looking for someone to build websites

hotwinter

Hi,

I am starting my own business and will be needing a couple of websites to market, can anyone recommend me a decent (and decent priced) webdesigner in the newark/lincoln/nottingham area?

ive had one quote which was £1200 for 2 websites that i have to pay them to update, at £20 an hour. this seems alot for a pretty basic 5 page website

any help would be great

McKneff

http://indigobird.co.uk/


Have a look at the above, brilliant lady,


Catherine Carr, independent and certainly wont rip you off.

hotwinter

thank you McKneff, i have contacted her for a quote.


Any others would be great

InsideInsurance

hotwinter wrote: »

ive had one quote which was £1200 for 2 websites that i have to pay them to update, at £20 an hour. this seems alot for a pretty basic 5 page website

Unless you are paying them to write copy or do heavy SEO work on each page then if its 5 pages or 50 pages the amount of work is virtually identical as it is creating the templates, setting up the server, configuring the CMS etc that takes the time rather than copy and pasting content in once its up and running

£600/site is fairly cheap if its a proper company. You do need to be very clear of what you are getting though in terms of is it a bespoke design or a customisation of a standard template? Logo design included or not? If yes, is it in a proper vector format or not? Who owns the copyright? Is hosting included, how much will it be next year? Which CMS are they using? Do you get access to the CMS to do updates yourself or not? Are they doing any SEO/ copy writing or not? Who keeps the CMS up to date and patched etc?

£20/hr for updates isnt too bad if they are giving you access to do the basic/ moderate changes yourself and so it only exceptional circumstances that you actually use them. If you want them to do more routine work and you think there will be a fair amount of it then ask if they have a retainer type option - ie you buy 3 hours a month at £15 on a use it or lose it basis normally with 3 months notice required to reduce or terminate the agreement.

OSWS

Hotwinter, InsideInsurance is pretty much spot on. I would also add that you should ensure with the company(ies) concerned that the finished website is 'responsive' (i.e. that it is suitable for viewing on smartphones and tablet pcs). The importance of this will depend on your target customers but over half of internet searching / browsing is carried out on tablets or smartphones so it is important that your website can be easily navigated / viewed on these devices as well as via desktop pcs.

If you specifically want to focus on speaking with web designers and agencies in your local area, try UKWDA.org, Yell, whichwebdesigncompany or, of course, Google/Bing local. All of these websites allow you to narrow your search for agencies to the areas you mentioned.

BusterBessie

If it's a basic informational website you need, companies like GoDaddy etc have pretty good templates that are very easy to use and not too expensive. You can get a professional looking website up and running with some simple drag and drop.

I recently started a new website and went with GoDaddy for hosting. I tested their template system and found them decent, but for me (a software developer) I wanted to learn the nuts and bolts myself so decided to write it from scratch, but it might be worth a look.

I think they charged £3 a month or so to use the templates?

Thanks

CKhalvashi

We are known for using modified Wordpress templates, like GoDaddy, not too expensive, and we actually use GoDaddy for hosting and domain purchases.

From what I understand, a number of developers do this, it just happens that we have someone in the office that can integrate it better than I can.

Percy1983

I have built a few websites of similar sizes and use modified wordpress themes.

To be honest if its just information on the site I would recommend you try it yourself using wordpress or joomla.

I am happy to send you links to sites I have made to give you an idea of the possibilities if you want just let me know.

judderman62

you can do it yourself VERY easily with weebly. it's totally free, stupidly easy to use and has ecommerce options built in.

IronWolf

If it's only 5 pages, you might be able to knock together a decent one yourself.

All you'd need to do is install wordpress, which most hosts can do automatically, and then buy a Theme for the website which gives you the right look and layout - they're usually about $50. Filling in the content will then be quite easy, and updating is simple.

Percy1983

IronWolf wrote: »

If it's only 5 pages, you might be able to knock together a decent one yourself.

All you'd need to do is install wordpress, which most hosts can do automatically, and then buy a Theme for the website which gives you the right look and layout - they're usually about $50. Filling in the content will then be quite easy, and updating is simple.

Many of the free tmeplates look great too and of course with some customisation they can be seperated from the crowd.