Most Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
The following list contains the most frequently asked questions and answers pertaining to our services. If you have a question that's not answered here, don't hesitate to call. 877-504-SITE
Question Table of Contents
NOTE: Each question is a link to the answer below.
- How much do you charge?
- I have two or more businesses. Can I have everything for each business on one website?
- Can I make changes to my website when it's finished?
- How much do I need to be involved?
- What is web hosting and do I need it?
- Can I have multiple email addresses?
- Can all of my website content be placed on a single web page or two?
- What is a domain name? Can I have more than one?
- Is Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, a one-time thing?
- Is there such a thing as good and bad SEO?
- What's the difference between SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) ads?
- What's the difference between web designers and search specialists?
- What makes your website design different?
- What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
- How will a search engine find my website?
- What is a search engine "spider"?
- Do search engine spiders come back often?
- What is Search Engine Submission and how does it work?
- Is website maintenance important?
- How do I see my Web Site Visitor Statistics?
- What is accessibility for websites and is it necessary?
- What is Section 508 Web Accessibility and is it helpful to my website?
How much do you charge?
Website services typically begin at $150 and 50% payment is required first along with a signed service agreement before work commences. There are many services and some packages to choose from so take a look at the services and fees page for more information or contact us with your questions.
I have two or more businesses. Can I have everything for each business on one website?
You can, but it is certainly not recommended. Each business should be its own entity to narrow the search results for a specific theme. When more than one theme is combined (and not directly related), your search results are greatly reduced and diluted with miss-matching content. For example, if you do carpet cleaning in one business and kitchen remodeling in the other and had both business on one website, then your search results would best be matched with carpet cleaning and kitchen remodeling together, not separately! Rarely would someone look for a carpet cleaning service who does kitchen remodeling. Unfortunately though, that's how your website would be themed!
Can I make changes to my website when it's finished?
Yes, and there are a few options for doing so. The easiest option is have changes done for you by a webmaster. If you have an experienced in-house webmaster, great. If we build or redesign your website, maintenance is FREE for 1 year. If you do not have a webmaster, 6x6 Design can provide you with a website maintenance plan to manage the website for you. A website maintenance plan provides you with all of the professional webmaster services you'll need including search optimization updates. If you require frequent changes to your content, install a Content Management System, or CMS. A CMS allows you to make changes to only certain parts of your web pages without worry of damaging the website code or structure. The last method (and most difficult) is learning basic HTML (HyperText Markup Language, or website code) and using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) to upload your changes. Unless you have experience with HTML already, this approach is not recommended. If you are experienced, 6x6 Design can provide you with your own FTP access.
How much do I need to be involved?
As much or as little as you want. We handle the details for you and expect minimal involvement on your behalf. But if you so choose, we openly invite you to be fully involved in the process. Most clients prefer to do their own copywriting, however we do not advise it if you keep a very busy schedule or lack good writing skills. Copywriting is often difficult and often delays the launch of a website when a client gets tied up. We provide copywriting services for you should you require it.
What is web hosting and do I need it?
If you have a website, its files need a location for access over the internet. A web hosting server serves this purpose. Web hosting defined is the place that your web site files reside, also known as your web server.
6x6 Design offers stable web hosting using Linux Red Hat 7.3 with Apache through WebSiteSource, 350 GB web site storage, and 3,500 GB Monthly Data Transfer (additional transfer $0.20/GB or $2.00 for 10GB). Web hosting is a service that is billed to you annually, unless specified otherwise in a web site package. Currently, the hosting plan renewal fee is $93.96 per year ($7.83 per month), discounted to $82.20 per year ($6.85 per month) if paid in full for two years in advance. NOTE: If you already have a web site hosting plan, we may be able to work with yours instead once full FTP access to it is granted. Since there are a variety of hosting types online and differ greatly in functionality and price, some features offered in our web packages may not be possible to use if your web hosting is limited or lacking certain functions. We can evaluate this for you and help you determine if a change in web hosting is a better option.
Can I have multiple email addresses?
Yes. If 6x6 Design hosts your web site, your email address will use your own domain name in your email address (e.g. joe@yourwebsitename.com). All hosting plans include up to 1,000 email addresses with 100MB email storage. All email accounts use anti-spam and anti-virus protection built right in.
Can all of my website content be placed on a single web page or two?
Yes it could but if you have multiple subjects, products, or service types, your website and its visitors would suffer as a result. Your visitors could have a harder time navigating, or worse, give up all together. Also, search engines would have a hard time defining your site theme.
Each web page of a website should consist of the content and key phrase you are marketing yourself with. These web pages are then linked together to form a web site. 6x6 Design suggests having a minimum of 5 web pages. The more web content you create, the more pages you will need, and the more options search engines could provide to their users. Basically, more pages can improve your search results. When the web pages are properly organized and search optimized, you can have several landing pages to be found in a search as opposed to just your home page.
