Web Design FAQs

Because I’ve been doing it since 1996 and specialising in helping small businesses since 2005. Before setting up Netcentrics.co.uk, I helped set up Cable Online (aka NTL, now Virgin Media) and Which? Online, mentoring teams providing award-winning technical and customer support for the Consumers’ Association. Before that, I promoted events and set up and ran my own high-street shop.

So unlike any other web designers you’re ever likely to meet, I’ve been building businesses for over 35 years, coding and doing graphic design for over 40, and have a first-class honours degree in Computer Science. If that isn’t enough, trust my Testimonials.

No. In almost 30 years of building websites, I’ve only seen one useful website project brief. Most people hire experts to do stuff they don’t fully understand. Writing a brief without expert help is like telling a doctor how to heal you. It begs for all kinds of omissions, mistakes and missed opportunities.

Worse, a formal brief-and-proposal process stifles communication. That’s unhelpful for collaborative projects like websites. You’re not buying a conservatory. You won’t learn which vendors are easiest to work with or the real value of different solutions without a proper conversation.

So get in touch, and that’s how we’ll start. With a proper conversation.

What you do need is commitment, a realistic budget (addressed in another question below) and broad project goals. For instance, do you just want a web presence to list on your business cards or a site that could rank well in search? Do you want e-commerce, a booking system or a membership site?

Such common, broad goals don’t need to be detailed in a formal brief. In practice, my web design packages can handle most normal requirements.

If you want your site to implement unique processes, or if some details are business-critical, then yes, mention those from the outset. They may need web development rather than just web design. Still, it doesn’t help to bury such requirements in a long document.

You’ll need to provide more details on request of course, but trying to predict them all just delays projects for little gain.

Yes — but truly basic sites (aka static sites) don’t automatically attract visitors. My basic sites can collect leads and give you a web address to put on cards, vehicles and other signage. Beyond that, if you want to attract visitors to a basic site, you’ll need a strategy:

• Traditional outbound marketing (broadcast ads, print ads, cold calls etc.) wastes resources on disinterested contacts. Paid online ads are more targeted, but can still be costly and addictive. Visitors often cost over £1, yet under 1% of those typically buy. So Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) can easily exceed your markup. Yet stopping instantly loses the traffic you’ve been buying. The numbers simply don’t work for everyone.
• Inbound marketing attracts a targeted, interested audience, aiming to earn their trust before pitching. So my affordable marketing site package is designed to help you earn free visitors from Google through strong on-site SEO and active online marketing. Static sites just don’t include the tools to do this as effectively.

Step by step:

1. Get started. Book a call, or pick a plan (see the “How much does website design cost?” item below for links to more info). Distractions will keep appearing until you commit.
2. Relax and let me walk you through it. Building effective business websites takes weeks or months, not in a few hectic hours or days. So we’ll work around your other commitments as far as possible. If events beyond your control have set urgent deadlines, definitely book a call first, though. Otherwise, you’ve got time, and I can help you find it.

Even web designers confuse these — but then, many confuse art and design, too. So here’s the difference:

• Art makes things pretty.
• Design makes things work.
• Web designs are coded in markup languages that control layouts on various devices, but those can’t automate complex decision-making.
• Web development uses programming and/or scripting languages to implement complex behaviours and processes. That flexibility creates complexity, making web development far more time-consuming, but also far more valuable.

Put simply, if you have goals to achieve, you need design, not art. If those goals involve implementing specific, uncommon processes, you’ll probably need web development, not just web design. The two disciplines are so dissimilar that most designers and developers can only do one or the other, but I’ve been doing both for decades. So whatever you need, we should talk.

The cost of website design varies widely. For context, I’ve seen some agencies charge thousands just for images of web page layouts — with no actual coding or site built — and call that “affordable small business web design”. Other cheap website designers cut so many corners on performance that they still manage to be a waste of money. So beware those two extremes.

I’m here to help small businesses, not just myself. So my web design prices are based on:

• Project size and complexity. More pages, features, bespoke work or decision-makers all add to this.
• How much help you need. If you’re a startup, there’s lots to learn — and I’ve specialised in helping folks do that cost-effectively since 2005.

We’d normally need a scheduled call or video meeting to discuss those details. That said, over the years, I’ve developed a few ranges of flexible packages that cover most common startup requirements:

• Affordable sites — highly cost-effective, editable sites with setup payments split over several months to help your cash flow. Covering anything from simple templated brochures to bespoke e-commerce, my base packages start at £1200, split into £200 monthly payments. They also offer 100% green, high-performance, secure UK hosting, security updates, ongoing support, email and more from just £80/month. Some clients then choose to add extra features to these packages, so they work out as the most flexible, growth-focused options around for small firms.
• Budget sites — built on proprietary systems, these aren’t as flexible, user-friendly or search-optimised as my affordable sites but can support blogging from just £99/month, with a cost-effective e-commerce option. So if you want basic marketing features but are limited by your low budget, these sites can help.
• Basic “Static” sites — simple brochure sites with no built-in editing system (aka “static”). These can’t support advanced marketing strategies like blogging. Still, starting from just £75/month these may work for you if you’re on a very tight budget, just want to present a few pages of info with a contact form, and don’t want to do site edits yourself. Simple editing and small webshop systems (for up to 100 products) can be added cost-effectively, although not with the flexibility of my more advanced website packages.

More complex bespoke projects, like large website redesigns and web development, need to be individually assessed to provide a realistic estimate.

That largely depends on you, and your goals. Timescales for building websites depend on the project’s complexity and scope, and how quickly you can provide the required feedback. If all the content is available up-front, and you aren’t busy, a simple business site could be built in 1-2 weeks.

However, because most small business owners are busy, most projects take two months or more. Only you can speed that up, but life tends to get in the way of the best intentions. I understand this — that’s why my processes are more flexible than most.

So do NOT wait until just before you hope to launch. Get started NOW.

Web development takes far longer — typically hundreds of hours for any significant project, as every detail has to be discussed, designed, implemented and tested. As such, web development is best planned in multiple stages, starting with the highest-priority requirements in a Minimum Viable Product (“MVP”). Then we refine features and add the less-essential ones, step by step. That way, your project can go live as soon as possible, and real user feedback can guide further development.