Affordable, reliable web site design
Follow our step by step web site design process to gain a better understanding of how we deliver on our promise to produce a professional, affordable and reliable web site to sole traders and small businesses.
- Design
- Content
- Build
- Host
- Newsletters
- e-Commerce
- Prices
The first stage in designing your web site, is the initial consultation.
A design that delights and reflects the value of your business relies upon clear instructions to the web designer. You need to have a clear vision of what you want from your web site, as well as more general ideas on the content, corporate colour schemes and graphical content.
We will, of course, be on hand to offer advice on the many styles of web sites that can be built, and suggest a style that fits with your business and your expectations of your new site.
Following the initial consultation we will design a style for your site, as well preparing a comprehensive quote based upon our initial discussions. This quote can form your 'total budget' or allow for additional elements as the design takes shape. Either way our transparent pricing policy will ensure you control the costs.
All of our designs are W3C compliant - which means your web site will look great to visitors irrespective of the web browser they use.
Once the style of the site meets with your approval, and our quote has been accepted, the design will begin in earnest. We will require a non-refundable deposit of £100 (+ VAT) at this stage.
With the style agreed, our design team will prepare your web site normally within five working days. In exceptional circumstances if we are not able to deliver within this time scale you will be advised of the current lead time. Completion within five days is entirely dependent upon your submission of the site contents of course.
Our starting price is just £150 (+ VAT) for the design of a 3 page web site
Please familiarise yourself with some of the pitfalls of web site design that you can avoid by commissioning OctenWebDesign as your web designers.
The second, and most critical stage of the process, is agreeing the content for your web site
It almost goes without saying that the content is a critical element of your web site since it will provide the information to your visitors. This is not its only role however. Your content will help determine the structure and design of the site, and its visibility to search engines.
The content should include several keywords or phrases - generally these are the words that your visitors enter in a search engine (Google, Yahoo, MSN etc.). The most effective keywords are those that are the most relevant for your business and the objectives of the site.
Time spent on research at this stage in the process will be more than repaid once the site is 'live'.
You should ask yourself:
- What is the main objective of your web site?
- Who are your target visitors?
- What do they want from the visit?
- Who are your main competitors?
- What can they teach you?
Since no-one knows your businesses as well as you do, your participation in the research phase is important. The final decision on the content and keywords is yours, although we are always on hand to provide advice, and guide you through the process. We will supply you with our guide to web page optimisation and a range of free internet tools.
Of course the process should not end when your site is published. Investing time regularly to review your keywords and freshen the content pays dividends.
Once our design team have agreed the content and style of your web site they will begin the third stage of the process - building your site.
Throughout this process you will be kept advised of the progress of the project and be given the opportunity to view the web site on line so that you can make further suggestions.
We publish the web site within our client area. This area is restricted by a username/password, so that you can be confident whilst your web site is "work in progress" only you and our design team will have access to it. In the initial stages we may publish on a third party 'trial' site, but rest assured the site will remains anonymous.
If, during the design stage you require further elements for your web site (perhaps more pages than had been originally quoted, a photo gallery or email form), you will be advised of the cost before the additional elements are included. Throughout the process you remain in control of the budget.
Once the web site has been finished to your satisfaction we can move to the final stage of the process - publishing. It is at this stage that the balance becomes due.
Should you wish to make regular revisions to your web site we can handle this too! An annual maintenance contract priced at £100 (+VAT) is available. You simply advise us of any changes you wish to make on a weekly basis and our design team will make the change for you, and publish the 'revised' site. Obviously any changes are limited to content and not to the overall design or style of your web site
If you have not registered your domain name, or do not have a contract with a web site hosting company we can help with this.
Once your web site has been through the design process, it needs to be published on the internet - for which you will need a a domain name (www.mybusiness.co.uk) and a web site hosting provider.
If you already have both simply provide your log in details and we will upload your new site.
Don't worry if you don't have either as we can arrange it all for you with one of Europe's largest web site hosting companies. With 99.9% availability and very competitive pricing, our hosting partners take some beating.
We offer three hosting packages. The prices below are for a minimum 12 month contract and include the domain name registration in your name and not ours*. We also offer a 20% discount for contracts of 24 months.
PERSONAL £10 (+VAT):
Ideal for a personal web site or for a sole trader. The pack includes -
- 1 Email account (i.e. your name@mybusiness.co.uk)
- 1GB mail storage
- 1GB disk space for your web site and 10GB monthly traffic
BUSINESS £25 (+VAT):
Ideal for a businesses web site, the pack includes -
- 10 Email accounts (i.e. your name@mybusiness.co.uk)
- 20GB mail storage
- 2GB disk space for your web site and 100GB monthly traffic
BUSINESS PLUS £60 (+VAT):
Ideal for a larger business web site or for those sites requiring e-mail forms. Essential for e-Commerce sites. The pack includes -
- 1000 Email accounts (i.e. your name@mybusiness.co.uk) with 25GB mail storage
- 5GB disk space for your web site and 1000GB monthly traffic
- Server configured for PHP (v5.2 or 4.4)
We advise registering your chosen domain name as early in the process as possible. This allows time to set up your email accounts and for the server to be configured. Please note that the cost of registering your domain name and hosting is paid to a third party, and is therefore non refundable.
