Q. How much do you charge for a website?
A. There are many types of websites and a variety of things to consider in
order to answer this question. For most purposes a website is a marketing
tool. Therefore above all you have to understand what your target audience
expects from your website. If you’re selling widgets the design aspect will
not be so important. If you're selling fashionwear it clearly will be. If you’re
selling to a budget-driven market, high-end design is unnecessary. On the
other hand, if you’re trying to appeal to high-value customers, high-end design
is non-negotiable. These are matters which we will discuss in your initial
free consultation. Knowing who it is that you are addressing with your website
is a much more important consideration affecting the cost of the site than
number of pages. We take the time to understand your business aims and advise
you accordingly so that you maximize the likelihood of getting a timely return
on your investment in a website. It is then a case of achieving the graphic
style appropriate to your business within the budget you have.
After you have established the style of your website, you then need to factor
in its size, and what features you want. Most importantly, you need to understand
what your prospective customers expect from your website. This may not be
the same as what you want to put on it. Once again, getting correct advice
is all important here in order to get a prompt return on your investment.
Q. I / a friend / a relative have some website-building software. Could
we use that to make our website?
Anyone in theory can make their own website. It is however a false economy
because:
(a) the website, lacking professional graphic design skills, will look amateurish
and fail to bring you the business you want;
(b) the time spent trying to use your program would be better spent on developing
your own business; and lastly
(c) a good web design business will be aware of such things as search engine
friendliness, usability and compliance issues, all of which will affect your
return on investment of money and time.
Q. What are 'search engine friendliness, usability and compliance issues'?
A. A web site needs to balance attractive graphic design with search engine
friendliness. It does not matter how good your site looks if it does not rank
in the search engines. It also does not matter how good your site looks if
users cannot find the information they want (usability) or the site does not
display correctly on a variety of browsers, operating systems and monitors
(web compliance). Because it takes time to incorporate these considerations,
they all affect the value and cost of a website. So make sure that when getting
quotes for your website that you are comparing apples with apples. Many web
designers do not consider these matters to be their concern, meaning that
website owners have to spend more money to get their websites brought into
line with web (W3C) standards, which in turn means that the total cost of
their website ends up being greater than if it had been built correctly from
the outset, not to mention the time wasted waiting for a return on a non-performing
website.
Q. Are there any other considerations affecting the cost of a website?
A. In general cost is also affected by how well-developed your web site design
brief is and how much you can provide to the web designer ready to use. That
means knowing what the content of your site is, how many pages there are,
what their names are, and so on. The more you understand what you want your
website to look like and have the material for your website organized, the
easier it is for a web designer has to convert your ideas into reality.
If you have a logo, decided on your colours, have images ready to use, these
things will all affect the final cost. Spend some time looking at other websites
and make a note of what you like and don’t like about them. This will make
it much easier for us to create a website that matches your expectations.
If you are starting completely form scratch and want us to create your brand
image, including designing your logo we can do that.
If you are new to the web you will also need web hosting and domain name registration.
Devolution can provide both of these at very cost-effective
rates. It is a very good idea to secure your domain name before you start
planning your website as you want to be sure that the name is available.
For information on domain name registration go here: https://secure.devolution.com.au/registration.html
For information on domain hosting go here: http://www.devolution.com.au/web_hosting.htm
Q. What is a domain name?
A. A domain name is how people will find your website. Domain names are purchased by registration with the option to renew at the end of the registration period. The minimum registration period is 12 months. .com.au names can only be registered for 24 months. Ideally you will be able to get the name you want. If not try something that is close to it. Say you want to purchase www.mybusiness.com.au - if it is already taken, consider a variant such as www.mybusiness.com, www.mybusiness.biz or www.my-business.com.au
Q. What is web hosting?
A. Web hosting is a monthly fee that you pay to have your site accessible on the Internet. For information on domain hosting go here: http://www.devolution.com.au/web_hosting.htm
With Devolution Web Hosting there is no contract and, in
most cases, no set-up fees. We charge you only for the bandwidth you use.
Some web hosting companies may offer you large amounts of bandwidth that may
look irresistible but in the vast majority of cases this bandwidth will not
be used. Most small business websites use 200-500 MB per month. There is thus
no point in paying for an account that provides 5000 MB. Such web companies
expect that you will NOT use that amount, which is why they offer it.
Q. Can I choose Devolution to design my web site and use my own web hosting?
A.Yes.
Q. How long does it take to have a web site designed?
A. The average time is 2-3 weeks for a standard brochure site. The time frame is affected by how well-developed your brief is, the size of your web site, the features you require and how quickly you respond to any requests for information or stage approvals during the development process.
Q. What is site maintenance?
A. Maintenance is a fee paid to your web designer or web host to update your
web site with content that you provide. If you are only going to be doing
this 2 or 3 times a year this is usually the most cost-effective option for
keeping your site up-to-date. If these are only small updates and your web
site is hosted by us, we will do these at no charge as part of your hosting
package.
If you intend to update the web site or individual web pages regularly then
we can install a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor like Microsoft
Word on the pages you will be wanting to edit. If you have a large number
of web pages that you will want to edit you should consider a Content Management
System. Devolution will advise you on the most cost-effective
course of action during your free initial consultation.
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