Custom Web Design and Hosting
Your business is unique – and your website must be too. The passion you have for your business must come across in your website. It must represent your brand in a personalised way. It must be available 24*7. Plus your website has another massive job to do – once visitors find it, the website content must convert them into customers – returning customers, bring more profit to the business.
At RKJOnline Web Design we ensure that each and every new website is unique, bespoke, available when your customers want it, well-written, well-structured plus passionate about the product or service it is selling or providing information about. It will have YOUR stamp on it, your brand going all the way through it.
Below we explain “How We Create Your Website”; you can we assured that we’ll work with you, taking note of the specific ideas and “must haves” you’ll have for your new site and at the same time providing advice based on our experience. We’ll have a few questions for you that will help start the process off and if your answer is that you have NO ideas at all, that’s fine too!
We are Flexible and we are Proud of it!
Flexibility is
imperative when building a website that will meet all of our client’s requirements; this is one of the
most crucial differences between unique website design from scratch and grabbing a package off the
shelf. When YOU commission a website, check how flexible the webmaster is because inflexibility now
can cost you money further down the line.
The Key Elements Needed to Build a Website
You may already have a clear understanding of all the elements needed for a new website and how they all fit together; or perhaps it’s not so clear – yet! Well, no problem because RKJOnline provide a one-stop shop for all your website needs and we’ll explain why each element is important. Here is just a summary, click on each element for more info:
- Domain Name: (i.e. the name of your website or url) – you have to have one! We will give you plenty of advice about choosing your domain name and ultimately we will register your preferred domain name for you and deal with all the administration around it
- Website Structure: Whilst unique, all web-pages have some aspects of structure that are universal. We’ll explain this and all the “jargon” associated – we find it can help our clients think clearly about what they want for their site and help them give feedback on the build as it progresses
- Website Content: i.e. words and images. The words on the page are called “copy” and the process of writing them is copy-writing. We are professional copywriters and we know the tricks of the trade! Images also can reflect the products and services on offer and we’ll explain how best to utilise these
- Website Features: We’ll explain exactly what is included in each of our website developments, you’ll be surprised at the features available!
- Website Testing: As we describe below, your website is built in a “test environment” and as we progress with the build we will test the website for a number of things and in a number of different environments, to ensure it meets your requirements and to ensure it displays well after “go live”
- Internet Hosting: Your website has to reside on the Internet in order for visitors to find it and view it – and perhaps to interact with it by electronic commerce. RKJOnline use a website “hosting” company based in the UK, chosen by us for their resilience to issues. You want your website to be up and running 24*7, 365 days a year – anything less is unacceptable
These elements are part of a classic website design but there are also other elements to consider, which we would always recommend when having a website designed from scratch:
- Maintenance/Updates/Ongoing Support: we have this covered and our aftercare is 2nd to none!
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): ensure Google finds you because then your customers will find you too!
- Additional Web Services: from Logo design and Social Media to professional email boxes and Blogs and so much more!
Find out more about these elements by clicking each one above or going to the general navigation bar for more details.
How We Create Your Website
We at RKJOnline Web Design in Cheshire believe that building your website is an important and exciting event. For this reason we have developed a process to ensure that all aspects of the project are addressed thoroughly and at the correct time.
Initial Discussion;
Identify and Understand Your Requirements
It is likely that you will already have looked at other websites – perhaps of your competitors - and may have some idea of what you want (and what you definitely do not want!) featured on your own site. You may have looked at this website also and had ideas – as well as questions.
During an initial chat, we will clarify any questions you may have and try to identify what is and is not possible – we will always be 100% honest if we cannot (or don’t want to) do something specific. At the same time we’ll get a feel for your requirements and how you want your site (and business) to be perceived on the Internet.
We’ll ask you a few questions such as:
- Know what you want to call your business / website name?
- Got a particular colour scheme in mind?
- Got a logo you want us to incorporate?
- Have an idea on the pages you want, how many, overall structure, where you want the navigation buttons?
- Needing a contact form?
- Do you want to be found by Google and the other search engines?