What is a domain name? Can I have more than one?
A domain name is the physical address name of your website (e.g. www.yoursite.com). In other words, your website address. You may have as many domain names as you want pointing to your website. 6x6 Design will locate, create, register and manage a domain name for you. If you currently have your own domain, we can point it to your new web site hosting address. A domain name is renewed yearly however we suggest renewing for 5 years to show stability to search engines.
Is Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, a one-time thing?
No, unfortunately SEO is not a one-and-done process like many think. To be done right, it is an ongoing process. Search engines change their search algorithms regularly to provide their visitors with the best possible search results they can deliver and weed out those websites trying to deceive them. After all, isn't that what you would want in your searches? What worked for websites a few years ago simply may not work today. A website needs regular SEO and maintenance to keep it alive and fresh or your site may end up being on page four or more of the search engine results.
Is there such a thing as good and bad SEO?
Yes! Be careful as there are many so-called "search marketing firms" who try to deceive search engines, and their clients, by using what is commonly known as "Black Hat" search optimization practices. Black Hat SEO techniques are those meant to deceive search engines in order to obtain high rankings in search results. Most often, search engines are well aware of these practices already. If your website is found to be in this category, it could end up being penalized by the search engines and perform very poorly in search results or banned altogether. 6x6 Design believes in only using "White Hat" SEO techniques, or techniques proven to assist search engines and people who use them, not deceive them.
What's the difference between SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) ads?
Pay Per Click advertising, or PPC, is what you see on the search results page under a "Sponsored Results" heading or something similar. They can appear at the top, side or bottom of the search results, depending on the search engine. This type of advertising is very effective, but at a premium price. Basically, the more you are willing to pay, the closer to the top of the search results you'll obtain. Learn more about PPC.
What's the difference between web designers and search specialists?
In general, there are two types of website developers: website designers and website search engine optimizers or search marketers. Generally, these two developer types don't mix well. One type is focused on form, the other on function; therefore they often clash. Website designers are artist, focused on artistic presentation - certainly an extremely important aspect. But website designers often lack the skills of designing search marketing structure into their websites. Search Engine Optimizers, or SEOs, are also highly skilled people who focus on search engine marketing. They know how to work the nuts and bolts of the website's code and structure to make the site more appealing to search engines. Proper coding, copy writing and navigation techniques create a website that search engines find easily. One drawback to many SEOs is they generally lack artistic designing and presentation skills. 6x6 Design believes in creating a balance of both web design and SEO with every website we design.
What makes your website design different?
6x6 Design builds websites using professional industry authoring tools to code, optimize, validate and test your website for user and search engine experience -- by hand. We focus on web marketing and presentation combined. Even if we are redesigning your website, we do not use store-bought WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web authoring software. These WYSIWYG authoring tools, when used incorrectly, are well known for their ability to generate poor and bloated code. Poor code can not only detract from the website visitor's experience, but keep the website from being found at all. The practice of hand-coding your website is far more difficult and time consuming but absolutely essential to differentiate your website from the millions of other small business websites built by those WYSIWYG editors and "one size fits all" cookie cutter website templates.
What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
SEO is an important part of search engine marketing. SEO is the process of combining several key fundamentals of designing and/or enhancing a web site's on-site and off-site meta data, structure and content to attract search engine spiders to index their online web site content into their search databases. When a web site is properly optimized, it can drastically improve a web site's ranking for relevant keywords. Another way of thinking about SEO is making a web site easily "crawled" and understood by search engines. search engines employ "spiders" (also known as a web robots, worms, search robots, etc.).
How will a search engine find my website?
Search engines were created with a simple purpose: return the best and most relevant search results to the user. So how do they find your website? Search engines use automated programs, called robots or spiders, that "crawl" the world wide web and find website content on a continuous basis. Website files are stored on your web hosting server which is accessible to search engine spiders. If the search engine determines your website is of any value, it will store the content it finds in their primary database. When a search engine user types in keywords in the search box, the search engine queries its index to find the most relevant information to return. Websites with the highest, most trusted relevant content normally come up on page one of the search results. A website can be submitted to a search engine manually for free to request a website crawl however there is no assurance this will happen in any certain amount of time. Most websites are found naturally over time and most professionals agree this method to be the best way to get indexed.
What is a search engine "spider"?
Web "spiders" are actually highly sophisticated, automated programs deployed by search engines to continuously crawl the world wide web and locate online content to place in its database. Without them, your web site is invisible to anyone who doesn't know your web site exists. So basically, having these spiders visiting your web site often is one of the goals of SEO. Not every website is accessible to search engines. If a search engine robot can't crawl through a website's code and file structure easily, the website is likely to not show well in search results. This usually results from poor web design, invalid code, and poor or no navigation to other pages on the website. Another very common problem is a website optimized by a novice or a website not maintained. Some SEO or design techniques which worked even a few years ago may not work today. SEO is a continuous learning and testing process. Search engines make and change the rules regularly and good SEOs keep up with changes and interpret them. When a website isn't maintained often enough, these older techniques can harm a website or even get it banned altogether.
