Hello & Welcome!
We are a small team of professional web designers based in North Staffordshire, England. We make websites for both our local clients and also clients from all over the world. We accept payment in any major currency as well as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
We deliver a very personal and dependable service aimed mainly at individual traders and small to medium sized businesses, as well as clubs, groups and charities.
Our current availability for starts and turnaround times can be found here.
Call Us +44 7526 092408
Email Us websmiths2021@gmail.com
All our design packages include:
Discuss and evaluate your web design needs.
Show you various different templates, layouts and colour schemes.
Collect and review your photos, product images and content text.
Create a personalised website for your approval.
Have a live meeting with you on Zoom or Teams to show what we've done.
Make edits, amendments and move things around until you're happy.
Publish your website on your choice of domain name.
Add in an email, contact form and chat, and also help to set these up on your phone.
SSL Certificate.
Set up Cookie a warning banner.
Register your website with Google.
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We can also:
Help you to make your GDPR Privacy & Cookie Policy if you don't have one.
Do a full SEO set up, so your website gets higher rankings.
Set up Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.
Set up Google Analytics to monitor your traffic.
Set up an email server as you@your.domain for you and all your staff.
Offer a maintenance contract for any additions or amendments you may need.
(With a contract most basic changes, e.g. new images, price changes, will be made within 48hrs)
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We are a small team (3 designers) so as the saying goes:
"Our business is big enough to cope...
...BUT still small enough to care!"
We work best with:
Individuals who want a promotional site (e.g. book authors, artists etc.)
Sole-traders who want to sell a service or product (e.g. plumbers, tailors etc.)
Small to medium-sized businesses and start-ups.
Small or Local charities (e.g. a dog rescue etc.)
Schools, clubs or other small groups (e.g. local chess club)
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Our service is very friendly and personal.
You will not deal with a call centre or switchboard.
You can contact each of us on our own mobile phones by calling, on WhatsApp or by SMS.
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Websites to suit your business and your budget
We offer a range of 4 different packages that will suit most of our clients. Each type can be adjusted to suit your needs with various add-ons and variations available.
The first question you need to ask is "What do I want my website to do?"
Please watch the video or work through the text below.
The first set of questions we need to answer is:
1. Do you want to sell something (a service or product) and get new clients through the website?
2. Do you already have clients (or get your clients from non-internet sources) so you just want a website to give your business an online presence to increase credibility?
3. Do you just want to give out information to the general public (e.g. a local church wants to tell people about service times and group meetings)?
4. Do you want to set up as a blogger or vlogger?
5. Do you want to be able to take payments or donations online? (e.g. a charity)
6. Do you want a promotional website? (E.g. an artist, band or book author wants to promote their own work)
7. Is it a combination of some or all of the above?
"Websmiths were really great at helping me decide what sort of site I needed because I wanted some elements of each type, but I didn't have a big budget for anything really complicated - what I got was just perfect!"
Joe - Stafford
Once you've decided what type of website you need, you next need to decide how big or complicated your website should be. While a basic informational website might need only one or two pages, a shop website selling hundreds of items will be quite complex and must include such things as baskets, stock levels, search facility etc.
An artist's website might need dozens of pages to display all of the artworks, for a band's website you might want visitors to be able to play tracks and even pay for merchandise etc.
These are the types of thing you really need to think about. We can discuss these issues with you an show you lots of different examples and layouts.
When you've decided what type of website you need, how complex and many pages it needs to be, you will then need to decide on your "style".
This decision will depend on what you are selling or doing, and who your target audience is. This website, for example, has been designed mainly for people who want to have a website built for them but are not particularly knowledgeable about Information Technology issues, so the style is laid back and quite informational.
You should also consider ACCESSIBILITY issues. If you want to attract older clients, for example, it is best to use large, clear fonts for all the text so that it can be read easily - as we have done for this site. If you are designing for a younger audience (e.g. a website about Minecraft merchandise) then you will want to probably make text smaller and include more videos and pictures.
Think also about how your target audience will most likely view your site: phone or PC/Laptop. What looks OK to you on a 19" computer screen might not look so good on a mobile phone.
