Frequently Asked Questions
Honest answers to the questions UK businesses ask most
Have questions about getting your business online? You’re in the right place. Below you’ll find honest answers to the questions UK business owners ask us most — from what a new website actually costs, to how hosting works and why ongoing maintenance matters. If your question isn’t covered here, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.
Project & Design (The Build Process)
- Website costs vary depending on what you need, but here’s a straightforward guide:
– Small brochure website (up to 5 pages, standard design): typically £500 – £1,500
– Multi-page business website (custom design, contact forms, basic SEO setup): typically £1,500 – £3,000
– eCommerce or custom-built sites (online shop, booking systems, integrations): £3,000+, quoted individually
The main factors that affect price are the number of pages, whether you need custom functionality (such as a booking system or product catalogue), and how much of your own content (text and images) you can provide. We’ll always give you a clear, itemised quote before any work begins — no hidden surprises. - We follow a five-stage process designed to keep things clear and stress-free for you:
1. Discovery — We start with a conversation to understand your business goals, target audience, and the websites you admire. This shapes everything that follows.
2. Design & Concepts — We create initial design concepts for your approval. All designs are mobile-first, so they look great on phones, tablets, and desktops.
3. Development — Once the design is signed off, we build the site using WordPress, making sure it’s fast, secure, and easy for you to manage.
4. Testing & SEO Setup — We test across browsers and devices, check page speed, set up basic on-site SEO (meta titles, descriptions, sitemaps), and fix any issues before launch.
5. Launch & Training — We go live together and walk you through how to make updates yourself, so you’re never dependent on us for simple changes. - A standard small business website typically takes 3 to 6 weeks from the point all content is received.
The most common reason projects run over schedule is waiting for content — text, images, and logo files from the client. If you can get these ready before we start, it keeps things moving smoothly.
Need it faster? We can discuss an accelerated timeline for straightforward projects — just mention it when you enquire. For complex or large sites, we’ll give you a realistic timeline upfront so you can plan around it. - Yes — in fact, every website we build uses a Content Management System (CMS), primarily WordPress, so you’re never locked out of your own site.
WordPress powers over 40% of all websites on the internet. It’s intuitive enough for non-technical users to update text, add blog posts, swap images, and manage pages — without needing to know any code. We provide hands-on training at launch so you feel confident making changes yourself. - Yes. Every website we build includes foundational on-site SEO, which means:
– Proper heading structure (H1, H2, H3) for each page
– Optimised meta titles and meta descriptions
– Image alt text for accessibility and search indexing
– Clean URL structure
– XML sitemap and robots.txt setup
– Basic page speed optimisation
– Google Search Console setup (on request)
What this doesn’t include is an ongoing SEO campaign — things like keyword research, regular content creation, link building, or monthly ranking reports. Those are separate services. Think of our included SEO as laying the right foundations; ongoing SEO is the work that builds on top of them over time.
Hosting & Performance (Speed & Reliability)
- Shared Hosting puts your website on a server alongside dozens of other sites. It’s the budget option — affordable, but performance can be inconsistent, security is basic, and keeping things updated is your responsibility. It suits personal or hobby sites, but it’s not ideal for a business that depends on its website.
Managed Hosting gives your site dedicated resources, consistent speed, and proactive security monitoring. Updates and patching are handled for you, and support is direct and responsive rather than a slow ticket queue. For most business websites, it’s the right choice — downtime and sluggish load speeds cost you customers. - We offer hosting on servers located in both the UK and the US. For most UK businesses, we recommend UK-based servers.
Server location matters for SEO: Google uses page load speed as a ranking signal, and a server closer to your visitors loads faster. For a business targeting UK customers, a UK server will typically give you a small but meaningful speed advantage over servers based further away. - Yes. All our hosting packages include a free SSL Certificate, and we install and configure it as standard.
An SSL certificate encrypts data between your website and your visitors — you’ll see the padlock icon in the browser address bar. It matters for three reasons:
1. SEO — Google gives a ranking boost to HTTPS sites and flags HTTP-only sites as “Not Secure”
2. Trust — Visitors who see the “Not Secure” warning often leave immediately
3. Legal — If you collect any data (even a contact form), HTTPS is a basic compliance requirement - Yes — we handle website migrations regularly and can move your site from virtually any platform or host, including:
– Another hosting provider (like GoDaddy, Heart Internet, 123-reg, SiteGround)
– A different CMS (such as Wix, Squarespace, or an old bespoke site) — migrated and rebuilt in WordPress
– An existing WordPress site being moved to better hosting
A typical migration includes transferring all files, databases, emails (where applicable), and DNS updates. We aim to make the switch with zero or minimal downtime, usually scheduling it for a low-traffic period. The whole process typically takes 24–48 hours once we have the access details we need.
Maintenance & Support (Ongoing Value)
- Because a finished website isn’t a finished product — it’s a live piece of software that needs regular attention.
WordPress core, themes, and plugins release updates continuously. These updates patch security vulnerabilities, fix bugs, and maintain compatibility. Without regular updates, your site becomes an easy target. Studies consistently show that the majority of hacked WordPress sites were running outdated software at the time of the breach.
A WordPress Care Plan covers:
– Daily automated backups (so we can restore your site quickly if anything goes wrong)
– Security monitoring — alerting us to threats before they become problems
– WordPress core, theme, and plugin updates — tested and applied safely
– Uptime monitoring — we’re notified immediately if your site goes offline
– Monthly report — so you can see what’s been done
Think of it like a service plan for your car. You could skip it, but the consequences of something going wrong are much more expensive than the plan itself. - If your site is on one of our hosting or care plans, here’s what happens:
1. We find out first — our uptime monitoring alerts us the moment your site goes offline, often before you notice
2. We investigate immediately — checking server status, recent changes, and security logs
3. We restore or fix — whether that’s a server issue, a failed update, or a security incident, we act straight away
4. We keep you informed — you’ll hear from us with a plain-English explanation of what happened and what we did
For security incidents specifically, our response includes malware removal, a security audit, and steps to prevent recurrence. We also restore from a clean backup where needed.
Response times vary by plan — see our care plan options for details. - Yes. Our UK-based team provides technical support for all hosting and maintenance clients.
How to reach us: By email or txt or WhatsApp — details are in your welcome email when you join.
Typical response times: We aim to respond to all support requests within one business day, with urgent issues (site down, security incident) prioritised and handled as quickly as possible.
What’s covered: WordPress errors, plugin conflicts, display issues, speed problems, form issues, and general “something’s broken” requests.
What requires a separate quote: New features, design changes, content updates, or anything that goes beyond fixing an existing issue — we’ll always let you know upfront if something falls outside your plan.
Still have questions? We’re happy to talk through your specific situation — no sales pressure, just straightforward advice. Get in touch with the Web-Tastic team and we’ll get back to you promptly.