Do search engine spiders come back often?
Yes, if your site has popular or regularly changing content. The more frequent a search engine robot (or spider) visits your website files, the more important your website is measured to be a valued resource. The search engine spiders look for other related websites on the Internet who link to your website. When you have relevant incoming links from other web pages, your website becomes even more valuable to the search engines since it shows authority. Also, the deeper a robot crawls through your website, the more content it finds. The more content found, the more likely your content will be brought up in somebody's search results.
What is Search Engine Submission and how does it work?
Search engine submission is the process of making your website files known to search engines. In order to be found online, there are at least three major search engines 6x6 Design wants to be sure your web site is included with. There are actually dozens of Internet search engines however Google, Yahoo and MSN are major search engine databases that other search engines commonly subscribe to for their search results - for example: ASK.com and AOL Search both use Google's index in part for their search results.
Most web sites are eventually found and indexed by search engines naturally so manual submission may not be necessary. It may be useful at times though for a brand new website with little content. 6x6 Design adds an XML sitemap to our websites to enhance the search indexing process. Proper web site XML mapping (eXtensible Markup Language) allows a web site's content to be easily searched and indexed whenever the web content changes.
Because search engine submission is a free service to anyone with a web site on the Internet (except for paid directories like the Yahoo Directory - currently $300.00 per year), 6x6 Design includes search engine submission with every web site package for free. Beware of SEO firms that charge for this service! They prey on anxious web site owners looking for fast search engine help for a fee. When search submission is done improperly by these firms, it may actually hurt your chances of being found online!
Is website maintenance important?
Much like an automobile, a web site requires regular maintenance to keep it performing properly. The maintenance includes making content changes, manual search engine submission, design updates to meet browser upgrades, server file maintenance, back up and security, web site analytics reporting, and finding, adding and managing reciprocal links coming into your web site to increase search results page ranking strength. These tasks are usually beyond a web site owner's abilities and should be done professionally to avoid problems. 6x6 Design offers web site maintenance in two ways:
- Yearly Web Site Maintenance Agreement: This is a far better option for individuals who want their web site managed professionally and automatically.
- As needed Web Site Maintenance or Consultation: currently $90.00 per hour. An option best suited for clients operating as their own webmaster, have the time and ability to make needed changes, upgrades or handling links management themselves, or you have someone else to do this for instead. This fee does not include adding web pages or making major changes to the web site. Estimates will be given before any work is performed.
How do I see my Web Site Visitor Statistics?
As a web site owner, or anyone you wish to grant access to, you may view your web site search statistics per page at any time on any computer with an Internet connection. This is powered by Google Analytics and requires a free Google account. Google Analytics tracking code will be installed on your web site and allow you to view data over the past 24 hours such as:
- Pages viewed
- Number of visits per day, week, month, year.
- New or returning visitor, frequency of visits.
- Actual keywords/key phrases used to find your web site.
- Setting goals.
- Location of visitors.
- Many other features not listed here.
6x6 Design will setup your Google account for you and send you detailed instructions on how to login and view your statistics.
Back to topWhat is accessibility for websites and is it necessary?
Web accessibility allows people with disabilities to use the Web, and is not limited to just people with disabilities either. People using a mobile internet device (e.g. like a cell phone) do not have a mouse to navigate with. Learn more about web accessibility at the WAI website.
Accessibility is necessary for both people and search engines alike. Search engines only see text and code, not images or flash animation that we see. They want to find a theme to every web page and content relevant to the theme in alogical order -- much like the table of contents is outlined in a book. You wouldn't create a website about cats and talk about horses unless you found a way to relate them and make it relevant. Whatever you wanted to create a website for becomes the theme of the website; therefore the theme of a website is the search word or phrase to optimize the website with.
What is Section 508 Web Accessibility and is it helpful to my website?
All U.S. federal web sites are to abide by Section 508 Web Accessibility standards, however not for private web sites - yet. In fact the Department of Justice has opinionated that the web is a "place of public accommodation," and therefore subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requiring such places to offer nondiscriminatory services to the impaired. A few sites have already been sued under the ADA, including two major travel sites that must now meet web accessibility standards and reimburse the court for tens of thousands of dollars. Using Section 508 in web page design can protect your site from unnecessary and costly litigation.
By using the guidelines of Section 508 in web page design, 6x6 Design believes you are far more likely to achieve basic design goals as well as greatly improved visitor interaction. Section 508 web page design improves:
- Site consistency.
- Browser and mobile device compatibility.
- Loading time and bandwidth use.
- Future usability.
- Maintenance costs.
- Search engine rankings.