FAQs | Resources

Never Break The Spell offers website design & redesign with integrated UX, website maintenance, fictionless content design, and business support.

See Web UX Content Design, Frictionless Content Design and Understanding UX Design for additional details.

UX is all about enhancing the experience that people have while interacting with your website, product or service, and making sure they find value in what you're providing.  

By "integrated UX," I mean your website will have UX done right, without you having to ask about it or wonder about it. Whether you plan these things and intentionally integrate them or not, they will be there:

• Information architecture, or the structure of pages on a website (planning means the structure is centered on putting information where users expect to find it). 
• Visual Design or what your pages look like the page layouts, colors, fonts, images, etc. (planning means that your website's visual design will accurately reflect your style)
• Navigation Taxonomy or the naming conventions used for your menus and buttons (planning means making it easy to find information users are looking for). 
• Interaction Design or the behavior of the things (buttons, links, icons, etc.) you can interact with on a website (planning means that what happens when users click on things will make sense to them). 

I'm delighted to work with any small business! I've worked with individual artists and many small non-profit organizations.

It depends (of course!). The timeline varies based on the complexity of the project. For a basic (~5 page) site on a hosting platform with an integrated builder (non-WP), once you have all your content, your site can be up in just a few days. 

I have no hidden fees. If you hire me to do your website design, that's what I'll do and you'll have a website with integrated UX, even at my lowest design cost.

What is the minimum you need to spend to have a website?

Whether you purchase web design services (from me or someone else) or build your own site, there are 3 things you must also purchase in order to have a website: a domain name (I strongly recommend you also purchase domain privacy), an SSL certificate, and web hosting. 

• A domain name is essentially the address (URL) of your website (www.YourDomainName.nnn) See more detailed information below in the Technical FAQ "What is a Domain Name?"
• An SSL certificate is a digital authentication of your website’s identity and enables an encrypted connection for security purposes. It’s required for all websites. See more detailed information below in the Technical FAQ "What is an SSL Certificate?"
• Without domain privacy, anyone with internet access can simply look up your domain, access your personal contact information and use it however they choose. See more detailed information below in the Technical FAQ "What is Domain Privacy (and do I need that)?"
• Web hosting is a service that allows you to rent space on a server where you can publish your website. See more detailed information below in the Technical FAQ "What is Web Hosting?"

So the minimum you need is: 

• a domain name (approx $10-$20/year)
• domain privacy (approx $10-$20/year (not required, but strongly recommended)
• an SSL certificate (usually included with the domain name)
• hosting (approx $5-$15/mo)

Additional Costs

• If you don't advertise somewhere, you're not likely to get much traffic or business. But that's not a requirement for having a website.
• There are also additional optional expenses for other services, add-ins and plug-ins you might want to use, like appointment booking, e-commerce, and SEO. 

Forbes®Advisor article "How much does a website cost? (2023 Guide)" gives you an in depth overview of what it costs to create a website. 

Specifically they cover:

Essential Website Costs: At a Glance

Additional Costs To Consider

Website Costs by Industry

Frequently Asked Questions

If you're building a new website or redesigning one that's not performing for you, here's the very abbreviated version of how we get from where you are now to a new / redesigned website that'll help you grow your practice:

During the initial consultation, we'll talk about your coaching business, what kind of coaching you plan to do, and what you want your website to do. We'll talk about what keeps you up at night, and I'll answer any questions you have.

1. If you decide to work with me, we'll talk about everything else, like who your ideal clients are and, when they get to your website, what you want them to know and be able to do. 

2. Once you have most (or all) of the content you need, I'll build your pages, connect the services and accounts you're using (booking, payments, social media, etc.) 

3. After the final review, I'll publish your site and you'll be live!

Wondering how long this'll take? Once I have your content, it's usually just a few days until you're live. 

If you mean writing digital content for landing pages, bios, product pages, blog posts, etc? Yes! I offer a Frictionless Content Design service.

If you mean writing online copy for marketing purposes, like ads, social media posts, etc.? That's not my forte. 

Absolutely! Not only do I know what I'm doing, I know this:  It's no longer just about the technical skill / expertise of "building a website." If your website has bad UX or no UX, you're going to end up paying even more:

• 70% of online businesses fail because of bad usability and UX.
• 94% of first impressions are related to your website’s design. 
• Better UX design increases a website’s conversion rates by up to 200%. 

