Then you are not alone, its common to have loads of questions and worries when you first consider starting a website for your business, the following are some we got asked recently
Q I am currently in the process of starting up a new business that will sell products and services related to weddings, christenings and similar events. I obviously need a website for this and not being able to create one myself, I will need someone else to do it for me.
A We can setup and promote this website for you and give you all the help / ideas / hints and tips you will need to make it a success
Q We need a website that will promote my products and services. Some of the properties that I think it should have are:
Will my website be able to have 12 – 15 pages (at most) with a simple menu. Some of these will be lists of the products and services (no eshop functionality is required), an about us page, etc.?
A Are you sure you will only want 15 pages? Surely if you have products and services you would want these to each have their own page (best for browsing and best for the search engines) The number of pages isn’t a factor in costing this type of website so the more you have the better your site (products pages as long as they are relevant and unique)
Q Can I have a contact form with which visitors will be able to see my contact details and/or email me (with a map included – preferably Google maps)?
A Yes this is a standard for most websites – easy
Q Can I have a simple form to register visitors to a newsletter?
A Newsletters are a bit ‘clunky’ and ineffective we find, why not put your time and effort into social media where you can manage your ‘likers’ and followers on Twitter and Facebook easily and efficiently regardless of that we could easily create you a newsletter system if you insisted on it.
Q Could I have the ability to send/receive emails using my website’s domain name?
A Yes this is a standard for most websites – easy to setup your website email on your computer or mobile device, and will help you setup your email on your computers remotely and give you instructions how to set it up on your other devices
Q Could the website have a photo gallery and possibly a movie gallery as well?
A Yes this is a standard for most websites and we can easily do this for you
Q If a visitor clicks on a product, the website should either link to a product details page or open an image is this possible with your ecommerce sites?
A Certainly is. and by standard each product will have its own page and photo(s).
Q It would be useful if it had links to my Facebook, twitter, Google+ pages can that be built into the website?
A Yes this is a standard for most websites – easy for us to integrate this into the new website.
Q The website should be usable on mobile devices like phones or tablets, can you do this?
A Yes this is a standard for most websites – over the last 3 years all our website all have been ‘responsive’ on a WordPress CMS system.
Q I assume we’ll need something to comply with the EU directive regarding cookies?
A Yes there are a few ‘legal’ requirements for your website and we will take care of them for you
Q If possible, I would prefer it to be built with WordPress, because I have some basic experience on it and I would be able to perform a few simple tasks like changing texts, uploading photos etc myself.
A We love the content management system WordPress and most of our sites are built on that now.
Q Can you create our website? Currently I plan that text and photos/images will be provided by myself
A Good we can help you with the text if need be – you will have to ensure its unique and search engine friendly
Q Based on the above, could you give me an estimate of the total cost of this project and also a rough timescale from start to go-live?
A Need to know more about the products – you say you don’t want an ecommerce system but want the functionality of it (I am assuming) to help me understand tell me how many products you think / want to be available and give me an example of one.
Q Regarding the domain name and hosting, are these included in your packages or do I need to arrange those myself? If I need to take care of them, are there any web hosting companies that you recommend?
A The domain purchase and registration is all taken care of by us – will give you advice on domain name and we host using a UK award-winning server / hosting company with a ‘dedicated server’ basically its UK based and quick with loads of capacity
Q Please let me know if you need any further details on this, do you need any more information about my business plans for this website?
A Thanks I think if you answer the ecommerce system query we will be closer to being able to understand your requirements and give you an idea of time and cost.
