FAQ

Frequently asked service questions

Website design, web hosting and website maintenance

Website Creation

Questions before you purchase
website design and development

How much does a new website cost?
There’s not one single answer to this question. Our website design is quoted based on the needs of each individual project. Every website is unique and requires different components; we design and develop custom websites specifically for your small business. We’ll ask a lot of questions, assess your needs, and give you a quote based on that assessment. Most of our sites run in the $2,500+ range, but can be more or less depending on needs. Get a free website quote.
Do you only create WordPress website?
Yes. WordPress is a great content management system that now powers more than 30% of the web. Its huge market share is due to it’s flexibility and ease of use. Don’t worry, we’ll teach you how to manage it and help you along the way.
How long will it take to get a new website?
On average, we shoot for a six to eight week turnaround, but the pace of any project is set by each client. How much input you can provide during the initial stages, your availability with feedback, how soon the content is ready – all this affects the speed of completion. The functionality needs may also play a role – more complex sites will take more time to develop. Learn more about our website process.
Will you maintain my site for me?
We can! We provide on-going support for many of our clients. Check out our WordPress Support Packages.
Will I be able to update my site myself?
Yes! We love it when our clients take control of their website and learn to manage it on their own. We’ll provide you with a set of comprehensive video tutorials to help you learn your way around, as well provide you with a training session to help get you on your way. (Note: We love to answer your questions!)
Where should my website be hosted?
Hosting is super important! When it comes to hosting, you get what you pay for. We’ve developed a list of our absolute favorite hosts to help you find the right host at the right price. View our web hosting packages.
When do I pay?
For most projects, equal payments are made at the start, midway, and the end of the project, but we can work with you to set up a schedule that meets your needs. We understand that this is a big investment and want to help you budget for the expense in whatever way possible. We accept checks, PayPal, and all major credit cards.
Will my website be mobile-friendly?
Absolutely! Having a mobile-friendly website is more important than ever! We work hard to ensure your website looks great on a variety of devices.
How much input do I have in the process?
A lot! Your input and feedback is crucial to this process. We’ll start with a lot of questions about your needs, your likes, your wants and work with you to develop just the right look and functionality.
Who writes the content for the site?
Usually that is you. You are the expert on your business, so it’s usually best if it comes from you. If you need help, we can recommend copywriters who can help clean up or write original content for you at an additional cost.
SEO is replacing traditional ads

Questions before purchasing
Search Engine Optimization and Lead Generation

How much does SEO cost?
SEO can vary greatly in price depending on who is offering the service, and there is a large price disparity for a reason. Companies who offer SEO at very low prices usually tend to cut corners, use ‘black-hat’ techniques or use improper SEO strategy, resulting in penalties, decreases in traffic and spam for unsuspecting business owners. Agency prices tend to run higher, but you are paying for their experience, ethics, and effectiveness.
Once I start SEO, how long will it take to get rankings?
SEO isn’t an overnight strategy. The first few months are dedicated to making updates to your site and waiting for the search engine spiders to crawl and index the changes. Depending on your website, the amount of work it requires, and the crawl frequency of the search engine spiders, it typically takes 3-9 months to begin seeing new rankings.
Should I also do PPC?
Pay Per Click is a great additional strategy to supplement your SEO efforts and can help enhance relevant traffic. Depending on your particular website, industry and the competitiveness of the keywords you want to go after, a good agency will recommend PPC on a case-per-case basis.
Why should I continue SEO once I’ve gotten good rankings?
Achieving the rankings is only half the battle. Since the search engines are constantly evolving and updating their algorithms, your rankings can fluctuate from one day to the next. Maintaining current rankings is just as involved as getting new ones; it takes constant research, updates, and testing to keep your URL ranking in the top positions. Discontinuing SEO after you’ve achieved rankings will result in a loss of rankings fairly quickly.
Can’t we just buy links?
Although link building can be an important aspect of SEO, purchased links and links from spammy websites or ‘bad neighborhood’ sites can actually hurt your rankings rather than help. Search engines are constantly looking out for links like these. In fact, Google’s ‘Penguin’ series of algorithm updates is geared primarily towards penalizing sites who obtain links unnaturally through link exchange schemes and purchasing links or have links from spam sites. A recovery from a link penalty is not an easy one and can result in significant traffic losses.
Can you guarantee my rankings with SEO?
Ethical SEO agencies cannot guarantee something they can’t control and beware of any company that claims they can. There is no way to know 100% how a site will rank because of the search engine’s constantly evolving nature and to guarantee rankings would be unethical. Also, beware of companies claiming they have a special relationship with Google or can ‘priority submit’ to Google to guarantee ranking positions. This is completely false and untrue, and Google itself warns against companies that make these claims.
Can you get me ranked for general terms like ‘lawyer’?
General terms are highly competitive and would be extremely costly to rank for based on the time and resources it would take to achieve rankings for a term that broad. Another reason we advise against going after terms that broad is relevancy. If you are a lawyer in Iowa, traffic from Arizona probably isn’t that relevant to your business. It is more cost effective and pragmatic to go after terms that relate to the location of your business.
Which Search Engines receive the majority of searches?
Google obtains the majority of search traffic, with about 67% total searches. Bing comes in second with about 17%, then Yahoo with roughly 12% and the remaining Search Engines all total about 4%.
How often do the Search Engines update their algorithm or search equation?
Only the techs behind the search engines know this answer for sure, but Google’s head of Web Spam, Matt Cutts, has been quoted saying that more than 500 updates are made each year. Since the search engines are constantly evolving and changing, it is crucial to stay on top of the changes, make constant updates on our end, and only use strategies that are ethical and sustainable.
Stress free management