We want to know about you and your business.
We will encourage you to talk to us about your business and if it’s new, what made you decide to start
it. This gives us a healthy background to the passion you have for your business and helps us understand
what might be needed in terms of “copy” and images for it. It also helps us get to know you the person
better and what you are more likely to want or need on your site.
We’ll explain how we work.
We are very much a family firm and we’ll let you know how we split the work between us and what to expect
from us if you choose us to design your website.
Detail and Finalise Customer Requirements
If both parties are happy with what’s been discussed so far, we could perhaps meet up (if the initial
chat has been on the phone) and ensure we bring you up to date with the various
elements of web design you’ll need to consider such as advice on your domain name,
the hosting of your website on the internet etc. At this stage, we will discuss your requirements
in greater detail and try to identify how these may best be served with regard to the website
structure.
We will give you a price for the work at this stage and not keep you waiting.
Once we agree a price we will ask you to pay a deposit, usually 30% of the agreed price. Work will then
begin with acquisition of the requested Domain Name(s).
More about domain names
on our additional web services page.
Place-holder page.
Within 24 hours we will establish a “place-holder” page on your domain. This is like a “business card on the web” and will display your contact details, a few lines about the prospective site and – if you wish – when it will be fully available.
Customisation
Before any structuring of the site can commence, you will be asked what format you would like to see for the site – essentially the desired page layout, colours and style options.
We’ll explain various aspects of the web-page to you and jargon that we’ll use when discussing the design.
Early in the build process, a "dummy" site will be loaded on one of our test domains, showing your requested structure, colour scheme and layout for you to view and approve.
Please note we build every site from scratch and to the customers own requirements, and we understand that these may sometimes change during development. We are completely flexible and believe this is a key offering from us that does not always come from every web designer.
Copy and Images
Earlier in the process, we’ll have spoken a little about site content, or Copy. The "Copy" is essentially
the textual content of the site and this will require an in-depth interview (usually by telephone but
can be in person) so that we can fully visualise what it is you want from the site, enabling us to go
away and produce the Copy appropriate to your requirements. The copy must covey your passion for the
business and brand and it must encourage visitors to buy from you. It’s an important skill to get right
because website visitors do NOT read websites in the way they read books or newspapers.
More about copy-writing on our SEO page.
After the initial Copy has been produced, royalty-free images will be sourced to make the text more interesting. You may want to provide your own images as well, perhaps even request a photo gallery or inclusion of video.
Verification and Final Test
Once the structure has been approved, and the Copy / Images have been selected, these will be combined under a test domain and you will be asked to review what has been created. Whilst you are doing this, the site structure will be tested with all popular web browsers to ensure it displays correctly.
Any requested e-mail structure will also be set up and checked at this stage – many of our clients prefer
to have a professional looking email address that matches the website url.
More on email boxes on our additional services page.
Approval and Go-Live!
Once you are completely happy with the site, it will "go-live". The site will be published onto the Internet under your requested domain name, and the e-mail environment released to you.
It is at this point you will receive an invoice for the remainder of the contracted price.
Note:
If you have chosen any additional web services, we’ll make it clear how these fit into the process as soon as your decisions are made.
Should you have wisely taken Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), this process will start from the very beginning with domain name advice from an SEO perspective and is virtually non-stop. We’ll explain SEO to you (as much or as little as you want to know!) and you’ll be kept up to date as we go along. Keyword Research will start immediately and the place-holder site will be optimised for the agreed prime keywords. If you have included Social Media, links to your facebook/Twitter/Linked-In accounts etc. will be ready before go-live, as will the social media sharing buttons for visitors.
If you have taken our Maintenance Package, this will kick in immediately after go-live. Any changes you require, short of a full redevelopment, will be accommodated as soon as you need them. Our after-care service is 2nd to none and we’ll be available for you to contact with any questions at all about the website, SEO, email account, etc.
If you have any questions about how we create your website please take a look at our FAQ page or contact RKJ Web Design Cheshire and we’ll be happy to chat with you.
