What sort of website do you need?

A website can be anything from a single page containing your company name and contact details through to a multiple page site with content changing on a daily basis. Whatever type of website you are considering, you should remember - on the Internet, your website IS your business. Therefore the impression someone gets from visiting your website should be the same as the impression you want to give to clients visiting your business.

So, if you feel your business impression should be 'profession, formal & quality' then that's what to aim for with your website. Alternatively, you could see your business as 'friendly, welcoming & fun' or 'informative and easy to deal with' and so on. However you would describe your business, that's what you should aim for with your website.

As an example, at Westcountry Business we see ourselves as 'Technically knowledgeable - experienced in Business - helpful - offering sound, practical advice you can use', which is why this website contains a lot of information and a section dedicated to advice on common IT issues written for the non-technical business person.

What's involved in creating a Website?

The technical development of the website is only one part of its creation. You need to have a design 'look and feel' that matches your company image and the impression you are trying to give. You need a good clear structure - making your site clear and easy to use. You also need content - often the hardest part - what do you want to say and how do you want to say it. You also need a clear idea of how the website will work for you. It could be one of your most important marketing tools - but how do you market it? Do you publicise your website address? How to get good listings on search engines? etc.

Westcountry Business specialise in developing website with small & medium sized businesses who want professional help with the whole process. We work with you to help you decide what sort of website would best suit you business. We involve you in the design process, providing a number of options and then revising them until we have a layout that you like. We then create a website on that basis for you to review and comment on.

Through a close association with our partners at Graphic Words, we can also help you with the creation of website content, taking of photos, preparation of images and, if required, arranging professional graphic design. We can make use of any existing publicity material you may already have or - if you don't have any yet - we can provide complementary printed materials, such as leaflets or brochures - helping you get the maximum return from the time and money you've invested in developing design and content.

So how much does it cost?

A simple website of only a few pages and where you have most of the content and 'company image' already could cost as little as £100 - £150.

However, most business website require a little more than this. A more typical price for a website of 10 - 20 pages, with some 'nice' features like 'drop-down' menus where we have helped you through the design process and with editing the content is more likely to cost between £350 - £500.

Of course, a more complex website or one which contains a lot of contain that you want to change on a regular basis or one requiring a lot of work developing the content or creating images may cost even more, so here is our pricing approach.

Initial consultation & discussions are free and without obligation. These discussions will give both us and you and idea of what is required and what your expectations are or should be.

If, after the initial discussions, we are both happy to proceed, we would ask you to send us any publicity material you already had. We would use this to produce a 'draft' site layout to give you the opportunity of selecting a 'look and feel' that suited you.

The draft layouts are to give you the confidence that we can work together to produce a design that you will like. We will also provide a more detailed proposal at this time, setting out a proposed structure for the website and detailed pricing. Until this point there is no commitment or obligation for either of us.

If you like our proposals, then we proceed. If not, we wish each other well & go our separate ways. This way you know in advance what you're getting, who you're dealing with and how much it will cost.

Our preferred approach is to offer a fixed price up front so we can then just focus on making our client is happy. No hidden extras. We believe this honest and open approach has to be better than offering an 'attractive' price only for you to find that you have minimal involvement and that changes are extra - leaving you with a website you're not totally happy with.