A Website Design F.A.Q. (Frequently Asked Questions)

1. How long will it take to design my site?

The length of time will really depend upon many factors:

a) The scale and size of the website
b) Availability and preparedness of the materials such as written content you are supplying to us.
c) Amount of custom graphics design, programming and multi-media work involved (this varies by project)

2. 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.

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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.