Website Design FAQ

The online workshop appointment. No-one knows your business better than you. We want you involved every step of the way.

We will sit with you and go through different websites, regardless of the industry. Together, we will learn what you do and don’t like about websites.

We will discover your business goals and how your website is going to achieve this. User Experience (UX) is an extremely important goal. You want your website, fast, easy to use and informative. Think about your own search engine experience. When you are looking for a product or service, if the website is slow or confusing, you move onto the next site. We can discuss all this in your workshop.

The workshop is not an upsell… If you are not ready for SEO for example, then there is no heavy sales pitch. We can assist you with this in the future when and if you are ready.

I will always give you honest advice and feedback. Ultimately, it’s your site and you are the boss. I just want to be as proud of it as you are and get a return on your investment.

Affordable Web Solutions may invite you to become one of our VIP Dedicated Devotion clients and your support and maintenance will be on a month to month affordable plan. There is always the option to maintain your website yourself and use our casual services, we will  teach you how to do it yourself.

We can teach you how to maintain and even make the changes to your website, your  yourself. If you need our help, you can email cassandra@affordableweb.solutions and we can schedule your support and charge you for the time it takes for us to resolve the issue.

Please note that our Dedicated Devotion clients are our VIP clients, their work does take precedence over a casual support ticket.

Maintenance clients also receive 30 minutes of custom website changes every month, FREE!

If something does go wrong, there is always a backup ready to get you back online.

This is a common and complex question, as there is no single answer. All businesses are unique, so we make custom make websites to suit your branding and target market. We will discuss your ideas, ask questions, and quote you based on your needs. How many pages? Do you want a shopping cart? Do you need membership subscription? Do you need a copywriter, will you supply the copy? Will you be organising the hosting?

Most of our “simple” websites range between $1500 – $5,000 including 12 month hosting on our secure fast servers.

You do get what you pay for, however, we understand that custom websites can be a big investment and not all small businesses have the budget, especially when starting out.

We offer a cheap solution, including hosting, which will give you a nice-looking website.

Please let us know if budget is an issue straight up. We will not judge you and we are still happy to work with you.  There is no point quoting you the Ferrari if your budget is for a Kia.

50% of your website, is paid up front. This will secure you to be next in line to commence your project.

40% will be paid, just prior to going live and the final

10% once you are happy with your website.

Affordable Web Solutions have a paid subscription to graphics, fonts and photos, we will supply you the link to choose your images. Unlike some web designers, we do not charge you for the use of these images.

If you wish us to research and find the perfect image, we will charge for the time taken to search the images.

No! WordPress is our preferred platform, it’s a great CMS (content management system) that powers more than 32% of the internet. It has a huge market share, due to its flexibility and ease of use including SEO strategies. We can teach you how to manage your site and support you along the way.

It takes time to build a quality website, there are a lot of steps involved. We aim to turnaround between 4-12 weeks. The time-frame may differ for each project, the more complex the site, the longer it will take to develop.

Your availability to respond to feedback and how fast you provide content and images, all play a part of the turnaround time.

Affordable Web Solutions will always keep you up to date, with timeframes. If you delay your feedback continuously, you will be extending the deliverable timeframe.

If you are not sure what you want, we can discuss this at our workshop. It can become very overwhelming and I want you to feel extremely comfortable and in control of your project. I have access to copywriters, if you require a contact, please advise.

I work with a lot of clients outside Sydney and interstate. With technology; emails, phone calls and video conferencing, it really doesn’t matter where you are geographically located.

If 2020 taught us anything, it is, that we can adapt and work anywhere.

No one knows your business like you. So usually, it is best if it comes from you. If you need assistance, we can e-introduce you to one of our copywriters.

This is your website; we will workshop the website together. Your input and feedback is crucial to this process. We will start with a lot of questions about what you like and don’t like about websites, we will talk about your needs, your wants and work with you to develop just the right look and functionality.

