Website Design & Development

You have 3 options for building a website for your business:

• Build it yourself using a drag and drop temple system using a service like Squarespace or Wix.
• Hire someone cheap who will use a theme with prebuilt templates.
• Hire an agency to build a custom website.

While the first 2 options will save you money up front, your business will get almost zero return on the investment. In fact when compared to a custom website, you will lose money due to lost opportunities.

When a professional is hired to build a custom website, they will design one that meets the goals of your business. One that will attract your target audience, increase brand awareness and trust, and generate ledes that will convert.

It depends on what you mean by update. If you are referring to a few changes then most likely yes.

If you are looking at keeping the website and doing a complete redesign, we would have to do a full audit of your website to answer this. The website audit also looks into the marketing strategies and goals of the website to determine if they are being met, and if they can be improved on. In most cases though we likely would recommend starting completely fresh and migrate any necessary content over and update it as needed.

The main reason for this deals with the technology used to build the website. Technology is constantly improving and often the old way is not the best way anymore. The old way could also add constraints, limiting what can be done now. Plus, in most cases it is easier and faster to start with a fresh install of WordPress than deal with the decisions other developers have made for older versions of WordPress.

The major advantage of an existing website is its text content. Good content takes a long time to create. If we already have content and it still fits the goals of the new project with minimal editing, then this could decrease the timeline of the project significantly.

This depends on 3 factors:

1. Scope and scale of the project.
2. The availability of our team.
3. How quickly the client provides their deliverables and feedback.

Clients play a role in the project schedule since we need their knowledge for our research during the discovery step of our process. This may include answering questionnaires and attending meetings.

Clients are also required to review, provide feedback, and approve our milestone deliverables in a timely matter.

Clients also usually supply at least some of the media content and possibly text copy which is all needed before we can move on to certain phases and steps of our process.

All estimated timeframes will be discussed with you and included in the proposal before starting work on your project.

In general, smaller websites may take 4 to 6 weeks, while larger projects can take up to 4 to 6 months.

For more information, in our Learning Academy you can find our Guide for Website Buyers and more on the time it takes to build a website.

Through our Design Inquiry, Consultation, and Questionnaires we will ask you about:

• The purpose and goals of the website.
• Details about your company and brand.
• What products/services you offer.
• Who your target audiences are.
• What you are looking for in the look and feel of the website.
• A list of pages that you require.
• Any other relevant information that may be beneficial.

For marketing your website, quality content is one of the most important parts. It doesn’t matter if it is text copy, images, or videos. You need clear, relevant and keyword rich content that is on message.

Search engines serve only relevant web pages to answer their user’s questions. So, it is important to deliver quality content that is not only designed for your target audience and engages them to take action, but is designed to rank in search engines as well.

For text copy it is recommended you use our professional copywriter. Content and how it is laid out is the most important part of the website. It will make or break the goals of the project.

Writing copy is both an art and science. It requires the writer to consider many different aspects including the purpose of the page, the audience the copy is for, and where they are within the sales funnel. You then have to balance this with search engine optimization’s.

Several steps of  our process are all tied to the content including the research during the Discovery, along with the work completed during the Site Architecture and the User Experience (UX) design.

For those whose budgets are limited and have smaller websites, they can provide the copy with direction from us. Any content you supply will be reviewed and go through an edit process to ensure it meets the page requirements and is optimized for search engines. For these website projects, growth of the customer base for the business is not the main goal.

For media content like images, icons, and illustrations you will most likely at least supply some of it (if not all). This includes your logo and photos showing your team and business.

If you don’t have this type of media we can create a custom logo for you and recommend a professional photographer for photos if needed. Images, icons, and illustrations can also be licensed and purchased from stock media companies.

Depending on the projects goals, certain page types and posts can be added/updated using an interface similar to a word processor.

Even then, rules need to be followed when creating copy and selecting and adding media. Else you risk your search engine rankings and it also can create other problems when users visit related to accessibility and responsive web design.

Certain information about the business like contact details and the address will also have a settings page to make them easier to change.

Everything else can be updated but really requires a professional who is familiar with the website.

While building a page may look easy from an outside perspective, it is not. Their are many things to consider including

• Accessibility
• Performance
• Responsive design
• Consistent design
• Scalability
• Maintainability

We offer Website Management Service which includes hosting at our preferred third party provider along with the day to day management of your website.

There are many web hosting services and they all vary wildly in features, performance, and price. Many of them have hidden caveats that ends up causing  performance issues and other problems including the ability to maintain and secure the website properly.

Therefore, we recommend all Design projects to use our Website Management Service.

Most communication is done with email and over the phone.

When reviewing milestone deliverables, video calls via Google Meet with screen sharing may also be used along with our Onsite Feedback Tool.

If the client is close to our location and if it is a complicated project, face to face meetings can also be helpful. This is especially true during the discovery and design phases where discussions, feedback and decisions need to happen in a timely matter.

At the beginning of every week, we will send out an email identifying what step of the process the project is in along with how long we think it will take to finish this step.

The email also will highlight:

• What we worked on last week.
• What we plan to work on this week.
• What we need from you.

Any other information which is relevant to the project will also be included.

Yes. All our websites are designed to be viewed on different devices and viewports (screen sizes). From phones all the way up to desktops.

There will be a minimum and maximum width for the range of the viewport.

Yes, unless stated otherwise in the contract you will own the website and all the visual elements we create for you.

Some of the content like images may be licensed for use on your website but the third-party that provided the license actually owns the content.

Likewise, some of the software used to power the website like WordPress is open source and free to use. Other software like plugins and themes, may either be opensource or a license may have been purchased which allows it to be used on the website. Some software we use may require an ongoing license fee to be able to receive future software updates and continued support.

As outlined in our proposal and agreement, every step in our process except discovery has 1 round of revisions. (unless the client has requested additional ones to be included)

A revision round allows the client to compile a list the changes they would like to see. These tasks must only affect the current step in the process. Some tasks on the list may lead to a discussion on the pros, cons, and viability of the change. Once the task list is finalized, only then does the work start to complete it.

Once a revision round is complete and the client does not wish another revision round, an approval document must be signed.

If an extra revision round is requested that is not part of the proposal then the client would be charged for the additional work at our current hourly rate. Timelines of the project would also be affected.

Some websites have a simple objective: get the visitor to contact the business to enquire further about a product or service.

Other sites may have a more complex sales funnel that involves different types of services, audiences and marketing solutions.

The more complex strategies require greater expertise and time to design and develop. This leads to a  larger investment up front but greater returns down the road.

If cost is a concern, not all marketing strategies need to be implemented right away. They can be done in stages or phases helping to spread the cost of the website out. They just need to be planned for during discovery and site architecture steps of our process.