FAQ.

Question? The answer's probably here.

It's always helpful to include a FAQ's page on your web site, your customers will appreciate it. Here are a few of the most asked questions we receive on web design, ecommerce and internet marketing. If you can't find the answer listed anywhere here - call us or email us we'll gladly try help as best we can.

Q. Why spend money on professional web design?

A. There is a lot of competition out there and your business needs to have an edge to stand out from the crowd - a professional, bespoke design ensures that your site is remembered among a sea of competitors. You have invested time and energy in building a business - don't throw it all away with a less than perfect web site. One thing we hear a lot is ..."A guy in our company is good with computers, he says he'll do our web site for free...". Fair enough, but will it be professional? We are experienced in what works and what doesn't. No hit and miss. Top

Q. Will it cost me loads in ongoing maintenance?

A. No. It won't. One of the best features of Actinic ecommerce is that the shopping side of your web site is totally under your control, cutting out the middle man when you want to change or update your products. As far as the 'front end' pages are concerned - we can do all the updates to your site if you prefer - bear in mind that once the design and navigation is in place minor changes are very quick to do. We encourage all our clients to keep their sites up to date themselves using Macromedia Contribute - a very inexpensive and easy to use package which allows you and your team to make text and image changes in minutes - without getting to grips with HTML. Macromedia Contribute is so easy to use, it usually takes us less than half an hour to show our clients how it works. Find out more about Macromedia Contribute here. Top

Q. How long will it take you to develop my web site?

A. Well, as a rule of thumb, it can take anywhere between 3 weeks or 3 months depending on what you want. We spend the majority of our time researching the market and coming up with a strong, attractive layout that will be both unique and appealing to your target audience. Once that's been finalised, its generally a case of converting our design into HTML, optimising the graphics and code then populating it with the information you have supplied to us. Top

Q. What makes you different from other web designers?

A. Good question. In essence, the difference lies in our approach to the whole concept of design and how we interpret it. We don't just create web sites we create well-designed, enticing, well-thought-through internet-based solutions. We really do work hard to 'hit the nail on the head' in terms of what is right and give you the best we possibly can produce. Also, we really like to create web sites that are easy on the eyes, and don't take ages to load. We're not just web-designers. We're designers and solution providers. Top

Q. How can I ensure my site performs well on search engines?

A. Intelligent layout of text and images on your pages coupled with immaculate code and sparing use of complex scripting (see FAQ below) will give your site the best chance of success. It also pays to research your market well and think carefully about the keywords and phrases you want your site to be found under. Be wary of spending money on SEO schemes which offer guaranteed top positions and automated resubmission of your pages - that's not how it works and these companies will more often than not be very glad to take your money and not give you what you expect. Top

A. How long will it take for my web site to appear on Google?

A. This is a question we get asked a lot. To be honest, there is no definite time-scale we can predict for your web site to appear on Google (or any other search engines for that matter) as Google seems to index web sites anywhere between one week or three months. We have created web sites in the past that have appeared on Google within a matter of days. Unfortunately its the luck of the draw. However, when you do get listed you will most likely get a good position quickly. Top

Q. What's wrong with Flash intros, flying graphics and music?

A. If you want visitors to find your site, stay there and contact or order from you, these tricks are effectively putting a big barrier in their way in terms of download speed and annoyance factor. Most visitors to your site will want to find what they need quickly without the benefit of a big butch internet connection! We are as excited by new technology as everyone else - just not at the expense of successful business. By the way - intro pages also do a good job of keeping the search engines out. Just think annoying it must be to have to sit through a Flash intro that takes minutes to download BEFORE you even get into the web site. Not good. Top

Q. Why don't you develop web sites using ASP?

A. ASP or any other database driven web sites generally won't perform as well on the search engines as a statically generated, regular, plain, good old fashioned HTML web site. Our goal is to make your web site as visible and as accessible as possible without having to resort to 'tricks' to get you listed. Aside from that, developing in ASP can be expensive. Top

Q. So, how much is all this going to cost me?

A. The simple answer is 'we don't know' or 'how long is a piece of string' (apologies for the gratuitous cliched phrase there). There are so many factors to consider - we don't have an off-the-shelf pricing structure for designing web sites, each project is priced individually and based on its own factors. We often find it very beneficial to meet up and talk through some of the different options available. More often than not, discussing things actually saves you money! We have nothing to hide by not broadcasting prices; we've just found it does not make sense to have a rigid pricing policy. Also bear in mind that we won't give you anything you don't need - we are not 'rip-off merchants'. Top

Q. How does the hosting work?

A. We have a high quality dedicated server we use for all our web sites. It is located in a managed, secure location with one of the UK's most respected hosting companies and contains a minimal amount of web sites. If you compare our hosting with some others, you will find that because we host a limited number of sites of the server, you get excellent performance as you won't be sharing bandwidth with many hundreds, if not thousands of other sites. We take a considerable amount of time to optimise our web sites, so this also helps performance.

We charge for hosting on an annual basis on 1st May every year. Hosting is competitively priced to include unlimited email address, 500mb per month of bandwidth, 100mb web space and access to the excellent Webalizer online statistics package so you can monitor who's coming to your web site and tailor any marketing activities. Top

Q. Do you provide SSL ('Golden Padlock')?

A. No. We don't provide a SSL service just yet, but we highly recommend Actinic who run a SSL server for use with their Actinic Catalog software. We are resellers which means we can quote for this when we provide you with a written proposal. Top

Q. Why do you ask for a deposit?

A. Simple. We are a small business. We devote a tremendous amount of time into getting it right first time. In order to do this we have to fully commit to any project and that means there are expenses. We ask for a deposit of 50% of the total cost of the project with the remaining balance due on completion. Top

Q. Is there anything you can't do?

A. Turning water into wine? No, but seriously, we are dedicated to helping you as much as we possibly can but sometimes there are things we just can't do. For instance, because we are re-sellers of Actinic software, we are unable to offer technical support for their products - we tailor the way it looks, not how it operates. Besides, the incredibly helpful and knowledgeable tech support guys over at Actinic know the product inside and out, so if you have a technical query, they really are the best people to talk to. For any technical scripting or programming we use our dedicated programming team, Special Branch. Top

Q. I live in John O'Groats / Land's End - will you come and see me?

A. Of course! We have dealt with customers up and down the country (and around the world for that matter) so if you feel you would benefit from a 'face-to-face' meeting to, if nothing else, feel reassured that we are who we say we are then we can arrange it. We have also successfully conducted our work without ever physically meeting the client via phone calls and emails which also works well. In short we're flexible and would welcome the opportunity to meet with you or your team to discuss your requirements. Top

Q. Erm, I have a question but it's not listed here!

A. Get in touch with us either by emailing us directly on phill@branches.co.uk or clare@branches.co.uk or give us a call on 01200 444443 and we'll do our best to help! Top