Choosing a local web developer & web hosting company
Choosing a company to guide you through the process and advise on options can be daunting. Below are companies we work with and recommend, who use plain English, are locally based and like us, give honest advice.
If you are not getting enough business from your current website then it’s always worth getting one of our free SEO audits to make sure you’ve optimised what you have before investing in a new website. Remember, SEO will need doing on the new website as well.
Before you move to a new web developer and web hosting company:
We’d be happy to do an SEO review to see if your problem is a rubbish website or just a website that needs SEOing or potentially some better web hosting. If you’re set on getting a new website with a fresh new look then speak to the companies below for some honest advice.
They mainly create websites using WordPress which is a platform that is easy to add new content to once the website is built, plus flexible enough to SEO.
“Build it, and they will come” isn’t enough, you will also need the new website SEOing plus making sure your existing webpages that are being found in Google already, are correctly mapped to the new website.
Our recommended web developers and web hosting companies:
Simply. Website Support – Specialists in Website Support & Maintenance
established 2012 – Cobham, Surrey.
Richard and the team offer website design & development, support and hosting tailored to meet your needs. The core of the business is offering website support to businesses of all shapes and sizes throughout the UK, specialising in WordPress and Joomla. No job is too small, from simple content edits to fixing a hacked site. Their ad-hoc support service caters to occasional jobs, or recurring maintenance plans include hosting, daily backups, security updates and 24/7 uptime monitoring, ensuring your website runs at its optimal performance.
Richard caters to everything from one-page banner websites when you need a simple website to fully functioning e-commerce stores.
We’ve worked with Richard for a number of years, and he is extremely knowledgeable and flexible to work with. If you’re unsure whether you need to move hosting or want to know how the website build process works, he’s your man. Similarly, if you aren’t sure whether your website needs a refresh or a completely new one built, Richard will give great honest advice.
Clearwater – The Marketing and Branding Agency
Established 2014 – Chippenham, Wiltshire.
Mark at Clearwater is super helpful and focuses on working with SMEs to help with web design, logos and fab looking brochures. Mark advises us on our own website so we know first hand how competent and skilled he is. The approach is very similar to our own, in learning what the customer is trying to achieve, then giving honest advice, options and a recommended solution. Mark can produce simple brochure websites or more complicated e-commerce websites.
Design JD – We Design Brands To Grow
Established 2006 – Sutton, Surrey.
Jonathan and the team at Design JD offer web development, app development but also branding so naturally has a more creative flare, ideal for those building a business that will rely heavily on the creative aspect to sell their product/services. Jonathan also offers email marketing, social media mgt, video production, signage, print design and app development, whether it be web based on IOS/Android apps. So if you are looking for a partner that can deliver a variety of marketing needs then have a chat with Jonathan.
If you’ve had a new website built recently and aren’t getting enough new business from it, then give us a call and we will perform a complimentary health check to see what could be driving the lack of business.
Your SEO Questions – Answered!
The main thing to remember here is the difference between getting your website found and how people use it once they find it.
If your website is getting a reasonable amount of traffic from places like Google/Social Media but no one enquires or buys then it could be time for a new website.
If you website isn’t getting found in Google but you are getting enquiries/sales from the people that do find it, then the site might just need some Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to boost the visibility in the Google search results.
We have lots of tools to assess this perform spending your budget on a new websiteIf it’s a completely new website then you’ll need to think about whether you already have brand guidelines or logos that can be used or do you also need these including in the build. Further, a web developer will build a framework of a website but it will need content (words/pictures) to include on the framework. If you haven’t thought about messaging, testimonials, case studies, before/after pictures, benefits, company history etc then you’ll need to either a) provide these or b) ensure the web developer will produce these for you but they will still need input. Appointing a web developer isn’t just giving the go ahead, you’ll need to do extra work and be guided through it. If you are replacing an existing website then the web developer will be able to cherry pic the best pieces of content from your old website and put in the new fancy looking one. Remember that you don’t want to lose your current Google rankings or have issues with old website links not working, so its key that a migration is planned which all good web developers will do.
All website needs hosting. If you have an existing website then it will be hosted by someone so the new website can either we hosted by the same provider or migrated to a new one. Many web developers offers hosting, plugin updates and maintenance as part of an ongoing service once the website is built which would recommend as the cost of this is very small and ensures the security of your website is maintained.
If it’s a new website then it will need hosting and our recommended web developers can advise on this but hosting costs are very small compared to website builds.
To get the best possible website built for your needs requires great communication between you and the person building your website. The more they understand about your needs and your company the better the website will be. Therefore its crucial that your web developer is able to talk the same language as you, give you confidence that they understand your needs, and gives an honest perspective on what is possible. Further, you will need to provide input and content for the web developer to construct the website so don’t think of having a new website as simply giving the go ahead, its more involved. You wouldn’t ask a builder to construct a new house without specifying how many rooms, bedrooms, windows, doors etc and websites are exactly the same.
There are lots of options when choosing a web developer and the prices will fluctuate depending on the type of company you use. If you choose a business that outsources the work overseas then make sure you are comfortable with this and ask who will be your contact. If you are going for a London based agency with a big fancy office who spend lots of taking clients to football matches and Wimbledon then you’ll be paying top dollar. The three companies we recommend above are all based in the uk, don’t outsource work overseas, you speak to the owner and are small businesses meaning their prices are very competitive and tailored to your needs.All of the above are what is called CMS (content management systems) which is software used to manage and update the content on your website. There are pros and cons of all the above and plenty of articles on the internet that compare which is best but from our experience the best one for brochure style websites is wordpress, the best of ecommerce is Shopify but it does depend what you are hoping to achieve which is why we’d always suggest talking to one of the above before choosing a CMS system.
One common theme we do see is that people build new websites use SquareSpace, GoDaddy, Yell and Wix to build a website because its very quick and very easy to do but the focus is usually on using a nice background picture rather than on website functionality. These CMS systems are also quickly outgrown and not as easy to optimise for the search engines as the others. A pretty picture isn’t enough to get ranked in Google I’m afraid.
In conclusion, if you want a proper website to fit your needs and allow for growth then speak to a web developer and get some advice tailored to your circumstance rather than Google for all the answers.