Starter Website Design Solutions: Starter Web Design Packages for the Smaller Business

What can you offer in terms of a basic low cost starter web site solution and how much does it cost?

The days of promoting your business via traditional advertising media like yellow pages has gone, today people simply turn to Google to find a business or source. That means it is now more essential than ever that you have a website. But for many smaller businesses taking that first step in establishing an initial online presence can be a daunting prospect. You don’t want to spend a fortune and would rather take a cautious one step at a time approach. You really want to see bankable results before you commit to a developing a full and comprehensive online presence.

As a small business ourselves, where we really have to watch the pennies and always seek to obtain value for money at low risk, we can fully relate to this type of requirement. With this in mind we have developed a series of low cost base entry starter web site solutions that are flexible so that you can back into establishing an online footing one step at a time, without the need to break the bank.

Based around a series of templated designs which we customise to incorporate your company logo and complimentary colour scheme, our starter packages are presented so that, as and when deemed appropriate, existing pages are easily upgradeable and additional pages simply added to enlarge the website and add enhanced functionality.

Depending on the size of your business, risk strategy and available resources we offer two Web Site Starter solutions

1.	eStarter-Basic
	One Web Page Sites typically being of a Bill Board style telling a visitor what your business is briefly about and requesting they either phone or email to learn more. Such sites can also be presented as single product pages selling the merits of an individual service or product offering. To enhance the basic offering a revolving multi-picture Flash presentation (eStarter-BF) or brief basic 30 second Powerpoint derived video (eStarter-BV) can be added to promote the products and / or services offered by your company.
2.	eStarter-Plus
	As per our eStarter BF package, with the inclusion of an additional 2 web pages on our eStarter+3 plan or 4 pages with eStarter+5. These packages tend to be our most popular solutions as they deliver enhanced perceived credibility for clients and improved search engine ranking performance.
	Checkout Sample Portfolio to see Examples
Starter Website Guide Pricing
As a guide, the fees we typically charge for such design and associated ongoing website hosting is listed below. Given that each client normally has their own unique requirements please contact us for a personal quotation.
	Starter Site Packages   Entry Design Fees   Hosting Options   Web Site Hosting Only   Web Site & Email Hosting     eStarter-Basic   eStarter-B One Page Billboard Style Website   £185   £60 per annum   £100 per annum     eStarter-BF One Page Website (with Flash Multi Picture Animation)   £225   £60 per annum   £100 per annum     eStarter-BV One Page Website (with 30 second "informercial" style Video)   £295   £60 per annum   £100 per annum       eStarter-Plus   eStarter+3   Three Page Website (with Flash Multi Picture Animation on Home Page)   £365   -   £100 per annum   Eg  Pages – Home, Product & Services, About Us & Contact Us   eStarter+5   Five Page Website (with Flash Multi Picture Animation on Home Page)   £495   -   £100 per annum   Eg. Pages – Home, About Us, Products, Services, Contact Us with Online Form.     Additional Options                 Additional Pages (per page)   £75             Additional Pages with Online Form   £95             Additional Domain Name (with web redirect to Primary Domain)       £25 per annum*   £100 per annum       Ongoing Maintenance                 First Year (Non Structural – existing text content)   £ FOC             Subsequent Years   £ POA             KEY    FOC = Free Of Charge    POA = Price On Application      * = Top Level Domain Names Only

Client Responsibilities – supply of the text and graphics required to appear on the site.  Where assistance is required with producing the text or sourcing appropriate imagery this can be accommodated on an additional charge basis.

We believe our rates to be extremely competitive, however if you find a better price, please talk to us and we will do our best to match any quote received.

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How does the website design process work?

Having initially registered your interest in our web design services, we normally recommend that we meet to discuss the finer details of your exact requirements. Having clearly identified the deliverables required we would normally reconfirm in writing any verbally given design estimates.

Assuming that you are happy to proceed with our proposal, we would, based on your earlier discussed preferences, progress to produce a rough visual of how we envisage the site would look and be structured.

Having agreed the design concept, we would then request that you supply us with final textual content and photographs so that we can quickly progress to building the site. During the build process you will be able to monitor and comment on the development work being undertaken on our private access extranet site.

Once the design has been completed and accepted by yourself, the site is uploaded to its own dedicated web space on the Internet and we submit your site to the major search engines.

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How long does the design process take?

A five page web site is typically completed within 2 to 3 weeks from date of instruction.

We have in past delivered within a few days, but achievement of such a turn round normally depends on how quickly you are able to supply us with the text and graphics content and come back to us on any queries!

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Will my site be optimised for Search Engine Listings?

Achieving high placement on search listings depends on a number of key factors, both “on page” and “off page” (linking). When we build a site we try to ensure, based on information supplied by the client, the web pages are as "search engine friendly" as possible.

Where a client requires to enhance a sites positioning on search listings our Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Marketing services are available to assist in helping to identify and develop “on page” and “off page” optimisation strategies.

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How do I monitor the performance of my site?

If you host your site externally to us then it is likely that your web host will be able to provide you with access to basic statistical information showing click activity and bandwidth utilisation on any given day, week, month .

Should hosting be provided by us, in addition to the standard basic web host data we will also, on request, make available via Google Analytical more comprehensive and meaningful usage and visitor source data.

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How do I update the web site?

During the first year after your site goes live we will carry out non–structural changes e.g. small amounts of text or photos for free.

Outside of that initial year period, or should you require any structural or animation changes to the site or regular updates, these can be carried out on an ad-hoc - as and when - basis, or alternatively as part of a more cost efficient ongoing maintenance support agreement.

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What are the payment terms?

We request 50% of the agreed design fee on placement of an order and the balance and any associated annual hosting fees on completion.

Our preferred method of payment is via cheque; however we will accept all major credit cards or PayPal, subject to the acceptance of a 3.5% handing / processing fee.

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How do I select a domain name?

You can either purchase your own domain name or ask that we acquire a name on your behalf. If you host your website with us and request that we hold your domain name all new and ongoing website domain name registration fees are covered under your contract.

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What domain name should I choose?

In choosing a domain name you basically have two options, either seek the trading name of your business or a name which describes the nature of your business.

For business where the name of the organisation is not likely to be a search term used on the search engines we normally recommend the selection of a domain name for the website that describes the business. Ideally you should seek to hold the domain name containing the search term most commonly used in finding a business like yours on the search engines.

You can of course have the best of both worlds by using two domain names - one for the website and online marketing and another for email where web traffic is automatically redirected to the other (ie. Search term for the website and business name for email).

We would usually recommend that you only select what is known as top-level domain names. There are several top-level domains to choose from, including .co.uk, .com, .org, .net, and .biz.

If your business is primarily uk targeted then we would always recommend the .co.uk domain. If the business is more internationally orientated then go for a .com. You can of course always go for both.

The .biz domain, unfortunately, has a seedy reputation. It is viewed as a "bargain" version of .com and people generally don't trust it. You can register .net names, but they don't always sound "right" and are in theory for ISPs. A similar objection applies to .org which is intended for non-profit organizations.

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Is it essential that I host my website with you?

While it is not essential that the website we design and build for you is hosted on our servers, for many of our clients it is quicker and considerably less hassle for all parties concerned to deploy a "one-stop" approach to email provision and website design and hosting.

With our hosting services harnessing the power of Freedom 4 / Pipex's Tier-One UK based network infrastructure, the features offered by our eStarter hosting programme  are similar to those of  our standard email and website hosting packages, but tailored specifically to meet the requirements of our eStarter clients.

The eStarter Hosting Package includes:

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Together let’s turn your website design ideas into reality. Contact us