website design frequently asked questions

how long will it take you to build my website?

This depends on a number of factors:

The website design package you've chosen
How quickly you're able to provide your content
The number of pages you've asked for
The number of revisions you request
The number of optional extras you order
How quickly you're able to transfer the staged payments to us

But as a rough guide: if you order a basic package with no extras, supply your content quickly and pay our invoices quickly, there's every chance you could be up and running within a week - or less, if your bank provides very fast transfers.

do you build Flash websites?

No, we don't. The only time we'll use Flash is if you order an image slideshow. The slideshow player is Flash, powered by a short snippet of Javascript and an XML file which tells the slideshow player how to behave.

can I have a drop-down menu for my website?

We don't do these - sorry. Drop-down menus need to be powered by a script, such as Javascript, and this is not something we generally work with.

I need an e-commerce website. How can debbidoo help?

While we don't build e-commerce websites ourselves, we know plenty of people who do. So although we can't build you an e-commerce site from the ground up, we can certainly help you get one through another supplier. For example, you could have a customisable e-commerce website from Shop Maker for a very reasonable fee, and our partners Nextpoint also build excellent online stores. Once you've decided on a developer for your e-commerce site, we could also give you a competitive quote for adding all your products to your store's database, and writing your website content.

can you provide a content management system so I can update the website myself?

Not at the moment, no. But again - we know people who can help, and for a reasonable fee we'll be happy to help you write a brief to send to developers, to ensure you get the content management system that's right for you.

can I save money by providing you with a template I've sourced elsewhere?

Sorry, no. Working with someone else's code won't be any quicker for us, so it won't save you any money. And we prefer to work with our own code wherever possible.

I'm a graphic designer and I'd like to design my own template - can you build it?

Theoretically, yes. We're happy to provide a "you design - we build" service, as long as your design can be built using HTML and CSS. If you're not sure, please email your design to us and we'll let you know how we can help. A website built in this way will cost £395 - the same price as our bespoke website design service, assuming you want all the same benefits and features that are included in our bespoke service - but if your design is very simple, we may be able to reduce the price for you.

I'm too busy to write my website copy; can you write it for me?

Absolutely! If you order website copywriting at the same time as you order your website, we'll even give you a discount; please see our website design optional extras page for details.

you mentioned something about W3C validation - what is this?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) says it is "an international community that develops standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web". These standards help webmasters to build websites using code that's designed to make websites work more efficiently (for example, faster loading times) and to make them more accessible to disabled visitors, for example visitors who use screen readers.

When we say your website's XHTML and CSS will be W3C-validated, this means we'll run all the code we've written for you through the W3C's code validation service to ensure it meets their required standards.

I've seen a website that I really like. Can you copy it for me?

No, because this would be a breach of copyright. However, during the briefing process for our bespoke website design service we'll ask you to tell us about websites you love and websites you hate, and what it is you love or hate about them. This will give us a good idea of what you're looking for, so while you won't end up with a copy of someone else's website, you will get a website that you're happy with.

I want music to automatically play when a visitor lands on my site. Can you make this happen?

We could probably find a way to do it, but we will advise you in the strongest terms not to include an automatic music player on your website. Why? Because visitors generally don't like them. And the last thing you want is people leaving your site as soon as they've landed, simply because you've annoyed them with auto-playing music.

can you embed my YouTube or Vimeo video on one of my website pages?

Yes, we can, although you should note that sometimes the third party 'embed object' code is written in a way that prevents W3C validation. We'll always do our best to work around this, however; for example it may be necessary to host your video on a different video hosting website that provides standards-compliant 'embed object' code.

if I ask you to source images, where will you get them from?

It depends what sort of image you need. It may be that we have a suitable image in our own image library, in which case we'll let you use it on your website royalty-free. If not, we'll use a stock image website like stock.xchng and, once we've found a royalty-free image for you, we'll make sure we're allowed to use it on your website.

how come your prices are so low?

We're able to keep our website design prices low because of the processes we use and the website design terms and conditions we ask you to agree to before we start work on your website.

For example, by asking you to complete our detailed briefing form before work commences, we can work more efficiently and spend less time asking and answering questions. By providing a mock-up image of your website before we start writing the code, we can put any revisions you've asked for in place before we start designing and building your website, which saves us a lot of time. And our staged payments policy for website design clients means you have control over how quickly your website is built, and reduces the time we spend on credit control.

just how much 'free support' do you provide?

Free support is provided subject to a reasonable use policy, so minor tweaks to your website can be carried out at no extra cost to you. A few examples of what we'd consider to be 'minor' tweaks:

Changing a photo or other image
Changes to your website copy
Changing your telephone number or other contact details
Creating/changing/deleting email accounts

Our free support doesn't include major changes to your website, like adding a new page, changing the colour scheme, or moving all your content onto a new template.

once you've built my website, can you help me promote it?

Yes, we can! Once your website is live we'll tell our Twitter followers and Facebook page fans about it - this is included in the price you'll pay for your website design package. After that, you might find some of our marketing and internet marketing services useful.

find out more

If you have a question about our website design optional extras that isn't covered here, or if you'd like to order a website design package from debbidoo, please get in touch or request a callback.