Website Design FAQs
Its hard to know where to start with getting a website designed. Many websites and businesses will quote technical jargon that means very little to the everyday small business owner. It shouldn’t be hard to find a simple explanation, when all you want is a professional working website that can be found on Google and help bring you new customers.
I have been designing websites for over 20 years, and has helped numerous small business owners in getting their website designed and found online. Below are real-world questions I frequently asked, along with my straight forward and simple answers to help take some of the stress out of making your first steps to getting a new website built and live.
Remember, if you ever have any questions – please never hesitate to get in touch. I’m dedicated to helping small local businesses and always happy to offer free advice.

The cost to design your new website depends on how many pages you need. On average, a standard website will have 5 pages. For example, a home page, about page, services page, gallery page and contact page. My standard website design package costs £399 and includes the design of up to 5 pages, so its a great option for starting up with enough pages to tell people about your business, the services you offer and how to get in touch. If you’d rather have less or more pages then that’s no problem! You can just pay for the exact number of pages you need; The price for a single page website is £249 then its £50 extra for each additional page. As you can see, you’ll save £50 with the starter package.
I don’t build big budget, ultra complex, bespoke websites. So if you’re looking for the next eBay or Booking.com, you’ve come to the wrong place.
I focus on building affordable ‘brochure style’ websites, suitable for small to medium sized businesses and local services. A brochure website is a professional, modern and mobile compatible website that is perfect for displaying text and images to promote the services or products you offer and how people can get in touch – just like my own website. It will be designed to compliment your businesses image, including your logo, colour scheme and any other branding as well as links to your social media accounts.
You can see examples of other websites I have built along with customer testimonials on my Portfolio Page.
Typically, it takes between 3-6 weeks to complete a new brochure style website, based on a standard 5 paged site. This can change depending on the amount of content you have, any revisions you require and of course any delay in replying to emails we send during the design process.
A website will not appear on Google as soon as it goes live. I will submit your website to Google once its live, but it can take a further 2-4 weeks for a website to be listed in search results.
You can help your website to get established online faster and improve search results by working on promoting your website online yourself;
- Create Google and Bing Business accounts so that your website is displayed in local search results.
- Encourage new customers to leave positive reviews about your business.
- Create social media accounts for your business and upload regular posts to promote your services and/or products with links to your website.
- Submit your business and website information other directories and applicable websites, such as organisations you are a member of.
I do offer a Website Booster Service that is designed to help a new website get listed on Google and other search results faster. Please ask for more information on this if you are interested.
Usually, before I start any new website design project I’ll ask you for any guidance on how you’d like your website to look and also ask that you email over links to other websites you like the design of. This will help me understand what you have in mind for your own.
I’ll work on a design that we think suits your requirements and email you a link so you can preview it online before its completed. You can then suggest any changes before it goes live.
Your new website will include your logo and colour scheme etc, so it will fit in with your existing branding too.
Yes, you’ll need to provide any content you want included on your new website. This includes all text, images and graphics etc. I do not supply any content.
This is because the information on your website is unique to your business and service. The best person to create this information and select appropriate images is you.
Its really easy to email us the information you want on your website, and you won’t need any technical skills. Its as simple as typing up some text and attaching images to an email.
Don’t prepare or send any information until you are asked to. I’ll email you full details on how to do this once work is under way. This ensures I am able to use the information you send.
I am based in Dorset, and offer website design in Beaminster, Blandford Forum, Bournemouth, Bridport, Chickerell, Christchurch, Dorchester, Ferndown, Gillingham, Lyme Regis, Poole, Portland, Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Swanage, Upton, Verwood, Wareham, Weymouth and Wimborne Minster.
However, my service is fully remote – so I can help with your website design needs regardless of where you live in the UK or elsewhere in the world including; Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, City of London, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, County Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater London, Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Herefordshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Rutland, Shropshire, Somerset, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Tyne and Wear, Warwickshire, West Midlands, West Sussex, West Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwent, Gwynedd, Mid Glamorgan, Powys, South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan, Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Argyll and Bute, Ayrshire and Arran, Banffshire, Berwickshire, Caithness, Clackmannanshire, Dumfries, Dunbartonshire, Dundee City, East Lothian, Fife, Inverness, Kincardineshire, Kinross-shire, Kirkcudbrightshire, Lanarkshire, Midlothian, Moray, Nairnshire, Orkney, Peeblesshire, Perth and Kinross, Renfrewshire, Ross and Cromarty, Roxburgh, Selkirkshire, Shetland, Stirlingshire, Sutherland, West Lothian, and Wigtownshire.
Yes indeed! You’ll need website hosting and a domain in order for your website to go live, and stay online for as long as you keep your services renewed.
I can provide and set up hosting, (powered by 100% renewable energy) for any website I design and take care of registering your domain name too, (which is included free with website hosting). This helps make the whole process of getting your website online even easier. My website hosting includes a free SSL certificate so that your website will show as secure to your visitors and display the padlock icon.
Up to two 10gb email accounts are included free of charge with my hosting service, so you can use a professional looking email address to match your website, eg; you@yourbusiness.co.uk .
My website hosting currently costs £12.99 per month or £139 per year. Its paid by credit or debit card and auto renews every month, (or year) so you don’t have to worry about your services expiring. You can of course cancel at any time prior to your next renewal payment.
My hosting services are exclusive to my customers and websites I build.
You won’t need to pay for website hosting until your website is ready to go live, unless you’d like a holding page online while its being built.
Its not a problem 🙂 If you already have an existing website that I’m redesigning, then your original website can stay online while your new website is being built. If you already have hosting and/or a domain name, then in most cases I can set things up so they both work with your new website.
Your new website will be built on temporary hosting. Once its completed and ready to go live, I’ll simply help you with switching over.
If you do already have website hosting and a domain name, then I’ll need access to the control panel for both so I can make the required changes on your behalf so that they connect to your new website.
Don’t worry if this all sounds rather technical, I’ll help you.
You will need to pay a 50% deposit prior to starting on your new website. The balance is only paid once the design work is completed, and before your new website goes live.
I’ll make sure you are sent an invoice confirming the total you’ll have to pay so you’ll know up-front what the cost will be.