Web Design FAQ's
1. Do I really need a website and what would it do for me?
A website can reach millions of people that might not otherwise be available to you, think of it as a store front on a global level, open 24 hours a days, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Secondly, customers can view products, services, or whatever you want to share from the comfort of their own home and in their own time. Your website empowers your current customers and maximises marketing potential for future ones. No matter what type of business you are in, there are ways to grow and make money on the web for you.
2. My business is small and/or not computer related, what will a website do for me?
This is a common misconception. Many people overlook the various products, services, or business processes they can include on a website. Any communication or interactions that happen within your business can be made easier and more efficient by the web. Your business will save money and time while appealing to a much greater audience, the world.
3. Ok I'm convinced but where do I start and what is involved to get a website up and running?
The four easy steps we provide below will guide you in the direction of a professionally designed, developed and marketed website. Firstly decide what your website will offer to users, will it be a marketing tool to promote your company, will it be a product/services catalogue, will it be used to sell products direct to consumers etc. Perhaps it will be all these things, but the success of your website will be based on how clearly you define and plan its content. Too many companies create websites that look flashy but have no benefit or depth of content to the user browsing it. Secondly decide and choose an available domain name, its always a good idea to use keywords in your domain name that either relate to your company or relate to services you provide. Search engines consider theses as part of their search ranking positions. Thirdly create a very simple flow chart showing how you would like your pages to be displayed, the most important pages should be at the top of the chart with more detailed content further down, Carbon Creative can help you with this process. Fourth is the build and marketing of the site, Carbon Creative will involve you at various points of the build and suggest ways to market the site upon its completion.
4. How long does it take to design a website?
The timescale will depend on many factors, such as how much work are we currently covering, do we need to keep reviewing and altering page designs, and other factors that may crop up. Generally speaking, if the client has a clear idea of what they want, and we receive the necessary additional images and information from them, that they would like to appear on their site, we can probably turn it around in two to four weeks. Sometimes however, a site may be more complex, and it might take longer, but generally speaking the basics of a website can be done within 30 days.
5. Will I need to meet you to discuss anything?
In the majority of cases, there is no need for you to do this. Most of the work (especially if we are creating sites for people who are not local to us) is undertaken by means of email communications, perhaps phone calls, or even using Skype or MSN. Yes we have been visited by clients, or visited them, and held discussions face-to-face, but this is not a necessity, unless of course you want to pay for our travelling costs in which case we would gratefully accept.
6. Once my site is designed, what happens next?
Once your website is up and running we can offer you a full support package designed to help maintain and update as required certain elements of your website. Basically we can act as "agents" for your site, taking care of further updates, additional modifications if required, and report back to you on page rankings, visitors and the like. If we are taking care of your hosting for you, it makes the support even easier.
7. Do you require a deposit?
Yes, we do. We ask our clients for a 30% deposit on all projects, to be paid before work begins on the website.
8. Can I see how many visitors I have to my website?
Yes, you can. We can set up a free Google Analytics account for you, which will automatically record information about your website's visitors.