Website Hosting Platforms
Unlike most other web designers who will code your website themselves using one of the standard formatting languages like HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, jQuery, PHP, etc., we use platforms (mainly Wix, Duda and Shopify) to both build and host your website.
This has many advantages in terms of the time it takes to make a website and the transferability of management and ownership of your website once it has been launched.
For example, if for some reason WebSmiths ceases to trade, there are many thousands of other web design companies that could immediately take over looking after your website because it is hosted on a major international platform like Wix. In fact, you could even take over the management of your website yourself if you felt able to.
Because we use platforms the four elements to the charges which you will pay are quite easy to separate out - you pay these whichever web designer you use but they are not split out so clearly:
1) our fees for designing, building and maintaining your website,
2) hosting fees payable to Wix, Duda, Shopify, etc.,
3) domain registration fees payable to GoDaddy, 123-Reg, etc.,
4) fees for your email service provider (if you want domain email).
You always pay all these fees for any website but with WebSmiths, they are just split up so that we can discuss with you how much each one is going to cost you. For example, if you want a domain ending in co.uk or .com it will generally be cheaper annually than if you want one ending in .io (often used for technology companies or cryptocurrencies). We will advise you how all this works when we speak.
Below are our four most popular website packages. Any of these packages can be amended with elements from others and the price will change accordingly. We have quoted estimates for hosting and domain because as we said above there is considerable variation depending on what you want for your domain name and/or, for example, how much storage space your website might need or how many videos you might want to include.
Website Packages
Below are our four most popular website packages. Any of these packages can be amended with elements from others and the price will change accordingly. We will fully discuss all of the costs, both initial and annual before you commit to anything.
All platforms give discounts if you pay annually rather than monthly so if you can annually the price is lower. The prices quoted here are based on you paying annually but if this is not affordable you can pay monthly in which case the total you will pay will be slightly higher. There are literally dozens of permutations to the way domain, hosting, email server, maintenance operate so please take the prices only as a guide. During our discussions with you, we will go through all this in a lot of detail so there's no need to worry about unexpected costs or being hit with a sudden extra amount to pay - this won't happen as once you've decided exactly what you want and whether you want to pay monthly or annually we will be able to give you a total price that will be correct.
BASIC
Design: £240 Initial
Includes:
Desktop & Mobile Version
SSL Certificate
Popup Cookie Alert
Privacy & Cookie Policy
4 Pages
10 Pictures
2 Videos
10 Content Boxes (500 words each)
Contact Form
Registration with Google
Hosting: £102 pa
or £12 pm*
Includes:
UNLIMITED Bandwidth
10GB Storage
1 Video Hour
Domain: £15 pa*
(This is approx. but covers most .com and .co.uk domains)
Email: £40pa*
(This is approx. but covers most .com and .co.uk domain emails)
Total for first year
£397
approx.*
Total for second year +
£177
approx.*
(includes our £20
annual service renewal)
STANDARD
Design: £500 Initial
Includes:
Desktop & Mobile Version
SSL Certificate
Popup Cookie Alert
Privacy & Cookie Policy
10 Pages
20 Pictures
8 Videos
20 Content Boxes (1000 words each)
Contact Form
Registration with Google
Social Media Links
Google Earth Map
Blog
Basic SEO set up
Hosting: £156 pa
or £15 pm*
Includes:
UNLIMITED Bandwidth
20GB Storage
5 Video Hours
Domain: £15 pa*
(This is approx. but covers most .com and .co.uk domains)
Email: £40pa*
(This is approx. but covers most .com and .co.uk domain emails)
Total for first year
£711
approx.*
Total for second year +
£231
approx.*
(includes our £20
annual service renewal)
COMMERCE
Design: £950 Initial
Includes:
Desktop & Mobile Version
SSL Certificate
Popup Cookie Alert
Privacy & Cookie Policy
20 Pages
40 Pictures
16 Videos
40 Content Boxes (1000 words each)
Contact Form
Registration with Google
Social Media Links
Google Earth Map
Blog
Full SEO set up
Online payments (Visa etc.)
Shopping cart/basket
Bookings/Appointments
Favicon
Live Chat
Special Offer Pop-ups
Hosting: from £192 pa
or from £19 pm*
If you have a large number of items for sale this will be higher so please discuss with us what your needs are.
