Below is the current contract in place at the time of your proposal. The terms in this contract will not change unless discussed and agreed with you first. It is recommended you print or download a copy of this contract as a PDF for your records
Contracts are never fun to read (and this isn’t an overly short one), but it’s here to give you peace of mind & assurance of what working with acerockcola will be like & what you can expect for (almost) all possible situations that could arise. There’s a quick summary below before you get to the individual sections, but the general ethos of the contract is that of fairness. For example, if you want to change something during development, that’s fine and we can negotiate any extra cost that may be involved. Additionally, you will own the site upon completion and payment – this isn’t a license for a website that will cease if you decide to move it away from acerockcola to a competitor – you own it, you can do anything you want to it and take it anywhere you choose if you want to stop working with acerockcola. It’s recommended that you save this document (or ‘Print’ it as a PDF) for your records, but a copy will always be available upon request. Finally, please note that as a sole trader, VAT is not charged on acerockcola‘s services.
Before we get into anything, there are several words that appear often in this contract, they’re explained below for clarity just to make sure that we’re all on the same page.
YOU: Anytime the word ‘You’ appears throughout this contract it specifically refers to COMPANY NAME, AT X LOCATION (or anyone working from or on behalf of COMPANY NAME that you’ve give written permission to do so by email to mail@acerockcola.com).
Domains: Domains are used to identify websites – they’re not the actual websites themselves. Your real website address is a collection of numbers but attaching it to a domain (like google.com or acerockcola.com) makes it easier for customers to find your site. Domains are like registration plates on cars – they can be transferred to other vehicles or changed but the site can still operate (just not with the friendly address that the public are used to).
Hosting: Websites need to be hosted on a server. Your website sits on this server & whenever someone types in your domain name your website is “served” to them. Basically, to have a live & fully functioning website, you need both a domain name & web hosting.
Got it? Let’s start:
1) Summary
2) Services To Be Provided By acerockcola, Associated Costs & Payment Timelines For Initial Website Launch
3) Information, Media & Credentials To Be Provided By YOU To acerockcola
4) Renewals
5) Notes, Fees & Penalties
6) Responsive Web Design
7) SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
8) Spam, Virus Protection & Protecting Your Site From Hacking
9) Changes, Revisions & Cancellation During Building Process
10) Editing The Site Once Live & On-Going Maintenance
11) Situations Outwith acerockcola‘s Control
12) Intellectual Property
13) Legal Information
14) Use Of Your Site By acerockcola
15) Branding
16) Payment Information
17) Important Reminders
18) Lastly…
acerockcola will always do the best to fulfil your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong or can’t be done. In this contract, you won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text. There’s no desire here to trick you into signing something that you might later regret. All that we both want is what’s best for both parties, now and in the future.
You (“You”) are hiring acerockcola to perform/implement the following services:
COST BREAKDOWN:
Upon Receipt Of This Contract:
£XXX.XX (40%/50% of total cost of website & services)
After Launch Of Website:
£XXX.XX (Remaining X% balance of website & services in X number of instalments)
On 1st Of Each Month:
£XXX.XX (Monthly payment for Statistics/SEO/Website Maintenance/XXXXXXXX)
Every 12 Months:
£159 (Yearly Web Hosting, Domain Renewal (if your domain is with acerockcola), Daily Off-site Backups & procurement of a UCC/SAN SSL Certificate – this has a £299 value)
£XX.XX (OTHER SOFTWARE LICENSES IF NEEDED)
£XX.XX (Yearly Renewal of X Google Workspace Email Account[s])
Domains:
Web Hosting, Daily Off-Site Backups & SSL Certificate:
The following section explains in greater detail the procedures for other various situations of conflict.
Ideally, the above definitions & breakdown should cover everything but sometimes things happen – the section below will explain what can be expected if needed.
Expired Services:
Content:
Spam/Hacked Websites:
Downtime:
In a time when the number of web pages viewed on mobile phones outnumbers the number of pages viewed on desktops, it’s vital to have a website that is ‘responsive’ (meaning that the design & content of a site will adapt & rearrange to fit comfortably on mobile phones, tablets, laptops & other handheld devices). All acerockcola websites are responsive for that reason.
The section below will explain what can be expected, however, please note: you are never going to get a website that looks great on a desktop, the latest iPad & a 2010 Blackberry phone.
For this reason, acerockcola will test your website & guarantee usability on the most common devices & browsers:
Desktop Browsers (designed to fit on all resolutions, but optimised for 1080×1920):
Mobile Devices (using either their native browser or Chrome. Firefox or Opera):
SEO (in its most basic term) is the background work that’s done to get your website appearing high in Google’s search results for the keywords you choose. (Keywords are phrases like ‘office cleaners Dundee‘ or ‘wedding bands Scotland‘).
SEO takes a long time for results to start to show, you need roughly 4 months of solid work before you’ll start to rank on Google. For this reason, SEO packages initially require a six-month commitment.
SEO is (for lack of a better term), a game with Google. A quick search will show you the never-ending (but completely different) ‘sure fire’ ways that many different companies claim is the most efficient way to make SEO gains. acerockcola has a method (that is kept a secret) but as you can see, it gets results.
SEO is not an exact science and while it may not be possible to get your site in first position for all your keyword choices it’s a lot more effective than traditional advertising. Additionally, SEO reporting (which comes with any SEO plan) has other advantages over traditional advertising such as showing you how many people find your site through your chosen keywords & so on.
