Frequently Asked Questions
At Site Design Squad we believe getting a website designed, maintained or fixed should be an easy process.
Here is everything you need to know about how we work.
General Questions
We are based in the South West of England, with our team dotted all around the area. We're mostly split between Somerset and Dorset. While we love working with businesses from our local area, we work with clients all over the UK and across the world, including the USA, Italy and Australia.
Nope, while we love to work with local businesses we have clients across the whole of the UK, as well as Europe, the USA and Australia. No matter where you're based, we'd love to work with you.
We offer a couple of simple and secure payment options:
For Pay Monthly Plans: All monthly subscription payments are handled securely through Stripe, which allows you to pay with debit/credit card, bank transfer, and many other payment methods.
For Upfront Payments: If you choose the one-off payment option for your website, we also accept payment via a direct bank transfer.
Yes, we do. We host and look after most of the websites we build, making sure they stay secure, fast, and up to date. We can also host and maintain websites that we didn’t design, so you can rely on us even if your site was built elsewhere. Just get in touch, and we can discuss taking over your website maintenance and hosting.
Yes, we'd love to. Even if we didn’t design your website, we’re happy to take over the ongoing maintenance (and hosting if necessary). We’ll make sure your site stays secure, runs smoothly, and gets any updates it needs, so you can focus on running your business.
Yes, we do. We offer a 10% commission for referrals. When you share your link, it uses a 60 day cookie. Learn more about our affiliate scheme.
You don't have to, as we can work with most quality web hosts. However, we do check your current host to make sure it is fast and secure enough for your needs.
We provide all our support through email, WhatsApp and live chat. This helps us keep a clear record of everything we discuss so no details get missed. Visit our contact page to get in touch.
Yes, it is. We handle all your login details with the highest level of security and keep them strictly confidential.
We use professional tools like ClickUp and Notion to manage every task and document. This helps us stay organised and ensures we meet your launch date.
If you prefer not to use our online form, we can email you a document to fill out instead. If you live in the UK, we can even post a paper version to you which you can then return to our office in Poole or Somerset.
We believe the web should be for everyone. We follow the WCAG, and aim to mean an AA level. This helps lower the number of barriers disabled people face when using the internet.
No. We are a private limited company (Site Squad LTD) founded by Alison Donnellan. We have been independent since we started in 2015 and have no plans to change that. We prefer building long-term relationships directly with our clients.
Our story began in 2015 when our founder, Alison, saw that many brilliant local businesses had websites that didn't do them justice. Since then, we have grown and reformed into Site Design Squad to reflect our evolution into a full team of experts, including designers, developers, and SEO specialists.
Throughout our history, we have worked with a huge variety of clients beyond local tradespeople. We have a wealth of experience helping bloggers in niches like travel, food, and the pet industry. For these clients, we do more than just design; we handle the ongoing management of their sites and develop custom e-commerce solutions to help them sell products or services.
While we are now a limited company (Site Squad LTD), our core mission remains the same as it was on day one: to provide professional, reliable, and accessible websites for everyone. We have simply updated our name and our monthly web design packages to make high-quality sites even easier for you to own.
While we are now a limited company (Site Squad LTD), our core mission remains the same as it was on day one: to provide professional, reliable, and accessible websites for everyone. We have simply updated our name and created our monthly web design packages to make high-quality sites affordable for small businesses.
Website Design Questions
It's easy to get started. Just fill out our contact form, with a few details about your business and what you’re looking for. We’ll be in touch to discuss your needs, answer any questions, and guide you through the next steps.
We offer a web design plan that spreads the cost over 24 months to make it more affordable. These monthly plans also include your hosting and care plan. If you prefer, you can pay for the design upfront, though this does not include the ongoing care or hosting.
Yes you do. You’ll fully own your website once it’s been completely paid for. If you choose monthly payments, this will be after the full term has been completed. If you pay upfront, ownership begins as soon as your final invoice has been paid. At that point, the site is 100% yours. You can then allow us to host and maintain your website for you, or transfer elsewhere.
Yes, every site we create works well on mobiles, tablets, and computers. We also make sure they are fast and easy for everyone to use
Yes, you’ll be able to edit your website. We build sites on user-friendly platforms such as WordPress, SquareSpace, Shopify, or similar, which means you’ll have your own login to update text, swap images, or add new content whenever you like. If you’d prefer not to make changes yourself, we also offer a content update service where we can take care of edits and additions for you.
