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What
if I already have a website but want to get it redesigned?
We can help. Contact us for a customize solution.
What are
the steps of building a website?
- Register your domain name. Your domain name is
the name of your website and oftentimes the name that
people type into their browsers to get to your home
page. We recommend choosing a domain name that reflects
your company name or what you do.
- Determine your content. What is the goal of your
website, and what is the goal of each page? If you
have existing marketing collateral - for example,
a brochure - we recommend using it. Examples of different
pages you can have include a home page, about us page,
a page for different products and services, etc.
- Determine your look and feel. Once you have your
content ready, including any text and images you want
inserted on each page, your designer can begin work
on the template design for your website.
- Create your web pages. After your website template
is complete, your designer will insert any text and
images you want to include on each page and build
the actual web pages that will be seen on your website.
- Publish your website. When your website is ready
to launch, it is important to secure a web hosting
service (if you haven't already) so it can be seen
on the Internet. Web hosting costs range from a few
dollars a month to several hundred dollars a month,
depending on what you need. If you need help hosting
your site, please Contact us
How much
does it cost?
We offer website design packages that range depending
on the kind of solution and customization required by
our client. Contact us for detailed quote.
How long
will it take?
Average turnaround times vary by package and can take
longer depending on how quickly you give us feedback:
• Web Page Design - 1to 2 weeks
• Small Website Design - 2 to 4 weeks
• Medium Website Design - 3 to 6 weeks
• Large Website Design - 4 to 8 weeks
Who
are your customers?
We've designed websites for businesses in virtually
every industry. Real estate brokers. Restaurants. Professional
consultants. Independent startups. Small and medium
businesses. Retailers and online stores. You name it.
And we can do the same for you.
What is required to build
it?
You would typically supply us with the written content
which can be from your current promotional material
but it should be rewritten for a website audience since
promotional flyers, etc. don't translate well to the
internet. We can give you guidelines for writing the
content to make it easier. Alternately, we can arrange
to have your content written for you at an additional
cost.
Other less tangible aspects such as design or layout
ideas are handled in the preliminary meetings where
you specify any preferred color schemes and sample web
sites that appeal to you. If you have a logo already
we will use that as a starting point.
If you are selling products online (in excess of 30
items) we will require a database of your product line,
though one can be set up for you. If you have pictures
for each product they will need to be delivered to us
either by hard copy or electronically.
Do you have a pricelist for
web site design?
Since no two web sites are exactly the same, a generalized
pricelist doesn't really apply. Unlike some other companies
we don't just use a series of templates. Everything
we build is a custom entity molded to the needs of what
the site has to accomplish for you.
Typically we will quote a package price once the structure
of the site is developed which allows for minor additions
and changes without incurring extra fees. Programming
or database driven projects are billed on an hourly
basis with projected cost outlines that are pre-approved
by the client.
To help us get a good sense of what your site may cost,
feel free to fill out our online quote request form
which provides us with some of the key information required
to provide an estimate.
How do
people find my website?
In addition to search engines (see below), there are
a variety of ways to help visitors find your site which
include: placing your email and web site address on
all of your pamphlets and promotional material, business
cards and "tag lines" at the bottom of all
your email messages communications.
You can also aid people finding your site by looking
for other related sites that are willing to trade links
with you. Each site ultimately benefits from the partnership.
Simply putting links on your page to other sites does
little to your ranking if they do not do the same.
Advertising in industry-related e-zines, traditional
media (magazines, newspapers, etc.) will also help your
marketing strategy. The internet is a very far reaching
and cost-effective means of site awareness but it can't
be done to the exclusion of everything else. A good
marketing campaign includes traditional media.
Can you
guarantee my site will appear on the first page in a
search engine?
Nobody can honestly claim to do so because of the ever-changing
algorithms and formulas search engines utilize. There
are hundreds of different search engines and indexes
all of which have their own method of determining what
ranking they will give you based on a keyword search.
Certain optimization techniques work in one search
engine but are given less weight or even penalized by
another. The overall strategy we employ is to try and
find a happy medium and make sure your keywords are
present where they need to be. Other factors such site
popularity (determined by how many other popular sites
are linking to you), keyword placement in your page
titles, page text, alternate text for images and meta
tags (special tags read by some search engines which
contain keywords specific to your industry and the site
content) will determine your site's relevance vs. the
keywords the potential visitor has typed in.
With every custom web site we create, we include submissions
to some of the most popular free search engines and
indexes such as Google, Alta Vista, Lycos, Dmoz Open
Directory Project, etc. More comprehensive strategies
and submissions are available to achieve improved results.
We also will ask you to supply us with a preliminary
list of "keywords" that apply to your industry
that potential visitors would be searching for.
What
is a protosite?
