Website Design & Development

Businesses planning a first website, a focused service site or a redesign whose current pages no longer explain the offer clearly. It also fits teams that need a manageable publishing process rather than a collection of disconnected pages.

For a first business website, start with the offer, audience and essential pages. For a redesign, identify what should be kept, improved or removed before deciding how much needs rebuilding.

1. Unclear service information and enquiry paths.
2. Navigation or layouts that make important content hard to find on mobile.
3. A build that is difficult to update, slow to load or poorly connected to business tools.

1. Define the audience, page goals and content inventory.
2. Plan navigation and key journeys before designing the page system.
3. Build responsive templates and connect agreed forms or publishing features.
4. Review accessibility, content, performance and launch URL changes together.

The brief should establish who supplies copy and imagery, which pages are essential and which integrations need credentials or third-party approval. A redesign also needs an inventory of existing URLs so useful pages retain a clear destination.

A marketing website and a custom application solve different problems. Accounts, complex permissions or operational workflows may need the web application service alongside the public site.

1. Agree the page inventory, content responsibilities and what the team needs to edit in the CMS.
2. Specify the enquiry journey, form requirements and any approved integrations, including third-party costs and access dependencies.
3. Define responsive, accessibility and performance checks, URL migration decisions and who approves launch.

Unsure which kind of build fits? Compare a website, web app or SaaS product before defining the scope.

Preparing a redesign? Our website redesign brief guide covers business goals, content, integrations and launch responsibilities to discuss before design starts.

The project agreement should identify ownership and usage rights for code, design and content, including any licensed fonts, imagery or third-party tools. It should also say who controls the domain, hosting and connected accounts.

Agree what handover includes: access for the responsible people, editing guidance, integration dependencies and maintenance responsibilities. Support after launch, recurring costs and future changes need an explicit scope rather than an assumed ongoing service.

Can the existing site be improved instead of replaced?

Yes, the starting decision is whether its structure and implementation can support the required changes. Reviewing the current content and constraints makes that decision more useful than assuming a full rebuild.

What should a website brief include?

Your offer, intended audience, essential pages, available content, enquiry process, integrations and who will maintain the site. These details help define a realistic scope.

What should we send before requesting an estimate?

Share the current website if there is one, the business goal, intended audience, essential pages and available content. Note any integrations, launch constraints and editing needs so the estimate can address the actual work.

What affects the cost and timeline?

Content readiness, custom design, CMS requirements, integrations and approval dependencies all affect the work. Agree these before comparing proposals; a page count alone does not define a reliable estimate.