Web Developers London

The basics

What do web developers do?

Web developers turn a design and a list of requirements into a working website. The work is usually described in two halves. Front-end development is what the visitor sees and touches: layout, menus, buttons, forms and the way a page reshapes itself on a phone. Back-end development is what happens behind the scenes: storing orders, sending emails, checking a diary, talking to a payment provider.

A good developer cares about things a visitor never notices directly. Does the page load in a second or in six? Does the form still work when the internet connection drops? Can a search engine read the content? Will the site be easy to update in three years, by someone who did not build it?

We do both halves, and we design as well, so one team is responsible for the whole result.

Web designers or web developers: which do you need?

For most small business websites, you need both skills and you should not have to think about the difference. A five-page website for a local firm is mostly design, content and careful set-up, and our standard website design packages cover it.

You need development in particular when the website must do something, not only say something. Typical signs are a feature you cannot find a ready-made tool for, two systems that need to exchange information, a site that has become slow or unstable, or a plugin-heavy build that breaks whenever it is updated.

Our web development services in detail

Custom website development

A custom website starts from your requirements, not from a theme. We plan the pages and features, design them, and build a lean site that contains only what it needs. The result is usually faster, easier to edit and cheaper to maintain than a heavy multi-purpose theme carrying features you never use. See business website design for how a bespoke project runs.

WordPress development

WordPress runs a large share of the world's websites, and most of them use far more plugins than they need. We build custom WordPress themes and page layouts, add custom fields so that owners can edit complex pages through simple forms, and replace stacks of plugins with small pieces of purpose-built code. More on our WordPress website design page.

WooCommerce and Shopify development

Online shops often need rules that the standard set-up does not offer: delivery prices by postcode, trade pricing, product builders, deposits, subscriptions or a checkout with extra steps. We develop these on WooCommerce and Shopify, and we tell you when an existing app will do the job for less than custom code.

Integrations

An integration connects your website to another system so that information moves without retyping. Common examples are website enquiries going straight into a customer database, orders passing to accounting software, stock levels matching between a till and an online shop, and bookings appearing in a shared calendar. We use the official connection methods each system provides, so the link keeps working when either side is updated.

Website fixes and rescue projects

We are often asked to help with a website that someone else built: an error message, a broken layout after an update, a form that has stopped sending, or a project the original developer left unfinished. We look at the site first, tell you what we have found and give you a fixed price to put it right. If rebuilding would cost less than repairing, we say so.

Speed optimisation

Slow websites lose visitors and rank lower. We measure where the time goes, which is usually oversized images, too many scripts, weak hosting or an overloaded database, and fix the causes in order of impact. You get before and after measurements.

Web apps and portals

Some projects are closer to software than to a website: a customer portal, a quote calculator, a staff dashboard, a booking tool with its own rules. These run in a browser and can be reached from any device. They are planned and quoted individually; tell us what the tool must do and who will use it.

How we write code

The way a website is built matters long after launch. These are the standards we work to.

• Mobile first. Layouts are built for a phone screen and then expanded, not the other way round.
• Light pages. No unused libraries, compressed images and scripts loaded only where they are needed.
• Readable by search engines. Clean headings, descriptive links, structured data and a sitemap.
• Accessible. Sensible contrast, keyboard access, labelled forms and text alternatives for images.
• Secure. SSL on every site, protected logins, validated forms and no card details stored on your website.
• Maintainable. Tidy, commented code and standard tools, so another developer can pick it up.
• Tested. On different phones, tablets and browsers before anything goes live.

Platforms and technology

We choose the platform to suit the job, not the other way round. WordPress suits most business websites because owners can edit it and there is a wide pool of people who can maintain it. WooCommerce and Shopify cover online shops. Where a site needs to be exceptionally fast and simple, we can build it as plain hand-coded pages with no content system at all. For web apps we agree the technology with you at the planning stage and explain the reasons.

Whatever the platform, the accounts are opened in your name: the domain, the hosting, the payment provider and any third-party services. You should never be in a position where your developer holds the keys to your business.

Working with your existing team or agency

We are happy to be one part of a larger project. If you have a designer, we can build from their designs. If you have a marketing agency, we can make the changes their campaigns need. If you have an in-house person who looks after content, we set the site up so they can do that without touching code.

After launch

Code needs upkeep. Software is updated, browsers change and businesses grow. Our website maintenance care plan covers updates, backups and security checks for £45 a month, and further development is quoted job by job, so you only pay for work you ask for.

Why choose our web developers in London

We are a new agency, and we compete on being clear. You get a fixed price in writing for a defined piece of work. You deal directly with the people who write the code. You own what we build, including the code, the content and the accounts it runs on.

We will also tell you when you do not need custom development. If a ready-made tool does the job well for a small monthly fee, that is usually the better choice for a small business, and we will recommend it over a larger bill from us.

In detail

Planning a web development project

Most development projects that go wrong fail before any code is written, because nobody wrote down what was to be built. A phrase such as "customer portal" can mean a weekend's work or six months, depending on what it must do. That is why every project of ours starts with a short specification in plain English.

The specification lists each screen and each feature, who uses it and what happens when they do. It says what information goes in, what comes out, and which other systems are involved. You read it and correct it, and we both agree to it. The fixed price is tied to that document. If you later want something that is not in it, we price the addition separately, so the original budget is never quietly exceeded.

Build or buy?

Before recommending custom code, we always check whether a ready-made tool already does the job. For common needs such as bookings, newsletters, live chat or simple online payments, an existing service is usually cheaper, more reliable and better supported than anything built from nothing. Custom development earns its cost when your process is unusual, when the monthly fees of several tools add up to more than a one-off build, or when the feature is central to how your business competes.

We set out both routes with their costs: the price of building it, and the price of renting it over two or three years. The decision is yours.

Moving a website without losing rankings

Development work often includes moving a website: to a new platform, a new host or a new design. Done carelessly, a move can remove a site from Google for weeks. We treat migration as a task in its own right. Every existing page address is listed and redirected to its new equivalent. Titles, descriptions and headings are carried across. The new site is checked for broken links before launch and watched in Google Search Console afterwards, so problems are caught early.

Hosting, domains and email

A website depends on three services that are often muddled together. The domain name is your address. Hosting is the computer your website runs on. Email may sit with either, or somewhere else entirely. When we take on a project we map out where each one is, who controls it and when it renews, because an expired domain or a forgotten hosting bill takes a site offline as surely as a coding fault. We advise on hosting that suits the site, and we make sure every account is registered to you.

Testing before launch

Every build goes through the same checks before it is released. We test each page on several phones, tablets and desktop browsers. We send every form and confirm that the message arrives. For shops and booking systems we complete real transactions with each payment method. We check loading speed, look for broken links, confirm that search engines can read the pages and make sure the site works for someone using only a keyboard. You then test it yourself on the private address, and it goes live only when you approve it.

Documentation and handover

At the end of a project you receive the logins, a short written guide to managing the site and a walkthrough on a call. For custom features, we note how they work and where the code lives, so that any competent developer could maintain them in future. You should be free to stay with us because the service is good, not because nobody else can understand your website.