Web Design Terms of Service

Updated: 2/2/2024

Your use of Marathon Hosting & The Website Lady Web Design services is subject to the agreement of this Terms of Service.

Overview

We’ll always do our best to fulfill your needs and meet your expectations, but it’s important to have things written down so that we both know what’s what, who should do what and when, and what will happen if something goes wrong.

You won’t find any complicated legal terms or long passages of unreadable text in this contract. We’ve no desire to trick you into signing something you might regret later. We do want what’s best for both parties, so in short;

You are hiring us, The Website Lady, to Design & create a website for your business. Websites are generally completed 3-4 weeks from the start date we agreed to, but of course it’s a little more complicated, but we’ll get to that.

What Both Parties Agree To

You: You have the authority to enter this contract on behalf of yourself, your company, or your organization. You’ll give us the assets and information we need to complete the project. You’ll do this when we ask and provide the formats we ask for. You’ll review our work, provide feedback and approval in a timely manner too. Deadlines work two ways, so you’ll also be bound by dates we set together. You also agree to stick to the payment schedule at the end of this contract.

Us: We have the experience and ability to deliver everything we’ve agreed with you, and we’ll do it all in a professional and timely manner. We’ll endeavor to meet every deadline that’s set and on top of that we’ll maintain the confidentiality of everything you give us.

Design Services

We’ll create responsive designs which adapt to the capabilities of many devices and screen sizes. To give you a better understanding of our designs, we’ll use HTML and CSS predominantly which will also avoid us wasting time mocking up every template as a static visual. Sometimes, we’ll use visuals to indicate a creative direction (color, texture and typography.)

You’ll have plenty of opportunities to review our work and provide feedback. We’ll share a development site with you, this website will not be on your companies domain until the website is considered launch ready. We’ll have regular contact, at least once a week, by email, phone, or video chat.

If—at any stage—you change your mind about our deliverables or aren’t happy with our work, you’ll pay us in full for the time we’ve spent working with you (billed at $150/hr). Then, we agree to terminate this agreement.

Written Content

Unless agreed separately, we’re not responsible for uploading text or images to your website or creating every page, beyond those agreed to initially. Content is never included, except that provided by you. We provide professional copywriting and editing services, so if you’d like us to create, edit, or input additional content for you, we’ll provide a separate estimate.

Graphics and photographs

You will supply graphic files in an editable, vector digital format including Adobe Illustrator (Ai) or EPS, if available. You will provide high resolution digital photographs. If your design requires stock images, these assets—and the time we spend selecting them—are included in our price, if they come from a repository our business has a site license for.

Changes and revisions

We won’t limit your ability to change your mind. Our price is based on the number of pages we estimate are needed to deliver everything we’ve agreed to achieve. If you change your mind, adding extra work won’t be a problem and we’re happy to be flexible. We’ll provide a separate estimate for any additional work.

Testing

You understand that browser testing no longer means attempting to make a website look the same in browsers of different capabilities or on devices with different size screens. You agree it does mean ensuring someone’s experience of a design should be appropriate to the capabilities of their browser or device.

We will test our work only in current versions of major desktop browsers including those made by Apple (Safari), Google (Chrome), Microsoft (Edge), and Mozilla Firefox. We won’t test in older versions unless agreed separately. If you need an enhanced design for an older browser or specific device, we will provide a separate estimate for that. We will test your design using the latest versions of:

– IOS: Safari on iPhone and iPad
– Android: Google Chrome

We won’t test specific Android devices, or other mobile browsers unless we agreed separately. If you need us to test using alternative devices, we will provide a separate estimate.

Delivery and Backup

At the start of the project, we will setup a hosting package for your website creation. We’ll use this account to deliver HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, as well as production and optimized images. Upon request at completion of the project a WordPress backup can be made available. You will retain these files as we’re not required to keep copies.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

You understand we don’t guarantee improvements to your search engine ranking, but that the websites we develop are accessible to search engines.

Legal Stuff and Nonsense

We carry out work in accordance with good industry practice and at the standard expected from qualified people with relevant experience. That said, we can’t guarantee our work will be free from errors. We won’t be liable to you or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental, consequential, or special damages, even if you’ve advised us of them.

Your liability to us will be limited only to the price stated in this contract. You won’t be liable to us or any third-party for damages, including lost profits, lost savings, or other incidental, consequential, or special damages, even if we’ve advised you of them.

Finally, if any provision of this contract shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this contract and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

Intellectual property rights

You guarantee the written content you provide is original, or that you have the rights to use it. You also guarantee you have licenses to use images which are owned by photographers or have been purchased from stock libraries. You agree to protect us from any claim by owners of copyrighted material. When our work requires licensed fonts or images and elements from stock libraries, we’ll ask you to purchase them, so you’ll be licensed to use them, except in cases where we carry a business license to the database already.

We guarantee our work is licensed for your use. When you’ve paid us in full—and if this contract hasn’t been terminated—we’ll assign intellectual property rights to you as follows:

You’ll own the graphic files we produce during your project.

We’ll give you permission to use these files for any purpose.

We’ll own the unique combination of elements which constitute the complete design. We’ll license it to you, exclusively and in perpetuity, for this project only.

Displaying our work

We love to show off, so we reserve the right to display any aspect of our work as long as doing so doesn’t breach any confidentiality agreement. This may include sketches, work-in-progress designs, and the finished project on our website, in magazine articles, or in books.

Payment Plan

You understand how important it is for a small business that you pay your bills promptly. We’re also sure you’ll want to stay friends, so you agree to stick tightly to the following payment agreement.

50% – Deposit due to immediately book and start your project.

50% – Due at the completion of your website, or 6 weeks from web design start date, whichever comes first.

Monthly Management – Required 2 weeks after completion of your website, or 8 weeks from web design start date, whichever comes first.

Payment is required to start any project. We issue invoices electronically and payment can be made by credit or debit card. Our invoices will be in USD. If your currency is different, you agree your payments will be the same value.

The small print

Just like a parking ticket, neither of us can transfer this contract to anyone else without the other’s permission.

We both agree to adhere to laws and regulations in relation to our activities under this contract and not to cause the other to breach any relevant laws or regulations.

This agreement stays in place and need not be renewed. Although its language is simple, the intentions are serious, and this contract is a legal document under exclusive jurisdiction of Orange County in the State of Florida.