Website design in St Helens, and what you actually own at the end of it

When a monthly deal is the right answer

If you are testing an idea, if the business might not exist in a year, if you need something online this week and cannot spare the cash, a low monthly site is a sensible answer. It is quick, it is cheap to start, and somebody else keeps it running. There is no shame in it and I would tell you the same on the phone.

One of the offers you will find in St Helens is £299 to set up and £50 a month after that, which comes to £2,099 across three years. For a business finding its feet that can be money well spent. I am not going to tell you it is a bad deal, and I am not going to tell you I am the cheaper option, because measured that way I usually am not. My own care plan is £65 a month if you choose to take one.

The trouble starts when a business that is going to be around for ten years takes the option designed for one that might not.

What you are actually paying for

Two things are being sold and they get talked about as if they are the same thing. One is access. You pay monthly and the site stays up. The other is ownership. You pay once and the thing belongs to you. Side by side they look like this.

Neither is wrong. But you should know which one you are buying, and a lot of people find out at the point they want to leave. My guide sets out what owning a website actually means in practice.

The questions that tell you which one you are being offered

Four, and they are quick.

A straight answer to all four is a good sign whoever you end up using. A vague answer to any of them is worth pressing on.

A St Helens studio that needed more than a Facebook page

Pure Eden Wellbeing is a holistic therapy studio on Bridge Street, run by Lynne and Charlie. Massage, Reiki, lymphatic drainage and a good deal more, all in a calm private space where people are listened to before anything begins.

They had built a real following on social media, which is harder than it sounds, but there was nowhere for someone to land who had just heard the name and wanted to know what a session actually involved. So I built them a site that reads the way the studio feels, unhurried and easy to be in, with every treatment set out clearly. Enquiries go straight to the studio inbox, the Google Business Profile went live alongside it, and they have their own booking system so clients can book without picking up the phone.

It is theirs. The domain is in their name and so is everything else.

SEND Guidance, a Merseyside consultancy, and the rest of the finished work sit in the recent work section if you would rather judge the building than the writing.

There are good people doing this in St Helens

There are several genuinely good independent designers in St Helens with long records and real reviews, and if you find one you get on with, use them. I am not going to tell you the town is short of options, because it is not.

What I would say is this. Ask any of us for a homepage concept before you commit to anything. If somebody will show you what your site could look like before you have paid, you are dealing with someone confident in the work. That is the test, whoever you pick.

What I charge, and what you keep

Fixed, agreed in writing before anything starts, and the site is yours at the end of it. Care plans are separate and optional, so you are never paying monthly just to keep your own website online.

The first year of hosting, the domain setup and basic SEO are part of every build. A care plan at £65 a month is there afterwards if you would rather I handled updates and support, and nothing stops working if you decide against one. The pricing page sets out what sits inside each tier, and my guide covers how monthly fees add up against a one off price.

Which tier you want is usually decided by how many different things you sell rather than by the size of the business. One trade and one catchment is Essentials. Four service lines that each deserve their own page is Signature. A booking calendar, a payment or a login makes it Bespoke by definition, not by upsell, and I will tell you plainly when you do not need the bigger one.

The whole borough is the same job as the town centre, so Haydock, Rainhill, Rainford, Newton-le-Willows, Eccleston, Thatto Heath, Sutton, Billinge, Windle and Parr are all a short drive from Prescot. Just outside it, there are pages for Prescot, Knowsley, Liverpool, Warrington and Widnes and Runcorn, the main web design page, and a checklist for hiring a designer in Merseyside if you are still comparing people.