FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
about websites
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20 Questions about website development you might not have thought of that we have been asked.
What do I need to know about Domain Name registration?
Domain name registration is the process of choosing and reserving your email and website’s address, like www.yoursite.com.
It’s what people type in their browser to find your website. You register a domain name through special companies called registrars.
Once registered, the domain name is yours to use for a set time, usually a year, and you renew it to keep it.
Domain registration typically costs about US$15 a year for common types ending .com, .org, ..biz but there are also new ‘fancy’ domains you can register ending with .photography, .property etc. Some of these can cost in the region of US$80 per year.
Domain registration should also come with Privacy. When you register a domain you must provide contact details. All the owners of domain names are registered and can be looked up. By applying Privacy your details are not made available publicly. If anyone needs to contact you they will do it via the your domain registrar.
It’s important to pick a simple name, as short as possible and memorable, that matches your brand or business. Without a domain name, people won’t be able to easily find your website online.
What is website hosting?
Website hosting is a service that makes your website available on the internet. It stores all your website’s files, the code, the words, pictures, and videos, on a special computer called a server.
This server is always connected to the internet and communicates with all the other hosting servers all over the world, so people can visit your website anytime by typing your website address. Without hosting, your website cannot be seen online. The hosting company takes care of keeping the server running and safe, so your website works properly.
This service is offered in various types to fit different needs, from small personal blogs to large business websites, making hosting a fundamental element of any online presence.
What’s involved with setting up Email addresses?
Setting up email addresses means creating your own business emails like yourname@yoursite.com. First, you need to have a domain (discussed above) to be the home of your address. Then, you choose a service that will store and send your emails. After that, you can create email names for you and your team.
You’ll get a password to keep your email safe. You can check your email on your phone or computer. The service also helps block junk mail and keeps your emails safe and working properly.
Do I own the website when it is finished?
Yes you own the website when it’s finished. Either the entire website contents will be on your hosting service or if you are using our hosting we will give you login credentials for your websites files and the website’s control panel.
This will give you access to edit and even copy and download the site as you please.
This is one of the benefits of having a website built on a platform like WordPress and hosted on an account in your name. You have ownership and control.
Many website generators only allow you to host on their services and pay a subscription that can change at any time. Additionally those sites are not transportable, they cannot be copied from the platforms to independent hosting, they simply won’t work. You’d have to have the site rebuilt.
Can my website be linked to Social Media Accounts?
Yes. It’s a great use for a website, to consolidate the information you have already produced on Social Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and other like your business listing with reviews on Google Maps. All the accounts you maintain can be added as feeds to your website so a customer can see your whole digital profile in one place.
Dynamic connections can also be made. For example if you often post content to Facebook you could write the article on your website blog and have that automatically edited and uploaded to your Facebook feed as well. You do the work once and it is distributed to multiple channels for you automatically.
Do you use pre-built templates or build custom websites?
We typically build custom websites but we also use pre-built templates. We often suggest to new customers to look through portfolios of templates to consider themes and features they like.
In our experience even when a customer picks a template, their finished website is altered significantly from the original design.
How will you ensure the website is mobile-friendly?
That is part of our job as web developer. All of our websites are designed to be mobile friendly, also called ‘responsive design’.
This can mean designing some sections in two ways to provide the best experience for your website visitors regardless of the device they are using.
What kind of research do you conduct before starting a project?
We will spend time talking with you to establish your primary reasons for having a website. What market(s) your business is in and where you find your customer base.
Our research will vary depending upon your market type and complexity of the website functions required. We have experience and examples to help guide you with any suggestions we have that you might not have considered.
How can you help me achieve my business goals with this website?
Having a useful website should be one of your business goals. A website provides credibility in the eyes of potential customers. On your site you can portray your business, its products and services in whatever format and words you choose.
It is the central place where you can aggregate all of your digital contents which could be spread across many platforms.
Research continues to show that people search the internet looking for products and service providers, searching using google or other search engines is now being diluted buy AI / GPT searches, regardless of how the search is performed you will not be found if you do not have a website that clearly states what you provide and what differentiates you from your competitors.
How will you handle content and images for the website?
We will work to your requirements on this and every other aspect of your website’s content. The two main options are either, you can supply all of the images or we can source images or the obvious third option is that we both contribute as required for your designs.
Regardless of the source and who supplies still images and and video files we will ensure they are converted to the most efficient format available and sized to fit the design on the website page. This work ensures the websites size is kept to a minimum for efficient loading and the best possible SEO score.