Questions before purchasing
website management

What is website maintenance?
Website maintenance is the act of making a positive change to your website, such as upgrading your CMS platform, adding a new web page, changing out images, scanning for malware, or tweaking the design.
Is website maintenance expensive
Not really, it generally costs around $75/hour to have a website maintenance company perform work on your website. If you need a specialty service, such as custom programming or mobile app development, the hourly rate is often higher.
Can I maintain my own website?
If your website was built in a content management system, such as WordPress, then it should be possible for you to handle basic website updates on your own. If you run into trouble, just reach out to a web maintenance company for help.
What are examples of website maintenance?
Here are some of the most common web maintenance services we get asked to perform: Simple Content Changes Page Speed Improvements Platform Upgrades Plugin / Extension Updates Coverage Issue Fixes Structured Data Additions Open Graph Tags Implementation Google Tag Manager Setup Conversion Tracking Setup Image Optimization Live Chat Integration Error Log Fixes Contact Form Spam Fixes Caching Plugin Configuration SMTP Email Setup IP Address Restrictions Creation of Website Backups Creation of Development / Staging Websites A/B or Multivariate Testing 301 Redirect Setup Website Training / Support
Should I put my website in maintenance mode?
If you are making simple changes to your website, it isn't often necessary to place your website into a maintenance mode. This will have the negative effect of turning away search engines and website visitors. Instead, we recommend making changes on the live site, or testing them on a development / staging website first if they are more impactful.
How often should a website be maintained?
We recommend applying platform and extension updates monthly. For the content on your website, we recommend revising website copy at least once per year to ensure information is accurate. It is also a good idea to test your website on mobile devices every few months to ensure recent changes hasn't had a negative impact on mobile usability.
Why is website maintenance plan important?
Website maintenance is the process of ensuring that your site is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible. There are many tasks involved in this process, such as checking for broken links, monitoring how quickly pages load, and making sure that all plug-ins are activated and working. 1.) Most customers conduct research online When buying a product, 87% of people research it online. That means they'll most likely end up on your website before making a purchase. A lack of web maintenance can lead to a website that contains incorrect information, which results in disgruntled visitors – oops! 2.) Your website performance promotes your sales growth If your website is too slow, people will bounce out of the site and never come back. Your online store's functionality has a significant impact on purchases both in terms of quantity (how many), as well as quality (how satisfied they are). 3.) Site visitors value user experience A poor user experience on a site can hurt the reputation of your business. In fact, most visitors will leave in favor of your competition. Maintaining a website on a regular basis can protect against poor user experience and increases the chances of making a sale. 4.) Website maintenance supports your SEO strategy If you want your site to rank high on Google and other search engines, it's crucial that you keep up with technology. There are many ways in which technological changes can affect how well a website ranks, whether that's security issues, outdated content, or slow load times.
Are there other costs to running a website?
1.) Domain name renewal When you create your website, it is common to purchase a domain or web address. A domain name can be thought of as the website's identification and physical address. If you pay annually, you will likely be spending $15/year. While domain names are affordable, it's vital to maintain your payments so that you're the one who maintains ownership. 2.) SSL certificate You will also want to purchase a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate for your website. This signifies how safe the site is and notifies people that they are on an encrypted connection when they visit them. An SSL certificate will also ensure your site meets security standards as dictated by Google and Mozilla, as well as business regulations like HIPAA. It is common to receive a free SSL certificate with most web hosting services, but paid SSL certificates might cost $95/year or more. 3.) Website hosting Hosting your website is only way to keep it up and running. The cost for hosting a site can be quite expensive, depending on how much space you need or the amount of bandwidth necessary to run smoothly at peak hours (especially with an e-commerce site). Website hosting providers offer different options, but they all provide a way to keep your website up and running: With a shared hosting service, your website is hosted on a server with many other websites. This will typically cost anywhere from $249year to $500/year for 10GB of storage space. You can use the free version of a website builder, like wordpress.com, which is user-friendly and has no hosting costs. If you choose a virtual private server (VPS), your site shares the server but has more resources than if it were on shared hosting. VPSs cost $50 to $200/month (or more) depending on your service level and support requirements. A dedicated server includes complete access to the server. This is a great option if you need dedicated server resources, but it can cost you $500 to $1,500/month for the server lease, server support, and software subscriptions.
No hassle web hosting

