Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Who owns the website?
A. You do. Even though I am building your website and may be hosting it, you are the owner and have full rights to the site including the ability to move it to another web hosting company if you wish. I use standard web design technology so you're not stuck with some proprietary system.
Q. What is Hosting? Do I need that?
A. Website hosting is the server space where your website files are so they can been seen on the internet. Your domain name is the "address name" of your website and is separate from the hosting. The domain name has a setting that points to the server (the web host) where your website files are. Often people buy them together so it seems as though they are connected but in reality they are separate. Most of my customers have me host their sites so they have one person to contact for all things related to their site. However, if you want to setup hosting yourself that's fine.
Q. What is SEO?
A. SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is work done to make sure your website can be indexed/ranked properly by Google, Bing and other search engines. The key takeaway is that it does not matter what you think your site it about, it's what the search engines think. SEO is the work done with the content and behind the scenes code of your site pages to make sure everything is aligned properly.
Q. How quickly will my site show up in search?
A. Your site will show up immediately if you use the domain name directly, but for people searching for your service or product it can take a while. Websites are a long term marketing tool, not a quick fix. I optimize your site during the website build, but it depends upon how many competitors you have and what they are doing with their marketing.
Only 1 site can be first and depending upon the size of your market Google might be pushing directory websites and national sized companies over smaller local business so very quickly you can find yourself blocked out of the first couple pages. If you're in a less competitive (or more unique) market your chances of ranking quickly are higher.
New sites tend to rank less well than established sites. Sites with more content (good content) rank better than sparse sites. Sites that get updated regularly tend to rank better than those that site unchanged for long periods of time.
I offer monthly SEO services including creating "service area/location" pages designed to target individual city names to improve your rankings when people from those cities search for your service.
Q. What is SSL?
A. An SSL Certificate is a way to secure the traffic between your website and those visiting your site using SSL Encryption. This can be seen by the difference in the URL of the website. EG: http:// vs https:// (notice the 's' at the end?)
Q. Can I see website statistics?
A. Yes, you can either use the stats package the web server keeps or you can use another service such as Google Analytics if you have a Google account. I can plug in the connecting code to your Google Analytics account so you view the reports on which pages and how long people are viewing your site.
Q. How quickly will my website be completed?
A. My standard answer is 1-4 weeks and normally comes down to when I receive all the necessary content and photos (if you're providing them to me.) Often it is related to how busy you are running your business vs your ability to review things as we're working on them.
Q. Can I update the site myself?
A. Yes. I mostly build with WordPress using a Front End editing system that means website updates can be done without knowing any html/coding but it can be a bit of a learning curve. Depending upon your comfort with technology it will seem familiar or daunting. To help out, I can even provide you with a Screen-shot editing reference guide or even some training for an additional fee.
Q. Can I move the website if I want?
A. Absolutely. It's your site to do with what you will. You can even pay me to setup your site on your new web hosting service.
Q. Web Developer or Web Designer?
A. People tend to use these interchangeably, but a good rule of thumb is a developer is someone who can do web programming and code hacking or other systems (EG: creating their own WordPress plugins) whereas a designer tends to work within the confines of an existing framework (installing and configuring existing plugins.)