Wanted: Service Wanted: A website! (or recommendation of good website designer)

suzi · May 29, 2008

Hi

Other half needs a website for his business, which is commercial property based. Nothing too fancy, but it needs to be very well done (ie someone who is either a very keen amateur or does this for a living).

Might also need some sort of simple database integration to list 'items for sale', but is NOT going to be a shopping site of any sort or description.

Ideally needs someone with some design flair as well as website building ability.

He is looking elsewhere too, but with so many web aware peeps here, I thought I'd ask.

OR

Do you know any really good website designers you would recommend?

Any suggestions or thought gratefully received.

Suzi

WaftyCrank · May 29, 2008

Budget? Timescale?

DaveH · May 29, 2008

Hi Suzi, PM sent

rob · May 29, 2008

www.pixelcraze.com - great work, top people and fair rates.

Jeewhizz · May 30, 2008

rob said:
www.pixelcraze.com - great work, top people and fair rates.

Cheers Rob!

Feel free to drop me a line Suzi either via PM here, or the contact form on our website. We've done lots of work for acorners

fastworld · May 30, 2008

rob said:
www.pixelcraze.com - great work, top people and fair rates.

I'll second that.

suzi · May 30, 2008

BANNEDfromTV said:
Budget? Timescale?

Budget: It's not me, so I'm not sure what they want / are willing to spend, but they're not looking for something for nothing - they do expect to pay a reasonable fee.

Timing: They don't have a web site, so need something ASAP. But they haven't had a website for the last 150 years, so a week or 6 isn't going to make too much difference! A simple holding page would tide them over for a while!

A bit more info:

I think they need someone who can take on the whole project for them, ie design and feel of the site as well as just the coding. It really needs some design input, maybe even a make over of their logo etc.

Needs to have a modern, clean, crisp feel and look. Use up-to-date techniques (I'm no expert, but certainly CSS, XHTML). Obviously must comply with the relevant standards and work equally well in IE and Firefox etc.

Needs to include an easy to use CMS.

Very basic SEO. ie Making sure the relevant key words are where they should be and that the overall design is SEO friendly. They aren't looking for or expecting to get many random hits.

Hope this all makes sense.

Suzi

SF · May 30, 2008

fastworld said:
I'll second that.

I will third that, Pixel Craze is the best design company I have ever used. I mean the speed of the work is just amazing and the quality stands out far from the rest.

WaftyCrank · May 30, 2008

suzi said:
Budget: It's not me, so I'm not sure what they want / are willing to spend, but they're not looking for something for nothing - they do expect to pay a reasonable fee.

Timing: They don't have a web site, so need something ASAP. But they haven't had a website for the last 150 years, so a week or 6 isn't going to make too much difference! A simple holding page would tide them over for a while!

A bit more info:

I think they need someone who can take on the whole project for them, ie design and feel of the site as well as just the coding. It really needs some design input, maybe even a make over of their logo etc.

Needs to have a modern, clean, crisp feel and look. Use up-to-date techniques (I'm no expert, but certainly CSS, XHTML). Obviously must comply with the relevant standards and work equally well in IE and Firefox etc.

Needs to include an easy to use CMS.

Very basic SEO. ie Making sure the relevant key words are where they should be and that the overall design is SEO friendly. They aren't looking for or expecting to get many random hits.

Hope this all makes sense.

Suzi

Sounds doable.
In my experience however most web designers have a niche area.
E.g. Graphic design for the look of the site, HTML/CSS coding to put in on the web, developer to make it function and build (or implement an off the shelf) CMS system and an SEO expert to build this in.

The company above as posted by Rob looks like a good site, they have done some good projects that I have come across in my time on the web.
Whether they encompass all of what you need I guess will need to be discussed with them.

I know web designers that are more HTML/CSS coders and other that encompass this with Development. I don't actually know any web designers with the graphic design flair of an actual graphic designer. With regard to the SEO a lot of designers know bits that will get you by but if you need it a complete SEO system in place then this obviously costs more because there is a huge chunk of research involved as well as placement on the site.

I was going to recommend someone but I'm not sure he has the qualifications to encompass all of the above so it may be best if you contact a web design company (with a few people who do a mix of the above) to make your project.

For what you're looking for I'd expect a to pay no less than £1500 - £2000. It just depends on how much "from scratch" work would be involved.
For the SEO side of things personally if it were me to do the work (not that I'm pitching here - just helping you out with an idea of cost) I'd be looking at charging either a flat rate of £500 or £35ph (depending how long it may take) for an SEO report with keyword recommendations, placement on the site, link building suggestions for your market and if necessary content tweaking for better optimisation.

It would then need to be passed to the developer to implement these suggestions. If you wanted to encompass a link building campaign in with this then you'd be looking at a monthly charge for an ongoing campaign.

I hope this gives you an idea of what sort of costs may be involved. Hopefully you will find the right company to encompass everything you need and can give you a firm "all in price" for the project.

Phew - I need a coffee now

suzi · May 30, 2008

BANNEDfromTV said:
Sounds doable.....

.....Phew - I need a coffee now

Wow!! Thanks for all of that!

I think I take on board most of what you're saying.

Don't get too hung up on the SEO side. They are mainly a niche business and don't want to be found by 'joe public'. Most people who look them up will already know them or at least know of them, or will be responding to a direct approach. They already know or know of most of their potential clients.

The SEO only needs to be as basic as getting meta tags and titles in the right places - not a full blown campaign.

suzi · Jun 3, 2008

OK - thanks all, I'm now passing this all over to the other half and will let him get on with it. Thanks for all the suggestions and offers, who knows, maybe something will come out of it.

Thanks again

Suzi