Think about what you're paying a web designer to actually do. Build a website? Maybe ... but what does that really mean?

• You don't need any special or technical skills to create a website. Integrated web builders (WP aside) are very straightforward and easy to use because they were designed to be used by people without any specialized training or skills.
• Hosting companies like Wix, Weebly, GoDaddy, SquareSpace, and others offer "no-code website builders" that have drag-and-drop interfaces with pre-designed templates that make the process of website creation easy and feel largely bullet-proof. 

So if you can DIY your own website, what ARE you paying a web designer for? 

You see that I said these no-code builders make website creation simple and feel largely bullet-proof? I know you saw those statistics at the top of this FAQ. 

70% of online businesses fail because of bad usability and UX.

I'm not saying you can't do it yourself, you absolutely can! But there is more to it than "drag, drop, publish" and you feel that when you land on a website and a few of the links are broken, you can't find what you're looking for, and now you have to click on 3 different things just to schedule an appointment. 

If you are going to DIY it, have somebody look at it. A UX designer, if possible. Yep, you can absolutely ask me to take a look and give you my feedback.

The most valuable thing your website can do for your business is provide high-quality, meaningful content that your users want and need in the most frictionless way possible. And that is what you should be paying a web designer for. If you're a small business selling services or products, the skill set needed to actually create a physical website isn't enough. You really need someone with:

► UX Design Knowledge and Experience: Your website should have simple, consistent page design, clear navigation, and an information architecture that puts information where people expect to find it. 

► Content Design Knowledge and Experience: Your website also needs:

• Clear communication: People have to be able to figure out why they should do business with you. That means they need to be able to understand your services so they can decide if they meet their needs. 
• High-quality Content:  If people can't get the information they need and want on your site, they will move on. If your content is well-written, engaging, relevant and valuable, people are much more likely to trust you and engage with your brand. 

As I'm placing all your written content and images, I'm reading what you've written and looking for any issues with grammar, consistency and "basic sense-making." These are the kind of mistakes we all make and they often make it difficult for readers to understand what you've written.

► Grammar & Usage: I'm definitely not the grammarian about whom your mother warned you. I am however, looking for standard punctuation, capitalization and usage. 

• For example: Did you miss any words? Did you use "less" when you meant "fewer?"

► Consistency: Here I'm looking for inconsistencies that we all make, like using different wording for the same thing.  

• For example: When you wrote a CTA for a discovery session, did you use Book a Free Session throughout or did you sometimes use Schedule a Disco Session and once you used Book Now? 

► Basic sense-making:  When I'm reading your content, I'm looking for anything that might not "make sense to the average person." These are mostly things that might be confusing or might contradict something else that was said. 

If you're looking to improve what you've written beyond grammar, consistency and "basic sense-making," consider investing in frictionless content - that's where the real magic lives! 

Forbes®Advisor article "Top Website Statistics For 2023" has 40 website statistics that might surprise you. 

General Website Statistics

• 2. A new website is built every three seconds
• 8. Users form an opinion about a website in 0.05 seconds

Website Traffic Statistics

• 12. In North America, 51.2% of web traffic comes from mobile devices
• 9. A staggering 93% of global traffic comes from Google

Website User Experience Statistics [these might shock you (until you realize you feel the same way about most of them).]

•  14. 47% of users won’t wait longer than two seconds for a website to load
• 19. The average time spent on a page is 54 seconds
• 24. 61% say that if they don’t find what they’re looking for within about five seconds, they’ll go to another site

Mobile Website Traffic Statistics

•  26. 74% of online users will return to a website that is mobile-friendly
• 27. 73% of users report that they’ve experienced a mobile website that was too slow to load

Web Design Statistics 

• 32. Half of internet users say that they use website design as a factor to formulate their opinion on a business.
• 33. 57% of users won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website
• 38. Almost half (48%) say the number one way they decide on the credibility of a business is determined by the web design

All you have to decide is that you want to have the conversation. You can schedule a consultation or just reach out and let me know you'd like to meet and I'll get back to you with some available days and times.