The internet is no longer reserved for the rich, the young, or the highly educated. It has become an integral part of life for the average American. Worldwide, more than 600 million people are online. You can't afford to ignore this audience. Web sites are a cost effective way to advertise. Compare the cost of a print ad which runs once versus a web site which runs 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. A presence on the world wide web adds value and prestige to your business as well as a service to your customers.
A website can be used to:
- Educate and inform your customers/clients.
- Provide the public with easily accessible information about the company, its products, its policies etc. at a low cost.
- Announce new services or products.
- Sell products or services.
- Allow the public to communicate with the company.
- Collect information and feedback from customers.
- Reach potential customers worldwide that you would be unable to reach otherwise.
Your customers - and potential customers - are using the Web to obtain information, buy products, and establish relationships with businesses right now. Shouldn't they be coming to your website instead of your competitors?
2. I'm just starting out in business, can you develop a website for me?
We know how important it is to develop a presence on the Internet. We will work with you to develop an attractive site within your budget. The design can encompass avenues for expansion as your business grows.
3. How much will my Web site cost?
The cost of developing a Web site depends on many factors including the number
of Web pages, graphic design characteristics, page content, completeness of
the materials you provide, extent of e-commerce and custom database programming
required.
Our special for small businesses is a custom designed 5 page website
for $799 (limited time offer).
In
addition one-time developmental expenses, there will be expenses for Search
Engine Optimization, domain name registration, hosting, and maintenance.
You
can receive a FREE quotation by completing the Quote Form, or simply call us
at (313) 724.0925 to arrange an initial consultation meeting.
4. How long will it take to create my Web site?
Once your project has been scheduled and you have provided various source materials
for the site, the time to complete most small business sites ranges between
2 and 4 weeks depending on size and complexity. Sites with extensive e-commerce
and/or database features may take longer. If you are in a rush, just contact
us and will try to accommodate your needs.
5. Do you use templates to make your web sites?
No, unless you specifically request that we use a template. Every site we create is unique and designed especially for you or your business. A unique web site is memorable and sends a message that you are different than your competition and you care about quality.
6. Can you maintain my web site?
Yes! We maintain web sites for 99% of our web design clients and enjoy helping our clients continue to develop their vision online. Maintenance provided by the original designer of your site provides better results, fewer problems, and therefore lower costs to you. We'll deal with the hassles and you can deal with your business. However, if you have a website that needs constant updating and you want to do it in house in order to save costs, we can set up your site to work with Contribute software, were anyone with word processing skills can update it.
7. How can I keep track of the visitors to my website?
If you use our hosting service you will have access to statistics that will tell you how many visitors you have had, what time they visited, what part of the world they are from, how long they spent, which of your pages they viewed, etc. This is a service that is essential to promote and build a successful website.
8. What is web hosting?
A web site host provides space on a computer "out there" that will
hold your web site so it may be accessed by anyone on the world wide web. When
someone enters your Web address (URL) in their Web browser, it looks up the
location of the computer associated with that domain name. This 'host' computer
then sends the files that make up that particular web page to the person's
computer that requested it. In other words, it's your server or host that makes
your website available to the world.
9. What are the advantages of shared web hosting?
Most businesses cannot justify the costs of having a dedicated server, dedicated
Internet connections and all the hardware that goes with it. The initial
outlay runs into several thousand dollars, and ongoing necessary maintenance
costs are steep as well.
Web hosting companies enable such businesses to share the equipment necessary
(and therefore the costs) to enable them to maintain an impressive Web presence
at a fraction of the cost of setting it all up themselves. Furthermore, businesses
need not invest in in-house expertise and technical staff to deal with all
the installation and troubleshooting associated with computer hardware and
software. Another, often-overlooked advantage is that serious web hosting companies
upgrade their equipment and Internet connections as new technology emerges
- this saves businesses the cost and trouble of having to write off obsolete
equipment and also invest in replacements for it.
10. Will my website be slow if I don't have a dedicated server and connections?
No. This will not be the case if you choose the right web hosting provider.
A serious web hosting provider will not allow websites that hog bandwidth
to be sharing with other websites. A serious provider will respond quickly
to deal with possible problems and will take the necessary steps to anticipate
others. Unfortunately, finding a serious hosting provider is often a painful
process involving a few disappointments and frustration along the way. At
CI Web Design Inc. we’ve eliminated this uncertainty by ensuring that
our web hosting service is fast, reliable and comes with responsive support.
11. Why should I use CI Web Design Inc. as my hosting company?
CI Web Design Inc. offers complete, feature-rich hosting services at very affordable prices. We offer a different suitable plans so you can choose a level and a cost of service that's exactly right for your company. Our hosting environment gives you high performance servers, high bandwidth connectivity and around-the-clock support, all that at a small fraction of the cost if you have done it by yourself. Click here for detailed hosting plan pricing and features
12. How long does it take to set up a new account?
New accounts are generally set up within 24 hours from the time we receive
your order. Once an account is setup, an activation notice will be sent to
you via email including your user-ID, password. You can then begin uploading
files to your new website immediately.
