Frequently Asked Questions

You may not realize how many elements are involved in putting together a website until you dive in. Most sites require (the checked items are the ones I tend to provide for my clients):

• Empty square. Item not provided. A website host (a company that will securely store your website files for public consumption. I can help you find and set-up an appropriate service; however, I don't provide hosting myself, generallly)
• Empty square. Item not provided. The copy (all of the written content, arguably the most important part of your website)
• Checkmark. Item is provided. WordPress installation and set-up
• Checkmark. Item is provided. A plugin for creating automated back-ups of your website
• Checkmark. Item is provided. A security plugin
• Checkmark. Item is provided. Website security "best practices" training
• Empty square. Item not provided. A logo (a high quality vector graphic version is preferred)
• Checkmark. Item is provided. Layouts for the landing page and internal pages that are responsive to various screen sizes
• Checkmark. Item is provided. A bookmark/fav icon
• Checkmark. Item is provided. A colour palette (usually including 4–10 colours, light, dark, gray and several accent colours usually pulled from your logo or prominent photos)
• Checkmark. Item is provided. Menus
• Empty square. Item not provided. Photos (of products you are selling and/or decorative photos)
• Checkmark. Item is provided. Backgrounds (they may be solid colours, photos or textured, with or without shadow effects and shading)
• Checkmark. Item is provided. Fonts
• Empty square. Item not provided. E-commerce sites also require a secure server, a payment gateway and merchant services (I can help integrate these services with your website; however, I don't provide them myself)
• Checkmark. Item is provided. Dynamically-programmed features like a banner image slideshow, drop-down menus, content teasers, photo viewing lightbox, contact forms, site search, calendar and more…

There are a few things that I ask every client before we begin.

1. What is your upper budget limit amount for this project? Please have a number handy to reply with. This will help me know what website styles and features are within your price range.
2. When is your timeframe for completion of the project? A clear date will help us both respect each other's time and remain aware of whether or not we are on track.
3. Which three websites best reflect your vision for your website? Most people have some idea of designs that they find appealing and most people have different style preferences. Seeing a few sites that are examples of what you have in mind will get us both on the same page. Please have at least three sites ready.
4. If you have any special requests for colours/fonts/backgrounds/features/photos etc., please have these ready as well. The more I know ahead of time, the more efficiently I can work.
5. If you already have website hosting, I will need to know about our website hosting package, to be certain that the website hosting account you have can support the website you have in mind.
6. With all projects, there will be at least a minimum upfront payment amount. This will need to be settled before we can begin.

To learn more about some of these items, please read my article on Beginning the Website Development Process or feel free to contact me with any additional questions.

Not necessarily. Many clients find it easier to meet in person and discuss plans. I have, however, developed websites for clients thousands of kilometres away and everything had to be sorted out online. Current networking technology greatly facilitates long distance “meetings”.  If you live locally, and if meeting in person would clarify things more, then we can discuss options. To help ensure smooth communication, please let me know which method of communication works best for you.

Here is a schema of the website development process for a WordPress website with a custom design. If you request a pre-designed theme, steps 4 and 5 can be skipped. If you request a hand-coded site, step 7 will be different and more involved, with creating a back-end framework off-line and then uploading it to your hosting account.

1. You initially contact me. We go over the items you need to have ready (listed above) and arrive at an agreed-upon estimate or package total for your website.
2. Your logo, colour palette, font selection and any prominent photos are created or sent to me from you, your third-party graphic designer and/or photographer.
3. I may create a flow chart schema of your navigation system so we can help your visitors navigate your website easily and efficiently.
4. I may create a wire-frame model of your website, so we can finalize details like the menu options, features and general layout.
5. I create a mock-up colour image of your front page and any important internal pages for you to review, based on the fonts, palettes and layout requests that we have established. Backgrounds maybe created at this stage. Two revisions to the mock-up are included in your website estimate or package. Any additional mock-ups that are requested will be charged at my hourly rate, additionally.
6. We create and set-up your website hosting account. You provide me any necessary access, if applicable.
7. I install and set-up your cms, as well as your back-up, security, performance and splash page plugins or systems. I will also set-up a staging environment for set-up and testing purposes.
8. The content is added to the site. Even though, “Lorem ipsum” filler text can be used and filler images can be used in place of photos, the design will be cleanest and most user-friendly if the actual content is entered right away.
9. At this point, the development of the visible part of the website can begin. The design, menus, plug-ins, themes, fonts, backgrounds and layouts are coded, installed and set-up.
10. Responsive layouts are created, for various screen sizes.
11. The site is then tested and tweaked for performance and speed on a variety of browsers and operating system environments.
12. The website has a final quality assurance check. Anything previously agreed upon that is missing or malfunctioning will be fixed. Any necessary revisions, not previously agreed upon, may take place at this stage. Website estimates and packages include a maximum of 2 revisions. Any revisions above and beyond that will be charged at my hourly rate, additionally.
13. Time for launch!

