Website design - Invest in your business with an effective web presence

Yes you do - it's an absolute must for any business that wants to develop.

Many small businesses still believe that they wouldn't benefit from having a website. There is a reluctance to move away from the traditional advertising methods such as the local paper or phone directories. Unfortunately for these businesses, consumers have changed their habits and we no longer tend to pick up a newspaper or phone directory to find a suitable business. Consumers want more information and they want it instantly.

Why not conduct a straw poll amongst your friends, family and colleagues, asking them if they tend to use paper media or the Internet to find products or services? If more than half of them prefer the Internet, you have your answer.

For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.

Whilst there are literally hundreds of website 'types', most businesses will require a website that falls into one of the following three categories:

A static website, also known as a brochure site is probably the most common type of website amongst small businesses. A static website is used to provide information to the visitor such as your range of services, opening hours, pricing, etc. This can be complimented by images of your products or services. A static website can be a single page or for larger companies, as a much as several hundred pages.

A static website example

An e-commerce website is designed to sell products online. At it's most basic level, an e-commerce website will have just a few pages and may sell only a couple of different products. The other end of the scale is an online store which will have the ability to hold thousands of products. In both instances, the actual website will require a back-end payment system which will allow the visitor to pay for their goods securely with a credit card.

An online store website example

A basic e-commerce website example

A dynamic content website works differently from a static website as it can process data input by the visitor to deliver specific information. This type of website content can be incredibly useful to your visitors and is ideal in a situation where you want to give your customers tailored information based upon their exact query.

A dynamic content website example

For more information or to obtain a quote for a website, please contact us.

A Static Brochure Website - Approximately £150 per page - Example

A Simple E-commerce Website - As little as £500 to £1,000 - Example

A Full E-commerce Online Store - As little as £1,500 to £5,000 - Example

A Dynamic Content Website - Approximately £1,000 to £3,000 - Example

For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.

For a brochure style website, allow around 4 days per page plus a further week for final testing. Online stores and dynamic websites on average take around 6-8 weeks depending on the complexity and size of the site.

We are more than happy to undertake time-sensitive projects and work to your timescale where necessary. All timescale's are dependant on receiving the required information promptly from the Client.

For more information or to obtain a quote for a website, please contact us.

Call us on 0845 307 6177 for an initial discussion about your specific requirements. We will then prepare a website proposal which we'll email to you.

Once you've accepted our proposal, we'll email you an invoice and then take you through an automated process for you to agree our business terms, pay your deposit and complete our design brief.

On receipt of your invoice, simply visit our order processing page. On this page you can accept our business terms online without completing any paperwork. After you agree to our terms you will be taken to our credit/debit card processing page so you can securely pay your 50% deposit.

Once your payment is processed, you'll be taken to our design brief form which provides us with specific information used to build your website.

That's it, you can now go to step 4.

If you prefer, you can download and print our website design terms and pay your deposit by cheque. Simply complete the relevant sections, sign to confirm you accept the terms and post to us along with a deposit cheque for 50% of your invoice total, made payable to 'Avara' to:

Avara Web Media
Orchard Lodge
25 Orchard Way
Aldershot
Hampshire
GU12 4HR

Once you've sent your payment and signed terms, you can complete our design brief form.

Your hard work is now done. We will contact you on receipt of your forms to discuss suitable domain names and finalise any additional details. We will then register your domain name and start work on your website. If you have ordered an SEO upgrade, at this point we will also start analysing search terms, traffic volumes and your competition.

Within 10 working days your home page will be ready for your approval. This page is crucial as it will be used as the basis for the rest of your website. At this stage you can make any amendments or additions.

Once you have approved the home page we will then start work on the rest of your website including setting up your email addresses and optimising the pages for search engines if you have ordered an SEO upgrade.

When the website is completed you will be able to test and check it thoroughly before finally signing it off as completed. This is the final stage for making any other minor amendments or additions to the website.

We will email you with all of the details for logging into your email account and set up your weekly website statistics email or integrate Google Analytics. We will then submit your completed website to all of the major search engines.

At this point you will need to pay the balance of your invoice.

Your new website will be online and ready to start increasing your customer enquiries. We will regularly monitor your website to ensure we keep on improving your visitor levels.

Yes you can. We can integrate a CMS (content management system) which allows you to easily edit pre-defined sections of the website. With this system you can update your website as often as you like which is idea for 'latest news' or 'forthcoming events' sections of your website. The self-editing software is very simple to use so if you can edit a document in Microsoft Word, you can use a CMS.

For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.

You can really make your website stand out from the competition by adding useful dynamic content. We can include everything from maps to polls, forums to feedback, calculators to calendars; all designed to enhance the visitor experience and your enquiries.

For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.

Before you make the important decision about who is going to built your new website, we strongly suggest you consider the following:

Beware of cheap website packages - some companies will sell you a relatively cheap website package and then bolt-on many of the extras that we include with our websites. Suddenly the cheap option is not so cheap.

Avoid the hobbyist Web Designer - we come across many websites that are poorly built by the owners cousin/niece/uncle or by somebody who builds websites in their spare time. What happens if you have an urgent problem during the day?

Test the Web Designers own website - you can check to see how well any website is built by using the free W3C Validation Tool. W3C set the global standards for website construction. If their own website is littered with errors, do you trust them to build yours properly?

Where are they? If you've ever dealt with a call-centre based in a foreign country you will understand the frustration this causes. When you ring us you get straight through to a real person based in our Hampshire studio and ready to help. If we're particularly busy, you can leave a message and we'll call you back within the hour.

Franchise Operators - some companies sell web design franchises to inexperienced individuals who have little or no practical experience in website design. They will try to sell you a website package without really understanding your business or the best solution for you.

First impressions count - before you decide on using any Website Design Company, pick up the phone to them and see what they're all about. You can gauge more about how well you can work together in a five-minute conversation than you will through hours of studying their marketing material.

For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.

If your website was designed more than five years ago and not been updated since, it may not be the lead-generation tool you hoped it would be. Website design techniques have moved on dramatically over the last few years and a website that was then 'cutting-edge' may now look dated (ask your friends/colleagues to give their honest opinion on the design).

If you're not getting enough visitors, it could be down to the fact that your website doesn't rank well in the search engines due to outdated search engine optimisation of the site. Up until recently, most Web Design Companies gave little attention to SEO so even though the site may look fine, it may never have a chance of featuring at the top of the search engines. If your website isn't ranked on the first page of Google, Yahoo or Bing for your specific search term (i.e. Accountants in Surrey), it's highly unlikely you will attract many visitors.

For more information or to obtain a quote, please contact us.

For a free appraisal of your online needs or to discuss any questions you may have, simply call us on 0845 307 6177 or use our contact form. We don't employ heavy-handed sales techniques or try to sell you a solution to a problem you don't have.

We guarantee you'll find us friendly, informative and above all, able to understand your specific needs.