Minervawebs: websites, html indexing and research services.

Use the online form, email or telephone me so we may discuss your individual online needs and preferences. After initial contact I can build a picture of what is required and issue a proposal of work and approximate cost to you. Following your signing of the agreed proposal & contract a website address is agreed and registered and a holding page put in place containing your basic details.

I usually start the design process by drawing up an idea for the home page of the site. This usually includes a banner image, navigation menu and some basic text and images. I will then present this initial idea to the client to ascertain whether it meets with their approval. A website is a very personal matter and individual preferences vary from client to client. Some have a very clear idea of what the site should look like and others are open to various design concepts. The important thing is here that before any further work is carried out on the site the basic shell is agreed and refined to your liking.
Further to the actual design aspects at this stage, we will also ascertain other factors around the site such as:

• Rate of change in content and how this content will be updated
• Keywords and description identified so that search engines can find your site
• Are email addresses required e.g. you@yoursite.co.uk
• Identification & analysis of competitors sites

Having obtained your approval of initial design features and obtained the relevant information from the list outlined above I can then move ahead with designing additional pages, add functionality, optimise your pages for search engines and test your site across browsers and devices. Your site can then be uploaded to a web host of your choosing and made available to the web!

We ask for a 50% deposit to start work and cover our initial outlay. The other 50% is due for payment within 2 weeks of the completion of your web site.

Please note that no design work will commence before deposit payment is received and cleared.

Preferred method of payment is by cheque in pounds (£) sterling, made payable to C. A. Gibson. Or by electronic banking: Sort code: 16-16-14 Account: 11595785

• Cheques made payable to C A Gibson
• BACS Account no: 11595785 Sort code: 16.16.14
• For your payment convenience we now accept credit card payments through Pay Pal!
  Paypal no longer requires you to setup an account to make a payment.

The main aim of businesses on the internet is to achieve maximum exposure, all websites should be designed to reach as many internet users as possible who would be interested in your services. To help achieve this, your domain name should be printed on brochures, letterheads, newspaper/directory adverts, fleet vehicles and business cards. It is also important to have links to your site from other relevant sites, a link is basically a reference to your site on related sites where prospective clients may look, but joining "link farms" will likely get your site penalised by search engines.

Statistically the majority of internet users will find sites via search engines. Statistics have shown that about 60% of sites found via search engines are entered through Google with 20% from Yahoo! and around 10% from Live.

I don't provide search engine optimisation (SEO) as a specific service and this is why.

All websites are built to be 'search engine-friendly' by removing any technical barriers that would prevent the search engine finding and understanding the content.

There are three simple factors required to create a site that performs well in search engines. Your site needs:

• Relevant text content
• Clean, standards-compliant code
• In-bound links

During the building of your site I will ensure that it's as "search engine friendly" as it can be made to help ensure that your site is listed as high as possible, however I can't make any promises as to where your site will appear in the results page. There are companies that will make you promises regarding getting high placement and they will charge you a great deal to do this. The only way of ensuring top position in a search engine such as Google is to pay for it and that depends on deep pockets!

Many companies would have you believe there is a secret to getting a good ranking and they have 'special techniques' - this is in fact not true.

The One Page Business Card Package is a single page containing all of your images and information. It will also contain your contact details, contact form and text links to other relevant sites if required. (A lot of other web design companies have stopped providing this service.)

The Starter Web Design Package is a web site consisting of 5 pages , a home page, a "legal page" containing privacy, copyright and accessibility statements plus three other linked pages of your choice; your images and information can then be distributed between them. A navigation menu will be provided to link the pages. The site will contain your contact details, contact form and links to other relevant sites if required.

I will also set up e-mail addresses on your server for you, however I DO NOT set up your e-mail on your personal computer.

An enquiry form allows your visitors to submit their enquiry directly to you via your Web site or respond to specific questions that you might wish to ask, e.g. for a survey or to further assess your site traffic for marketing purposes. The information submitted will be relayed to whichever email address you have supplied for this purpose. Many people prefer to use this method instead of placing a direct email link on their web site, which quickly attracts unwanted and often offensive spam.

Web sites are a very different medium to other forms of advertising, and it is important to write the content of your pages to take this into account. In addition to editing content in order to optimise it for search engines, other factors should be taken into account, for example the use of hyperlinks and the breaking down of lengthy text blocks into smaller and more readable chunks. I always correct spelling too!

Accessible web design means making sure that your site can be used by the widest group of people possible. As well as being a sensible objective, since 1999 the Disability Discrimination Act means it's a legal requirement.

About 20% of the UK population have some kind of disability and many of these people will find it difficult to use a lot of sites currently on the web. I build sites to W3C web standards. These standards govern many aspects of a site's construction and ensure that it can be accessed effectively by people with a wide range of abilities and technologies. This is particularly important where the user may be using assistive technology such as a screen reader. I start from the principle that all sites should be accessible. This means that the costs of implementation, which can be considerable if accessiblity is bolted on as an 'extra' at a later date, are included as part of the the overall design.

As an added bonus Google is also 'blind' when indexing sites!

All information that is to be included in the website should be in digital format. Text can be sent as Word documents and graphics should be digital, too. Send these by email or on a CD by post. n.b. If sending photographs please ensure that they are copyright-free.