It varies widely. The scope of the project, your specified deadline and how involved and accessible you are as a client, can greatly affect the length of time website development may take. I have built some smaller websites in less than two weeks. Others can take a year or more (corporation websites). Keep in mind that, as a freelancer, I am one person. My time is limited. If your project is large and very urgent, I may be able to accommodate it; however, depending on the scope and timing, I might need to enlist other contractors to help, which will increase the cost. If this does not suit you, then either the timing for project completion will need to be extended or you may need to look into larger website development companies.

This is a quote taken directly from Google, “There is No set time … for Google to initially index your site - the time taken can vary. It is possible for a site to be crawled/indexed within 4 days to 4 weeks.”

Please give the Googlebot time to crawl your website — especially if your site is brand new.

That said, if you have waited over a month and still can't find your website, you may not have set up your seo for the exact keywords you are using to try and search for your site. The keywords you search for must be found within the content added to your website. Also, depending on the popularity of the keywords you've chosen, you may have some stiff competition for the first pages of search results. Please contact me to learn more about how to improve your website's seo.

The best website hosting solution is very dependent on the type of website you are planning on creating. A hosting solution that works well for one site might not work well for another. Also, website hosting companies do not all offer the same features, and different features are included in different packages. When you hire me for website development, I will discuss your plans with you for your website and go over the most appropriate hosting options available for your website. This may include a shared hosting option that I may agree to provide. Depending on your site though, I may recommend different alternatives.

Please be advised that once your web hosting account is set up, I will require full access to the hosting account in order to set up your website.

I specialize in WordPress, css, html website design, image manipulation, php, jQuery and JavaScript. I have written my own php, JavaScript and jQuery functions and plugins for WordPress. I have also designed website themes from the ground up, professionally. My proficiency extends to incorporating css3 and html5 features into websites. I have recently completed website accessibility evaluation training with Accessibility Ontario and I can assess your website to ensure it complies with WCAG 2.0 standards.

I am also skilled in tailoring third party plugins and themes to meet the needs of my clients.

Yes…however, although I have a lot of experience designing layouts, backgrounds, buttons and editing fonts and images, I am not a graphic artist. Therefore, if you are looking for a font-based logo (Johnson&Johnson, Facebook, and Tim Hortons are examples of companies with font-based logos), I am capable and willing to provide one for you. If you are looking for a real work of art (along the lines of the logos for Safari, Firefox, Evernote, Twitter, World Wildlife Fund or Starbucks), allow me to recommend a professional graphic artist. If funding is limited, there are also some free logo creation websites out there that may work for you, for now. Keep in mind though, that rebranding later often requires an accompanying website design overhaul.

I am capable of taking a professionally designed logo and creating a bookmark icon based on that design. I can also pull colours and fonts from the logo to use throughout the site (keeping in mind that some fonts may cost extra and any custom font design work will need to be provided by your logo designer).

Although I have a lot of experience with website development and design (e.g. seo, designing layouts, backgrounds, buttons, finding quality fonts and images), I am not a graphic artist/writer/photographer/font designer/marketing firm/business coach. If you are looking for original font designs, professional copywriting, high-quality original photographs, or an extensive marketing or business strategy etc., allow me to recommend or contract out to a professional in that field of expertise. For simplification's sake, there are some reasonably priced, beautiful, high quality photos and fonts available generally. If funding is limited, there may be some lesser quality options (simple seo, limited free photos and free fonts etc.) that may work for you, as costs allow.

Keep in mind that developing your website is a lot of work, the more I take on myself, the longer the process will take. If you need help with content, as I said, allow me to recommend or contract out other professionals in those fields.

seo (search engine optimization) is very important. In fact, it is quite critical to obey the standards and guidelines put in place by search engines, like Google, Bing and Yahoo. I work within these guidelines by default. Proper seo is more delicate and involved than trying few tricks here and there. There is no simple, magical tweak that will draw thousands of visitors to your website. Your focus should be on adding carefully crafted content and incorporating well researched keywords. However, it is important to realize that this is an ongoing process, like a work of art, it's never truly finished. Search engines are always updating their algorithms to provide the most accurate search results and so website developers need to adjust their seo practices accordingly. I can offer guidance here and start your website off on a solid footing. I can also, by request, provide you with an "seo for beginners" training session to help you, if you plan to write your own content.

For many companies, social media sites and/or e-mail marketing can boost website visitation. There are upgrades that can be done to your website that can aid these endeavours and I am fully capable of helping guide you with social media integration. I can provide backgrounds and profile images based on your logo/branding. I can provide forms for site visitors to subscribe to various services you want to offer. I can also help to provide some insights in terms of what social media posting methods may be effective, and which services to explore.

