Services

“He had the remarkable skill to understand what I was thinking of and bring it to life on the computer screen.”

What’s it like when you get a comment, a query or a sale from your website?

If you have one already and you’re anything like me, you’ll know that it’s a fantastic feeling. If you don’t have a website, then I’m sure you can imagine how good it feels when something you’ve created is engaging people you’ve never met – sometimes to the point of giving you money!

As a designer and developer, I am always looking to improve interaction with my various websites and I have found a few things to be especially important in getting someone to commit to an action – whether signing up to an email list or sending you money through PayPal. I’d like to share some of the things that I’ve found, but first a little about me.

My Experience

I’ve been designing and developing websites for over ten years and, like most other designers and developers out there, I have an intimate knowledge of PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Photoshop and Illustrator. However, there are a few things that I think set me apart.

I like to think that one of the main things is that I use these skills in conjunction with experience of marketing, analytics and conversion to help turn a beautiful website into a successful website.

I believe that there’s no point in having a great looking website if no one is looking at it and one of the things that you’re really going to love about my services is how I can deliver, not only a beautiful website, but a website that people actually visit and interact with regularly because, ultimately, that’s the whole point.

Who Is This For

My clients are generally small to medium sized businesses or serious bloggers looking to make an impact.

Some of them already have a website and are looking to take it to the next level and some of them are just starting out but want to make sure that they start out strong.

If you want a website that it is beautiful to look at, easy to work with and, more importantly, can engage users up to the point of purchase, then you should consider getting in touch using the form below.

If you’d like more information, then there are three main areas that I feel are important in creating a website that can turn a visitor into a customer or community member – Design, Development and Conversion. I want to show you how they each contribute to a successful site.

At the top of every part, I have put in a testimonial from one of my satisfied customers. I believe that the positive experience of others can sell my services much better than I ever could.

Design

“His knowledge of WordPress and his design flair really shows what can be achieved.”

David Parker, Parker Quality Consultants

I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of bad looking websites. You know the ones – they have AdSense everywhere; their headings are all over the place; the copy is jammed together making it difficult to read; there are thousands of links and you don’t know which are ads and which are site links and it’s generally very difficult to tell exactly what the site is about.

Suddenly, a box pops up asking you for your email address. You hesitate – does this look like the kind of site that you want to give such personal data too? Now imagine if they were asking you to buy something!

Think about the websites that you’ve purchased from before. Generally, they’re very well laid out; their processes are clear; and if you get lost, you’re never one or two clicks away from somewhere familiar.

You see, the better looking a website is, the more it generates a certain feeling in the audience viewing it. That feeling?

Trust

Trust is a huge factor in getting someone to engage with your site. A well designed site tells a visitor that you care about what you’re doing – that you have invested in your site – and that you are therefore unlikely to rob them blind, run off with their money and sell their email address.

That Sounds Expensive…

But it doesn’t have to be. You don’t have to spend a fortune and have lots of flashy animations and big graphics. On the contrary, it’s sometimes better to focus on using a minimalist style with a focus on typography so that your visitors can get straight to the content that they came to see.

What it really comes down to is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to designing websites and, as you are probably well aware, it’s important to know who your target market is and then focus your design for them. So how does that work?

Real World Results

I think the best way to illustrate this is with an example. For the work I did on johnhwatsonmd.com, we knew that we we were targeting Sherlock Holmes fans who would probably have an affection for the Victorian Aesthetic and so I produced a design that focused on this idea. This proved to be very successful and the site was even cited on a popular Sherlock Holmes forum:

It is lovely isn’t it? Someone has obviously taken alot [sic] of time in putting the site together. And it has paid off really well I think.

This comment, and the attached link, made by someone that neither I nor the site owner knew, caused a huge spike in traffic – up 200% on the previous week! It was a great week for the site, but what was more important was what happened with the repeat visitors. The design drew in the crowds, but something else was keeping them coming back – we’ll explore this mysterious element later on (and also how we knew that visitors were up by over 200%).

