Your business is growing, so you don’t want to replace the site in a year or two – but neither do you want a site that’s designed for a much bigger company (at much bigger costs).

Some websites are hard to change or add to, without using the original designer; you may need to be able to change content easily and cheaply. Some websites can never be anything other than a basic website, so your only choice is to start again and have a new website. Your site might need to grow and get more complex, or always stay the same, but you shouldn’t pay twice for the privilege.

Your site will be built on WordPress (the world’s largest content management system for websites) which means you can add more complex functionality at any time, or just update a couple of sentences. Your site can grow and change with your business, rather than need to be replaced, so it’s a good investment.

Good WordPress sites are built on a professional theme which makes them easier to use, gives them more functions and makes them more secure,. The world’s most popular theme is Divi. I’ll build your site using Divi, so it’s easy for you to use, adapt and it will grow with you.

Once your site is built I’ll show you how to add and edit pages. That means you can change it as you need to, or you can go to nearly any web designer in the world and they could do it for you. I hope you would just pick up the phone and come back to me of course, but I always make it easy for you to go anywhere.

If your site can’t easily be updated, by any web developer, it was a bad purchase.

This sounds strange, but you could end up paying for a website that you don’t own. I’ll ensure you own every aspect of your site and can easily go to any web developer in the world afterwards to update it (although I’d far rather you came back to me).

It sounds very easy at the beginning (“At XYZ we’ll build it and look after it all for you”), but what you don’t realise is you’re then locked into using their services for ever, or start all over again and paying for a new site to be built by somebody else.

How does this happen?

 Sorry to get technical, but it’s important to understand these points. There are a number of components to your website and you need to have complete access to them all and to own them all.

• The hosting: Where your website is stored. If your designer puts the site on their hosting, you can’t later move it without their permission and involvement. I will set up your hosting account for you, in your name and give you all the access details. That means you can get anybody to do anything to the site, at anytime, without even speaking to me. Although I think we’ll stay friends forever and I’d love to help you amend your site in the future
• The domain name: What your site is called (this one is called nobull.site). If your designer gets your domain name on your behalf and that name stays on their domain name account, you don’t own it. Fancy not owning the name of your own business! I will set up your domain name account, with your domain name and you’ll have all the access details (in fact I won’t keep any details, unless you ask me to). That means you own the name to your site.  
• The intellectual property: The way your site is laid out, the design of of it, is called the intellectual property. Check who owns that once you’ve paid for your site, or you could end up not owning your own site. I will sign over all the IP to your site, once the final bill is paid.

See, geeky, but important. Many web developers put your site on their server, own the IP to your site, and own the domain name. That’s all very well, until you want to change the site without involving your previous developer, your previous developer goes out of business or you just want to know that you own your prime marketing asset.

I’ve known people fall out with their web developer, needing to pay for a totally new site by somebody else. I’ve known web developer cease trading, so the client couldn’t go back to them; in one very sad case the web developer died so the client couldn’t access their site.

Moral of the story, make sure you own you assets.

I set up your site on a hosting account which belongs to you, set up your domain name so you own it and transfer IP of the site to you; once you’ve paid the bill. You’ll be forever in control, so we can have a relationship based on friendship and good service rather than you feeling like a hostage in your own site.

How long will the site take to build, no really? Will your site be ready by the time you want it available?

I’ll create a clear project plan with you, to meet your needs. The plan clearly shows all the steps in creating your site, what I need to do and what you need to do (sorry, you do have some things to do). I then keep it up to date and you can view it online at any moment. So there’s no surprises, that’s no bull.

If you brought a book on Amazon for a tenner you’d expect to see where the book is, right down to when the delivery van is two stops away on your road. Why would you not expect that with a much bigger and more complex purchase? 

No bull means you’re in charge and know what’s going on.

How many times have you heard of the price going up for all sorts of odd reasons. My favourite one was when a developer wanted to charge £800 for the site and then said £5 for each image, so the price went up – after they started working, by £200.

I’ll quote you a price, then stick to it; no bull site. The only time I change it, is if you change what you want. But I’ll sit down with you and plan the website first, so that’s not likely to happen.