The purpose of a website is to attract business, support customers and provide an easy way for customers to contact you. So, give some thought to what you want and what search terms your customers are likely to use to find your products or services. Think about what makes your company special ~ what makes you better than others.

Stage 1: Normally, I will start your new website with about an hour's face to face meeting during which we cover the following:

1. Decide what web pages you are likely to need - usually best to have one web page for each service or product type that you offer.
2. Discuss the degree to which you want to manage changes yourself and how much interactivity you want for your customers. These determine the tools required to build your website.
3. Collect together photos, testimonials, brochures and similar.
4. Choose and register a domain name, e.g. www.mycompany.co.uk
5. Set up hosting. The type of website determines the best host.

Stage 2: I will then make a start on your website. I will build the front page which will set the look and feel of your whole site. When you are happy with that, I proceed with the rest of the build.

Stage 3: Main build. I'll need you to be available from time to time to answer design questions.

Stage 4: Over to you to test to ensure that the site works to your satisfaction.

Stage 5: Back to me to test the final product with a range of different internet browsers.

Stage 6: Finally another face to face meeting to set up Google advertising. Often your first month will be free. At this stage you should be ready to pay me as well.

Low overheads and powerful open source tools mean that I can provide websites very competitively. I just charge my standard hourly rate for design, build and maintenance. Typically a brochure site will cost about £400.