Q & A

How much does it cost to get a website?

The price of website depends on your individual requirements. A basic 4 page website that includes one year of hosting and a two year domain name starts from £1200 - £1500 .

How long does it take to build a website?

It typically takes anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months to build a basic website from initial Visual Concepts to making the site live. This estimate is only valid if the client provides us with all the content for the site in a timely fashion. The larger and more complex your website, the more time it will take to build and test.

Who updates the content on my website?

If Gopher Systems builds your website we offer you two options for maintenance. In the first case we update the site for you and you pay an hourly rate for our services. In the second case we offer you the option of training to learn how to update your website yourself. This is typically billed in half day intervals. The second option is more cost effective in the long run if you expect to have numerous small changes over time. The training sessions we offer are one-on-one and geared towards your level of computer knowledge and fit in with your schedule.

Who owns my website content?

The client retains ownership of all finished website content. Gopher Systems owns the source code for any complex programming elements, and all master graphics.

How do I find out who has visited my website, and how many people are looking at it?

If your site is hosted with Gopher Systems we can analyse the log file created by the server and let you know approximately how many people have viewed your site, where they are coming from, and what specific pages are the most popular. This information (and more) is broken down into charts and tables for you and can be viewed from your own computer at any time of day or night via a secure Username & Password system. If you require more complex statistics, there are numerous software packages available to buy that may meet your needs. We can help you determine what you need to buy.

How do I get my site listed with the major Search Engines?

Most search engines periodically send out "web crawlers" to index new and existing websites, however to ensure your site has a better chance of being listed we offer a few services. The first is to offer you the option of coding your website so that it is more search engine friendly and more likely to be indexed higher in the listings (this is a fee-for-service option in addition to your basic website build costs), and the second is to manually submit your website details with the major search engines. There is never any guarantee you will be listed, but it increases your chances. For a more aggressive approach, you have the option to purchase advertising space on specific search engines to guarantee your position in the listings. We are happy to advise you on the fee structures set out by the individual search engines.

What are the W3C Accessibility Guidelines?

The W3C is the "World Wide Web Consortium". They have provided specifications & guidelines for how websites should be coded since 1994. One of the goals of this organisation is to help establish standardized coding so that all websites will look and work the same on all browsers. One area of paramount concern is the area of website accessibility for people who have limited access to technology and/or reduced mobility, standard body functions or cognitive skills due to disability. The "Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)" was created as a team within the W3C to address this issue.

The "Accessibility Guidelines" are a set of ever-evolving draft rules that have been established to ensure that websites are coded in such a way as to make the content available to all users, including those with technological limitations, or physical or mental disabilities. Recent changes in legislation in the UK regarding the Disability Act have meant that many companies are now requesting that their website be coded to the W3C accessibility standard. While not yet law, due to the longevity of a website, and the expense of re-building a website at a later date, this is one area where many companies are choosing to pre-empt the law and have their websites coded to the W3C Accessibility Guideline standard in advance of being "required" to.

Gopher Systems is happy to provide this service to clients and offer it as a fee-for-service option for building your website. Due to the extended time required to build a website to this standard, it is not yet done by "default". The biggest impact on a website is that many new and emerging technologies cannot be used due to the impact of how they render the site inaccessible for many users. This means many "fancy" elements that have had varying degrees of popularity over the years must be set aside and the website designed with more simple code. The challenge for us as designers is to produce a good looking site that still adheres to the guidelines. This is where the extra billable production time required to produce a site to this standard comes in.