Think of a car, if you don’t maintain it, put fuel in it or service it. The car will not last very long. A website is like that, but due to the speed that technology changes, if it’s not updated – it won’t last very long. It won’t be stable or secure and a website can soon look ratty quite quickly. But I can train you to update your own site or we offer devote plans to keep your website as fresh as the day you went live.

Affordable Web Solutions offer training – so you can maintain your site yourself. However, if you know you won’t be proactive with it, then it’s best to get a quotation for a “devote” package.

Yes, we are more than happy to teach you to maintain your website and learn to manage it on your own. We will provide you with a training session to help get you on your way.

Training sessions are held by video conferencing. I will talk you through the process and you will update and modify your website live.

The session will be recorded so you can download and keep it as a re-usable resource.

We can provide on-going support for you. Maintenance commences at;

• $70 per mini-website
• $100 per website
• $150 membership site
• $150 online stores

Monthly Maintenance – No lock in contracts

• SSL Security Certificate, Maintenance and Renewal.
• Nightly Backups.
• Restorations if required.
• Security – keep your site safe from hackers with regular security scans, vulnerability monitoring, blacklist monitoring, IP Lockouts and security tweaks.
• Performance Optimisation – file compression, minification, browser caching and performance monitoring.
• Website Monitoring.
• Spam comment check and clean-up.
• Contact Form Tests.
• General Support.
• 301 Redirection.
• Regular updates to WordPress core, themes and plugins.
• 30 minutes minor modifications per month.

I have been in business for myself for 15+ years, I’m not going anywhere. If you email support@affordableweb.solutions we can assist you.

Having a mobile-friendly website is more important than ever! We work hard to ensure your website looks great on the latest browser, tablet and mobile devices.

Hosting is important, when it comes to hosting, you get what you pay for. We manage our own secure hosting infrastructure right here in Australia.

Domains or a domain name is the name of a website. It’s what comes before after “www.” in a web address. And after “@” in an email address. Hosting is like renting space on the internet. 12 month hosting and a domain name, come free, with every website.

We will register your domain on your behalf, in your name and contact details. It belongs to you and you will have ultimate control over it. It is extremely important the web developer does not register themselves as the owner.

Another common question… We can talk to you about SEO, keywords, speed optimisation and local SEO. Please don’t believe anyone that can guarantee your first page ranking. Unless their name is Google….

There are so many criteria’s to be number one. Like anything in life, you must put the hard work in to achieve success. You will have to continue to work at it. Ask yourself, what do you want to be number one for?

Yes, we can include Office365 email accounts with your site. We can discuss this at your consultation, either over the phone or in person.

No worries, we can transfer your management free of charge.

Whilst we will be sad to see you go, it’s your site and we want you to be happy. Once your website is fully paid for, you own it and you can do what you would like with it.

Some web designers use pre-built templates and sell it off as a custom site. You don’t want your business to have the same image, fonts and in some cases content as your competitors.

Whilst it doesn’t look good from a competitive point of view, Google and other search engines can penalise you for plagiarism.

All our websites are built with WordPress. WordPress is scalable, secure, and flexible. It is used by over 38% of all websites online and by some of the biggest brands; Microsoft, Walt Disney, Sony Music to name a few.

Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO, is the process of gaining “free” or “organic” website visibility. Improving your websites visibility using SEO strategies. Your information must be easy to read, so it’s understood by both human and search engines. Your site will be ranked against websites in the same industry and location.

I often get asked, how do I get to be number one on Google. Most people want to be there, but don’t want to do the work. Like anything in life, you must put the hard work in. Consistency is key.

Here I share some quick tips to increase your search engine optimisation, drive more traffic to your site;

• Sitemap generator,
• Social sharing,
• Regular scans,
• Custom titles and Descriptions
• Connect your pages with social accounts to get credit from content shared.
• Research, research and more research!

When writing your content, think about how you search for something “candles online” and “where to buy candles online” You’re not alone, others search that way too.

Just like a website, SEO is not set and forget. Technology evolves so fast, that the algorithms are also updating.