However, seo and social media integration do not comprise a complete marketing strategy. The effectiveness of and the best approach for seo and social media are largely dependent on the type of business you are running. For example, many social media sites are highly visual and may be wonderful sites for promoting the work of visual artists, photographers and designers, but they are much less ideal for accountants. Although seo and social media may help to boost your visitations, ultimately site popularity is driven by working in many diverse areas of marketing, taking into consideration where potential clients would generally search for businesses like yours. Also, social media sites work best with regular updates and can be high maintenance. Even if you have excellent seo and/or a solid social media presence, it does not guarantee high website traffic flow.

It is most effective to also enlist the help of a reputable marketing firm. A marketing firm can help you get the word out about your website much more comprehensively. seo/social media cannot fill this role alone.

I am fluent in Canadian English, my native language. I also speak very limited French.

Despite this limitation, I can help you to create a multi-lingual website, if needed, as long as all of the non-English copy is provided by someone fluent in the required languages. Google Translate is not an acceptable source for translation to foreign language content.

Yes…however, all web developers (even you, if you put together the website yourself) have a personal way of developing. Sorting out what someone else has put together to get their site to behave the way they wish can be a bit like winding a tangled ball of string (even if the site is carefully and properly created). There is an added step of decoding how the site works before anything new can be done.

Sometimes installed plugins, modules, custom php functions or other site hacks may prevent proper functioning; occasionally making it impossible to implement anything new without major changes to the website. Adding features in to pre-established websites, or fixing broken websites are areas I can help with, however, there may be additional costs involved and it may take longer than expected to get started.

Often, the complex interaction of many installed plugins or the obsolescence of an older plugin can be the factor that causes a website to break. Depending on the complexity, this may be a straight-forward fix, or, you may need a replacement plugin, theme or complete overhaul.

Absolutely. I have gone this route with clients in the past and the results can be stunning.

Contact me and we can discuss the best way to facilitate communication and file sharing.

If you have ownership, or have obtained the proper license or copyright permission to use the photo/icon/font/background/plugin, then it can definitely be used, within the scope of the license agreement. If you have not obtained permission yet but know, for example, where to purchase the license, then the desired feature can be used and any associated fees will be added to your invoice (these fees may be added on top of the previously-agreed total estimate for your website). If you have evidence that your preferred feature is royalty free or licensed under a Public Domain or Creative Commons license agreement then please send me the link, so I can investigate the matter further.

I am not willing to use any third-party creative work where the legality of use is unclear or forbidden. Doing so reflects badly on both of our businesses and may be illegal.

A website is composed of many, many elements, each of which someone had to create. Someone drew out each letter and punctuation mark of each font you're using. Someone created your logo. Someone went out into the world and took photos for you to display. Some of the features have been coded by website programming experts so that your site behaves the way you've intended it to. Someone wrote out all of the words you are using to draw in your visitors and sell your products or services or wisdom. The backgrounds were carefully designed or photographed, edited and scaled appropriately. The layout was organized in a pleasing way and likely set up to rearrange itself for everyone's various sizes of internet-browsing devices (at least 20 screen sizes, 5 major web browsers and 5 major operating systems - and that isn't even considering Apple watches and the like). The speed and performance of your website for visitors world wide on different devices with different operating systems also must be properly set-up and maintained. Your website also must be accessible by search engine robots and people using screen-reader technology. The security of your website must be protected and monitored on an on-going basis. All of these aspects put together involve a lot of work. How much are you paid for 80, 120, 240 or more hours of work? What would you feel is fair compensation for your time?

Although there can be ways to reduce costs of website development, if you want your website to look professional and work in a fast and user-friendly manner, expect to compensate your designers and developers fairly. Upwards of $1500 is a common minimum cost for a small website, where you have provided all of the content, photos and the logo. Keep in mind that websites are not simply about the number of pages anymore. Every website is required to be accessible to a wider variety of visitors than you might expect, to be a safe and secure place for visiting, and to work seamlessly across all devices, in order to achieve an adequate standing in search results.

All of this is simply addressing compensation for the time and expertise involved. I haven't even addressed the day-to-day costs of running a business and paying for font, hosting, plug-in, and software licenses, computer maintenance costs ... etc. required for running a freelance website development business. Running any business based on technology also requires learning on a continual basis to keep up with the lightning pace of change. Books, classes, and workshops involve fees as well.

If you think you are paying dearly for my services, understand that I am working hard for you, making you a priority and helping you grow your business. It's worth it!

