Websites

A company website redesign project can be a complex and daunting process that requires careful planning and execution. Understanding your audience, conducting a content audit, defining goals and objectives, developing a site map, designing the user interface, redesigning content, testing and launching, ensuring redirects, and updating digital assets and social channels are all essential steps in the website redesign strategy.

As web designers, we would recommend that wherever you are on your journey, one thing to always remember is that a website redesign plan should always prioritise the needs of the user and ensure that the content is relevant, useful, and engaging.

Read our guide to redeveloping your company website here.

The amount of time it takes to build a website can vary greatly depending on many things. From the complexity of the design, the number of features and functionalities required through to the size of the team working on the project.

A simple brochure-style website with a few pages and limited features can typically be completed in a few weeks, while a more complex site with custom features and a large amount of content can take several months to build.

Remember that website development projects often require collaboration and approvals from multiple stakeholders, which can seriously impact the timeline.

The other element that can greatly affect actual ‘live’ date is content.

Whatever your goals, as your web development agency, we’d set a clear timeline at the outset of the project so everyone can manage expectations.

This is a tricky one, as there is no ‘one size fits all’; however, the cost of a website can be affected by a number of factors, including the complexity of the design, the number of features and functionalities required, the amount of custom development work needed, and if content is also required.

Simple brochure-style websites with a few pages and limited features can cost anywhere from £1000 - £3000, while a more complex site with custom features, content and bespoke data and design elements can cost from approx £10’000.

Also, if you are migrating a website or upgrading, then there are other consideration such as content migration and SEO.

How long is a piece of string? This can really depend on several things:

• Type of website

• Your industry

• If it is important

In general, as a digital agency, we’d definitely recommend to update your website regularly to keep its content fresh, improve its search engine optimisation (SEO), and maintain the interest of visitors - there’s nothing worse than a potential client quoting you on out-of-date prices or information from your website - which in turn can harm business.

So if you’re going to update, what should / could you do?

This can include updating your company news, product offerings, and case studies, adding new blog posts, and making other content changes.

For a blog or news-focused website, it's important to add new content on a consistent basis, such as once a week or more. For a brochure-style business website, updating the content a few times a year may be sufficient. If your website includes an e-commerce component, it's really important to keep product information and prices up-to-date.

Don’t forget to regularly review your website for technical issues, such as broken links, and perform routine maintenance and software updates to ensure its security and optimal performance. This is crucial for WordPress websites.

Ultimately, the frequency of website updates should align with your business goals and the needs of your target audience.

Yes, we offer comprehensive training for using WordPress, Squarespace and Umbraco websites. This can be on a one-to-one basis or be delivered as part of a workshop for an entire team.

In addition to website training, we also offer SEO training for your specific Content Management System - giving you maximum control over the organic reach of your content and making it work harder.

1. Ease of use: Squarespace has a simple, drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for non-technical users to create a website, while WordPress requires a little more technical know-how to use effectively.

2. Design: Squarespace offers pre-made templates that can be customised with limited design options, while WordPress offers a wider range of design options and customisation possibilities with the use of themes and plugins.

3. Cost: Squarespace has a monthly subscription model that includes hosting, while WordPress is free to use, but requires separate hosting, domain and maintenance costs.

4. Scalability: WordPress is more flexible and scalable, allowing you to add features and functionality as your website grows and create bespoke functionality, while Squarespace has limitations on the number of features and pages you can add.

5. SEO: Both Squarespace and WordPress are optimised for search engines, but WordPress offers more control over SEO and is considered more SEO-friendly by experts. However, we can achieve amazing results with both platforms.

6. E-commerce: Squarespace offers built-in e-commerce capabilities, while WordPress requires the use of plugins for e-commerce functionality.

7. Mobile-responsive: Both Squarespace and WordPress are mobile-responsive, but Squarespace's templates are specifically designed for mobile, making the mobile experience smoother for users ‘out of the box’.

8. Integration: WordPress has a wide range of integrations with third-party tools, while Squarespace has a limited number of integrations, but they are easy to set up.

9. Support: Squarespace offers 24/7 customer support, while with a business WordPress website, your agency will be required to provide most non-CMS upgrades.

10. Development: Squarespace has limited options for custom development, while WordPress offers a wide range of development options for those with the technical skills.

Ultimately, the choice between Squarespace and WordPress will depend on your specific business needs, budget, and level of technical expertise. Both platforms have their pros and cons, and the best choice for your business will depend on your specific requirements. Talk to us and we can highlight where you could best use each system.

Yes, we can make websites in specific languages and/or create multi-lingual websites where you have full flexibility and can add different text.

We also have experience with using third party translation tools (like Google Translate) which will automatically create versions of your website.

We offer different levels of support for your business website. We can either:

1. Manage your existing hosting (being responsible for your server environment)

2. Setup a dedicated server on your behalf

3. Host your website on our hosting

4. Just use the hosting to upload the website

As a word of note, we use our own hosting for building your test website. We always provide specific advice for what your server will be needed. But, if this whole area leaves you in a cold sweat - simply point us in the right direction and we can take care of the lot for you.

Find out more about hosting

Yes, we design all websites to be ‘mobile responsive’ - this means ensuring your website works well on mobiles as well as desktop.

As part of our service, we can install Google Analytics 4 on your website (GA4). We also offer additional services for ‘plugging in’ data studio - which allows you to take GA4 data and produce client-specific reports.

Simply put, yes. We can create specific users who have specific access - this is great when managing teams. Out of the box, Squarespace and WordPress have certain levels of this functionality. If you have a complex team requirement, we would always advise a bespoke WordPress or Umbraco website development.