Here is an example conversation from another client who transfers his domain / email and website design services to us after seeing the good work and good reviews we are getting. This happened some months ago but the conversation is interesting to see other website designers that want to see our project proposals and quotes. It is also interesting to see other website design companies trying to persuade website owners from converting to a Content Management System whereby we have been recommending this for 5 years now and have been proved correct in the direction we have taken as so many of our clients now have easy to use, responsive, great looking websites.
[Website Client] I would like to move my website to wordpress. Do you offer this services? If so please let me know the costs. I have read up enough on this subject and okay with some of the downsides. I would like this done fairly soon.
[Old Website Designers] You actually have a wordpress blog on your site (for the news section) and that gives you all the benefits of being able to add your own content to the site, I would say its pretty unusual to want the whole site moved from ‘static’ pages to full wordpress pages and although it can be done would like to know if you ‘really’ want / need it to be done and if so would then like to know why you want it converted.
[Website Client] The key reason for wanting to move is to easy to make changes. Also generally to have more control over my website. I know you will make text changes. I just want a website where I can make any changes. Anything complicated, I then contact you.
[Old Website Designers] I would suggest that the time / effort involved in us converting all your site to wordpress to enable you to have full control / it easier to make changes would not be a good use of your money / our time but happy to do it.
You need to be aware that ‘framework’ changes will be technically challenging for you to do via wordpress and have experience of doing this for clients then seeing them corrupt their website pages by taking on more than they can handle. Regardless of this I will get my guys to look at your pages and give me an idea how much time will be required to convert the site and give you a estimate shortly.
Another aspect about changing a site to wordpress would be the SEO related changes required to ensure the site is as ‘ technically SEO friendly’ as it was before the changeover, if we go ahead this would be a vital part of our changes that wont be overlooked as we are very happy to know we have built your site and got it bringing in a healthy flow of customers and any changes need to be planned / executed correctly and checked to ensure we don’t disrupt what we have already
[Website Client] If possible I would like to stick with you. I have no issues with you / your business. At the same time I will completely understand just in case you do not have in house skills to do this. The new website Design company I have found in Essex have assured me:
1) No changes in SEO apart from positive changes
2) My website will look the same (or better)
3) Work will be done in 10-15 days. I am flexible on this.
4) I checked their testimonials and work – they are good.
5) Their fees – I will forward their email but they are reasonable.
I intend to make some changes – in term of reducing the pages. I would like to go ahead with WordPress. I am thinking about various options in terms of making changes to my website but still on WordPress. One option may be to do the changes now. The change I assume in WordPress should be easy. Can you please confirm if no changes the website would look the same.
[Old Website Designers] Glad to know you are happy with us and value our business relationship that I hope has met your expectations and your visitor numbers would indicate to me that it has. We have created and converted 100s of website using wordpress so my advice is genuine and honest.
The points below are true to a certain extent (seo will be the same / website looks the same) but my argument is ‘is it worth it for you’ and what will you really gain from this. It seems like you are set on the conversion and am happy to get my guys to review the site and give you will give you a quote as soon as we are sure about the conversion work involved. For reference here are the 34 main static pages that will need to be converted.
To do this conversion correctly it will take time and effort (due to the size and complexity of some of your pages) and at the end you will have a full wordpress site that you will have total control over – due to the fact you have a ‘live site’ and a wordpress blog already on it we will develop your new wordpress site on a test website and allow you visibility at every stage (for you to check and approve) We can do this within 4 weeks and will cost £1500, a deposit of £750 required to commence this project. For information we recently upgraded your blog and plugins to the latest version.
[Website Client] I am thinking about various options in terms of making changes to my website but still on WordPress. One option may be to do the changes now in WordPress which I have been told should be easy. Can you please confirm if no changes the website would look the same.
[Old Website Designers] If you are asking about the website looking different in wordpress it wont and you can review it before we put it live.
[Old Website Designers] Your current website hosting invoice is attached, hope all is well with you and if you are still considering converting your site to wordpress we would still be delighted to do it for you. The updated (reduced) quote will be £1300 and will take us 2 weeks (assuming no design / function changes and assuming we need to convert all 95 static pages to wordpress). Since our last chat about converting your website to wordpress we have probably converted and completed 40 website that are now all in a CMS (WordPress) and have more expert knowledge how to build and configure your installation to make it look and work efficiently for you.
