General FAQs

Web sites can be as small as a single page or as large as is needed. There are sites on the Internet that have thousands of pages.

Some hosting companies have a limit, however, or they may charge extra over a certain amount. 

Absolutely – and depending on the circumstance and your particular needs we will sometimes recommend this.

A web site can be begin as an “Online Brochure”, and gradually expand.

While on a secure page, such as our order form, the lock icon on the top of Web browsers shows a lock, as opposed to unlocked, or open.

We can update it for you for a fee based on how often, and how complex the updates are.

Or in some circumstances we can set up the site so that it can be updated by the client with no special knowledge required.

This will vary depending on the size of the site, how much technical work is required, and if there are any special requirements.

Full information is available on our Price Guide page. This is a one-time charge.

Beyond that you would pay us, or the company of your choice, a monthly fee to keep the site up on the Internet. This called “Hosting” and optionallly a fee to maintain and update the website periodically.

Revenue Generation – While there is a definitely a chance for increased sales and revenue because your increased visibility, web development is a long-term business development move, so don’t expect a windfall overnight. However, that said, we get testimonials regularly from customers who maintain that having a web site has improved their business volume.

Expense Reduction – You can now sell you product directly from your site and have the payment and shipping all handled from your site – so it’s like having an extra location at a fraction of the cost. Plus, it’s open 24 hours a day and you don’t have to worry about paying overtime! Also, you can save a lot of time and money) by not having your sales staff tied up answering questions about your company, it’s products and services – you can provide most of that information on your site.

Enhanced Customer Relations – The most successful business web sites put the customer first. They do this by providing detailed and up-to-date information about products and services. In a way, you are creating “self-educated” buyers and a self-educated buyer is a happier buyer.

Though no method is completely foolproof, there is a method of purchasing across the Internet that is very safe.

Order forms that are on a secure server encrypt all data before sending it across the Internet for processing Encryption is a method of jumbling the data so that only your computer and the secure server can read it).

This greatly reduces the probability of your credit card information and precious data being viewed by unwelcome eyes.

An insecure transaction is basically an “open” transaction that can be seen by anyone who knows how – which could mean your credit card information could be captured and used. Always make sure the web design company and host you use makes order form pages secure.

You should see a little locked padlock in the top left-hand corner of your browser. If the padlock is open, it means that page is not secure and there is a risk of a third party accessing your information.

 

A shopping cart, or virtual shopping cart, is means by which visitors to your web site can purchase your products directly online.

Shopping carts can display the product, item number, quantity desired, color, size, price etc., as well as shipping and payment information.

We can build you a shopping cart customized to your specifications and can even set it up so that you can update it yourself with the minimum of technical knowledge required by you.

Once your web site has been built it needs to reside on a computer that maintains a constant connection to the Internet. We call this kind of computer a server. This is because it serves up the web site information to Internet surfers who visit the site.

The function of holding the web sites information and making it accessible to Internet visitors is called Hosting.

Contact us to make arrangements for a quote. Tell us what your needs are and based on that we will submit a proposal to you.

Pending approval of that we will draw up a contract and get a 50% deposit. Then you submit to us all text, pictures, links, and other content that will be applied to your web site and any marketing materials that are to be used as a guide for the web site’s design.

We then work on the design and layout. We generally upload work in progress to a private area of our web site where you’ll be able to see it take shape and have us make any adjustments and refinements that may be necessary.