​One of our choices as a web design company was to try and provide clear information and detail about what we do for you within any website we create.

We do this by using our blog to post informative articles about how we work and the level of detail we apply to each project, providing clear information on our website pages themselves about what is included with our services.

Sometimes we get asked to quote for a project, being given a seemingly clear brief as to what the requirements are - but when we submit our proposal, get turned down on price because 'someone else can do all of that for less'.  Whilst there may be cheaper options out there, almost every time we see the results of the less expensive solution chosen, we find out that what we quoted for is not what the other company has actually provided.

Our core values are what drives us - honesty, integrity and the desire to provide best practice solutions to our clients.  Many website design companies may say things like 'optimised for Google' or 'we'll get you on the first page of Google' amongst many others.

To see a website outcome where someone has been told they will get X, Y and Z, but see they have not even been given X, is quite disappointing, especially when we know what we would have done differently.  So many companies are still not doing the basics, missing key areas like:

• Mandatory SSL/HTTPS hosting, forcing all visitors to the same final https URL: making sure everyone lands on www.website.com as opposed to letting website.com work as well - Google can get confused and think you have two websites, potentially affecting your results.
• Poor naming of images - for SEO, 'IMG2659.JPG' is useless, but 'carlisle-web-design-company.jpg' is much better - search engines know what your images are called and use them as part of your ranking.
  
• Lack of or inconsistent meta-data - have you got unique meta descriptions for every page, are suitable ALT tags set on images?
• Are they applying CSS and JS compression, alongside base compression on the hosting itself, and setting suitable cache times for content?  Page load speed is a key part of websites, and again, search engines know who is doing what, and likes to see these in place to tick another little SEO box.
• Do all links and menu items work?  It's scarily common to find a link on a website page that doesn't work, or a navigation menu which on mobile is poor and isn't clear.

For us, even without any up-front SEO services, those bullet points above are simply ​standard.  There are many more important features that are provided within any website design we create - leaving them out is just bad practice, and whilst some may take us a little extra time to implement, the value this attention to detail brings is what helps us make you stand out from the rest, and we hope that through our website information and blog posts, you can gain a little insight into what makes us tick, what keeps the light bulb lit!

If you've had a website designed recently or many years ago, and would like more information about what you have actually paid for, please get in touch by email using the link below - we're happy to answer any queries you may have, even if you're not looking for us to do any work for you!

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.