A "protosite" its just a preliminary drawing
of your future website. It helps both you and Directory
One establish the way your website will look. Elements
such as page layout, colors, item position, navigation,
etc. can be mocked up to speed the design process. If
changes (colors, moving things around the page layout,
adding columns, text, images, etc.) are needed they
can be made before actual coding begins. Once you approve
your protosite, we move forward and we will code the
protosite you approve into your new website.
What is
a website architecture?
It's something that will help us visualize all your
website sections. This its very helpful as it will help
the development process. You as the owner, will know
what areas your website will cover; a web designer will
know exactly what pages he needs to build and the content
developer (writer) will know what content he needs to
build for each specific areas.
What
is a page layout?
Page layout is the geometry of a page. It will help
us to define how many regions will appear and how they
are visually organized.
Why we
need to define website architecture?
Building a website without the website architecture
its like building a house without a blueprint. We need
to write on paper your ideas with our knowledge and
suggestions before we start coding. We'll then code
as planned. Otherwise imagine how difficult it might
be for an architect to add or remove columns to a house
and how expensive it might also be for you to pay for
materials and resources each time the architect add
or remove a new column. When we keep things organized
it helps the process to get it complete quickly.
Do Flash
movies affects my Search Engine rankings?
In theory Google can index Flash movies, but we don't
think Flash movies/content gets very indexed very well.
With things being as competitive as are right now for
keyword/key-phrases optimization we don't recommend
using them. However, if Flash annimation is important
to you and you're up to the challenge, go for it.
Why validated
code its important to design a website?
There's a lot of competition to get good spots in the
search engines for some specific keywords or key-phrases,
so proper html syntax and a clean code help toward better
rankings. Let's say we have two competing sites, both
are suitable for the top spot and the search engine
has a tough time deciding who to put first. Chances
are that the validated site with proper syntax will
be the winner. Validation of the html code on your site
alone will certainly not guarantee or secure you a high
rating, but as with so many other things it will help
and might even be the contributing factor to get you
across the line.
Why
are Privacy Policies and Terms of Use important for
a website?
People who visit your website deserve to know what you're
doing or what you will do with the information you ask
from them online. Respect that privilege and tell them
why you're asking for some personal or business information
on your website. Serious people do serious things. Terms
of Use are the rules people should know to navigate
your website. It usually contains information about
price and/or content changes on your website, it must
advise people that information on your website might
change without having to inform all your visitors about
those changes and that you're the owner so you set the
rules.
Do I need
to edit my website myself?
On small business brochure websites, not necessarily
but yes, you can. As technology changes fast these days,
its not common to have validated websites with clean
code using frontpage extensions to update content on
a website. There are a few new tools to help you edit
some content on your website however you must be sure
that the WYSIWYG editor you will use to edit content
directly supports the new standards to update content
on your website. We also offer some good online tools
(add ons) to help you with content and picture changes
on your website. You might ask for more details if you're
planning to update your website yourself. If you're
getting a e-commerce or database solution from us, those
tools give you a back-end where you can define and update
content on your website fairly easy.
What does
it means CSS?
That's an acronym that means Cascading Style Sheets.
CSS allows web designers to attache styles (fonts, colors,
size, margins, etc.) to HTML documents. It works like
a template allowing web developers to define a style
for an HTML element and then apply it to as many web
pages as they want/need. We can also use styles to display
different elements for different media (screen, printers).
It simplifies web site maintenance and also helps the
way a page displays content for Search Engine robots
on the Internet (and that's a good thing!).
How frequently
do I need to update my website?
It depends on what you're doing with your website, but
we definitely recommend you a plan for this. Content
is critical for optimization and "fresh" or
new content is an important factor for ranking. If you
have a small business brochure website you might probably
want to update twice a year some pages on your website,
you might also have a page to display the latest news
on your website and you can add a couple of notes once
a month or every two months if you want. For e-commerce
or database websites you might update or add content
more frequently, those kind of websites are build to
have those changes as need it. In any case if you're
doing optimization, you might want to talk with our
optimization people about the importance of getting
new information on your website and what will be the
best way to do it without having problems with the code
and content to optimize your website.
What
does website usability mean?
It means the ease with which users can perform the tasks
associated with your web site. Think of it as the quality
of a user's experience when interacting with a product
or system. When we're developing or creating a website,
we try to keep things simple for your clients/prospects,
if we keep it simple for them, then it will become a
good website and it will invite people to contact you.
Simple doesn't mean low quality, it means doing all
that is possible to make it better and understandable.
What
About payment gateway and shipping integration on ecommerce
websites?
We can integrate the most common methods on our e-commerce
websites, however you might have a specific request
and it might take some time to study that specific case.
We're open to talk with you and help you during the
integration process but we work must together during
the process. It may impact the amount of time we initially
defined at the start of the project. So keep that in
mind and try to keep shipping instructions simple and
use common payment getaways providers. Common things
make life easier.
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