Frequently Asked Questions
Costs
- When would I have to pay for the website?
- How long does the free hosting last?
- Do you offer discounts?
- How do you manage to keep the costs of building a bespoke website so low?
Web Design
- Can you undertake re-designs of existing websites and how much would it cost?
- Do I need to hire a "local" web designer?
- Can I have a website that uses my company colours and logo?
- Are there any costs ("addons") that will be incurred?
- Do you use templates?
- Why don't you create flash websites as standard?
- Who owns the copyright for the site after it's built?
- Can you build an e-commerce site?
- How do I supply the photos and text you require to build the website?
- Will my site look the same to every visitor?
Hosting
- What is hosting and why do I need it?
- Do I have to host my website with you?
- I am currently with a different host how do I switch across to you?
- What is bandwidth?
Search Engine Optimisation
- How do I advertise my website?
- What is a search engine?
- I want to get to the top of the search engines, can you help?
- Can you assist with pay per click advertising campaigns?
- Are you Google Adwords Qualified?
Maintenance
- When would I have to pay for the website?
- How long does the free hosting last?
- Do you offer discounts?
- How do you manage to keep the costs of building a bespoke website so low?
- Can you undertake re-designs of existing websites and how much would it cost?
- Do I need to hire a "local" web designer?
- Can I have a website that uses my company colours and logo?
- Are there any costs ("addons") that will be incurred?
- Do you use templates?
- Why don't you create flash websites as standard?
- Who owns the copyright for the site after it's built?
- Can you build an e-commerce site?
- How do I supply the photos and text you require to build the website?
- Will my site look the same to every visitor?
- What is hosting and why do I need it?
- Do I have to host my website with you?
- I am currently with a different host how do I switch across to you?
- What is bandwidth?
- How do I advertise my website?
- What is a search engine?
- I want to get to the top of the search engines, can you help?
- Can you assist with pay per click advertising campaigns?
- Are you Google Adwords Qualified?
- Why do I need to have my website maintained?
- Do I have to have GMB Web Designs maintain my website?
- If I want extra content added later or alterations to the website how much would it cost?
In normal circumstances a 50% deposit would be payable with the remaining 50% paid on completion of the website. More flexible payment plans can be worked out if cash flow is tight however a minimum of 25% deposit would be required.
The free hosting lasts for 12 months. There are no tie in clauses at the end of this period and you are free to transfer your website to another host with no penalty. The costs of keeping your hosting with GMB Web Designs are reasonable and we would hope that you would be happy to stay with us
Discounts are offered to non-profit organisations and schools. Contact us to find out more.
As a freelance web designer I do not have to worry about sales executives, directors or other miscellaneous personnel so production costs are held down. None of the work is subcontracted abroad and as the majority of advertising is by word of mouth business costs are reduced allowing savings to be passed on to the client.
Yes, the costs are the same for new builds and redesigns and would depend upon the type of site required. If you are looking for a fresh new look to your website or just want to make it load faster and perform better then give me a call.
It's nice to meet face to face to discuss your website needs however this is not necessary. GMB Web Designs has clients throughout the Uk and abroad. I am able to find out all information required to build a website by email or telephone and you would be able to view the various stages of the design online. The complete build can therefore be monitored and guided by you, the client.
I am happy to use any colour scheme you want however I will provide expert advice regarding the use of colour should you require it. Existing logos can be used to provide a corporate feel to your website or if you don't have a logo yet I can assist you with design and incorporation into your print media as well as the website.
All costs will be documented up front for the required web design proposal. If, however, you change your mind during the build and require more features/pages to be added I will provide you with a revised costing to cover the additions.
The majority of my work is custom design. If a template was to be used for whatever reason I would ensure that you were aware of it, obtain permission for its use and as I do not take credit for other peoples work the original designer would receive a credit on the website.
Websites should not only look good, they should load fast and it is commonplace for templates to be bulky and slower to download as the designer does not create it with a specific client in mind but instead ensures it will appeal to a wide range of purchasers. I also do not feel that my clients should share a web design with anyone else.
