Website design
So you need a website?
Whatever your requirements, we can create a site that works best for you and provides an online presence that will help you market and grow your business. No project is too big or too small.
Solutions to suit your business needs and your budget
Websites are fascinating. Almost as soon as they’re built they’re out of date, because of shifting design trends, built-in functionality not meeting your business needs, or the underlying software becoming obsolete. After 2 or 3 years, you’ll probably need a new one to reflect how your offering has changed, to implement some upgrades and new features, or to give it a facelift. After all, your website is a reflection of who you are and how you manage your business, so you want it to be effective and a pleasure to interact with.
From a simple ‘shop window’ to a fully-fledged eCommerce portal, to a corporate showcase of products and services, we’ve built them all. We can create a beautiful and engaging site that will get you seen and has your business up and running quickly – sometimes in just a few days.
Sure, you could build a cheap or even free website yourself, with the likes of Wix or Squarespace. But you get what you pay for, and when you invest in a professional service you get a site that’s customisable, responsive, optimised, scalable and secure.
We can source an off-the-shelf website template solution with built-in CMS to keep costs down, or we can tailor the design and architecture to suit more complex requirements. We can add just about any functionality. The sky’s the limit. (Or should that be ‘the cloud’s the limit’?)
Shop window
Showcase your products and services to potential customers and give them a feel for who you are. Including testimonials and reviews is a great way to boost their confidence in your business.
Contact info
Make it easy for customers to talk to you in whatever way suits them, with social media links, online forms, online chat, and contact info. Integrate your site with Google maps so that people can find your physical locations easily.
eCommerce
Stay open 24/7 and sell your products to customers anywhere in the world via an eCommerce platform and secure payment gateway. Manage your shop and product inventory via the site dashboard.
The latest design trends and fresh ideas. Infinite functionality options. Great user experience.
%
of all websites and CMS are powered by WordPress
billion Google searches a day
%
of consumers will shop with a competitor after a poor UX
years is a website's average useful lifespan
How long is a piece of string?
Every client is different. So every website is different. It’s impossible to say how long a project will take or what it will cost until we understand your needs and expectations, and the challenges involved, and have explored the specifications and functionality you want.
Yes, we’ve been known to design, build and launch a fully-fledged online shop in a single day. We’re that good. (And our lovely client was super organised.) But that’s the exception, not the rule. With that in mind, below are some examples of site sizes and typical functionality, with indicative prices. It’s not an exhaustive list, so if you don’t see what you need here, please talk to us.
Option 1
1-page bio- Singe-page site
- Contact form
- Social media links
- Responsive design
- Speed optimisation
- Site owner CMS
Option 2
Start-up or sole trader- Everything in option 1, plus:
- Five additional pages
- Blog / news page
- Menu navigation and sidebars
- Email subscriptions
- Animations
- Social media integration
- Google Analytics account
- SEO implementation
Option 3
Small business- Everything in option 1 & 2, plus:
- Online shop
- Simple products
- Secure payment processing
- Customer account management
- Wishlists, coupons and discount codes, gift vouchers
- Appointment booking and online reservations
- Events calendar
- Portfolio of projects and services
- Reviews, comments and testimonials
Option 4
Corporate & eCommerce- Everything in option 1, 2 & 3, plus:
- Complex, customisable or variable products
- Video streaming
- Member-only (paywall) content
- Recurring subscriptions
- Content downloads
- Privacy & Cookies (GDPR and DPA)
- Media library
- Multi-language / translations
- Multiple account access levels
You can never be too safe
Whenever we design, build and host a website, we do it within strict security protocols, listed below, especially on eCommerce sites. It’s an asset, after all, so it’s always vulnerable to outside forces who want to disrupt, damage or exploit your business. To keep it safe, we also offer a maintenance service that includes ongoing security and updates.
Cloudflare
- Multiple account access levels with two-factor authentication
- Domain registration
- Site certificate for https
- DDOS mitigation
- IP obfuscation
- Firewall and WAF
Hosting
- Database is high availability in GCP (Google Cloud Platform) or Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- WordPress is installed on a server instance that auto-scales as needed
- Servers are secured via a suite of security tools and load balancing
- Security patches are automatic
Wordpress
- Third-party updates to themes, plugins and core are monitored and managed
- Updates are automated and unsupported or out-of-date software is obfuscated, replaced or deleted
- Securi firewall to guard against brute force attacks
- Multiple account access levels with two-factor authentication (eg customer, shop manager, site owner, admin etc)
Data security
- Website database is highly secured
- Hot Chilli Box is Cyber Essentials certified
- Storage of data conforms with DPA and GDPR
- Note: exfiltration of data by staff or to third-party applications (eg Facebook, email campaign tools etc) is not covered – you will need to set up your own protocols for these activities.
Payment gateways
- Stripe is recommended, linked to business bank account
- Two-factor authentication is forced
- Multiple account access levels to Stripe account
- Refunds direct from within website dashboard
- All card types and ApplePay valid
- No customer card details stored
Vouchers and discount coupons
- Unique QR codes for physical vouchers
- Single-use voucher numbers
- Random generated code (any length)
- Fixed amounts or percentage discount coupons
What happens after go-live?
Once your new site has launched to the world, you get one month of free technical support. We also offer a monthly hosting and maintenance service that includes security, updates, backups and keeping an eye on your site’s general health.
Need a cost estimate?
We offer a free, no obligation proposal and preliminary cost estimate for all potential projects. So the more information you give us, the more accurate the estimate will be. Or if you have a capped budget, let us know and we’ll let you know what we can achieve with it for you. Give us a call to talk about your ideas or email us a brief.
Need a cost estimate?
We offer a free, no obligation proposal and preliminary cost estimate for all potential projects. So the more information you give us, the more accurate the estimate will be. Or if you have a capped budget, let us know and we’ll let you know what we can achieve with it for you. Give us a call to talk about your ideas or email us a brief.
