Contracting to Build a Web Site? 
Ask These Six Questions First

1. Who owns the creative material and software?

Web sites usually consist of both creative material and software, so who owns the material that makes up a Web site? That depends on the type of contract you negotiate. U.K. copyright law provides that the creator of a work automatically holds the exclusive copyright to it. Therefore, the only way that copyright may be transferred to a customer is in writing as part of assigned contract. You really need to understand each of the pieces of your Web site. Specify in your agreement who will own and control each element, including:

• text, graphics, audio, and video files provided by you (which may have talent rights involved)
• third-party photos and other creative material
• software created by the developer
• software created by third parties
• HTML, CGI, and other coding

   

Often business owners are not technically savvy, and may not even know what questions to ask the developer. It's critical to get the input of everyone within your company, including marketing and technical people, who can contribute to a better understanding of both the needs being addressed by the Web site and what the developer is saying.

After the site is properly fleshed out and the parties have a true understanding, the contract should go into sufficient detail to describe and formalise that understanding. Details should include:

• deliverables, deadlines, acceptance criteria, payment amounts and milestones
• proprietary or third-party software being added to the project
• any additional services which are desired or available from the developer, such as hosting, ongoing maintenance of the site and its software
• advertising /PR services for the site or your company as a whole

3. How will the site be maintained after it is created?

Maintenance encompasses a whole litany of possible services, including:

• minor or major content updates
• troubleshooting and solving technical problems
• hardware service and support
• installation of update software components

In addition, because the developer may carry a number of clients, priority can be an issue. Make sure that the agreement states which requests will be given high priority and that the developer tells you what response time your company can expect.

4. How long before saying "so long?"

• How long is this project or relationship to continue, and under what circumstances might it end earlier than planned?
• What happens after termination? For instance, who owns the material already created for the Web site?
• What has to be paid?

5. How can I safeguard my company's confidential information?

To do the best job of creating a Web site, the developer and the business owner need to understand each other's products and services. It's essential that each be obligated to keep the information confidential, and only use it for the furthering of the business relationship. At the same time there need to be limitations on those restrictions. Let the developer know how long your information must be kept confidential, and include a provision that states that material in the public domain or that has been independently developed or legitimately received from outside your company will not be considered confidential.

6. Who is responsible?

It would be unfair for your company to ask the developer to accept responsibility if the annual report photos you've provided for your site could not be legally transmitted over the Internet. At the same time, the developer should not require your company to investigate every line of programming code to make sure it was not copied from another software company. Therefore, both the business owner and the developer should probably warrant that the materials it provides do not infringe upon any third party's rights.

Search Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Registration.

Setup Fee £150.00

Monthly payment thereafter £40.00

SUMMARY OF SERVICES

Identify search phrases

We will research what people actually search for when they are looking for your products or services. We use a database of 350 million recent searches conducted by Internet users which enables us to see what people type into search engines.

 Analysis of competition

 We will analyse your competition and using our years of experience find the best words and phrases for your web site to be listed under. These are the words and phrases that will bring you the most relevant traffic.

 Analysis of web site 

 We will analyse your web site from a search engine perspective. This will highlight why search engines will not list your web site highly under relevant words and phrases. This extensive analysis takes 7 – 14 days to complete.

 Identify solutions to problems

 We will identify changes that will enable your web site to rank highly on search engines. We will produce an optimisation report which details the changes that should be made to your web site. The changes will be mostly concerned with the source code of your web site which is behind the scenes. We will not recommend changes for aesthetic reasons or that your web site needs to be redesigned.

 Liaise with our customers

 We will assign a fully trained technician to liaise with you or someone you appoint.

 Search engine submission

 We will submit your web site to all the major search engine databases used in the UK and internationally.

 Monitoring   

 We will monitor the performance of your web site throughout your relationship with us. This enables us to know exactly how your web site is performing.

 Reporting      

 We will send you regular reports showing how your site is performing on search engines. These reports will list the position of your web site in each of the major search engines.

THE FACTS

 Do businesses really make money from their web sites?

 Yes. The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics revealed that in 2002:

 UK based businesses sold £23.3 billion of products and services over the Internet.

 UK based businesses bought £22.9 billion of products and services over the Internet.

 These figures have increased 39% from the 2001 results. A much larger increase is expected to be seen when the figures for 2003 are compiled.

 Why should a web site be listed on search engines?

 A recent study by Forrester Research found that search engines remain the leading way users in the United Kingdom find web sites. The "UK Internet Users” survey found that 81% of Internet users use search engines to find web sites.

 With approximately 500 million searches being performed on major search engines every day the amount of business that can be gained from being listed on search engines is huge.

 Does it matter where a web site is listed on search engines?

 It is important that you are listed on the first page of the results when someone searches for what you offer as 80% of Internet users only look at the this page.

 TEAM WORK - Who are firstfound?

 firstfound is a division of Leven Consultants Ltd which is a UK based company. We have over 5 years’ experience of search engine marketing and thousands of happy customers. We are full members of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

 We are so successful in promoting our customers’ web sites that over 80% of our customers continue to use our services from year to year.

 Over the years we have obtained tens of thousands of first page results for our customers and helped them to generate an exceptional return on their investment with us.

 Who are Insomnia’s Customers?

 We have thousands of customers ranging from sole traders to large International conglomerates with annual turnovers of billons of pounds.

 Marketing and web design companies throughout the UK employ us to promote their clients’ web sites.

Contact Dil Smith info@i-n-s-o-m-n-i-a.co.uk or +44 7785 596638 to apply.