your site for real. This not only provides you with time to refine and amend your requirements, but it means the end product will be something you have had as little or as much input into creating as you want. Its surprising how many people think a green background, red text and a flashing logo will look nice - when we mock it up and they see what this actually looks like minds soon change! its a pretty extreme example but similar things frequently happen.

Q. What if I don't like the website mock ups?

A. This is where things get a little more awkward. The mocks we present you will be based upon the information you have given us and our designers interpretation, taking into account a number of additional key factors including basic good design principles, competitor website's, market sector and so on. When it occurs that clients like neither of the proposed designs this is normally down to a lack of communication or wooly requests, however, this is rarely a problem.

We give you the option of having as much or as little input into the site design as you want. We don't need you to be bursting with ideas, but if you are, we need to understand them so we can design to meet them. Often clients will like a combination of the two visuals, which is fine, and means a 3rd and final mock is created before progression onto building the website proper.

We aim to be helpful and flexible at every step of the way but 2 visual mock-ups is our normal maximum, with 1 revision on top of that if required. If you want more choice at the mock up stage just ask and we'll simply add a little onto your quote to cover this.

Q. What happens when the website is finished?

A. Once finished and approved we will send you your final invoice. Once payment has been received and cleared, we will either upload the website to the internet or if you prefer we will provide you with a copy of your website on disk. Once completed the site is yours to do with as you wish.

Q. What are your payment terms?

A. Our terms dictate that we require payment within 10 working days of the date of all invoices. Any unpaid monies will result in your site being removed (i.e. taken down from the internet and a 'sorry this site is down for maintenance work' holding page will replace your website) or, your sites code and graphics will not be released to you until payment has been received in full.

Q. How do I know how many people are visiting my site?

A. If you want, we can add some code to your website that will add an invisible page counter. You will then be able to log into the tracking account and find out what your traffic is like and where it is coming from.

Q. I've had a website for a while now and am getting less than fifty visitors a week! Why?

A. Just because you have a website, it does not mean people are suddenly going to start visiting it! you need to tell people about it. Make sure you update all of your printed literature to include your URL, tell all your new customers about it and actively encourage use of your site to all existing customers. As well as marketing your website offline you can also do lots of things online to help increase traffic.

Visit message boards relating to your products/service and tell people to visit! Agree to exchange links or banners with other sites. Get your site listed in the many numerous paid and free internet directories that exist. Pay to advertise on portals...There are lots of things you can do, and CWD have more experience than most web designers in how to help you grow your online traffic, just let us know what your objectives are and we can develop a strategy to help you meet them.

Q. How do we go about starting the design process?

A. Once you decide you would like to use CWD we ask that you fill in a brief. It doesn't take long to do and this document provides us with an outline of the work you want doing and allows us to put together a quote including costing and projected timescales.

Before we start designing your website visuals, we will normally ask for a non-refundable deposit of 25% of the total fee. Once your website is completed and approved, but before we release the coding and design to you or upload it on your behalf, we'll invoice you for a second time and ask that the remaining 75% is paid. As soon as the final payment is received your site will be released to you or put live on the web.

Q. I have a website, but I can't find it in Google/Yahoo/AltaVista. Why is this?

A. Just having a website does not mean that you will automatically get listed in any search engines. To get listed in a search engine a number of factors come into play, including how your site was coded and put together (is it search engine friendly?), the market you operate within, the sites user friendliness and inbound and outbound links. In addition, your site is likely NOT to be indexed and listed in a search engine unless it has been manually submitted to a specific engine.

Also because you can't see your site in the listings, It does not mean that your site isn't listed! Getting a top 5 or even a 1st page listing is almost unheard of for a new or small website (depending on competition) so don't expect your website to be the first thing that pops up when you do a search for it!

Q. How do I get my website to the 1st page of the search engines?

In years gone by, to get a good position in a search engine was relatively easy. You could employ a number of tricks of the trade to ensure your site was riding high, but along with the explosion in the number of website's and the diversity of subjects covered by website's, search engines have had to become ever more sophisticated in their ability to rank and filter their results.

Every UK and international search engine has a different set of rules that will determine how attractive or useful a site is in their eyes. Complex algorithms are in place that check a massive number of variants that each have an effect on the search engines perceived 'value' of your site. If your site is deemed highly relevant and valuable, then your site will be listed higher than a site of lower value.

Creating sites that are high in value is the Holy Grail of all Search Engine Optimisers. SEO is difficult because not only are there different rules for every search engine, but the rules continually change, and keeping up to date with the best practice guidelines of the major engines is a full time task that many web designers completely overlook. Becuase there are different engines with different rules it is simply not possible to adhere to every rule - for example, whilst Google might specify 12 keywords in the META description, Yahoo might specify 14. Too few and your site is seen as 'less relevant' or 'valuable' too many and you can get marks against you for 'spamming'. SEO is a delicate balancing act and we can help tip the balance in your favour.

We'll look at the most prevalent rules and ensure your website adheres to them as closely as possible. We can't offer the impossible promise of a 1st place position, but we can ensure your website has a very strong, fighting chance of getting listed and ranked well.

As well as many years of experience in this area CWD also use advanced page and website analysis tools that will crawl your site and pinpoint areas that can be improved, ensuring that when we have finished the SEO process the odds will be stacked firmly in your favour.

Q. I've heard that sites don't need to be submitted to search engines as they will get listed anyway, is this true?

A. Yes, search engines do send out their 'robots' or 'spiders' all the time to roam the web and pick up new sites to add to the engines listings, but with the sheer volume of website's, it is more sensible to manually submit your site to the engine, rather than leave it to chance. Once a robot or spider has visited your website, it will still take 3-4 months before you are listed, if at all!

Q. My site was submitted to Google/Yahoo/AltaVista a month ago and we are still not coming up in the search results. What's gone wrong?

A. Nothing has gone wrong. Yahoo and AltaVista routinely take around 4 months + before they will index a new website and since December 2004, Google now takes between 3-4 months before it will list your site. You must be prepared to wait, and eventually, your site WILL get listed.

Whether your site comes up or not, also depends on the keywords you are using to search for your site. Whatever keywords you use, the site should be optimised towards these. The same words should appear in headings and text throughout your site and in hidden (META) content, expressly for the benefit of search engines. For this reason, we offer an additional Search Engine Optimisation service, normally taken as a secondary service once a website has been designed.

Although as standard your site will be coded to ensure it is search engine friendly, further optimisation will probably be required in the future to help you improve your sites visibility.