Flash is great for enhancing a website but it has a few drawbacks. Search engines can't read the code and consequently a website purely built with flash will have a major disadvantage when it comes to search engine placement. Flash can be used to enhance parts of a website but it is unwise to create whole pages using Flash. Load times are long and sometimes even if you have broadband the site can take ages to load. Users get fed up waiting and inevitably look elsewhere
The copyright will transfer to you when payment has been made in full. This is a very important aspect to ensure when you are looking for a web designer. I have seen in the past web designers hold companies to ransom because they retained the copyright so whoever you choose to design your website ensure copyright transfer is part of the contract.
Yes, e-commerce, content management systems and database backed websites can all be built by GMB Web Designs. I primarily use PHP for building these dynamic websites and sites can be designed to your exact requirements. Purpose built dynamic sites tend to cost more than basic HTML/CSS sites but this reflects the extra design and development required to create them.
I would prefer it if photos and text could be supplied in electronic form. Scanned images will not give as good a quality finish to the website. Graphics can be in virtually any mainstream format but we would prefer it if you could supply GIF, JPEG, TIFF, PNG or PDF files.
There will be variations in how the site looks depending upon the viewers web browser, screen resolution, computer platform. I try to ensure that your website looks similar in as wide a combination of possibilities as possible so that the number of people that can view your site properly is as great as possible. I also ensure that the site loads fast even for people who do not have broadband. Large download times could mean that you miss 20% of surfers in the UK, which is a lot of potential customers.
In order for a website to be seen it has to be hosted. The website has to exist on a server that is constantly on and attached to the internet. You usually pay a monthly fee for hosting your site and in return receive a certain amount of space for your files and a certain monthly bandwidth allowance. I can provide hosting so take a look at the plans on the hosting page
No you do not. There are certain advantages with hosting your designed site with GMB Web Designs but you are free to host your site with however you like. Should you wish to transfer your hosting from us to another host you are free to do so at any time and there are no "early termination" or "penalty fees".
If I have designed a website for you you will need to provide me with your web hosts ftp login information so that I can upload your site.
Just fill out our enquiry form, I will contact you and arrange the transfer for you including transfer of the domain name.
Bandwidth as used in this website refers to the data transferred to or from the website within the month. A more accurate term is monthly data transfer.
It is important to remember that once the site is built it has to be marketed in order for it to work for you. Advertising your site should be done through as many mediums as possible. The least you should do is add the website address to all of your stationery.
Increasing your websites visibility on search engines tends to be the best form of online marketing. There are several methods to increase your ranking within search engines.
A web search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list with the most relevant websites being listed at the top.
Yes. I generally build our websites with search engine optimisation in mind. There are however other techniques to obtain higher rankings. Off site optimisation takes the form of link back campaigns or one way links. Links from quality website can have positive effects on your sites positioning. Pay per click campaigns are another way of getting your website on the from page for your search terms. I am able to perform link back and pay per click campaigns so give me a call or fill in my web form for more information.
Yes, I can set up and manage Google Adwords pay per click campaigns. Take a look at my pay per click page for details.
Yes. For confirmation of the qualification please visit the google adwords qualification confirmation page.
It is important to ensure that the website is fully functioning and that you have an up to date backup. Websites that have changing content should be backed up on a regular basis and this is usually done via a maintenance contract.
Alterations to the website may need to be made in order to change content, update the code for new browser technology or just to keep the site looking fresh. GMB Web Designs can either provide a monthly maintenance for a set monthly fee or can provide assistance when required for an hourly rate fee.
No, anyone can look after your website. I would hope that if you were happy with the service provided by GMB Web Designs then you would allow me to maintain your site but you are free to maintain the site yourself or get someone else to do it for you.
Maintenance monthly fees start from £10 per month for a simple monthly backup and range to £30 for full website maintenance including alterations and updates. If you choose to pay for maintenance on an ad hoc basis fees are charged at £35 per hour.