Media Vision is a design studio based in Whitby, North Yorkshire. Call 01947 602346 email: [email protected]

Website Design and Development

“The original idea of the web was that it should be a collaborative space where you can communicate through sharing information.” – Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web, 2003

Would you like a no obligation estimate for your website?

WEBSITE DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

You have probably reached this page because you are thinking of a new website or of updating your existing website.

Our years of experience means we can advise and suggest the best solution to meet your needs – whether that’s promoting your new business or organisation, connecting with customers or selling your products or services online.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

We have been building websites for our clients for over 20 years so you can be sure you will be in a safe pair of hands. But just so you have peace of mind and know that you are covered for any eventuality, Media Vision has full Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance.

We have a robust 24/7 real-time backup system to ensure you will always stay online.

HOW WE WORK

From the initial enquiry we will usually have a face to face meeting with you. This is to make sure that we understand your needs, your business or organisation. When we have a clear idea of your needs, we will put together a proposal and estimate.

All through the project we will keep in touch so that we can keep things on track. When you are 100% happy the project is signed off and launched.

WEBSITE DESIGN SERVICES

You will find more detailed information about the services we provide below.
Just click on the titles to find out more about what we do.

DESIGN

Design is at the heart of everything we do. This may be graphic design to enhance the usability, power and aesthetics of your communication. But it also extends to creating a website that is coherent, effective and easy to use.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

You may have an idea for a new website, but you’re not sure whether it’s practical or possible. With years of experience designing and building websites, we can help you answer these questions.

We will devise the information architecture, advise on technology and content, create wireframes and flowcharts to help you visualise your project.

IDENTITY AND LOGO

Your identity is the public face of your organisation or business. We can create a fresh new identity that reflects who you are and what you do. This may include some or all of the following: branding including logo design, colours, typography, layout and tone of voice.

If you already have a logo and or identity, we can probably freshen it up to give your organisation a virtual facelift ;-)

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (CMS)

If required, you will be able to update your website via an easy to use Content Management System or CMS. Although the website will be a unique bespoke design it will be built on the WordPress framework. This is one of the world’s most popular website platforms with an award-winning interface. WordPress also features a search engine-friendly, “permalink” structure.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION (SEO)

When we build your website, we will carry out the following basic measures to help improve your website’s visibility and ranking on Google and other search engines:

  • Help write a relevant description and select keywords for use in the site meta-tags
  • Ensure that all pages have relevant titles.
  • Use heading tags. Many search engines place more emphasis on text within heading tags.
  • Provide guidelines to ensure that the text of the web pages contain keywords and common phrases for which people might be looking.

If required, we can work with you on an Enhanced SEO package including SEO optimised copywriting. Please see our SEO page.

ANALYTICS

We will set up Google Analytics, which will be accessible via the website CMS. This will allow you to analyse and track your website visitors.

COPYWRITING

We have a wealth of experience writing text for websites. We can create SEO friendly copy. This involves writing natural text that includes the keywords and phrases that will enhance your ranking with search engines.

If absolutely perfect grammar, spelling and punctuation is important, then Proof-reading services by a qualified English teacher can also be provided.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO

Media Vision provides a professional photography service. Please see our portfolio for examples. We can also shoot and edit professional video for your website.

THE MOBILE WEB

All our new websites are fully ‘responsive’. This means that they will display well on all devices, regardless of size and rescale gracefully whether on a desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. This is increasingly important as more and more people browse the web using mobile devices.

ECOMMERCE

We can add ecommerce to your website based on the tried and tested WooCommerce system. This popular, long established and well supported system can be extended through the use of a number of paid-for extensions such as the “Shipping Table” which allows you to define and manage postage rates based on customer location, price, weight and so on. These extensions can be added as and when required allowing you to grow organically.

Features that can be included in our ecommerce solutions:

  • Attractive, clear and accessible page layouts
  • Shopping Cart
  • Stock management
  • Delivery cost options
  • Product options
  • Checkout information
  • Full email system including notifications to both supplier and customer
  • Login area for wholesale customers
  • Integration with payment gateway

EMAIL NEWSLETTERS

Many websites will include an email marketing strategy. We suggest your website has a “Sign up to our Newsletter” box that encourages visitors to sign up and be automatically added to your MailChimp mailing list.
We are also happy to set up and look after your MailChimp email campaign.

HOSTING AND MAINTENANCE

Media Vision has evolved a fast, secure and reliable hosting solution. This system is supplemented with a fail-safe back-up schedule that ensures all your data is secure and saved in multiple locations.