Includes:
UNLIMITED Bandwidth
35GB Storage
10 Video Hours
Sales Analytics & Reports
eCommerce Suite
Domain: £15 pa*
(This is approx. but covers most .com and .co.uk domains)
Email: £40pa*
(This is approx. but covers most .com and .co.uk domain emails)
Total for first year
£1197
approx.*
Total for second year +
£267
approx.*
(includes our £20
annual service renewal)
BESPOKE
Design: £25 per hour
(Average 60hrs = £1500)
Includes:
Desktop & Mobile Version
SSL Certificate
Popup Cookie Alert
Privacy & Cookie Policy
Unlimited Pages
Unlimited Pictures
Unlimited Videos
Unlimited Content Boxes (Unlimited words each)
Contact Form
Registration with Google
Social Media Links
Google Earth Map
Blog
Full SEO set up
Google Analytics set up
Online payments (Visa etc.)
Shopping cart/basket
Bookings/Appointments
Favicon
Live Chat
Special Offer Pop-ups
Logo
Members Area (Password)
Subscriber database
Choice of up to 30 Apps
Hosting: from £264 pa
or from £25 pm*
If you have a large number of items for sale this will be higher so please discuss with us what your needs are.
Includes:
UNLIMITED Bandwidth
50GB Storage
Unlimited Video Hours
Sales Analytics & Reports
eCommerce Suite
Domain: £15 pa*
(This is approx. but covers most .com and .co.uk domains)
Email: £40pa*
(This is approx. but covers most .com and .co.uk domain emails)
Total for first year
£1819
average cost*
You pay per hour for this service so we will just do what you ask us to at £25 per hour so there is no upper limit.
Total for second year +
£339
approx.*
(includes our £20
annual service renewal)
All of the above prices exclude VAT (Value Added Tax). Wix, Shopify, Duda, GoDaddy will all add 20% VAT to the prices quoted - you may be able to offset this if you are a business that is VAT registered.
As WebSmiths is a new firm, only established in 2020, we do not currently (correct as of December 2020) need to charge VAT on design fees because we have not registered for VAT. This position will be updated as necessary so please check this space again for updates.
Additional Notes re costs
If you want to swap elements between packages or want something more bespoke, please do ask us and we will do our best to accommodate you - if the changes you want don't involve any more work on our part we will normally let you swap elements for free. For example, we had a client who wanted to create a blog website but didn't have a huge budget, so we added the blog to the basic website for him. As the old saying goes, "There's no harm in asking."
* Re approximate figures:
The cost of TLDs (top-level domains) varies, e.g. .co.uk, .com & .net tend to be cheaper than stylish domains like .io;
Platforms often have offers (e.g. free domain or 50% off email for the first year) so if offers are available we will use them to save you money if appropriate;
If you want something not included in the package it may be added but might cost extra.
"I just wanted to say thanks for letting me swap the pictures and text boxes for a blog on the basic package as I couldn't really afford to pay any more at the moment. Thanks, guys!"
Andy - Eccleshall
We are always happy to make any changes or modifications to your website as and when you require for which we charge a simple hourly rate of £25 per hour.
Alternatively you can take out a maintenance contract which is £240 per annum which covers up to 12 hours of work per annum (i.e. just £20 per hour). Maintenance can be paid annually or monthly.
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5 Reasons to work with WebSmiths
1. Flexibility
2. Quick turnaround
3. Personal Service
4. Value for Money
5. Transparency
10 steps to creating your new website.
1. Decide what type of website you want (e.g. informational, e-commerce).
2. Speak with us to discuss the options and costs.
3. Agree on a plan of action to build your website and estimated turnaround time.
4. You pay a 25% deposit (we need this to pay for the registration of your domain, email, hosting etc.)
5. You supply us with all your pictures, text, videos, other content and explain how you want to display them (usually on Zoom). If you don't have pictures, for example, we can supply stock photos.
6. We build your website.
7. We have another meeting or meetings (usually on Zoom) to look at the website and make any changes you want to make.
8. Step 7 might continue for several meetings until you are happy with everything. Once you are, you approve publication.
9. You pay the final invoice and set up a monthly payment plan if paying monthly for your email, hosting, maintenance etc.
10. Once your payment is cleared, your website will go live.