Questions before purchasing website hosting

How quickly do you want to start?
Our website migrations are painless and often take place with zero downtime, as our shared hosting support staff takes care of the technical details for you. PLUS get standard migrations 100% FREE of charge! Not currently on a standard panel? That’s okay! Let our team know and we’ll put together a plan that minimizes your downtime and maximizes your user satisfaction – all at a schedule to suit you.
Want a fully managed experience with expert support?
You got it! 24/7/365! Our USA based admin and support teams are knowledgeable and highly trained to take care of your servers 24x7x365. Our technicians respond to queries within minutes and without passing you from department to department in order to resolve your issues. We’re proud of the excellent ratings our team receives and commit the resources to deliver on our promise to you, all day, every day.
Want easy, automated backups?
We set them up! Fully automated backup systems snapshot your installation, store off-server in case of disaster and can be deployed whenever they’re required. We include backups as standard, because who on earth would want to have a website that didn’t include backup protection. We try to think of everything, take care of it in advance, and include it at no additional charge – backups included.
Enjoy easy 1-click installing of software.
With Softaculous, you can deploy a blog, forum, or any other customized site, with the convenience of a single click. You can also keep them updated to avoid hack attempts with a one click upgrade as well. Softaculous makes it easy to deploy, maintain, and enjoy your platform without all the technical details of a manual installation.
Boost User Engagement

Questions before purchasing
user experience

What exactly is UX Design?
User experience (UX) design is an umbrella term representing the entire process of creating products and services that provide intuitive and delightful experience to their users. People widely use terms like “UI/UX Design” or “Usability Design” to represent User Experience Design. However UI (User Interface) Design and Usability Design are subsets of UX Design. Even though there is User Experience in everything that we use in our everyday lives (like a door, coffee mug or TV remote), off late the term UX Design has been mainly associated with digital/technology products. The objective of user experience designing is not just creating products that are usable but also engaging, efficient and fun to use.
How good User Experience can help businesses?
For any business that delivers its service or product through an app or website, UX design is as critical as sales, branding or marketing. Because good UX design directly improves the bottom line. Even if it is a bank with brick and mortar branches all across the country, their app would be the most important channel in which customers interact with the business, making UX a critical factor influencing customer happiness and revenue. It is found that “every dollar invested in UX brings $100 in return”. This is an average figure, but it’s a ROI of an impressive 9,900%. This stunning return is due to increased conversion rate, increased customer retention, lower customer acquisition cost, lower support costs and improved trust and increased market share.
What is the timeline for a UX design project?
All the factors influencing the cost (scope, complexity, platforms, budget, client feedback) will also affect the delivery timeline of a UX design project. A typical UX design project could go anywhere between 2-3 months to 6 months for a small-medium sized project. Bigger projects could take more than 6 months to 1 year depending on the scope and complexity.
What are the inputs and data the client needs to provide?
Usually we kick start every project with a detailed brainstorming session with all the stakeholders from the client side. These are the details/data we require before the start of every project.
1. Business/organizational goals
2. Target audience details
3. Product goals
4. Expected outcomes and KPIs of the project
5. Technical specifications
6. Market research data, if any
7. Previous user experience audit results if any
8. User analytics data, if any
9. Business reports
Do you provide support to the application after product launch?
We shall extend our support according to the client’s requirements. After ‘User Acceptance Testing (UAT), we shall be providing support for the next 3 months. If the client has opted for an Annual Support Contract (ASC) with us, we are entitled to provide our services at any time during the period of contract.
How much will a typical UX design project cost?
There are multiple factors influencing the cost of a UX design project. The factors include scope and scale of the project, nature of the project (starting from scratch, revamping existing design), platforms (mobile, web, TV, kiosk), technology involved, and design services included (user research, interviews, testing) and delivery deadline to name a few. It’s difficult to provide a number upfront without understanding the requirements and full scope of the project. We usually charge $75 per hour based on the complexity and size of the project. Our typical UX projects range anywhere between $5,000 to $15,000 and could go well above $20,000 depending on the scope.