Web design services in Dorset, the UK and Worldwide
Nick Stubbs
Web Designer
Ultimately, my initial services include domain registration (if needed), hosting set up and full website build using superior templates with marketing rich features. This will get you online and up and running!
Trying not to overcomplicate things, all WordPress websites need three essentials. Each of these things need careful consideration as they will affect your business and your standing in the search engines.
List of Steps
Step 1 - URL
A url (website address - .com/.co.uk etc). Using a house analogy, the url is the address of the home you live in.
Step 2 - Hosting
Web hosting (where all your data lives). Continuing the analogy, the hosting is the actual house where your stuff is.
Step 3 - Template
A theme (the shell or "look and feel" for your website). Finally, the theme is how you decorate and "gadgetise" that house.
Your URL
Each section costs varying amounts. The url is about £12-£20 a year. If you don't have one already, please spend some time finding the perfect url for your business. It is permanent and changing it later means you may lose all the SEO "goodness" that you have accumulated.
Hosting and templates are more expensive but are worth the additional cost. Try and equate it to having a shop on the high street rather than out of town in the back streets. "Speculate to accumulate" as my accountancy-lecturer father used to say...
Web Hosting and Template
After years of testing and using myself, I have come down to two of the best possible solutions for your web hosting and site template. I cannot find a better or more compatible solution so these are what I work with. They are what I know best and trust for reliability, speed and support. They are what I use for my clients.
You can either:
Header | Hosting | Template | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
Your Own Accounts | £18 per month | £20 per month | £38 per month |
Host With Me | £25 per month* | £25 per month* | £50 per month* |
If you host your WordPress website and template with me, you will also get 1 hour of my time each month which you may find helpful. This is another reason why I limit my clients, so I can give my full attention to each.
This additional time I give for the extra charges above will be spent on:
- 1Making regular checks to ensure the site is all good
- 2Updating plugins and initiating regular WordPress updates
- 3Checking Google Search Console for, and correcting any errors
Please note that I only have 25 slots for hosting and templates on my accounts so please get in touch as soon as possible.
The Build Fee
10 Pages
All the basic pages including home, about, contact etc
£
2495
+ £50/mo*
Popular
15 Pages
Basic pages plus additional internal pages such as blog posts and products
£
2795
+ £50/mo*
20 Pages
As 15 pages but with five additional pages
£
2995
+ £50/mo*
* £50/mo is optional depending on what you need with regards to the hosting and templates
** Secure Sockets Layer Certificate and Content Delivery Network both of which are necessary
In the interest of transparency, a breakdown of these costs is as follows. Why do this? I like to get straight to the point and get all of the questions out of the way up front. That way I can just get on with building your website.
Every page on the site has to meet certain criteria if it is to appease the search engines. That means:
A good, relevant, well written page or blog post will normally take 2 hours if you provide the content, maybe more. With the homepage taking up to 4+ hours. On top of that, we need to set up Google Analytics and add code to your website and do the same with Google Search.
There are other things we need to do that all take time but let's work out an hourly rate. Working conservatively, a 10 page site will take:
I haven't included everything here but at this stage, my hourly rate for building a 10 page WordPress website is £2495 / 28 hours = £89ph. This includes 15+ years of knowledge, experience and expertise all of which save you time and money in the long run.
I also use hundreds of £££'s worth of software, tools and specialist testing platforms to ensure your website is the best it can be.
Extras - Content
If you don't have the time or inclination to write your own content, I can do it for you. It is important to keep your site up to date with fresh or renewed content so that Google and other search engines actively promote it.
I can help to research, write and promote blog posts on any topic related to and relevant for your business. This is great for "spreading your net" online to attract visitors and potential clients.
Right now, I charge £50 per hour for this work but that may go up in the future. Oh, and I am not a "hmm...that's going to take some time" sort of person. My experience allows me to work fast and I do.
You supply content
Of course you can write the blog content and supply images for me and let me do the rest:
- 1Check Grammer (see what I did there?)
