FAQ

How much does a web site cost?

Building a web site is very much like building a house. You can build a small house, a large house, a simple house, a smart house, five rooms, 20 rooms, frame, brick, stucco, energy efficient — the variations are almost limitless. Web sites are the same.

The first thing we will do is discuss your needs and your budget with you to determine the best solution for your business. We will layout a few possible solutions and you can choose the one that is best for you.

We can also help by offering you a choice in payment options.

Are there any hidden costs?

No. We will provide you with a written estimate up front. The estimate will include design cost, hosting cost, maintenance costs, and domain name fees, if applicable. It is common for the scope of work to change over the course of a project. This may require adjustments in project pricing. If this occurs, you will be notified of the additional cost and will have the option of proceeding with or declining the additional work.

How long does it take to build a web site?

Depending on the size and complexity of the site, the planning and development stages can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months.

Will I be able to make changes to my web site?

That depends on the platform used to build your site. Please visit the Design page for an explanation of the formats and their features.

Can I sell products on my site?

Yes. Regardless of which platform you decide is best for you, we have shopping carts that allow you to sell everything from tangible products to electronic files (music files, digital books, images). Our shopping carts can collect payment information for manual processing or we can link them to online payment processing companies like PayPal and Authorize.net.

What is the best way to provide content for my web site?

Good organization is important for content. It makes the project flow more smoothly and helps minimize delays and errors due to misunderstandings and misinterpretations. We prefer content, graphic images, and photos in electronic format.

Text for your site should be in one or more of the following formats:

• Word Processor Document — Microsoft Word (.doc .docx .rtf), Word Perfect (.wpd), OpenOffice Writer (.odf), and many others
• PDF Document — Adobe PDF without document security
• Text Document — Text documents created in Notepad, TextEdit, TextMate, etc.
• Email — Text in emails is fine if it is organized into categories or topics.

Graphic images and photos can be sent in a wide variety of formats. If you are unable to provide photos and you are in our service area, we can take photos for you as an additional service. Below are a few things you should keep in mind when selecting images and photos for your web site.

• Image Size — Large, high resolution images are strongly preferred. Small or low resolution images, in most cases, cannot be enlarged without seriously affecting the quality of the image.
• Image Quality — High quality images are preferred. If you provide photos that were taken with low resolution camera or in poorly lit areas, they will make a poor impression on the visitors to your web site.
• Preferred Formats — JPG, GIF, PNG, PSD, TIF, AI, and EPS

What payment options do you offer?

The first rule of hiring a contractor (of any kind) — Never pay the full amount of the contract up front. If any web designer asks you to pay the full amount up front, you need to find another designer. Requiring full payment up front generally means the designer has no confidence in their work and you could find yourself with an unsatisfactory or unfinished web site.

We have developed a range of payment plans that fit almost every situation and budget. If none of the existing plans are suitable for your situation, we are flexible and willing to work out a better arrangement with you. All of the plans below are NO INTEREST plans.

• 50/50 Plan — The 50/50 Plan is commonly used for small sites where the total project cost is low. 50% is due at the beginning of the project with the remaining 50% due upon completion.
• 33/3 Plan — The 33/3 Plan, 33.3% of the project cost is due at the beginning of the project with the remaining 66.7% due in three equal monthly payments starting on the date of project completion.
• 25/6 Plan — In the 25/6 Plan, 25% of the project cost is due at the beginning of the project with the remaining 75% due in six equal monthly payments starting on the date of project completion.
• 20/12 Plan — The 20/12 Plan lowers the down payment to 20% and extends the payment term of the remaining 80% to 12 months which begins on the date of project completion.
• 15/18 Plan — The 15/18 Plan is for large sites. 15% of the project cost is due as a down payment and the remaining balance of 85% is due in 18 equal monthly payments starting on the date of project completion.

Can you...?

Chances are...we probably can. We find solutions. We aren't limited to whatever canned solutions are available. So go ahead and ask. We can look into it and give you an estimate on time and cost, and even suggest alternatives that may work for you and save you money.

Can you make my site show up at the top of the search engines?

The only truthful answer you will ever get from anyone is 'maybe.' The battle for good search engine rankings rages every second of every minute of every day. If anyone promises you a Top 10, Top 20, or even Top 30 ranking, hold onto your checkbook. I have personal experience working with search engine 'optimization' companies. They are like politicians — they make a lot of promises and deliver on very few.

17+ years of web development experience has given us insight into things that can help to improve your search engine rankings. We will incorporate all of those techniques into your site to get better rankings. For some sites we have been successful at getting consistent Top 10 rankings for certain keywords. Others have been more challenging.

What is hosting?

Here is an analogy. Let's say you want to open a retail store. You choose a name, incorporate, buy inventory, and hire employees. What's missing? A building. You need to lease a building to house your retail store. This is similar to a hosting server. You can have a domain name and all of the files that make up your web site, but you still need a place for those files to reside and for the domain name to point to. The most cost-effective way to do this is to lease space on a web hosting server. The hosting server has all of the software necessary to operate your site, process email, etc.

Can I pay my hosting annually?

Yes you can. AND, you get a discount if you pay annually. If you want to pay your hosting annually, simply send an email to billing@websitewarehouse.com and tell us you want to pay annually. All annual billing is done on December 1 so if you tell us in March, you will get a pro-rated bill for the remainder of the current calendar year.