FAQ

This very much depends on your needs, and the complexity of the website. You should allow at a very minimum 3 weeks if your website is fairly straightforward with just a handful of pages. More complex websites can take up to 8 weeks, which includes time for you to request revisions to the layout and loading all the text and graphics.

The frequency of contact between us will largely be driven by you based on your availability. I know some clients are busy and would rather contact me directly when they need an update. However, as a rule of thumb, we will be in touch at least once a week as I complete milestones on your website design.

Contact will be either by email, telephone or Skype – whichever is your preference.

Whilst I am based in Surrey, UK, geographically I can cover anywhere.

Whilst this means I might not be able to meet with you personally, I am always happy to speak with you on the phone or have a Skype call. Even using Skype, we can still review your site by using Skype’s screen sharing facility.

Yes. Every website I design is secured using SSL, meaning that when someone views your website, it will start with ‘https://’. This ensures any data sent over the internet will be secure and encrypted. This is particularly important if you use online booking or take payments online. This gives your customers confidence and peace of mind when doing business with you. Google also favours SSL encrypted websites when indexing your site putting your site above those without ‘https’ in search results.

All websites are built using WordPress. They are hosted on a highly optimised auto-scaling WordPress infrastructure. This infrastructure has been fine tuned to ensure WordPress websites load fast. If you wish to move your website to another host, I can supply a backup of your WordPress website. However, I cannot guarantee that your website will continue to properly function when not hosted on my chosen hosting platform.

As part of the design and build process, I use Elementor to control the design of the website. Whilst your website is hosted on my infrastructure, the cost of the Elementor license is included. If you decide to move away from my hosting, you will need to purchase your own license of Elementor Pro.

Additionally, I also bundle other products as part of your monthly maintenance and hosting cost, including UpDraft Plus for backups and RankMath Business for SEO management. If you move away from my hosting solution, these products will be removed or downgraded.

If you do decide to host your website on another platform other than mine, it is with regret that I will not be able to offer support for the website once moved to your new host unless we agree a monthly maintenance fee.

Once your site is completed to your satisfaction you will receive an invoice from me. My preferred method of payment is using internet banking. My invoice will contain all the information you will need to make a direct payment to me from your online banking system, or in your local branch.

Your final invoice will be for the remaining balance of work completed less the initial deposit that you paid at the beginning.

Each website is as individual as the business or service that it’s for. Depending on what you need on your website, the cost will vary. Some things that will impact the cost of the website include:

• The amount of work needed to design the website – whether it’s a simple or complex design
• How many pages are needed
• Whether you need an e-commerce platform
• Whether you need to incorporate third-party services, such as Acuity Scheduling, and whether you need me to set these up for you on your behalf

Because of this, each website build is priced individually, but you can get a rough idea of costs from my Design, Hosting and Extra’s page.

In order to get a better idea of your requirements, it would be helpful if you would complete my online Website Creative Brief.

Before any work can begin on designing your new website, I will need to take an initial deposit for 50% of the final cost. This is a non-refundable deposit and it covers my initial costs in designing and preparing to host your website.

Absolutely. If you don’t live in the UK or have a UK bank account, let me know the currency you will be paying in before I issue you the estimate for work. My charges will then be converted from £GBP to whatever currency you’d like to pay in.

Please note: if the cost of your website is more the £500, I may need to add a small surcharge to the cost of the website to cover non-sterling transaction fees incurred by myself if paying via debit or credit card. This surcharge will be waived if you pay by direct bank transfer and you accept the transaction costs to be applied by your bank in your local currency.

Yes, I do. For a fixed monthly amount, I can make any amendments to your site. The initial price will be for a 2 hour block of time in any one month. If you need more changes than the 2 hour window will cover each month, you can purchase additional hours to ‘top-up’ your allocated time.

Alternatively, if you just want an ad-hoc change to your site, you can contact me advising of the changes and I will send you an estimate for those changes which, once done, will be invoiced to you.

If you already have a website and you’re looking to move away from your current provider (either host or designer or both), then please get in touch with me to discuss your requirements. Initially, I will need to look at your website to understand how it has been built to determine whether I will be able to support you.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of ensuring keywords appear in your web pages and in the metadata (the bit behind the scenes that search engines like Google and Bing look at to determine information about your website). I will factor this into the website design. I always serve website I’ve designed using an SSL certificate, which adds a small boost to search engine rankings. In addition, as every website I design is fully responsive on mobile devices, this will be favoured by Google’s “mobile first” algorithm.

Please be aware that there are no guarantees that Google, Bing or any other search engine will look favourably on your website regardless of how much SEO is put in place. This is beyond my control unfortunately.

If you use a third-party application (for example Calendly or Acuity Scheduling), then these can be integrated into the design of your website. Providing the third-party application enables embedding into a website through the use of HTML and/or JavaScript, then I will more than likely be able to integrate it into your new website. However, I would advise that you check your particular requirements with me when you first make contact.

If you already have a design for your website that has been created by an agency or independent graphic designer, I can use this to create your new website. I will keep to the design as faithfully as possible, although there may be some limitations. I will of course advise you of any deviations from the design as soon as I am aware of them.

Similarly, if you have had your design and branding work carried out by Mary McCarthy Design (who I work closely with), then there is more chance of me being able to accurately reproduce this due to Mary and myself having a close working relationship.

Yes, I do. Each mailbox comes with a generous 10GB of storage space, and you can have up to 100 mailboxes on your account. Each mailbox costs £2.50 per month. Your email address can be used with most popular desktop clients such as Microsoft Outlook or Mac Mail. They will also work with most mail client apps for Android and iPhone. You will also have access to a WebMail interface should you wish to use that instead.