These are some answers to questions that we have been asked about our web services. If there is a question you would like answered that you do not see here, please contact one of our locations.
No, you would be far better off to advertise in a static medium such as a newspaper or magazine. A lot of research has been done on this aspect of owning a website. When a visitor goes to a website that was last updated 2 years prior, they realize that the information is far outdated and may no longer be pertinent. If you're choosing to use a dynamic medium, you should consider updating your content at reasonable intervals.
Yes. Our web services were designed to require no skills, no software and to be updated from anywhere you can get a stable internet connection and a web browser. If you have the technical skills to send an email with an attachment, you are already able to use our web services.
Yes. Each website we provide comes with the ability to change out the header Graphic on each primary area. This provides you with the ability to modify your websites look to match the type of content that you are presenting on that page.
If you are serious about your website, one "Must have" feature is an easy to read statistical program. A preferred choice is one that tracks visitors to your site, not hits to the web server.
eg: A website contains 4 images and some text. When a visitor loads that website a statistical program can count that visitor as 5 'hits' if that visitor reloads the page, which becomes another 5 "hits" etc...etc. This quickly becomes a misrepresentation of the real traffic to your site. Remember Visitors = bodies to your site. Hits = Items within a webpage loading. Websites often contain many many graphics. Each of these is counted as hits on each page load.
Each website we provide has a built in "Real time" statistical program that tracks Visitors as well as hits.
Not really. Imagine that "Ed's bowling page" wants to be on top of all the search engines. They choose all the current catch phrases to draw traffic to their site. Now you as a visitor search for "cooking recipes", and the search engine brings you "Ed's bowling page". Or you search for "Used cars" and the search engine brings you "Ed's bowling page". This would quickly cause you to use an alternate search engine. This is exactly why the major search engines are blacklisting or de-listing sites that use catch phrases and keywords for content they do not have.
All of our websites provide the keywords, phrases and description in a manner that search engines look for on each page; this way you enjoy as high as placing as your content allows within the search engines.
Depending on how the flash is implemented it may. Flash is similar to a locked box. The search engines aren't very good at reading inside that locked box. If the text presented within that flash box is also presented in plain text in a spot that the search engines can read it then there should be no negative effect on your search engine positioning. If not, the text within the locked box will be ignored and this could have a negative effect on your page rankings.
With our websites, you can use flash to adorn your website without worrying that the general website content will be ignored. The keywords and phrases and description is kept in a manner friendly to the search engines.
Image optimization is a process that reduces the file size of images presented on your webpage to help your website load quickly on slower connections. Sometimes, you will visit a website where the images seem to crawl very slowly into the page as they load. This is generally caused by a very large image loading into that webpage. Optimization usually includes making a small thumbnail of that image to initially load, and then if the visitor clicks on that image they receive the larger image. CNN reported that in a survey of their visitors, in which a visitor would only wait 4-5 seconds for a page to load before pressing back and choosing another page.
Image optimization is automatically handled within our web services packages.
No. You can update your website as often as you would like without any additional charges. As most people who have undergone a website development project understand, the "right" information is almost never presented the first time. It's often that one would like to make changes after the fact. Whether it's to provide additional information, add images, provide feedback forms or other improvements, managing your information is as important as having that information in the first place.
No. We do not limit the disk space that you can use. If you would like to have 5 image galleries, or 3000 directory listings with images and descriptions, it is only limited to your imagination.
No. We have 3 basic levels of service. In each level, as improvements are made all of the clients within each level get those improvements respectively at no additional costs. Some improvements are specific to certain levels. eg: a client with "User management" would receive all base upgrades at no additional cost, but a client without "User management" would not receive upgrades to the "User management" sections as they did not have user management in the first place.
Yes. Each website comes with the ability to add, update or change their e-mail accounts via a convenient web based administration facility. Each base package comes with a set number of e-mail accounts; additional mail accounts are available if needed at a charge.
No it is not generally less expensive. A conventionally developed website can cost $3000 - $5000, just to have it built. After you include the 'hidden' costs of quarterly updates at $200 - $300 per update, and hosting costs of $240 annually, plus promotion costs that can range from $30 - $600 dollars per month it becomes far more affordable to use web services that include all of these hidden costs. Comparatively one would need to have their website online for 30 to 50 months before their initial investment was recovered, if that site did not update it at all.
Companies in other parts of the world are not under the same rules that apply to local companies. Although they may be able to provide some of the related services, without a proven track record and some way to pursue a grievance if it were to arise, using an offshore company is truly "Buyer beware". It is also not a good idea to purchase goods or services via spam mail.
SEO or "Search Engine Optimization" is where your website is adjusted to get the best possible relevancy to the keywords entered into that search engine. Companies that claim they can beat Search engines like Google at their own game are lying to you. Google employs thousands of developers to make sure SEO companies cannot manipulate the search results. There are ways to achieve good relevance to your keywords on your site, an SEO company is generally not it. They WILL take your money, but may not provide the results.
