"Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."  Steve Jobs

A- Off the shelf websites are cheap because they are sold in bulk and undistinguished because your website will be just like thousands of others. Its format and contents are very unlikely to match the needs of your firm. Your site may feature inappropriate pop up adverts - the kind everyone hates - and be geared to bringing your host more business rather than you. My individual approach means that I work with you to achieve a site that accurately reflects your business.

A- The internet is constantly changing as is your business. When your website is first set up it captures a moment in time. If you do not change and update it, within a few months it will become inaccurate, showing out-of-date style and content. Displaying inaccurate prices could cause big problems! A poorly maintained website could be worse than no website. The answer is to run a dynamic website.

A- I have a few guiding principles. I do not complicate things unnecessarily and will refine your site to be as customer friendly as possible. I believe in long term client relationships not a quick fix followed by cut and run. To me a website is an ongoing process, not a thing. I think business first and foremost and technology only to provide answers to business needs. I support ethical standards in business relationships, hence my membership of UKWDA, and web and usability standards in general. I never stop learning and developing new skills.

A- Occasionally.

A- A dynamic website is one that is linked to a database. Information is stored in the database and shown on the webpage each time a browser calls the page. This means that as soon as something is changed in the database, the new version appears on the web page. These FAQs are produced in this way. The great advantage is that you no longer have to search through pages of HTML in order to change a single price, for example. We can design a simple web interface which is available only to you and which you can use to make changes without having to have any technical knowledge.

A- A website is just like a storefront except that it is being presented to a worldwide audience. More and more people are turning to the Internet to buy goods and services. A relatively small investment in a website can enable you to reach a market that you would pay a small fortune to reach via conventional advertising. Why not take advantage of such a good marketing opportunity?

A- There are many different levels. Initially many businesses felt it was enough to have a web presence, i.e. a site where people could read about them, view their products and so on. Nowadays this can lead to frustration and lost custom when people find they are unable to carry out transactions on a site. Difficulties in keeping prices current discouraged people from displaying them online. Dynamic database driven websites have overcome this problem.

A- Absolutely. What you are asking about is called a dynamic website i.e. one backed by a database. The prices displayed on your website come out of a database and you are given a secure log-in to be able to add, delete or edit items in the database. If you change a price in the database, the very next time someone looks at your site they will see the new price. Its a clever piece of kit but simple for you to operate.

A- Search engines need to be sent details of your site on a regular basis - a good reason for maintaining a relationship with Insitement long after we build your site. Your site needs to be designed to be search engine friendly. The results depend on how well the search engine feels your site fits the search words. Some firms will offer guaranteed top placings but beware! They can only do this by employing trickery. This is not in your long term interests because search engine technicians are working all the time to uncover cheats. If your site is found to be using cheating techniques it will be banned from the search engine. If its Google - the largest by far - this would have a serious impact.

A- I believe very strongly in long term relationships with my customers. I look at lots of websites and frequently see the effects of a lack of maintenance - broken links, out of date details, copyright notice 2 years old, old fashioned graphics etc. Every site needs constant review and regular submission to search engines i.e. help with marketing. Every site owner needs someone to call for help and advice. This service can be provided starting at a very reasonable charge.

A- What a technical question! We have used Cascading Style Sheets - to give them their full title - for many years now to separate web page content from the way in which it is displayed, in line with the World Wide Web Consortium guidelines. For example if in Internet Explorer you click Source in the View tab you will see the HTML code for the page. Font tags have long been deprecated by W3C. If the page is full of them you know that Style Sheets are not being used and standards are not being supported. Similarly if the page layout is based on tables rather than CSS positioning you know that usability is not being supported. The code of many web pages is still a mass of table, tr and td tags. This practice is very unhelpful in terms of screen readers for those with eyesight problems.

A- The problem with business directories is that they rather than your business get picked out by search engines. People still have to work their way through the Directory to find you. Its bad enough being in a list of results but being in a subset of a list really reduces your chances of being picked out. Having an online listing rather than a website means missing out on a relatively inexpensive and powerful marketing medium – your own website.

A- Unfortunately, there are currently no entry standards for becoming a web designer. Anyone can set up shop and call themselves one. So we have to blow our own trumpet to show that we are different. The founder of Insitement has an MSc with distinction in Applied Computing from Portsmouth University. We have many years of experience in the field with expertise in database and web design using PHP, MySQL, HTML, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Java, PL/SQL and Oracle. We specialise in dynamic (data driven) websites and have completed major projects in educational site development. We can also offer professional photography from a much published freelance magazine photographer.

A- I do not provide a price list because throughout the site you will see that I do not supply a one size fits all type of solution. I am only interested in providing long term value to your business rather than cheap quick fixes so each site is individually designed. My charges consist of an initial set-up charge (from a few hundred pounds )and a monthly maintenance and marketing charge. The latter is optional for the simplest sites but we highly recommend it for others. We keep the set-up charge for the more technically demanding dynamic sites within bounds by building part of into the maintenance charge. You are taking no risk by asking for a quote - I make a practice of not harassing potential customers!

A- I have put this in background because I see staying up to date as a continuous process. I am always on the lookout for new technologies that affect web design. I read constantly, both books and online articles. I subscribe to newsletters which keep me in touch with what is happening and take part in technical forums where people share their know-how. I never blindly adopt a technology but evaluate what part it may play in my work.