Website Development

* Design Options

We create and modify a customized Divi theme to fit your branding. We have chosen Divi because of the length of time it has been in use, its security, and its support systems. With Divi, the site’s look and material can be altered mitigating the need for complete site rebuilds as aesthetic popularities change over time. This presents a huge savings regarding website upkeeping.

Support and instructions are also available for our clients to maintain, edit, or add to their own website.

You own your website once it is paid for in full. There are many website developers that retain copyright ownership of your website even after you have paid for them to create it. There are many other website developers who build websites on platforms that do not enable the website owner to actually own the site (like WIX with international headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel and Squarespace with international headquarters in Dublin, England, just to name two). This means the website owner is trapped there and often subjected to poor service and poor response time with no recourse. This means that with CharlesWorks (headquartered in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States), you are free to migrate your website elsewhere should you not be pleased with our service.

To reiterate: at CharlesWorks once your web development is paid for in full you own your website and can move it elsewhere should you be unhappy with our services.

Although we are able to work with you through email, the best way to help you arrive at the website you want is to get to know YOU, and find out what you like. The best way to do that is to meet in person. If that is not possible, a phone call is the next best thing.

We offer ideas and options to develop your vision. We will work with your existing branding and logo, help you develop your branding with design ideas and logo creation, or work with your own graphic designer to create the website that represents your business, and fits your needs.

* Encryption

In today’s Internet SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption is no longer an option – it is a necessity. Encryption is included with your website at CharlesWorks. Many hosting infrastructures get their web clients to pay an additional $50-$250 annually just for encryption. Again – SSL is INCLUDED in your website hosting fee at CharlesWorks.

* Copy and Content

Writing copy for your website so that it is engaging and informative requires being able to step out of your own shoes and see your business like your audience does. For that reason, it is often better to have someone else write your copy from an objective point of view. We will publish your copy as you provide it, work with your current writer, or write copy for you.

* Price Options

The cost of a website varies. One can spend anywhere from a couple hundred dollars for a simple web page template, to many thousands of dollars, depending on the complexity and size of the website. We often use the analogy of building a new home. Do you want a two car garage? No garage? Two bedrooms? Eight bedrooms? Oftentimes, a single page site is the affordable solution, which can be built upon at a later time.

Our website costs are calculated by the fractional parts of hours, NOT by the project. We do our best to give you a realistic estimate based upon the scope of your website needs. Logo, Colors, Branding, Fonts… Will you need us to write copy? Will this be a WooCommerce site? How much SEO will be involved? Who will provide the images? Will contact forms be involved?

All of these elements that are part of creating the website take time. We are flexible in handling a change in course, or adding another idea, but that also adds more TIME to the original estimate.

We do not ask for the full estimate up front, but a 50% deposit of our estimate is asked for to get started and payment as each invoice comes due is expected.

Another pricing factor can be the amount of material on the website. Most websites fit well within the 5 gigabytes of space provided with our standard hosting package. However, in the very rare occasions where a website needs more server space, we can provide it for just $2 per additional gigabyte needed. This will allow you more room as needed for backups or products or page expansion.

* Maintenance and changes

If the content of your website contains outdated news, long past events, dysfunctional links, who will take your website seriously? Or, perhaps your website needs a little facelift with some new graphics, colors or photos.

At CharlesWorks, we charge our clients by the minute for any webwork. If it takes only five minutes to change an address, we charge you for five minutes of time.

No hourly minimum charge – no monthly plan contracts – just pay as you go, by the minute service.

* Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a website involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

In addition to how SEO considers how search engines work and what people search for, making pages readable to search engines and emphasizing key topics related to your content is of the utmost importance. SEO involves finding relevant keywords, determining their popularity, assessing the amount of competition with similar websites, and deciding which keywords can be best supported with quality content.

Cost for SEO services can vary. We at CharlesWorks do not charge higher hourly rates for our clients just because we are working on Search Engine Optimization. We do want you to know, however, that no search engine optimization company can guarantee where your site will appear in the natural search engine results.

We provide an affordable SEO service which will get your websites indexed with the search engines and most times we get positive results with search engine placement.

* Backups

Unfortunately, disasters sometimes happen where data may be lost. CharlesWorks servers do routine backups, so recent versions of your website and important files can easily be replaced, should the need arise. This is particularly useful if you are doing your own work on your website. Backups are stored on separate secure servers so there is no access to them from the general public – an added layer of security for them.