* We are able to register you choice of domain name providing it has not already been registered. If your chosen name is not available we can suggest alternatives, but the final choice is always yours.
Newsletters are the perfect compliment to your web site.
A web site will contain a comprehensive description of your products and services, available to your customers whenever they need specific information. A newsletter should be used to update your customers on your latest offers, to highlight a particular service or product, or simply to stay in touch with customers on a regular basis.
By its very nature a newsletter is a more personal communication with your customers, and recent research indicates that customers have a much greater emotional attachment to newsletters than they do for web sites*.
A good newsletter should reflect your own, or your company's, personality, and be relevant to the needs of your customer. It should enhance your company image by complimenting your web site, both in design and format. Finally it should increase visits to your web site with the inclusion of relevant links.
Octen Web Design offer a bespoke design service for both one-off or regular newsletters, and supply you with the finished product as a Microsoft Outlook template service. All we require from you is the content!
If you wish, and can supply email addresses for your customers, we are also able to provide an emailing service, and can manage your subscription list database.
The costs for our existing customers are:
- Design service £50 + VAT for one newsletter
- 12 month design contract £150 +VAT for up to 4 newsletters
- 12 month subscription list management contract £100 +VAT
* Email Newsletter Usability (3rd edition) from the Nielsen Norman Group.
We believe an e-Commerce pack must be flexible, attractive and reflect the value of your business. Above all it must be secure and affordable.
Our e-Commerce design service will help you build a successful on-line business from scratch. We are able to offer an extremely competitively priced e-Commerce site to fit almost all budgets.
Although more sophisticated than a simple 'marketing' web site, e-Commerce sites need not be overly complex. After very careful consideration we have selected shopping cart and payment gateway suppliers who we are convinced share our philosophy.
As well as the cost of designing and hosting the web site, which we will be able to quote for once we have determined your specific requirements, you will need to sign up with our preferred shopping cart and payment gateway suppliers. We are able to offer advice on the level of service you require from them, and the annual costs based upon your chosen service level and anticipated turnover.
Our e-Commerce package offers a bespoke web site design with:
- Integrated shopping cart with four service levels ranging in cost from £49.99 to £199.99 per year available through Roman Cart
- Secure payment gateway provided by Netbanx with an individual internet merchant account, live, real-time payment processing for all major credit and debit cards, and competitive transaction fees starting at just £20 per month.
Please note: You will be required to open accounts with Roman cart and Netbanx as part of the process of publishing your e-Commerce web site. There will be additional costs payable to these companies dependent upon the level of service you require
We offer an affordable service with design only prices starting at just £150 (+VAT).
We operate a transparent pricing structure so that you know exactly how much each element of the design will cost.
| INDIVIDUAL ELENTS | COST (ex VAT) |
COST (inc VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| WEB SITE DESIGN | ||
| Initial consultation & design (up to 3 pages) | £150.00 | £176.25 |
| Additional page | £50.00 | £58.75 |
| Photo gallery | £50.00 | £58.75 |
| Web banner (design & inclusion) | £50.00 | £58.75 |
| Web banner (inclusion only) | £25.00 | £29.38 |
| Site Map | £50.00 | £58.75 |
| Email form | £50.00 | £58.75 |
| Privacy Policy | £50.00 | £58.75 |
| Terms & Conditions | £50.00 | £58.75 |
| e-COMMERCE | ||
| Customised shopping cart | £100.00 | £117.50 |
| Customised payment gateway | £100.00 | £117.50 |
| MAINTENANCE CONTRACTS | ||
| 12 months | £150.00 | £176.25 |
| 24 months 10% DISCOUNT | £270.00 | £317.25 |
| HOSTING CONTRACTS | ||
| Personal (12 months) | £15.00 | £17.63 |
| Personal (24 months) 10% DISCOUNT | £27.00 | £31.73 |
| Business (12 months) | £45.00 | £52.88 |
| Business (24 months) 10% DISCOUNT | £81.00 | £95.18 |
| Business Plus (12 months) | £75.00 | £88.13 |
| Business Plus (24 months) 10% DISCOUNT | £135.00 | £158.63 |
| NEWSLETTER DESIGN | ||
| Design (one newsletter) | £50.00 | £58.75 |
| Annual Design Contract (up to 4 newsletters) | £150.00 | £176.75 |
| Subscription list management (12 months) | £100.00 | £117.50 |
