Getting Started

With Parishcouncil.net, setting up a website for your Parish or Town Council is not a daunting prospect. We take all the hard work out of the process, and guide you through the decisions that you have to make along the way. Below is our quick guide to getting started on developing your Parish or Town Council website:


 

Step 1...
 

It is imperative that you choose the right provider to work with you to develop your Parish or Town Council website. We do not pretend that we are the only providers available, though we do have the most experience. Since you are spending public money, you may be required to get three quotes for your website.

We will be delighted to submit a quotation and answer any preliminary questions that you may have about our websites and packages. Please contact us to answer any questions that you might have.

 
Step 2...
 

Once we have had a chat with you about your requirements, or if you have requested a formal quotation through our online quote form, we will send you what we call our 'Development Pack' (or you can start the process yourself by downloading and completing the pack here).

The Development Pack includes the following documents:

  • Development Brief
  • 'About Us' guide to Parishcouncil.net
  • An example website hosting agreement (our T&Cs)
  • Website Template Catalogue - a list of some of the styles and layouts that have worked well for other Councils
  • Site Admin Section (SAS) User Guide - so you can see how easy our websites are to update and maintain
  • Written Quote - so that you can present it to your Council for a formal decision (though of course there is no obligation to proceed at any time until the site goes live)

The Development Brief is possibly the most important of these documents as it sets out exactly the specifications of the draft website that we will build for you. We will send this to you by email or you can download a copy here. We ask that you complete it as fully as possible and send it back to us by email.

The document itself is very easy to fill out - it is basically a series of tick-box questions such as the colours that you might prefer for the site, or whether you want the website navigation across the top or down the side of the page.

Once we have your responses, we move on to the first draft stage...

 
Step 3...
 

We will go through your completed Website Development Brief and from your answers will create a first draft website. You will be able to access this website using our secure username and password-protected Development Server.

At this point we will ask for your comments and feedback, and of course you are free to show the first draft to the Council or Website Committee. It is important to point out that there is no fee for the creation of a draft website - we do not render an invoice until the site is 100% finished and ready to go live.

 
Step 4...
  Once we have made all the relevant changes following your feedback from the first draft, we will start to add the content to the draft site. We will ask you for any documents, calendar dates, photos, directory listings etc. that you want included on the website. To assist you in this task we have put together some Excel Spreadsheets that can be filled in and emailed back to us. We then use the content of these spreadsheets to input the information direct into the draft site.
 
Step 5...
 

Adding the content is very nearly the final step - but first we must thoroughly test the site, such as ensuring that everything works, and also making sure that it is compliant with all the accessibility requirements for Local Government websites.

We then normally ask you to go through everything and make sure that you are happy with how it looks. If it all looks good, we place an order for your chosen domain name, install the SAS - Site Admin Section (our bespoke Content Management System), give you full administration access and your User Manual, and publish the site to the live server. It is only at this point that we render an invoice for the quoted amount, which means that you do not pay for any of the time that we spend developing the site (as depending on the speed of the Council this make take a month or two, and we made a decision not to pass this cost on to Parish Councils).

 
Step 6...
 

Of course, we do not stop there - in addition to submitting your website to all the important Search Engines (300+ including Google, AOL, Yahoo!, Live etc.) we continue to offer fantastic 7-days per week technical support through our online Update Request Tool. We consider the launching of a your website as the beginning of your Council's relationship with Parishcouncil.net, and that is why we continue to grow as the largest supplier of bespoke Parish and Town Council websites in the UK.

How long will it take?

This is a good question, and one that is not easily answered, as it depends a lot on how quickly we get all the required information back from you. However, typically the development of a Parish or Town Council website on our Silver Package takes around one month to six weeks from initial contact to completion.