Frequently Asked Questions
Do you accept Trading Online Vouchers from Local Enterprise Offices?
Yes. We accept Trading Online Vouchers from LEOs all over Ireland, and regularly work with LEO clients to build their websites and develop their brand strategies.
Why is The Forest different from other website designers?
We take a strategy-first approach when building your websites, meaning your business, brand and, most importantly, your customers are catered to with care and intention at every stage of the design.
We don’t charge retainer fees to manage and maintain your website. Instead, we build your website on Squarespace (an easy-to-use website management platform) and provide you with a personalised live-training workshop to give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to manage your website yourself. We’ll also provide you with video tutorials and give you 24/7 access to an extensive knowledge-base with step-by-step guides to help you update and maintain your site. And don’t worry, if you need us for anything more complex, we’re always here to help!
Are your websites built with SEO (search engine optimisation)?
Absolutely. We will consider everything from your keywords, page names and title tags, to image descriptions and meta-data, as well as your user experience (UX) and mobile-first design, to ensure we deliver the best possible experience for your website’s visitors.
Will I have access to my website to update it whenever I need to?
Yes. Once your website is built and ready to go live, we will do a comprehensive training workshop with you to give you the skills, knowledge and confidence you’ll need to update, manage and maintain your website yourself. This also saves you time and money, because you won’t need to pay any hefty retainer fees to have your website updated, nor will you have to wait for someone to make the updates for you.
I want my colleague/employee to be able to update my website. Can I give them access?
Absolutely, you can add several users to your website and give them appropriate permissions depending on the pages and settings you want them to have access to. If you think you’ll be handing over the management of your website to a colleague or employee, we recommend you bring them onboard for the live training workshop we’ll do with you before we launch your site.
Can I use my .ie domain with Squarespace?
Yes. If you are an Irish company with a .ie domain, you can host your domain with a service provider like Hosting Ireland or Blacknight, then update your DNS records to point this domain to your Squarespace website. We can help you with this if necessary.
Do you manage my new website after it’s built?
In order for you to get maximum value out of your website, we recommend that you manage and update it yourself, or have someone on your team do it for you. This might include adding a new blog post every other week, adding a new service or product, or updating some existing content with a new price or description. We will hold a one-to-one live training workshop with you to give you the skills and confidence you need to manage and update your website. We are also on hand to provide you with further video tutorials if needed. And, the Squarespace help centre is on hand 24/7!
For 45 days after your website goes live, we’re also on hand to help you with any little tweaks you need free of charge.
If and when you need to kick things up a notch and develop your site even further, we’re here to help with that too. We can quote for this on a case by case basis, considering exactly what your site needs so you can take it to the next level!
And don’t worry, if you ever make a total mess of something (you won’t though, we promise!), we’re here as your safety net to get things back to normal!
Do I need to understand coding or know how to code in order to manage or update my new website?
Definitely not. While we often use code in the back end of your website to customise its look or functionality, it won’t impact how you update your site from day to day. You do not need to know how to code in order to manage your new website.
How much will it cost to keep my website live every year?
The first 12 months of your website licence is covered by us. To renew your website annually, it will cost you either €204 ex VAT (Business Plan - ideal for service businesses), €288 ex VAT (Commerce Basic) and €432 ex VAT (Commerce Advanced) (prices correct as of Feb 2024). You can also choose to upgrade, downgrade or cease your subscription at any time, no questions asked.
You may also need to renew your domain name (i.e. www.yourwebsitename.com or .ie). Depending on who your domain name is hosted with, you can expect a renewal fee of circa €20-€40 ex VAT.
Do you write the words for my website (i.e. copywriting)?
We will certainly help you write the words for your website, but you will need to provide us with all of the key points of information that you want to share with your customers. Without this valuable information from you, we won’t know what to include in your website copy.
Don’t worry though, once we decide to work together on your new website, we’ll share our content preparation files with you to help you gather all of the relevant info you’ll need for your site.
Do you provide the photographs for my website?
Great websites use photos and images with a professional look, whether that’s copyright-free images from the likes of Unsplash or Pexels, your own high-quality brand photography, or oftentimes, a combination of both.
We can source some really beautiful, on-brand, copyright-free photographs for your website, but there’s nothing like using your own professional brand imagery. We recommend working with a professional photographer, and can quote for this as part of your website design if you’d like. Or, if you’d prefer to shoot the images yourself, we can provide tips on how to do this using a smartphone with a high-quality camera.