Answered by Jamie King Media - Questions to Ask a Web Designer

We originally wrote an article called Questions to ask a Web Designer to help prospective clients or at least business owners have a better understanding of the web design process and make an informed choice on which website design company to use.

In light of this we have answered our own questions for anyone interested in our Website Design services. You can refer back to the original un-answered questions here but if you have any questions please do contact us.

What are your qualifications and experience?

A Masters Degree is Self Taught Media Design! Jokes aside our formal qualifications cover secondary school and some college, unfortunately none of which were media design related. We were self taught in web design, graphic design, pdf form design and internet marketing.
We have been designing since 2004 and have a wealth of experience of dealing with clients across south Wales. You can view our portfolio of clients here.

How do you calculate the cost of website's, per hour or per page?

This is typically worked out by the hour, though rough guide prices to website design are referenced by page. i.e. "A 5 page website is about £xxx" which we calculate by the average time it takes us to complete 5 page website.

What is included in your website packages?

The design of the website, the search engine optimisation and submission of the website, the setting up of pop3 email accounts, photography for the website unless not requested, endless revisions and mocks, call outs to your business location, web statistics setup and a dedicated customer care relationship.

What search engine / internet marketing is offered as standard in your website design packages?

We submit completed sites to all major search engines as well as Google Places. We add the website to relevant business directories and optimise all pages for best search engine performance.

What are your payment terms such as deposits, stage payments or refunds?

We'd love to publicly tell you but our competitors are already being too nosey. We can say though there's an initial deposit and we discuss the rest at the time.

Do you provide free after care sales and support and if so for how long after the completion of the website?

We typically offer free support to new website's for the first 3 months after completion, this includes tweaks to its search engine performance.

If you don’t provide after care and support, how much would this cost if I had any problems that need your attention?

Any errors in the long term that are our responsibility we shall endeavour to fix but typically we charge an hourly rate for any technical problems that may arise.

Can I edit the website myself? If not what do you charge for updates and changes?

We can build your website to be Content Management optimised, where then you can edit the site as you please. If you do not opt for this service we can manage the website for you either by an hourly rate or monthly fee if you anticipate many updates per month.

Do you offer any website guarantee or warranty?

Currently no but we are working towards it.

Are website designs generated from template layouts to choose from or are they custom built from scratch?

They are custom built from the ground up. We despise pre-made templates that are suited to the "general user". Our clients are individuals and with that unique, so we feel their website's should follow suite.

Do you provide domain name & web hosting in your packages? If so what is the annual renewal cost for the domain name and web hosting space.

No. We'd like to, but we don't. We can advise on good web hosting companies to use, but account for this additional cost on a yearly basis. Estimated from £50 to £100 a year.

Do we have to host the website with your company?

As above, but no. Even if we did offer web hosting we'd never obligate you to this.

How long will the website design take?

Depending on the size of the website and the complexity, we'd like to predict 3 to 4 weeks though can be longer on larger website's

How well do you know my industry on a scale of 1 to 10?

What's your industry?

What are clients typically required to supply?

Written content, photos, logo and a design brief if they have any ideas. We'll help you with all of these regardless.

Where do you obtain stock images used in the website design and are they compliant with copyright?

Good question. We always aim to use legitimate images and hence why we offer Professional Photography as part of our packages. Some clients have supplied images them self. If we have to use a stock image library we have a range of them at our disposal.

Can you show me one of the cheapest website designs you have done & show me one of the most costly website designs you have done?

Are your website designs W3C validated?

Honestly, I don't. know, I don't often check because no one requests to be validated. Equally it's worth is highly debated.

Do you supply the completed website on a CD as a backup?

Yes if you like, equally we don't obligate or restrict you from accessing the website yourself or through another design firm. As for always having a backup of your site, we have a minimum of 3 copies at any one time.

Author & Questions answered by : James King @ Jamie King Media
Dated: November 15th 2010

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