13. Will my site be down if I change web hosting providers?
No, your site will not be down, not even for one second. We upload your site
to our servers and create all the necessary files and folders for you. Once
your old site is duplicated on our servers, the DNS record is updated, and
this information propagates throughout the Internet. During this 72 hour
propagation period, some people will be viewing your site with the previous
hosting company, and some will be viewing your site on the new server. However,
after about 72 hours, most everyone in the world will have access to your
site on CI Web Design Inc. server and you will have switched over, not missing
a minute of uptime.
14. Is changing web hosts a big hassle?
We've made your job easy. Just sit back and relax! We handle everything! We
download your site from your existing host, recreate your site on our server,
and handle the DNS transfer. We even make a back up of your existing site
in the process.
15. What kind of support will you provide?
If you have a question or problem that has anything to do with your website,
the Internet, our servers, or our services, we are here for you! We provide
all the start up configurations, all the necessary information exchange,
and all the technical expertise. We do our jobs quickly...and leave you free
to do yours. No more headaches!
16. What kind of web-server is installed on your servers?
Our servers are equipped with the Apache server and ColdFusion .
17. What statistical package do you offer?
We can offer the reliable statistics of site attendance with help of webalizer.
And we offer it all to our clients for free
18. Do you provide any database solutions?
Yes, mySQL. Check out our plans for more information on it.
19. Can I set up Subdomains?
Yes. After choosing any of our plans, we can easily add whatever sub-domains
you require..
20. Do you offer personal CGI-BIN directory?
Yes we do.
21. What is CGI-BIN directory?
CGI scripts are used for creation counters, forms, guest books and many other
services. We offer you CGI directory in a typical set of options. We also can
offer you some ready-for-use scripts - attendance counter, search system for
site, mail form and etc.
22. What language should be used for CGI (shell, Perl, PHP)?
All scripts supported on our servers are written in shell, Perl & PHP.
23. How do I get started?
Just check out the plans available on hosting. If you know which plan you
want, go to our sign-up page and enroll in a plan. If you'd like a personal
evaluation of your hosting needs or if you'd like to sign up over the phone,
contact a professional consultant at 313.724.0925
24. How secure is my Web site?
We employ the standard method of safeguarding against any malicious entry to
a website on our server. This is done through the standard usernames and
passwords that are assigned to each of our clients. Other security measures
are also taken to ensure the security of your site.
25. How reliable is your service?
We have triple redundant connections to the Internet. We have battery backups
as well as on site generated electricity if necessary. We continually monitor
the functioning of your site from multiple nodes on the Internet. We aim
for your site to be up 99.99% of the time or better.
26. What other services do you offer?
In addition to basic web hosting, we can provide you with any other services
you need to get your site going.
- Complete Web design and development.
- Search engine registration and website marketing and promotion
- Domain name registration.
- Customizable E-commerce solutions
- Custom web application development
27. How and when will you bill me?
You will receive a monthly bill via mail with a due date and address to send
your payment.
28. What is a domain name?
Your domain name is the address by which people will find your site, for example: www.ciwebstudio.com. This name must be registered for a minimum period of one year. We're happy to assist you with this process. You can check here to see if the name you want is available. You should expect to pay about $20/year to register (or reserve) a domain name.
29. Do I need to have my own Domain Name?
Yes, we recommend you to have your own Domain Name if you want to make a professional representation of your company. The cost of having your own Domain Name is minimal. A unique Domain Name will identify your website and it will have a chance to be indexed by the Search Engines and achieve a good ranking. Check out our Domain Name Registration services to see that our prices are really affordable for everyone
30. Can I check domain name availability and register it on CI Web Design Inc website?
Yes. You can find out if the domain name you want is available here. Once you made a decision, you can register your domain name here, or you can contact us at 313.724.0925 and we’ll do it for you free of charge .
31. I have a website which looks and works fine, but not many people know about it. What should I do?
The problem is that your site hasn't been optimized for target search terms,
so it hasn't been effectively registered with the major Search Engines and
Directories.
We will help you to promote your website through search engines
and directory placements as well as running advertising campaigns and so on.
Just contact
us online or call us at 313-724-0925.
32. Will advertising campaign cost a lot? Can I afford it?
It isn't necessary to spend a lot of money for advertising. We'll find an
optimal way to promote your business online according to your needs and available
budget.
33. Why are Search Engines so important for the popularity of my website?
According to surveys up to 57% of Internet users search the Net every day and nearly half of the searches are for product information or services. There is a lot of useful information on the Web, but it's simply impossible to examine all the websites personally, that is where Search Engines can help.