[Website Client] As you know my website was designed some time back. It needs a complete brand refresh. For this purpose I engaged Delicious Webdesign in Stanford-le-Hope who are another website design company for a rebrand service who, as you know, designed the current website.
I also wanted a local web designer who I can meet and discuss the web design. It is very difficult for me otherwise. I have engaged a local Essex Website designer to implement the design on WordPress. The work should be completed within a couple of weeks.
I would like to find my own hosting company for the new website. This means I will be moving on from you. Of course, I may come to you for one off services. In order to ensure the “new website” replaces the current website, I would be grateful if all the following is passed over to me:
- Domain name registration and the associated DNS management for the domain
- I notice the domain is registered with 1&1 do I have the login to manage this account?
Is it possible to save the current version of the website? I would like to copy off line. On your invoice, can you send me a revised invoice? Will the hosting fee reduce since the hosting will be moved in two weeks or so? Will pay for change of address. Thank you for all your help on my website.
[Old Website Designers] Ok will wish you good luck with your new website and design. You will be one of only a handful of clients that has moved away from me and hopefully valued my help and advice and the website visitors that the website we build and promoted brought you. Your website is in really good shape from a SEO perspective so I hope your new website designers don’t ‘damage the site’ and keep it growing for you. I will be happy to help and advise you going forward. Your website is registered to yourself already, the hosting account is our ‘website design’ account and as such you don’t have your own individual account, we can provide you with your own ‘cpanel account’ but that will take a day to arrange and costs a standard fee.
You probably need to decide exactly what you want / need, happy to work with you to help you though this, if you want to transfer the registration then that’s fine and if you want to keep your registration and just give us your new dns settings that’s fine also. Think this is what I would do and may be less hassle for you as you wont need to re-setup / configure your email. If you want to keep your registration / hosting in place we can arrange the cpanel access and give it to you and / or we can update your DNS settings to move over your website for you to ensure a smooth transition for you.
Your website was registered with 1and1 but is now hosted with the award winning UK host FastHosts on a dedicated server (very fast / reliable and expensive !). We can backup your old website and keep it for you in an archive folder and depending on your choices / replies I will re-create the invoice
[Website Client] Thanks for your response and all the work you have done on my website. I want to move on and have everything under my name with Delicious Webdesign looking after the domain / email / website. I have an account with them. I have another website with them already. This means I will have my new website hosting there and also my UK domain there. Can I do the transfer myself of my UK domain under my account, or you is it who should be doing this? Please let me know your costs through a revised invoice.
[Old Website Designers] Ok if you want to move completely to a new registrar and host that’s fine I will invoice you just for 1 years hosting (it has been expired for over a month already) and just the standard transfer charge. If you want us to export the database and website code for you we can do that also, if you want us to move the site for you then we can do that for you also.
If you need costings for this the database export and code export it will be £100 and for us to do the website transfer to the new registrar then that will be £150 (DNS / database migration / website code migration /setup and configuration including wordpress setup / configuration).
Just out of interest I would love to see the proposal / info that you got from Delicious Webdesign / your new website design company that I assume has provided you, I will also give you free help and advice about the new company’s efforts specifically to do with SEO when the new website is put live as if done incorrectly could adversely affect you
[Website Client] I am sorry, I promised James at Delicious Webdesign that I will not pass his information / quotations to others and even if I didn’t promise this I believe this is not information to be shared with competitors. Please let me know how the transfer of domain can be undertaken to my domain registration account. I do not need the code export and migration stuff. All the work will be handled by James at Delicious Webdesign. I will get him to email you.
[Old Website Designers] If you don’t want to lose all your historic analytics data you should use the google analytics code we provided you on the new site on you website (your website stats have obviously stopped since the new site has been put live) As there is over 5 years data stored you really should include this code, once done I can ensure both of your email accounts are given access to the stats
[Website Client] Thanks will pass this to James at Delicious Webdesign.