Development

Simon is a passionate and ambitious developer, showing great knowledge and professionalism.

Joanne McEwan

How frustrating is it when you arrive at a website only to find that half of the pages are unfinished, that links don’t work and that graphic at the top of the page is obscuring half the first paragraph?

Having a great looking site full of good quality content is worthless if visitors are unable to use that site correctly, so the second most important aspect of a successful site is Development. This is any aspect of the site relating to its functionality, from how it works to how useable and accessible it is – and this goes for you as much as your visitors.

You want to make sure that your website works on all modern browsers on both PC and Mac and that it is always presentable however your viewer is looking at it.

The benefits of this are twofold – first, it goes back to trust. If your site just works like your users expect it to, then they’re more likely to trust what you are saying and engage with you. Second, you never lose an opportunity to impress. If your site works very well in Firefox on Windows, but it fails miserably in Safari on the Mac, then that’s a lot of potential missed opportunities.

Worse, those users that had a bad experience may go on to tell other people not to bother with your site because, as far as their experience goes, it just doesn’t work.

That’s why I spend time working with web standards and that’s why I test your site thoroughly across all the major browsers prior to launch.

Perhaps you’re worried that, after you’ve bought the site, it will cost a lot to maintain it. And, as we’ll see, updating it regularly is very important. You don’t want to have to be paying someone every time you want to add a new page or publish a new article.

The Power of WordPress

In order to address this, my recommended platform is WordPress and the benefits of using it are huge:

Easy to Update – You can add, edit and remove pages and article easily using WordPress’ comprehensive yet user-friendly administration panel. No need to pay more for someone else to update it – it’s your site and you’re in control.
Search Engine Friendly – WordPress is recognised as being one of the most search engine friendly publishing platforms available. With a little initial setup and a some free tuition from me, you can focus on your content and let WordPress do the rest.
Free – WordPress is a free, open source platform. This means you get a very robust Content Management System without the very robust cost.

All of these things make looking after your site a breeze. So now you have a beautiful site that you and your visitors can use, there is only one thing left: How do you get those visitors?

Traffic & Conversion

“It was completed quickly and works exactly as specified. He was even kind enough to add a little extra functionality. I will definitely use him again for any future projects.”

Audrey Parnell, TravelFootPrints.ca

Traffic is important. I will spend a lot of time with you making sure that your site is fully optimised to receive the best traffic the web has to offer – whether that’s visitors from search engines or social media. There are, of course, many places where traffic comes from:

Search Engines – I will make sure that your site is optimised for good quality keywords so that you can benefit from search engines such as Google.
Twitter – I can help you take advantage of Twitter, one of the most powerful tools for generating high quality traffic.
Other Social Media – Although Twitter is one of the more powerful social media tools, there are plenty of others to take advantage of as well – such as Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
E-mail – building a list of people that you have permission to market to is one of the most powerful tools for generating high quality traffic. I can set you up and show you how to leverage this important tool.
Other Websites – links from other websites in your field can be an amazing source of high quality traffic.
Offline Marketing – your website address should be on every piece of promotional literature that you produce, from flyers to business cards.

Remember how I mentioned how there was a mysterious element that kept people coming back? Here it is.

The Importance of Content

Having great quality content is an absolute must if you’re hoping to engage users up to the point of sale. It’s no longer enough just to have a static site and hope that you’ll get visitors – you need to keep your content fresh and interesting. It’s good for the Search Engines, it’s good for your visitors and, most importantly, it’s good for your business.

I can advise you on the best ways to create compelling content that can generate lots of visitors, but I want to share something else with you. You might have noticed that I was using the words ‘High Quality Traffic’ in the list above. This is because there is one thing much, much more important than simply high numbers of visitors.

Your Conversion Rate

This is the single most important metric in measuring how successful your website is. If you take nothing else away from what I’m saying, then take this. Your conversion rate matters.

An example:

You and Sally both have websites selling toy cars. Both of you sell a particular model of car for $20. Over a period of a week you have 12 visitors looking for this car and manage a conversion rate of 50%. Sally has 100 visitors over the same period and manages a conversion rate of 2%. Who’s site is doing better?

