Aerta Creative specialises in producing user-friendly, visually appealing, bespoke website designs. From a simple brochure site to a complex interactive web experience, Aerta has it covered. With over 25 years’ experience in graphic design, we understand the client/designer relationship better than most. You’ll find us sympathetic, straightforward and flexible. And we work hard to satisfy the client’s brief, whether you’re looking for new ideas or have a design concept already in place.
We can arrange domain name registration, web hosting and content editing systems ranging from the most basic to the most comprehensive, configured to make it as easy as possible to keep your site up-to-date and functioning effectively. All our sites come fully optimised for search engines, and are regularly resubmitted as part of routine site maintenance.
And because so much web surfing is now done on mobile devices, all our new sites are optimised for viewing on smartphones and tablets – at no extra cost.
Our clients typically include organisations and individuals from the creative, educational and not-for-profit sectors, as well as small businesses. We’re not daunted by size, though; we’ve also produced websites and print designs for organisations as large as The United Nations, The UK Neighbourhood Watch Trust, The British Council and the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners.
Before getting in touch, have a look at our portfolio of web designs below, and see if there’s a similar project to yours. That way we can give you a quick estimate of the costs involved.
If you’re new to websites, or unsure about what all the terminology means, click the headings below for a brief explanation.
Domain name
Your domain name is the bit which usually comes after www. in the web browser's address window. We can arrange to register one for you, or can easily direct an existing domain name to your new website.
Web hosting
Web hosting is where your website files reside on the internet. Think of it as a big computer in the sky which 'hosts' your website's pages and images, and serves them up to your visitors' web browser. We prefer to arrange this for you, as we have reliable and affordable UK-based suppliers. But we're happy to use yours if you already have a suitable package in place elsewhere.
When you have your own domain name registered (either through us or elsewhere) we can configure bespoke email addresses for you, like . You'll be issued with instructions on how to configure your new email address(es) on your computer and smartphone.
Design process
When you have supplied all the content for your site (wording, pictures etc), preferably in digital format, the process of putting your new site together begins. This either involves providing dummy pages as jpgs for you to look at, or actual web pages which can be adjusted to suit. The design process is complete when the client is happy with the overall look and feel of their website. If it all gets too long and drawn out, we'll let you know!
Content management
With off-the-shelf editing software like Expression Engine and Wordpress it's now very economical to update your site yourself, via a password-protected interface in your web browser. This process can be as complicated or as simple as you wish, depending on the complexity of your site and your level of expertise. You'll be issued with detailed instructions on how to manage your new site's content when it goes live. We're always happy to do updates for you, of course - but we charge for that.
Smartphones & tablets
All our new sites come optimised for viewing on smartphones and tablets, as much web browsing is now done on these smaller devices. We either opt to build a mobile site alongside your regular site, or design your site so that it reduces elegantly for smaller screens. All at no extra cost.
Search engines
Every site is optimised for, and submitted to, major search engines upon completion. Although we aren't search engine specialists (there are those out there who claim to be) we'll do our best to get your site listed before recommending that you pay for a service such as Google's Adwords. It's usually relatively straightforward if you've got a unique name - like Perry van Winkle, pet chiropodist - to get you included pretty high up. But if you're in a crowded field and have no marketing budget, no amount of work from us will get your A1 Cab Hire business at the top of Google's lists. Alas.
GDPR
The EU now demands certain levels of privacy from website owners. All our new sites are fully compliant - and adhere to Google's security requirements.
Website maintenance & security
With so many viruses and other internet nasties around, it's vital that your website is kept secure. To this end, we ensure that every Wordpress plugin and theme, as well as the Wordpress core are kept up-to-date, and your site's regularly scanned. Your site is also backed up regularly. A modest six-monthly fee is usually charged for this, alongside the hourly charge for any content amendments and updates implemented by us. Read more about how we keep your Wordpress website secure here.
Email newsletters
If you're looking to publicise your site, your business, new book or events to a captive audience, you could do a lot worse than get an email newsletter list together. For even more impact, you can have a properly designed email newsletter, with pictures and links on it, specially configured to render correctly in all email software, and programmed to avoid spam filters.
Our website design portfolios
