WordPress web design in Nottingham: when it fits, and when it doesn't

What WordPress is, briefly

WordPress is a content management system, meaning software that lets you log in and change your website's words and pictures without writing code. It's free and open source, so no company can switch it off or raise a licence fee on you. The design, the features and the hosting are what you pay for.

When WordPress fits a Nottingham business

Looking back across our local work, WordPress has been the right call in four situations.

A trade business with several product ranges. D&M Windows, a double glazing and composite door company in Ruddington, came to us for SEO. Their old site was too dated to support a campaign, so we rebuilt it on WordPress with separate categories for composite doors, bi-fold doors, uPVC and sliding sash windows, and a downloadable brochure for each product. We moved the content worth keeping and wrote about 80% of the rest. WordPress suited it because the structure is straightforward and the pages need to grow as the SEO work does.

A new brand that needs to cover several areas. Doors Doors Doors is a newer Nottingham supply-and-fit business from a long-standing client. A new brand has no reputation to lean on, so the site had to look established on day one. We built it on WordPress with service pages, location pages for Nottingham and nearby areas, door style galleries, and our own product photography mixed with manufacturer images.

A service company replacing a site that failed on phones. Direct Cooling Systems, a Nottingham heating, ventilation and air conditioning firm, had a site that didn't display properly on mobiles. We replaced it with a responsive WordPress site, wrote every page from scratch, and gave each service its own clearly signposted section.

A personal brand that will keep adding content. Andrew Parker Art is a consultancy helping artists with pricing and positioning. We photographed Andrew around Nottingham city centre and built the site on WordPress because his offer will keep developing, and he needs to add content without breaking the design.

The pattern: brochure and service sites, where the job is explaining what you do and making it easy to get in touch, and where you or your team will want to change things.

Dahlia Interiors in Bingham runs on WordPress for the same reasons.

When we don't use WordPress

When accessibility, fundraising and data all need to work together. Notts County Foundation, the official charity of Notts County Football Club, needed a site built to WCAG 2.2, the current accessibility standard. We built it in Astro with a bespoke CRM (a database of supporters and contacts) and donation software, and coded the accessibility tools ourselves rather than renting a third-party overlay. That avoided the monthly fees that come with plugin-based widgets and donation tools. On WordPress, the same result would have meant stacking several plugins from different authors.

When the admin side is the product. Ready Steady Drive, a driving school covering Nottingham and Derby, needed learners to book and pay online, and needed a simple system to manage bookings, customers and lesson options. We built that booking system bespoke and kept it small on purpose, so the school can run it without technical help.

When the shop is large or complicated. Small WooCommerce shops run well on WordPress. Big catalogues, trade pricing and part-number search usually don't. That's covered in our post on ecommerce web design in Nottingham and what to budget.

Editing it yourself: what that really involves

"You can edit it yourself" is the main reason people choose WordPress, and it's true, with some honest limits.

The things owners typically change are opening hours, prices, photos in a gallery, a news or events post, and team members. We set the editor up around those jobs, so the fields you need are obvious and the ones you don't are out of the way. User roles mean a member of staff can post news without being able to rearrange the home page. At handover we take you through it remotely by screen-share: how to edit pages, add posts and swap images. You also get your logins, the files and a note of what the site is built with.

What we'd advise against is updating plugins on a live site without a backup, or installing new plugins to add features on a whim. Most WordPress security problems come through plugins, which is why we keep the list short. Our WordPress web design page explains that approach in more detail.

Every WordPress client gets their own login, and plenty use it: Premier Soccer Coaching update their own site often. Not everyone wants to, and that's fine too. D&M Windows keep us on for ongoing maintenance, which includes updating their events section.

If you'd rather build a simple WordPress site yourself first, the Business & IP Centre at Nottingham City Libraries runs a hands-on course on building one. It's a sensible way to test an idea before paying anyone, including us.

Hosting and maintenance: the year-two bill

The build is a one-off cost. These continue:

• Domain name: usually £10 to £20 a year, registered in your name.
• Hosting: ours starts from £120 a year with SSL (the padlock certificate) included; the price depends on the size of the site. If you host elsewhere, ask for the renewal price, not the first-year offer.
• Website management (optional): £500 a year paid upfront, or £50 a month if you'd rather pay monthly. It covers updates, backups, uptime checks, security tasks and up to 10 section updates a month. New pages are quoted separately.
• Premium plugin licences: if any are genuinely needed, they're listed in the quote with their renewal cost.

Put together, a WordPress site that we host and manage costs from around £620 a year plus the domain, before VAT, if you pay management annually. Without management it's the hosting and domain only. You're free to run it yourself instead: you own the site, the database and the files, and can move hosting or agency whenever you like.

Nottingham location pages that aren't copy-and-paste

Many local WordPress sites add a page for every town they serve. Done badly, that's twenty pages with the place name swapped and nothing else changed, which helps nobody. For Doors Doors Doors we built location pages for Nottingham and nearby areas as part of the original structure, so they could carry real content rather than being bolted on later. If you want area pages, give each one something specific: jobs you've done there, how far you travel, local photos. If you can't, a single well-written "areas we cover" page is the more honest choice.

What a WordPress site costs in Nottingham

Our small WordPress sites start from £750 plus VAT: up to seven pages, with you supplying the words and photos. Medium to large sites, with a page per service and copy written by us, cost £3,000 to £6,000 plus VAT; Direct Cooling Systems is the kind of site that sits in that band. A WooCommerce shop starts from around £3,000 plus VAT. Small sites are usually live in under a week once the content is ready. The Nottingham website cost guide compares those figures with other local suppliers.

Five questions to ask any Nottingham WordPress designer

1. 1Will you use a page builder or build a custom theme, and why?
2. 2How many plugins will the site run, and are any paid?
3. 3Whose name will the hosting account and domain be in?
4. 4What will hosting and maintenance cost in year two?
5. 5Which parts of the site will I be able to edit, and will you show me how?

If you'd like our answers to those for your project, call 0115 647 0444 or send us your current site. We'll tell you whether WordPress is the right choice before we talk about price.

Frequently asked questions

Is WordPress good for a small Nottingham business website?

For most brochure and service sites, yes. D&M Windows, Doors Doors Doors, Direct Cooling Systems and Andrew Parker Art all run on WordPress. It's less suited to sites that need logins, booking systems, large catalogues or strict accessibility obligations, where we usually build bespoke.

Can I update my WordPress website myself after launch?

Yes. We set up the editor around what you'll actually change, add user roles so staff can't break the layout, and show you how by screen-share at handover. If you'd rather not, our optional website management can make updates for you.

How much does WordPress hosting and maintenance cost?

Vimana hosting starts from £120 a year with SSL included, depending on the size of the site. Website management is optional: £500 a year, or £50 a month. Add a domain at roughly £10 to £20 a year. Prices exclude VAT. You can also host and maintain the site yourself.

Do you redesign existing WordPress sites in Nottingham?

Yes. D&M Windows in Ruddington is an example: we moved the content worth keeping, rewrote the rest and rebuilt the site. Planning redirects for every existing URL is what protects your Google rankings during a rebuild.

Why was Notts County Foundation not built on WordPress?

It needed WCAG 2.2 accessibility, a CRM and donation software working as one system. Building those in Astro ourselves avoided relying on several third-party plugins and their monthly fees.