Terminology

Sweat Equity is the amount of work you are able to perform in designing, developing, producing, promoting and maintaining your site.

• Providing pictures in digital format.
• Logos in either digital format or "photo-ready" artwork.
• Providing copy (typed text) in digital format.
• FTP transfer of your files to the host server.
• Host account set up.
• URL or web site address registration.
• Search engine submission.
• Web site page maintenance.

Banner Ads are ads that appear near the top, bottom or sides of a site. These banner ads usually rotate on a timely basis. If you have spent some time 'surfing the web', various sites and search engines such as YAHOO™, GOOGLE™, etc... you most likely have seen these rotating ads. These ads are very expensive and in my personal opinion, not effective for the small to medium sized business. Your investment would be better spent gaining higher ranking through:

• SEO - Search Engine Optimization
• Local / Community Organizations Chamber of Commerce - link back
• New Business Cards including your Web Site Address
• New Invoices including your Web Site Address
• Banners in your storefront introducing your Web Site Address
• Adding your Web Site Address to "Yellow Pages" Ads.

META Names or META Keywords are used by some search engines to list and rank pages. They are also used sometimes, by "Spiders" (see below). META Keywords and META Descriptions used to be very important and different search engines weighed them differently. META "data" use has been exploited in recent years and does not carry nearly as much weight with the search engines as it once did.  There are other things that many search engines look at to "Rank" your site and subsequent pages.

I tell this to all of my clients and prospective clients.  Nothing beats well written content to help your web site achieve higher rankings.

Again, I tell this to my clients and prospective clients.  Fresh content, in addition to your current content, or replacing and updating your web site content will help you retain and/or raise your overall search engine ranking. 

Well written content will help you get high rankings.  Fresh content can help you stay there.  Fresh content can also keep your site up-to-date and keep visitors coming back to see what is new.  [top]

Spiders

Spiders or "Bots" are used by search engines to examine a web page or site and gather the contents, usually including the META words, to rank your pages. Spiders also keep a running count of how many times a particular word shows up in a particular page. Most will disqualify a page if a certain word shows up too many times. This prevents someone from Spamming the spider (using invisible words all over the page to get a higher listing).

For Example: Imagine you have a site about widgets and of course you want to be listed as high as possible when someone searches for the word "Widgets". If search engine listing was only based on how many times a word showed up on a page, you could simply type the word Widget and copy and paste it in the document 500 times. And if you are using a white background and you format the words in white...they would not be seen by the average user visiting your page. You could also populate the META key statements with 500 copies of the word and it would never show up on the page unless someone viewed the Source Code of the page.

Spiders have been programmed to be smarter and disqualify a page if a certain word shows up too many times. And of course, just like the META tags, the rules keep changing.  Your entire web site could even be banned from certain major search engines and you will have a very difficult time (and a great deal of expense) getting your site "Un-banned" once you have fixed the errors in the web site.  [top]

There are at least two main definitions of "accessibility":

Browser Accessibility - Is the ability for your visitors to view your site in various browsers and on various operating systems.  Not all content displays properly in all browsers.  You want to make sure you consider your target audience and plan, as well as possible, to make sure your web site and pages render correctly on different browsers.  There is one dominant browser currently in use however, other browsers and other operating systems are gaining popularity and you want to make sure that your viewers can view the information on your site.

For example: Your visitors may be using an older browser or could have java scripting disabled.  If you were using a java based menu on your web site, some of your visitors may not be able to navigate your site properly.  This could send your visitors away or even to your competition.  Knowing your target audience can help you to decide if Java scripting is an option for your web site.

Accessibility - Americans with Disabilities Act - This can include visitors with visual impairments or perhaps fine motor skill disabilities.  Text should be resizable by the visitor without destroying your web site layout.  Folks with severe visual impairments may even have a program that reads the content of your web pages to them and allows activation of plain text hyperlinks.  All images on your site that convey a message (not just for decoration) should have "ALT" tags completed so that a reader/browser will read the alternate text for the image. [ Currently, at least two very LARGE companies are being sued for not complying with this directive. ]

We have actually seen very recent (launched within the past 6 months) web site designs, belonging to governmental agencies that do not comply with this ADA.  Government agencies are required by federal law to comply.  Unfortunately, that is going to have to be rebuilt and it is going to cost the taxpayer(s) at least twice for a web site.  We do our best to advise our clients of these issues BEFORE we design a web site. [top]

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization for higher page ranking is a very hot topic.  Unfortunately, I see too many ads for "companies" that claim to optimize your new site for search engines and many are spam engines or link farms (pages or an entire site of nothing but links).  Either way, they are scams and should be avoided.  There are things that can be done to increase your page ranking however there are no "Quick fixes" and one of the new ranking criteria is the age of the URL or how long that Web Domain has existed.  If you have a new domain name, it can take some time to climb to the top of the rankings without paying for premium ad space on a search engine.

The percentage of times your desired keywords appear in your web site content is one of the keys to optimization.  Another is links TO your site FROM other high ranking sites.

There are more ways to improve your page ranking in the search engines and we can help.  [top]

Site maintenance includes updates, product changes, changes in contact information, or other minor changes to the web site. Performing regular maintenance will help keep the site up-to-date and fresh. Even minor enhancements can be carried out as this will help to keep the site from requiring a total re-write. Site maintenance also includes periodic testing of site statistic tools, and other basic functionality of the site. Site management requires testing various functions from time to time. Who is going to make sure your web site is functioning properly? Testing links, buttons, on-line forms and even that your site has not suffered from a hacker or corruption of pages. Do you know how to re-load a site? These are just a few of the reasons you may want us to maintain, monitor and manage your site on a long-term basis. [top]

At any given time, there will be no less than 5 full copies of your site at our disposal for recovery purposes. #1 copy on the host web server. #2 copy on our design computer. #3 on our archive server. #4 OUR Off site CD ROM copy. #5 YOUR CD ROM copy. Even in the event of a local disaster, at least one copy of the site will survive. [top]

Some graphics and brand names may attract more attention to your site. Please be sure to work out an arrangement with suppliers before requesting the addition of their logos or brand names on your site. Usually, most suppliers are more than happy to provide you with graphics and authorization to use their names on your site for a Link Back to their site. You may want to see if they are willing to list you on their site as an "authorized dealer" and while you are negotiating...get a link-back to YOUR site from theirs! And a word to the wise is to get an authorization in writing on their letterhead just as a precaution. Since they usually pay for links on sites, you should be able to negotiate the above with little or no difficulty. [top]

Consulting is a term that applies to every aspect of our services.  We provide you with valuable information to help you understand how to achieve your goals and resolve technology based issues.  We are experienced professionals with extensive knowledge to help you.  We begin with a consultation to explore your needs and help plot the course to get it done.  We want you to be as informed about your technology resources as you want to be.  We do our best to explain every process in easy to understand terms. [top]