Just for clarification, please remember that in order for your site to have the best success for appearing in Google or Bing search results, ongoing SEO will need to be performed on your site to (first achieve) and then keep it high in search engine results. acerockcola can offer an SEO plan for your site with monthly reports on your gains & rankings or alternatively, you can use a separate SEO company or if search engine rankings aren’t important to you or if you’re reaching your customers by other means like word of mouth, Facebook or traditional advertising, then this service can be skipped. Whatever option you choose, please remember that a lack of SEO work equals a lack of search engine results. The concept of SEO to keep your site in search results is something that affects any website, regardless of who builds it. Be wary of committing to work with web design agencies who fail to mention the importance of SEO, as it’s these companies that likely stop caring about your site as soon as you pay their final design invoice.
Regardless of whether you choose to buy an SEO package from acerockcola, all websites are designed to be ‘SEO-ready’ & are accessible to search engines through natural & organic (non-SEO) means. But once again, just so it’s documented in this contract – SEO is very, very, very likely to seriously boost your standing on Google for your chosen keywords, but it will take about 4-6 months for results to appear and in some extreme situations, you may not get the results promised (though this has yet to happen to any client so far).
acerockcola wants your site to remain safe for everyone. As noted in section 5:
Almost all spam injections and site hijacking comes from your site being ‘hacked’, but virtually all ‘hacks’ to WordPress occur by people using weak passwords and then other people easily guessing those weak passwords. If you update the site yourself you will have a login for WordPress, the password shared with you will be a strong password, like this: rZ5xQ3gC1fZ3aL0n
The stronger a password, the less likely it is for someone to guess it and compromise your site. You will have the ability to change your password in the admin area of WordPress, if you so so keep this password long, strong & also secure, it’s easier for everyone in the long run.
Alterations:
Cancelling:
Editing The Site Yourself:
If an agreement has been made in your proposal that allows you to edit areas of the site yourself, then some (or all) of the following will apply.
Updates To Your Site If A Maintenance Plan Is In Place:
Updates To Your Site If A Maintenance Plan Is NOT In Place:
If you decide to manage any non-web design element of your domain yourself (or with another company) then acerockcola cannot be held responsible for any issues such as the domain expiring, the management of the nameservers or any of the records inside the DNS zone.
If your site relies on external platforms or APIs (the syndication of your Instagram posts being an example) then acerockcola cannot be held responsible if the company that manages the platform or API decides to stop offering their service integration. An example of this would be if Instagram suddenly globally turning off its ability to allow their photos to be syndicated on external websites. Issues like these are highly unlikely but are in the realm of possibility.
Unlike most web design companies, you will own your website & be the sole legal owner of its intellectual property. You’ll have total full control of the site (and any other assets created for you like logos or photographs taken) & you’ll be sent a copy of the entire site (& all media assets) on request & you can move it to any other web host if you want.
Just to be clear, intellectual property refers to your website design, the entire content of your site, all photos & media & the unique combination of these elements that constitutes a complete design.
acerockcola guarantees that all elements of the work delivered to you were either created in-house or that the necessary permissions or licences have been obtained to provide them to you.
When text, images or other artwork are provided to you, acerockcola will protect you from any claim by a third party that you’re using their intellectual property.
Provided you’ve paid for the website and that this contract hasn’t been terminated by you before all work has been completed then:
Please be aware though that if you do move the site away from acerockcola then our business relationship for that site will cease to exist. The offer to fix your website should it become hacked (complimentary or paid), along with extras you may have (such as backups & statistics) will also cease.
acerockcola will carry out work in accordance with good industry practice and at the standard expected from a suitably qualified company with relevant experience. That said, it can’t be guaranteed that 100% of the final work will be error-free. For this reason, it is your responsibility to ensure that the site (including the written copy) is error-free before you give the go-ahead for the site to be launched. acerockcola is not liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental, consequential or special damages caused by any errors on your site once it’s been approved by yourself.
If, in the future, any provision of this contract is deemed unlawful, void, or for any reason becomes unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
acerockcola is proud of the work that it creates & love to show it off.
Therefore, acerockcola reserve the right to display all aspects of its creative work, including sketches, work-in-progress designs and the completed work detailed in this contract in online portfolios & on social media accounts.
As a small web design company it’s great to get the acerockcola name out there. So, like most web design companies all sites have the following logo (either in black or white depending on the colour scheme of your design) subtly in the footer on your website (like this):
All it does is link back to acerockcola.com. Hopefully, this is okay, if not, this chyron can be removed for a one-time fee of £299.
Deposit:
Before any work commences, 33%/50% of the final amount as detailed in the proposal is due. Once this has been received, work on your site will start within 72 hours (but usually that day).
General Financial Requests & Transactions:
After Your Site Is Live:
This contract will stay in place and need not be renewed.
If for some reason one part of this contract becomes invalid or unenforceable, the remaining parts of it will remain in place.
Everyone wants to make a change or two once their site is live. It’s absolutely understandable & for that reason any small changes/tweaks (text changes, where the email form is going, the position of photos, the order of menus & so on) will be done at no cost for the first 28 days. Any further type of changes (new pages, redesign of menus, new features & so on) will be chargeable based on the size of the request.
Please remember that the average lifespan of a website (just like your phone) is 2 years & after that length of time it can’t be guaranteed that it will function perfectly (though, it’s unlikely that anything should happen – and even if it does, it should be fixable).
Given this lifespan, please be aware that if after several years you decide that you want a new feature added to the site then it may not be possible without a full ground-up redesign & rebuild but every effort will be made to avoid this.
If you have any questions or concerns about any aspect of this contract, please drop an email to mail@acerockcola.com