What is your approach to quality assurance and testing?
The development of the site will take place on a ‘staging’ site, a different site from its final home, or it can be developed on your hosting account while there is a ‘coming soon’ page presented to visitors during development.
Either way you will have the opportunity to see the site take shape and can contribute to design and layout and editing along the way.
When the site is nearing completion we will spend time going through all the content and functions. We will be checking for spelling and grammatical errors, appearance and layout on al devices and that al functions work like Search and Message sending etc.
You will be invited to check and test as well. If there is technical material we will expect you to proof read for accuracy.
You will be asked to confirm sign off on completion before a site is made available publicly.
How will you integrate third-party apps or extensions?
That’s a good question. We recommend WordPress development in WordPress for a variety of very good reasons. One of which is the eco-system of WordPress add-ons referred to as plug-ins which extend the base platform to provide a bewilderingly number of functions to add to a website. Many plug-ins are freely available, some have fee and paid-for options for premium options. If we find that a premium plug-in would be a good economical fit for your website we will discuss with you the costs and ownership of the plug-in licence before including it in your site’s development.
What is your process for handling revisions and feedback?
Like Quality Assurance and Testing we would like you feedback and suggestions for revisions throughout the process of development.
Once an initial design and styles have been agreed upon we would allow one major re-design during development free of charge.
Revisions to text copy or replacing images is quite normal during the development process. We would undertake a few free alterations after the site has been completed and signed off.
What does the quote include, and what are the potential extra costs?
All of this will be explained in the quotation document too. It will clearly show what’s included, any optional extras and what is not included.
You’re always welcome to query the cost and importance of every item on our quotations.
What are the ongoing costs (hosting, maintenance, etc.)?
These will vary but there are some essentials which don’t change, you will need hosting and you will need a domain name as discussed above. We can help recommend providers for each and we can provide a hosting service to you.
Aside from that there may subscription costs if premium/pro plug-ins have been used for website functionality and we also highly recommend our service to ensure that the many WordPress updates issued in a year are applied in a timely manner and are checked to make sure they don’t cause any unexpected on the website.
What are the terms for moving the website to another provider?
We don’t impose any terms. You always have an obligation free option to move your site to another provider. We offer a service to help you take care of migrations if needed.
What kind of support do you offer after the website is launched?
We are 100% here for you after your website is launched.
We can help you with any edits, modifications or alterations.
We offer a service to take care of the WordPress updates which are distributed multiple times in a year. It’s not unknown for major updates to plug-ins to create unintended problems on a website. We ensure this doesn’t happen to your website and that your website is protected against hacking.
Do you integrate SEO and marketing strategies into the design process?
If you have a business marketing strategy then we will take that into account as we design the website with you. We often find that our experience and accumulated knowledge helps small business to get more from their websites than they expected.
Every completed website will have the essential SEO work completed. The site, all pages and all images will be appropriately tagged. Page titles and content will be written to target keywords useful to your business. Images will be in the most efficient formats and sized correctly to avoid unnecessarily large file sizes. A sitemap will be generated and registered with Google and Microsoft search engines.
Further on-going SEO work involving key word research and content development for articles is a service we can offer. Please contact us so we can discuss your goals and requirements.
What are your payment terms?
We ask for 50% of the agreed quotation up front at commencement of our work. The balance payment(s) will depend upon the size of the project. For small sites we will accept the balance 50% once the site has been signed off and made ‘live’. For larger or more functionally complex sites we can split the balance in two. 25% payable upon completion of development and 25% following the full testing after the site is ‘live’.
Why do you promote website development with WordPress?
Most importantly you will own your website and it’s transportable not locked in to any companies or subscription services.
WordPress was first launched in 2003, as of 2025 approximately 43% of all global websites are built with WordPress. This makes WordPress the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world, powering a significant portion of the internet. Its user friendly interface, extensive plugin ecosystem, and strong community support contribute to its widespread adoption among individuals and businesses alike.
WordPress continues to be developed at an impressive pace.
There is no shortage of people around the world who are able to develop and take on WordPress sites. You will always find support for a WordPress site, whether you are paying a freelancer, an agency or enquiring for help through a support site.
There are hours and hours of YouTube videos and there are thousands of pages written about WordPress on the internet.
The negative, there’s always one, against all these significant positives is that WordPress sites need maintenance, at least once a quarter. As the platform continues to be developed along with any themes and plugins that might be in use, there will always be updates for stability, enhancements and most importantly, security. These updates need to be applied and the results checked for any unforeseen errors.