Frequently Asked Questions

This will depend on the goals of your website and the functionality you require. If your aim is simply putting a business page online then something small will most likely work for you and it will obviously be less expensive than an online store with all the bells and whistles.  Our website design packages cost $3,495 (plus GST).

Basically, the cost of a website is directly proportional to the time that goes into setting it up. The design, structure, layout, images, content, functionality, browser compatibility testing and even the launch of a website all takes time. The majority of websites that we build cost between $3,495 to $50,000.
If you want your website to portray your business, products and services in the best light possible then a professionally designed and well organised website is the way to go.

Talk to us about your requirements so we can help you determine the size and cost of your project. We will be able to give you advice on the best way forward and the various options to suit your budget.

There are a few ongoing costs associated with keeping your website online and healthy:

Domain name registration
Every website needs a domain name. We recommend getting both the .com and the com.au for your site if they are available. You will need to renew your domain name every year for .com domains and every 2 years for .com.au domains. Web Bird Digital are a domain re-seller, we can register and manage your domain(s) for you. As of writing, .com.au domains cost $70 /2 years and .com domains cost $50 /year.

Website hosting and maintenance
Your website has to live somewhere so website hosting is an essential service. Hosting services and prices vary so make sure you understand what service you will be getting for your $$$. We believe that web hosting should be simple, easy and affordable for our clients. We offer a fast, premium hosting service starting from just $39/month (plus GST).

Website maintenance is just as important. It is essential to protect your investment by making sure your site is always up to date, secure and healthy. Website maintenance can be comprehensive such as security updates for your CMS, version upgrades, new pages or new functionality for your website. It can also be simple site changes to text or images on a web page. Ask about our website management program from just $39/month (plus GST).
Our competitive website maintenance pricing includes generous discounts for large monthly work volumes.

Your web host is a place to store and run your website. This may seem simple but there are a number of factors which can affect the reliability, availability and speed of your website. Your website is useless if it is down, or doesn’t load quickly when your customers try to access it.

WordPress websites can be hosted on any website which supports Apache (or a similar software such as Litespeed). In general, you want to look for cPanel based hosting, but other options do exist. You also want to look for an Australian based provider. Overseas servers have higher latency (ie. are slower to access in Australia) and often run maintenance right in the middle of our workday!

To simplify this, we offer our own hosting service to our customers. Our hosting service was purpose built to run WordPress websites reliably and quickly, and is Sydney based! Find out more about Web Bird Digital’s hosting and Maintenance services.

A Content Management System (CMS) is web site that allows you to create, manage, store and edit content – including text, graphics, pdf’s, video and audio – giving you greater control over your website.

Having a CMS means you no longer need to speak to a web developer every time you want to make changes to your website. A CMS gives you the power to make content changes as and when you need to.

There are a number of CMS solutions on the market, from simple editors to comprehensive website builders. Pricing also varies significantly, some free, some requiring an upfront license purchase and some with ongoing monthly costs. Some CMS solutions lock you in to their platform (eg. WIX, Squarespace) where you don’t actually own your website!

Our preferred CMS is WordPress, with it’s Block Editor, due to it’s flexibility, ease of use, open source codebase (so you’re not locked in), popularity and active development, as well as the cost (free!).

Content Management Systems (CMS) give non technical people the tools to manage their own website on a day to day basis. With a CMS you don’t need to understand HTML or any other type of coding, allowing you to concentrate on the all important content.

Talk to us about how a CMS can help your business.

Before considering building your online store you need to build your idea. What kind of products will you be selling? Who are my competitors? What do I want my site to look like?

Start your branding process. Developing a logo and brand identity will help you realise your business goals and kick start the design process.

Choose your eCommerce platform – You have 2 choices here:
You can decide to use a pre-built website solution such as Shopify or Big Commerce where you are supplied with templates for your site and you can upload products and add your descriptions. However, this means you don’t have complete control over the sites look and feel and ultimately you don’t own the website!

A custom designed or pre-built website that you own outright. We use the WordPress Content Management System to build an online store to your specifications. WordPress has a spectacular e-commerce solution used by over 30% of eCommerce websites which provides everything an e-commerce site would need, from orders to shipping to discount codes, all running within the WordPress system.

Consider your payment system
There are many options for online payments including credit card payments, PayPal and direct deposit. Taking credit card payments means you will need to also consider which payment gateway or payment provider to use to connect your store with your merchant account.

Higher security such as an SSL certificate and a secure hosting platform is also essential – we provide these as standard on our Hosting Service. Using PayPal to take payments is a simple option. PayPal is a secure, stand alone payment system which plugs seamlessly into your eCommerce system.

Speak to us about your ideas and request a proposal. Having a brief prepared is helpful too. If you do not have a brief we can meet with you to discuss and gather as much information as we need to provide an accurate proposal.

If you’re building a new website you should be thinking about mobile devices. Data shows that people already spend more time on mobile devices than their computer. Mobile devices account for between 60 – 80% of traffic on most websites, so its a good idea to make sure your website works as well on a phone as it does on a computer.

All websites developed by Web Bird Digital are either Responsive or Mobile First. This means that they look amazing on every size of device: Desktops, laptops, tablets and phones!

The process of designing and developing a website is quite complex and involves a lot of different steps. To break it down simply, our process involves the following:

Planning
The Planning Phase sets the stage for the entire project and good planning requires collaboration with our clients and attention to detail.
We generally give our clients a website planner – a series of questions that will help us gather requirements for the project. It includes getting an understanding of our client goals, their target audience, their functionality requirements and their timeframe and budget if possible. We then submit a proposal to the client, based on our research and discussions about their needs.

Designing
Once the client has signed on to work with us, we start the design concept process. This phase starts with a site map to determine all the pages and functionality of the site, wireframes of the page layouts and mockups of each individual page. We work closely with our clients during the designing stage to make sure we have captured their ALL their ideas and requirements and stayed true to their brand.

Creating
Once the mockups and site functionality requirements have been signed off we begin the Build Phase of the project. This is where the website itself is created. We use all the graphic elements from the Design Phase to build the functional website. During this time our clients are given access to the development site so they can view the process as well as suggest any additional changes or corrections they might like.

Testing
During the Build Phase and just prior to launch we do extensive testing on functionality, scripts and web browser compatibility (there is often differences between various web browsers).

Launch and Beyond
Once the Build Phase is completed, all the testing done and content uploaded, we ask for final approval. Once this has been signed off, we start the launch process. This involves uploading the files to the server, installing and configuring the CMS and any additional SEO optimising plugins to enhance the site for the search engines. Once live, we test again to make sure that all files have been uploaded correctly and that images and all content is visible. We also do further browser testing to ensure the site looks great in all browsers.
After launch, we provide one-on-one training and a user manual on the Content Management System and website functionality. Over the next few months we continue to monitor the site and and keep in touch with our clients to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Collaboration
Collaboration is central to the way we work, deliver our services and produce innovative web based solutions. It is our experience that a collaborative relationship with our clients produces the best outcomes and is much more fun than working alone!