FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions.
Here are some common questions about Adaptable Websites.
Why should I bother using Adaptable Websites?
In a nutshell ….

  • Our websites are world-class. Take a look at our portfolio for proof.
  • We offer phenomenal value for money.
  • We’re SMART money. We offer great consultancy for small businesses as we’ve run a number of small businesses ourselves. We focus on the business goals and develop sites around those goals e.g. generating leads, selling products, providing information, etc.
  • We are lightning quick and only a call away. Things get done. We provide rapid speed-to-market. You’re not hanging about for weeks.
  • We offer a wonderfully personalised service.
Why is the price so good for a basic website?
We do our best to get a basic website up and running for £500 subject to a review regarding the scope of the job. Our specialty is start-ups and small businesses where there is often not a lot of money swishing around. So, where there is a requirement for a website with a ‘reasonable’ number of pages we try to honour this price. The reason we can do this is because we have developed a workflow on our own platform that is very efficient. We know our system like the back of our hand. We can setup all the configuration and provide a development environment online and share it with you at example.adapatble-demo.com. This reduces the amount of work and the number of unknowns. The website can be fully configured and made ‘live’ at the flick of a switch. This does rely on you hosting on our platform and taking up our website hosting, maintenance and support services.
Why should I have an ongoing hosting plan with Adaptable Websites?

Would you buy a great car and then put in rubbish oil so that its performance is compromised? No? It ‘s similar with running a website. People get a great website developed then go for the cheapest hosting they can find. No one’s looking after it. They’re on a shared computer with other websites all competing for the same limited resources. Limited bandwidth. I could go on. Websites are like babies … they constantly evolve and need nurturing to keep them running.

Here are the benefits of why you should go with one of our plans:

  • We provide a much superior level of hosting than you could ever get for the same price due to economies of scale. We are a reseller of superfast, secure, scalable cloud hosting.
  • We update your wordpress version when there is a new release. If you are not using the latest version then you are using software with known security vulnerabilities. Hackers can search for websites running the older version, and you may become a victim of a sophisticated attack. However, updating to a new version of wordpress can break a site. We update your site immediately in a controlled environment.
  • We update your premium theme Divi and update your plugins. They are consistently updated to newer versions to comply with the latest version of WordPress, or to address security issues and bugs. There is no guarantee that they will NOT break your website, nor that plugins will continue to function if not updated. Having a trained web specialist to oversee the website is necessary to update plugins, rollback plugins, replace plugins or even adjust the theme to continue optimal performance.
  • The hosting you get with us comes with a premium backup service. Your site is backed up daily.
  • We handle any issues with the hosting of the site with the hosting provider.
  • The use of the Divi wordpress theme worth $90pa or $249 lifetime cost.
  • When you get a submission, or order, from your website we check with you that you have received it so that you don’t miss an order or a lead. How often do emails go missing? This ensures that you won’t miss important communications.
  • On the Premium Hosting Plan we provide priority support where we do up to 30 mins per month of small amends and additions on request. This could be adding photos to galleries, updating a voucher or adding a new client logo or testimonial. We won’t redesign your site but this is a great way to keep things updated 😉
  • We provide you with a monthly website care report (discretionary) that includes updates, analytics, optimisations, security, performance, recommendations, marketing suggestions and pertinent news relating to your plan.

Check our Terms Of Business for a more comprehensive service overview

Which hosting plan should I go for?

The key difference between the standard and premium plans is that with the premium plan we provide priority support where we will do up to 30 mins per month of small amends and additions on request. This could be adding photos to galleries, updating a voucher or adding a new client logo or testimonial.

So for an extra £15pm you get up to £30 worth of hands-on time on your site in a given month. Importantly, this work gets prioritised to be done ASAP. So, if you think about it … you get this work done … most likely on the day. The 30 minute availability is not cumulative from month to month i.e. unused time does not transfer from month to month. Essentially, you are paying for our availability in any given month to drop everything, come off a job, and do your amends at the amazing rate of £15 for that half hour of work.

If you are on the standard plan we will quote you for any work at our current hourly rate of £60ph. We charge to the minute. The quote will be an estimate. We will schedule the work in. However, the work is not given priority over other work.

So, the premium plan offers the great benefit of keeping the website alive, fresh and current without great overhead. However, if you feel that you are not going to change the website much then the standard plan may be a better way to go.

Check our Terms Of Business for a more comprehensive service overview

Can I cancel a plan anytime?

Yes, you may cancel your recurring website service plan at any time. There is no time constraint. There are no termination fees. You are under no obligation to continue the ongoing service. You cancel your account and website yourself by notifying us by email and cancelling your standing order. Your account and website will stay active until the time you have paid for expires. If you are transferring to another hosting platform then we will provide you with a full current backup.

Considerations On Leaving Our Services

This is just to give you a heads up that if you wish to transfer to another hosting provider in the future, and keep going with the same site, you should be aware that:

1) Divi has an annual cost of $89 or a one-off lifetime payment of $249. This is built into our cost to you via economies of scale so you don’t have to pay for it. You can carry on using Divi but if you want to update the version you will have to pay for a valid licence from Elegant Themes. Our licence is not transferable. This also applies to any premium plugins we have used on your website. We use the plugin Divi Booster on all sites that currently has a lifetime cost of $19.

2) We will remove your website entry from Google Search Console. You will have to add your website to your own accounts. You will have to verify your website and submit XML sitemaps. This isn’t difficult and there is no cost.