You do. All content you provide to us (like your text, company logo, and photos) is and always remains your property.
By providing this content to us, you are simply giving us a license, or permission. This is a non-exclusive license that allows us to use, copy, and modify your content for the sole purpose of designing, building, and maintaining your website as part of our agreement.
This also means that you must guarantee you have the full rights to use all content you send us (for example, that you own the copyright to the text or have a valid license for any photos you've purchased).
You have two easy choices:
Stay With Us: Your website will keep running smoothly on a simple rolling monthly plan. This will continue to cover your hosting and care plan, and you can cancel at any time with 30 days' notice.
Move On: You are completely free to take your website elsewhere. We will provide a full backup of your website files and database for you to give to your new provider.
Yes, you can choose to pay for your design upfront. However, please keep in mind that paying upfront does not include our ongoing care plan or hosting services, which would need to be handled separately.
Website Maintenance & Care Plans
A website care plan is where we take care of the technical side of your website by helping to keep your site safe and up-to-date. It includes security monitoring, regular software updates, daily backups, a set amount of time for "small content updates" each month and more.
No, our care plans are paid monthly. You can cancel at any time by giving us 30 days' notice
Our Performance and Complete plans include time each month for small tasks like changing text, and fixing errors. If you need a larger project or a new feature, get in touch and we can give you a quote.
We keep your website safe by taking regular backups. How often we do this depends on the plan you choose:
Essentials Plan: We back up your site once a week.
Performance Plan: We back up your site every day.
Complete Plan: We back up your site every hour
Yes, we will watch over your site. We regulary check websites we maintain and also use automatic testing tools that will alert us to any technical errors, security issues or downtime.
Yes, we will send you regular reports. This report shows you your site's uptime, any updates we have carried out, and how your site is performing.
Local SEO & Search Ranking
SEO stands for search engine optimisation.
Local SEO is a way to help people in your specific area find your business when they search online using popular search engines such as Google, or Bing. We work to make sure your business shows up for the people most likely to visit you.
We also aim to get your site recommended by AI's such as ChatGPT and Gemini.
SEO is a long term goal. While some changes happen quickly, it usually takes a few months to see a steady increase in where you show up in search results.
If you only serve people online and don't care about your local area, regular SEO might be better. But if you want to be the "go to" business in your area then Local SEO is vital.
Speed Optimisation & Performance
Most of these projects are finished within 7 to 14 working days.
No, your site stays online and works perfectly the whole time.
We take great care to avoid this. The first thing we do is take a full backup of your site. If there is a rare issue, we can put everything back to normal instantly
Yes, we do. We take a speed test before we start and another one after we finish our work. We save these screenshots so you can see the clear difference in performance.
WordPress Fixes & Error Repair
Yes, we can. Even if we did not build your site, we are happy to jump in and fix errors to get you back online.
A Quick Fix covers up to 30 minutes of our time to solve a specific issue. This is perfect for small styling changes, simple error messages, or a plugin that is not behaving correctly.
If we look at the issue and see it is a bigger job, we will stop and give you a clear quote first. We never start longer jobs without your approval, so you will not have any surprise costs.
When a site goes down, it can hurt your income and your reputation. If your site is offline, tell us right away. We aim to review these issues quickly to help get your business back online as soon as possible.
No, you do not. While we do offer monthly care plans to keep your site running smoothly, our WordPress Fix service is a one-off purchase. You can use us whenever you have a problem without being tied to a subscription,
Yes, we can. We are happy to help get your business back online even if your site was designed by someone else.
We take every precaution to keep your data safe. The very first thing we do is take a complete backup of your entire website. If anything goes wrong, we can put your site back exactly as it was in an instant
Yes, we will need temporary administrator access to your WordPress dashboard to find and fix the error. We handle all login details with the highest level of security and keep them private.
We can help with a wide range of issues. This includes things like the "white screen of death," broken layouts where images are in the wrong place, form submission errors, and slow loading times.
Yes, we can. If your website looks glitchy or things are not where they should be, a Quick Fix can often solve these styling problems and make your site look right again.