- 2Optimise for SEO
- 3Source, add or improve images for good site speed
- 4Add the post/page to search engines and promote to the web
This will obviously save time and your money and I estimate that a single blog post added in this way will take around 2 hours.
I do everything
If you were to simply supply some images along with the desired topic, I would do the research, optimise the images, maybe add some more and do everything else above. This can take anything up to 5 hours but more than likely around 4.
Extras - Marketing
The beauty of the systems I use to build WordPress websites for clients is the sheer amount of features built around marketing. I won't go into ALL the details here but here are 5 of the many exciting features available to enhance and grow your website/business.
Please note that these aren't necessary (at least right away) for a site to be successful. However, it is great to know they are available at any time as your business and website grows:
Test this email capture example
Simple Email Lead Capture
They say the money is in the list. The email list. This is true. Imagine you are a dentist and you have an email list of 1000 customers or interested people. You offer a huge discount on teeth whitening and send it out to your list. No ad fees, no spamming social media, just a well targeted, ready to buy audience.
There are many ways to capture emails but to see one in action, click the icon for this section (the blue envelope).
Your details will NOT be held by us or sold to anyone, you will simply receive a sample return email. Your privacy is safe.
Headline Optimisation - SEO on Steroids
The headline of your posts and pages are what Google shows in their search results. If it doesn't compel, you get no click! What if you could test any number of differing headlines over a set period of time and have the "most clicked" headline (the winner) automatically chosen to be shown by Google? Cool huh!
Every time someone does a Google search and sees your page/post, they will see a different headline and click/not click. What you see in your WordPress website back end is the report with all your different headlines and the click results for each.
When you start the process the report will look like this (click image below for larger version). Check out the various headlines that I am testing for this page:
I have used some special software to first determine what people search for online most and used some of those terms. This should be done on every post and page on your website!
Quizzes
You can host any number of highly customisable and great looking quizzes on your site. These can be for fun or for marketing purposes and can have any number of features such as images, audio and even videos to encourage engagement.
After taking the quiz, the user is shown their score with the option to share with their friends (along with a link to your page or website of course). There are many other exciting and useful ways to use quizzes. What if you could...
Automate Your Marketing
Let's say one of your visitors takes the quiz above and scores 85%. You can set this parameter to trigger a "reward" or anything you like.
So, someone scores 80%, they are simply invited to take the quiz again. As many times as they like (which is also a great way to learn).
However, if they score 85% or above they can be placed in a pre-set, pre-determined and automated sequence for ANYTHING. You could give them a discount on your product or service or you could automatically enroll them on a free course on your website.
Once they complete that course, they could be offered a further discount for the full or advanced paid course. Either way, they can also be added to your email list (by invite of course).
This can be applied to any business that offers products or services. The possibilities are endless and are only limited by your imagination.
Testimonials
Testimonials are incredibly powerful for your business. For example, the first thing I look at when purchasing anything from Amazon is the reviews (verified purchases). They play a huge part in whether I hit that buy button or not.
With the automated testimonial feature on your website, you can collect testimonials for anything.
- 1Any or all of your products or services
- 2The price
- 3Your support team
You can capture these testimonials in a number of ways such as through the quiz above, a form on any page, via email using the automation feature above and even from your social media channels. The automation feature could, once again, offer a discount as a thank you for them leaving their testimonial.
In fact, I have set up a testimonial capture form at the end of this page. So, keep reading and then would you please complete the form at the end. As long as you don't spam, swear at or troll me (those will automatically be removed), I will include your comment/testimonial.
As I said, it is not necessary to implement any or all of these right away. Get your WordPress website set up and running and then think about the endless possibilities these, and all the other features could bring to your business. They are all there waiting as part of your toolkit when I build your website.
Extras - Professional Photography and Video
As well as building your website, I also provide professional photography and video. These, along with web design, compliment each other with continuity from the same person whilst saving money by keeping everything under one roof so to speak.
Free Existing Website Review
If you would like a free review of your current website, add this option to the form below. I will then give your site a full run down and report back to you prior to even agreeing any work. This is a no-obligation and free service.
