Using An Agency To Build Your Website | Everything You Need to Know

Thinking of using an agency to build your website, here is a list of frequently asked questions we usually get asked by clients early on in the process.

How much does it cost?

We get asked this question usually straightaway, generally before we’ve received a brief, know what the client wants, or have identified why they want a new website in the first place. And the honest answer is, we don’t know.

If you have a budget in mind, it’s always best to share that with us from the outset, we will discuss your requirements and then we will identify whether we can do what you are asking within the budget you have specified. If we can, great. If we can’t, we can talk about exactly what it is we can do for your budget.

If you genuinely don’t have a figure in mind, then we will discuss your requirements with you, exactly what it is that you need the website to do, any integrations it needs and what your overall business goals are for the website. Once we have this information, we can put together a detailed costing proposal.

But it’s good to note that website costs can vary massively depending on your requirements.

How long does it take to design and build a website?

Again, this question is very open ended. It very much depends on the level of technical functionality your website requires, some complex sites can take 6-12 months to complete, but most standard functionality websites usually take between 6-12 weeks to complete.

There can be a few factors which can cause delays in the process - however the main factor which usually causes delays, is us not receiving sign off quickly on certain aspects throughout the process, or us not receiving the website content on time. These can cause significant delays - as we have a studio schedule which we work towards, and if you miss your slot for development, you may be pushed to the back of the queue when it comes to building your website.

Can you redesign an existing website?

We can and have previously redesigned existing websites - however it’s not something we do often. This isn’t because we don’t want to. But usually when we speak with customers about the reasons behind wanting a redesign 9 times out of 10, it’s down to cost, and not what is necessarily best for them as a business. Most of the time, the cost of redesigning and building is roughly the same as simply redesigning and building an existing website.

When our developers have to interpret someone else’s code/website template - there are lots of issues we can encounter with a redesign - which we then have to rebuild. So it usually takes more work to do it this way, rather than design and build it from scratch.

Do you do bespoke development?

Yes. We have worked on many custom builds. Custom websites are usually commissioned when there are very technical requirements and custom integrations with third party softwares required.

Custom builds often take much longer than standard website builds due to the level of complexity involved. We would always discuss in depth the pro’s and con’s of bespoke vs open source development and the decision would always be made based on the capabilities of the open source platforms we use.

What platforms do you build websites on?

We use Craft CMS for the majority of our websites. It’s a simple and easy to use CMS for our clients and provides flexibility to us in terms of design and development. It's much less bloated than Wordpress and allows us to make the majority of the website design editable for the customer.

For straightforward e-commerce websites, we mainly use Shopify. Shopify is an excellent platform for both startup e-commerce businesses, and also for established businesses. It has millions of users all over the world, and so there is always help available within their extensive developer community.

Will I own my website?

Yes, of course. As long as all payments have been made, you 100% own the website, its design and the IP contained within it.

Will I be able to make changes to my own website ?

Yes. However, during our initial website briefing discussions, we would ask you which parts of the website you’d like to be able to edit frequently. There are some things that we usually don’t make editable, this is just due to the fact that some changes can alter the design of the website, and so we try to avoid making these parts editable if possible.

Will a new website affect my google rankings?

Launching a new website can have a big impact on your SEO. An improved user experience, responsive website and faster loading times for example, can all have super positive effects on your rankings. However there are technical aspects which need to be worked on in the background before pushing a new website live such as ensuring redirect URL’s are in place, and new XML sitemap is submitted - if these are not done correctly, this can have disastrous effects on your SEO.

During the briefing session we will identify your best performing web pages, and ensure that content is kept - it can be tempting to overhaul all content when having a new website but rewriting existing content which already performs well can cause rankings to drop.

Will it work on mobile?

All of our websites are built with mobile first in mind. This means we design for mobile, and then scale up the design for desktop. There are only a few edge cases (usually b2b businesses) where desktop traffic is higher than mobile, and therefore we always design for the majority of your users. Not having a mobile friendly website will seriously impact not only your google rankings, but your website conversion rate too

If you’d like to chat to us about a website design and build project, get in touch