If you have a brand new business, feel free to hold off on website development until you feel comfortably established. However, an expertly designed and developed website reveals to your visitors the level of professionalism they can expect from you and your company. Just like the difference between a clean, organized shop or restaurant and one in poor repair. Clean, well-organized websites help engage visitors and hold visitors' attention so they stay and take the time to browse your site. Well-developed websites can do some of your work for you, whether it involves online purchases, inventory maintenance, interactive menus, searchable/sortable database entries, calendar/scheduling functions, scheduled announcements and so much more. Websites can be their own sources of income if you are looking into areas like third-party advertisements, subscription services or e-commerce sites.

There are some free website developing software options available that can create a relatively clean website for you. These are great options for brand new businesses, just starting up. However, they can involve a learning curve to the extent where many people opt to pay to take full courses in how they work. Free websites are also often very limited in terms of what customizations they offer. It is common to only have prefabricated themes, limited functionality and standard fonts available. There may be a website feature essential to your business that isn't included in the free option. Watch out as well for the policies. Some website creation software is provided free for personal websites only; business sites are sometimes not allowed.

Some people also look to social media to house their complete online presence. Social media sites often present even more limitations than what the "free" websites offer. Many social media pages are only viewable by those with accounts set up with that particular service. Also, several social media sites require payment to "boost" posts so that clients, who have gone to the effort to subscribe, are even able see any of your updates in their feed; making many social media sites less "free" than you may have expected originally.

A well developed website with good seo will be searchable in most reputable search engines and will be accessible to everyone interested on the internet. It provides you with a much more customized, professional, public presence on the web. It is an important investment in the future of your business or organization.

Your website design is very closely connected with your company's branding. It is a lot of work but you likely won't want to change it as often as you think. How often do large companies' change their logo? That frequency is about the same as the time frame for updating your website design. Maybe every 5–10 years. You may want to tweak your design here and there to make sure you are reaching your clients optimally. When I say 5–10 years, I am referring to a complete design overhaul.

The content is what you want to look at keeping updated. The copy and the photos mainly as well as any security-related software updates.

Most cmss have been created to facilitate the frequent, continual updating of your content while the overall design of your site happens once. Imagine the general layout, header, footer, colours and fonts as a frame that stays in place, your new posts and pages and photos change within that frame to draw in new visitors. This is what your cms provides for you; a framework for making content updates easy.

If you ask most people why they are visiting websites, they will invariably tell you that they are there for the content — not to analyze the design. In fact, when sites overhaul their designs too frequently, many regular visitors find the continual changes confusing to navigate.

Please keep in mind, if you have dabbled/worked in design, html WordPress, Drupal, css or any other website related fields, your choice to hire me means that you respect my expertise and that you clearly require help with your website. I have over 10 years of professional experience in programming and design. Although I intend to work with you to create a website that reflects the image you hope to present to the world, I also draw upon industry standards and proven track records when creating website design features and elements, even for areas as simple as colour and font choices.

For example, some colour combinations that work well in print don't always translate well to screens. Website colours also require the correct amount of contrast for the text to be legible for all visitors. Some fonts choices may affect performance or may not include all the features necessary to properly display your content. Some features may have legal complications that may put you in a bind, if you choose to use them on your website. Adding features yourself may also negatively impact website performance by inadvertently adding too many requests to the server, or may break the design on a device size you may not have checked. I include performance, accessibility, complexity, licensing and cost factors into all of my design recommendations. Considering this, my hope is that we form a mutually respectful working relationship.

I find this works best when all of your desires for your website are "on the table" from the start of the project. If you can provide your preferences for colours, fonts, layout, features, some examples of sites that are similar to what you want as well as if you provide all of the content, then we can put together a clear storyboard for your site so we both know what to expect heading in. This way you will end up with the cleanest possible design. Please be open to the idea that some features which you think might work well, may not; however, I hope you always feel free to ask.

I look forward to working with you.

I occasionally refer clients to talented graphic artists, designers, web photographers or copywriters. It is important to me to provide a high level of service to my clients. Before I can even consider recommending or hiring you, I would need some verification of the quality of your work and some information about what it's like working with you.

Therefore, I would need: your name, the name of your business, contact information (including the city and country where you operate your business), samples of your work, testimonials from past clients and verifiable references, as well as the rates you charge. If you have a website, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Elance/oDesk, deviantArt, or other networking page or profile which includes some or all of the information requested above, please include it.

If you are interested in connecting with me in this way, please contact [email protected] with the above information. Preference is given to local businesses/freelancers. I cannot guarantee any work will come your way and at the moment I am not hiring.

I accept personal cheques and e-transfer** payments only from Canadian financial institutions. Credit card* and debit payments can be made via PayPal. I also accept certified cheques. More payment information will be included on invoices.

*Credit Card payments are subject to an additional fee
(approx. 3% of the invoice total).

**E-transfer payments may also have minimal additional fees which will be determined by your financial institution
(these fees often range from $1–$1.50).