We will also carry out regular maintenance on your website as follows:

  • Back up the website and MySQL database on a daily basis
  • Provide real-time Monitoring of your website to ensure it is online.
  • Install and maintain software that protects your site from Hacking Malware and Spam.
  • Keep core WordPress install and Plugins up to date and resolve any conflicts that arise. (Important for both security and SEO)
  • Check for broken links of both images and files and fix if necessary.

For more in-depth information about our website hosting packages please look at our Website Hosting Page.

SOCIAL MEDIA

We can integrate social media by putting Social Media links on your website’s header and footer. Although links to Social Media pages are relevant, it is more important that people come to your site from these pages, rather than leave your website to visit, for example, your Facebook page.

We therefore suggest that it is equally important to add ‘Social Sharing’ buttons which enable your users to quickly and easily share your site content through their own social media accounts.

FAQS

Frequently Asked Questions. Hopefully we have covered the most commonly asked questions. Please do get in touch if there is anything we have missed.

How long has Media Vision been building websites?

Media Vision was founded in 1998 by Chris Ellis. You can learn more on our About page.

How much does a website cost?

This depends on what you need. It could be anything from £750 to £5000 or more. For a simple brochure site – say a few pages with lots of nice images and a contact form, you would be looking at the lower end of the scale. A site with lots of pages and special features such as an events calendar or booking system and a Content Management system would be at the upper end of the scale. An ecommerce site with stock control may be somewhere in the middle.

These are all ballpark figures of course. We will always give you an accurate estimate based on our meetings and discussions so that you can make an informed decision. If you would like to find out how much your proposed website might cost, please feel free to fill in our Website Estimate Request Form.

How long will it take?

This will obviously vary depending on the size and complexity of the website, and how busy we are when you contact us. It also depends on whether or not all the assets – photographs, logos and identity and text is ready to go.

As a rule of thumb, if everything is ready to go and it is a smallish site, we could turn things around in two to three weeks (less if it is very urgent – see this site in our portfolio). A large complex site – for example an e-commerce site with lots of content and sophisticated features could take 3 to 6 months. Most sites are somewhere in-between – approximately 6 weeks.

What do I need to provide?

Ideally you will need to provide all the text for the website and some photos and a logo or identity. But if you don’t have these we can help you. We can take the photographs and write the text and create a logo and identity. See our Services section opposite for more details.

What about website maintenance?

Ongoing website maintenance to ensure your website operates smoothly, stays online and is safe from hackers, is included with your hosting package.

Who will update the website?

If you would like to update the website yourself, we will build your website on the WordPress platform, which has an award-winning, easy to use Content Management System – or CMS for short.

Alternatively if you would rather we do it for you, we will give you an estimate based on our standard hourly rate. As a guide, to update a page with new text and images (optimised in Photoshop) would cost about £17.50.

Can you get a domain name for me?

Yes, we will be happy to acquire your domain for you – providing it is available. Most of our clients have their domains in the Media Vision account. That way we have ready access to make any changes and we also make sure the domain hosting is kept up to date.

What if I have already bought a domain name?

That’s fine. We will set up your new website to work with your existing domain free of charge. We will probably need to log in to your domain account to make some technical changes.

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Do you provide website hosting?

Yes. To find out more about our website hosting and maintenance, including a useful FAQ section, please go to the Website Hosting Page.

What are the payment terms for my website?

Media Vision’s standard payment terms are 30% deposit, 50% on completion of the main build and 20% 2 weeks after the launch to cover any snagging issues.

For smaller sites (under £1000) this would be 50% deposit and 50% on completion

What about email?

We can set up an email account for you using your existing domain name. The account will include 5 GB of storage, Webmail (so you can access your email anywhere. If you want to use Outlook, Apple Mail, Thunderbird or Eudora the email package is compatible with all email clients, so you can choose whichever works best for you. You will of course also be able to set up the email on your phone.

Can you help with photos for my website?

Yes, we can usually take professional photographs of your business or organisation. For specialist photography such as photojournalism, or studio product photography we have contacts who we would be happy to recommend.

We can also help you choose and buy “stock photography” from services such as iStock photo. This can be a cost-effective yet professional-looking alternative to bespoke photography.

Can you get my site to the top of Google?

Maybe. We believe that the success of Google is that it can’t be fooled. It is important to do the basics and provide great content. Having said this, there can be quite a lot of work involved in getting these basics right. For details about how we go about this, please read the SEO section on the left of this page.

Note: SEO can be susceptible to the law of diminishing returns. How much you may want to spend will depend on how important it is to gain small advantages over your competitors.

 

If we haven’t covered anything then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.