In terms of visitors, Sally. No doubt about it. But do a little math and we’ll see that financially, you are doing much, much better – earning $120 against Sally’s $40!

This is an important thing that many people – even many web design and SEO agencies – don’t realise: It’s not about the quantity of traffic, it’s about the quality. So how do you know whether you have High Quality Traffic or not?
You measure it

I will set you up with Google Analytics so that you can see exactly how well your site is doing. I will teach you the basics of reading metrics and, whether you are looking for more comments, inquiries or sales, I will set up goals that will tell you what your conversion rate is. I will also teach you how to make improvements to your tactics to help maximise your conversions.

Sound good? It has to be expensive, right? Not necessarily…

Prices

“It is a work of which you can be justly proud”

John H Watson MD

I don’t like charging one fee for everyone because every project is different. I don’t think that you should have to pay more if you don’t want or need as much functionality as somebody else. This is why I provide tailored quotes for each job.

One things for sure, though – I charge much, much less than a company or an agency would. I have seen website packages equivalent to my Traffic and Conversion Package offered by some firms priced at £8,000 or more!

To give you an idea, here are some ballpark figures for different sites:

Website Design – From £800

Unique site design
Unique and original site design
At least three full sets of revisions
Designed with your target audience in mind
All original artwork available as a well-structured PSD or AI file

Website Build – From £800

Unique WordPress theme based on your provided designs
Built using my custom Inline Framework, a ridiculously fast and powerful framework
Additional SEO optimisation
Installation and customisation of WordPress
Domain and hosting advice and set up
Installation and set up of the best relevant plugins
Fast turnaround — rush jobs available in a week or less

Design and Build Package – From £1500

Buy both a design and build package and save at least £100

One month A/B test on your existing WordPress site – £250

Setting up Google Website Optimizer
Helping you choose a goal relavant to your business
Design of an alternative version of the page you want to test
Installation of additional WordPress theme elements
Report at the end of the test (100 conversions or 1 month, whichever is sooner)

Keyword Research report -£100

Get the top 6 keywords for your field
Find out the total number of searches per day for those keywords
Find out how many visitors you can expect for the number 1 spot for each keyword
Find out the strength of the competition for each keyword
Report includes the Basics of SEO and tips on increasing your Search Engine Visibility

The reason I can charge much, much less than other agencies is simple – because I’m only one person, I don’t have the overheads that a company has. I don’t have to pay rent on fancy offices and I don’t have to factor in the cost of secretaries and accountants. This means that you get work of equivalent or, dare I say it, better quality for a fraction of the cost.

Think about this for a second. Many agencies have a designer, a developer, an SEO or marketing expert and an analytics expert. I do the jobs of four people, yet you only have to pay for one.

But don’t think that my quality suffers. I spend a ridiculous amount of time making sure that my skills are in top condition. Because I love what I do and because I am not distracted by office politics, I have razor sharp focus that allows me to produce sites that not only am I proud of but, as I hope you have gathered from the testimonials, my clients are proud of.

The Problem

I take pride in the work that I do and I want you to be as happy with my work as I am, so I currently don’t outsource any of it and I don’t want to. I love the creativity of design and the craft of development. I want to feel every bit involved in your success as you are yourself so I do everything myself.

Unfortunately this means that, as much as I would love to help everyone achieve everything that they wish to achieve with their websites, I am limited to the number of people I can help. I have found that, realistically, I can only take on one or two jobs a month.

That means that if you’re interested, you really had better act now. This isn’t some fabricated scarcity tactic – I really am only one guy!

So, if you’re interested or would simply like to find out more, I can give you a no-obligation quote that can suit your needs and budget – simply fill out the form below to get started.

Please note, although I quote in UK pounds, I can accept payment in any currency (including US$ and CA$) through PayPal. Don’t worry if you don’t have a PayPal account – you don’t need one, as it accepts all major credit and debit cards.

If you’re still unsure, then right now I have a great offer that might help you change your mind…