Web Design Bristol
& Website Design Weston-super-Mare
Our web design services start from just £99 including VAT, and offer a an affordable, professionally designed website to present your business online.
Base Web Design will tailor our web design packages to suit you, whether you require a simple one-page website or a more developed brochure-style format to expand on the various services you offer.
Full details of our web design packages can be viewed here.
Website Optimisation
& Internet Marketing
If you are looking to raise the position of your website in the results pages of search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing (MSN) then you will find our website optimisation services to be effective yet affordable.
We offer several website optimisation and internet marketing packages to suit our customers' varied requirements, with our Starter Marketing Pack available for a one-off payment of just £49.
eCommerce Website Design
& Online Shops
Our complete e-commerce solutions start from just £249. We produce beautifully designed online stores for customers to sell their products on the internet, complete with a full administration system so that you have complete control over your products.
We integrate the market-leading OSCommerce shopping cart software with bespoke graphic design to produce websites which are both stylish and easy-to-use. We will also integrate any payment gateway of your choice.
Welcome to Base Web Design
Website Designers & Internet Marketing Specialists
Welcome to Base Web Design. We are a web design and internet marketing studio that specialises in web design, website optimization and internet marketing. We pride ourselves on offering the very best value for money.
When considering a web design project, it is important to remember that the design plays a vital role in the performance of your online presence. Here at Base we employ graphic and web designers who together produce beautiful designs that exceed industry standards and offer excellent usability. Other factors that are often overlooked when planning a website include:
- Website Optimization - Search engine friendly website coding and maintenance of search engine rankings
- Marketing - An understanding of your online objectives and marketing ethos
- Web Design - W3C complaint XHTML & CSS coding, with front-end usability our priority
- Functionality - Where ever-changing data is being published a strong administration system is required.
We try to offer as much information on our products and services as possible through this website, so that you can easily compare our prices with other companies. For more information about any of our services please call us on 0117 325 0057 or 01934 524 663, or alternatively you can email us at info@basewebdesign.co.uk.
Recent Work
Web Design History
Web site design has evolved significantly since the early 1990s when the Internet first arrived. Most sites are programmed in a computer language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language). HTML is currently in its’ 4th version, with the next major version, HTML 5 currently being developed. HTML 4 has been the core Internet Mark-Up language for nearly a decade. Since the introduction of HTML the growth of the Internet has spawned an array of hundreds of alternative languages, software and platforms that are used in collaboration to produce modern, attractive and dynamic web sites.
Web Design Compliance & Standards
W3C (The World Wide Web Consortium) is the primary governing body for the web. W3C set out guidelines and offer verification tools to ensure that your web-site is built using Industry Standard coding. The W3C also govern a variety of other coding languages such as XML, SOAP and SSML to name a few. Web Designers who follow the guidelines set out by the W3C can expect their web sites to benefit from:
- Better Search Engine Rankings.
- Better Universal Browser Compatibility.
- Better collaboration between other web designers and developers.
The 2 main W3C standards that we practice are XHTML and CSS. Click here to see if your web site has been constructed to the coding guidelines set out by the W3C or click here to verify this page that you are viewing.
Web Site Design & Web Development
In modern times, there are a whole host of features available to build a both stunning and interactive web site. The construction and completion of a web site can be categorised in two main areas:
1. The Design
The primary objective of a web site should be to meet the requirements of the client. In most cases this would be to attract then convert Internet users into customers, subscribers or in the case of charities, donors. The design of the web site is paramount to reassuring, educating and ultimately convincing the viewer that they have come to the right place, or that they have found what they are looking for. It is the responsibly of the web design company, or sole web designer, to produce a suitable design that is attractive to the target market, and doesn't deter people from exploring the web site. Web designers often use a variety of techniques, programmes and software during the design of a web site. These may include any combination of the following:
- Hand Drawn designs - and concepts are used to quickly produce layouts and visuals for the design.
- Adobe Photoshop - can be used to produce mock-ups and ‘Internet Ready graphics’.
- Adobe Illustrator - Is another tool for producing mock-ups, graphics and design elements.
- Adobe Flash - can be used to produce animation, movement & interaction on a web site.
- Adobe Dreamweaver - Is used to construct the web site as it is being constructed for the Internet.
- CSS - Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is used in conjunction with HTML to design and style the web site from a separate file. The use of CSS brings many advantages including advanced design features, lower file sizes and a universal styling document that updates the presentation and design of the site automatically from a single source.
2. The Development
Once the design of the web site is in place, either as a mock-up or coded HTML skeleton, the web site then requires developing. Development can be as basic as constructing the design as a web page in HTML, or it can be as complex as using the design to ‘skin’ a complex, database driven web site. Development can be completed by the same designer, or in the case of bigger/complex projects, within a team of individuals who specialise in certain areas of construction. Web Developers or Web Designers can use any of the following to develop a web site to completion and the ongoing maintenance:
- HTML - Hypertext Markup Language is the basic language for presenting a web-site.
- XHTML - is the markup language with the same depth as HTML, but XHTML also conforms to XML syntax.
- XML - is a custom language for creating custom markup.
- RSS - Stands for 'Real Simple Syndication' and is a popular format for publishing frequently updated articles and stories like blogs.
- ASP.NET - Is the Windows Framework used for dynamic applications.
- PHP - Is a free (released under the PHP License) scripting language for constructing dynamic web sites.
- MySQL - Is a Open Source Database platform (available under terms of the GNU General Public License) and used in conjunction with PHP and other languages to store and retrieve data.
- AJAX - is a coding nickname for the combination technique of XML and Javascript for making rich internet applications.
- Javascript - is an established client-side scripting language commonly used by web site developers.
- Perl / CGI - is an aging scripting language that was developed originally for NASA in 1987.
- Actionscript - is a scripting language primarily used within and to integrate Flash. The latest version of Actionscript is 3.0 but 2.0 is still widely used worldwide.
Open Source and 3rd Party Web Design Software
Base Web Design also utilise Open Source & 3rd party web design software. Open Source is essentially software that is developed by teams of people and is distributed for free on the internet. Open Source software covers a variety of web design applications including blogging software and e-commerce software. To name a few of these applications, Base Web Design are familiar with the following:
- Wordpress - This is an Open Source blogging platform that requires at minimum, a basic understanding of HTML to install. Wordpress is updated frequently by its' developers and is available worldwide to the public.
- Magento - This is a free E-Commerce shopping cart application that literally has everything you need to be selling online.
- OSCommerce - Is an 'out of the box' third party shopping basket application. Base Web Design have been using OSCommerce for several years and are very familiar with their interface.
- Paypal - Is becoming one of the most popular and safe methods of sending and receiving money via the internet. Base Web Design have experience with integrating and utilising Paypal.
- Google Checkout - A rival to Paypal, Google Checkout is Google's offering to paying online. Base Web Design are able to integrate Google Checkout into static and e-commerce web sites.
Web Site Accessibility
Another key consideration to think about when choosing a web design company is accessibility and usability. Modern Internet Browsers and web site programming allow web sites to be constructed to allow users to:
- Increase the font size on your web site.
- Narrate the text on your web site.
- Navigate around the site with Back & Forward buttons.
Whilst all of the above factors should be taken for granted when you choose a web design company, the unfortunate fact is that you can’t. Ensure that accessibility and ‘Cross Platform’ support is a key objective of your chosen web designers.