 

Is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) offered?
Yes & No. SEO best practices are followed on a site-wide basis ‘out-of-the-box’. However, SEO at the page level is not implemented. Why? On-page SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is a very time-consuming and expensive endeavour. It is not a one-off job. It is more a process that requires regular interaction with attention-to-detail. It is a marketing consideration and not a web task. Google ranks websites on a large number of factors. These are the basic SEO considerations implemented on set-up of an Adaptable Website that have a direct ranking factor with Google:

  1. WordPress is the best content management system for SEO ‘out of the box’.
  2. All websites are fully-responsive and mobile-friendly.
  3. All websites are SSL-enabled i.e. https://
  4. Website permalinks are optimised.
  5. All images are optimised – size and resolution – they could be no smaller.
  6. XML sitemaps have been submitted to both Google and Bing
  7. Page speed is tested and is good
  8. Yoast plugin is installed and ready for page optimisation via keyphrase and page title
Do you maintain sites on other systems?
No. we maintain a laser focus with our own system. We can control things that way. Websites do break.
Here are some common questions you should ask before you hire a web designer
How long have you been in business?
Since 2008. The business has changed from selling mobile websites to dealing with Market Research Web applications to responsive websites. The founder, Mark Ashton has run a number of businesses over thirty years and is very good at the business questions.
What type of clients do you tend to deal with?
Primarily small businesses and start-ups. This is our specialist area as we have had much experience with start-ups and small businesses. Our clients include dentists, wedding service providers, physiotherapists, pubs, etc. Check our portfolio.
Can I see your portfolio?
Yes. It’s here: Portfolio
How many people will I be working with?
You will be working with one person Mark Ashton. It is he who you will speak with and who will do the building and designing of your website.
Do you understand SEO?
Yes we do. However, it is not easy and there needs to be a strategy behind it. We’ll need to discuss it. There is no silver bullet.
Who hosts the site - you or I?
We host the site. We are a reseller of hosting services through Siteground.
Will I have full access to the site once it is launched?
Yes. If you ask for it. Many clients want us to look after the site and make changes on their behalf. Things are easier to control then with regard to security, etc. If you require access we will provide this.
What happens if the site goes down?
We will interact with the host provider to get the site back up and running as quickly as possible.
How are updates dealt with?

We control all your updates from a management tool called ManageWP. We update the following things usually on a daily basis:
1) WordPress installation
2) Divi theme
3) Plugin updates
We won’t update anything if there is any evidence it may break your site. It is all about ‘Management’ rather than ‘Update. It is an important area as there are a lot of security issues with websites.

Do you integrate Google Analytics?
Yes. However, with the advent of GDPR the usage of Google Analytics requires an explicit consent cookie pop-up. Unless you are actively using the data it may be worth considering not having this integrated. Why? Google Analytics Website stats will now only show visitors that have given ‘explicit permission’ to be tracked. This means the quality of data is from now on spurious/ dodgy to say the least. You’re going to be missing a big chunk … all those that don’t opt-in.
Do you verify the site with Google Webmaster Tools?
Yes, we do this as part of your setup. It is done using an SEO plugin called Yoast.
What happens if you go on holiday and I need you?

Just call on the number provided and I will get back to you ASAP.

How do you stay current with technological requirements?
We constantly keep educating ourselves. Part of this is helped by having a narrow focus. We concentrate on WordPress, the Divi theme and hosting issues. We receive daily newsletters regarding all these areas.
Do you build e-commerce websites?
Yes. We use Woo-Commerce with Divi and WordPress.
What security is on my website?
Bit technical some of this …

  1. Server level – Account Isolation – Uses chroot so shared server safe
  2. Server level – WordPress-Specific Firewall – prevent DDOS & Brute Protect
  3. Server Level – Latest PHP & MYSQL versions
  4. WordPress level – Single user only, unique username and strong password
  5. Plugin Level – Hardening of folders etc
  6. htaccess level – secure wp-Admin & wp-login.php accessible by certain IP address
Do you use a premium theme? Who pays the license? Will it need to be renewed at some point?
Yes we use Divi by Elegant Themes for all our websites. It costs $90 per annum or $249 lifetime memebership. we absorb the cost for our clients. If you leave our services then you will have to purchase Divi. It is a software licence effectively. We use this theme because it is awesome in many ways and it has a large community behind it. It will be here for years to come.
Do you use any premium plugins? Who pays the license? Will they need to be renewed at some point?

Yes we do use premium plugins. We absorb the cost. If you leave our hosting services then you will have to pick up the licensing yourself. They are all a few dollars. Not massive bank breakers.

How long does it take to get a site 'live'?
We develop your site in a ‘live’ environment. It takes a couple of settings to change it to your web address. As quickly as it takes to get the site done. We are quick.
Have you got any references?
Check our testimonials. Check our portfolio. The best way.
How many sites do you work on at the same time?
Work on just one. If we are waiting on some content from the business then we may jump onto another job. Generally though, we focus on the job in hand.
Do you set up social media profiles?
No. We build your businesses shop window. However, we do link the site to all your social media profiles so that it is at the centre of everything.
Will there be a contract?
Yes. Check our terms. We send you an email with an abbreviated highlight of the terms with a link to our full terms. protects both of us.
Do I supply the images or you?
Preferably you. But, if appropriate, we may use some off royalty free sites like pexels.com. Check our terms on the use of images.
Who writes the copy?
You. In rare cases we may do a little for you. It is chargeable though.
What are your expectations of me as a client?
In most cases we will expect half the money up front. We expect you to be timely with our requests for copy and content.
Will I get training on using the site?
We can provide this if you so require. We can do this by Skype or by visiting your premises. We may have to consider the travel cost.
Who does updates?
We do all your updates. If you are on a premium plan you get up to half an hour of these a month. Great value.

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