The majority of Internet users find Web sites by using keyword searches on the major search engines. They are the most popular type of Web site on the Internet and it's quite common to set a Search Engine as the home page in a browser.
34. How do Search Engines work?
In response to a request, the Search Engines produce a list of ordered search results. The number of websites in the list may range from just a few to many thousands. The results of search engine searches are placed in order of relevancy to the search term used. Usually there are 10 websites on each page of search results. 96% of search engine users will visit sites listed on the first two-three pages of results and won't go any further.
Search Engines use software agents, known as 'robots', 'crawlers' or 'spiders' to survey the Web and gather text content from your website for 'indexing' in their database. The ranking of your website among search results depends on the page content being analyzed by a Search Engine to determine the relevancy of the website's text to the search term and compare to that of other sites.
35. How quickly will Search Engines index my website?
There are thousands of registration requests that Search Engines receive every day As a result, the delay between submitting a registration and the site actually being indexed can range from a few days to several months. Because Web documents change all the time, robots also update previously catalogued sites and have to work hard to maintain the relevance of their data. How quickly your website will be indexed varies from one search engine to another.
36.Will Search Engine ranking of my website always remain the same? How can you help me to improve it?
Search Engine rankings change constantly as new sites become indexed, old sites are removed and existing sites work to improve their position.
We will suggest you the ways to optimize your website content and page titles, meta keywords, meta descriptions in the "head" section of your HTML documents. But remember, there is no magic way to ensure a high ranking of your website. We will not use any misleading information in an attempt to get you a higher ranking for a short period of time. CI Web Design Inc. offers you continuous Search Engine Positioning strategy that really works to improve and maintain your ranking.
37. How can I measure the effectiveness of CI Web Design Inc. promotions?
All our clients are given access to the reliable statistics of site attendance by ModLogAn and The Webalizer. We will send you a detailed report where we publish all the activity including traffic performance, referrers' sites, search strings, indexed pages, bookmarked pages. Eventually the best answer for you will be when you see the increase of traffic to your website.
38. Where else, except for Search Engines, can my company get listed on the Internet?
It's impossible to announce your website everywhere, and there's no need to do so because the major Internet promotion tools will account for most of the driven traffic to your site. Here are some ideas that really work:
- Web Directories are subject catalogues containing indexes to various places on the Web, listed alphabetically, by region, by subject or by category. Some of Web directories such as Yahoo, Infoseek, Galaxy are must locations for listing of your new website.
- "What's New" Web Pages list sites that have only recently come online. This used to be the only way to advertise your new Web site, and it is still quite popular. The sites provide listings of new commercial sites on the Web.
- Newsgroups and Newsletters.
39. Is it worth including the links to other sites from mine?
Yes. At first sight the idea of giving your visitors an easy way to leave your site doesn't sound like something that will help you promote your website. But in practice websites provide Internet users with additional resources and a 'way out' will eventually be more successful because they are more useful.
Also, with the help of external links you will gain reciprocal links from other sites that will help you attract more visitors to your website. Reciprocal links will increase your site's Link Popularity that has a significant impact on Search Engine ranking. Here's a striking example of Google, a search engine that has rapidly become very popular among Internet users because it is efficient and fast. For Google those pages are more important that are frequently linked to other sites comparing with those having just few reciprocal links. It means that Google gives a high ranking to the site that many webmasters find worth linking to.
40. Is Banner Advertising cost-effective?
That depends largely on your objectives. Banner Advertising can be a highly effective method of online building of a brand, but it will not immediately generate traffic to your website. Take into account the statistics that says the average click-through rate for even a well-designed and targeted banner ad is around 0.5%.
41. What is a Click-Through Rate?
It is the percentage of times the Internet users click on an advertisement (banner, button, or text link) based on the number of times the ad is viewed. In other words, if 500 site visitors see a banner ad and 25 of them actually click on the ad, the banner ad has a click-though rate of 5%. So the CTR shows immediate response and does not include the people who arrived at the site later as a result of seeing the ad. Just getting visitors to your website will not measure your success. Your promotion strategy should help you to have the right visitors who are really interested in your products and services.42.Can I use e-mail to let everybody know about my company?
Potentially you can try sending thousands of emails to as many addresses as you like. However we strongly recommend you not to rely largely on spamming. Sending unsolicited e-mail is a bad and inefficient practice and may result in negative reactions and even repercussions for your company. But you may choose the right advertising campaign via e-mail to contact your target audience that has given its permission for companies to send the information on selected topics.
Then e-mail marketing can be an effective method of online promotion where one-to-one communication and speed of e-mails are on your side. See our Consulting services to know how we can help you conduct a successful advertising campaign.
43. Can I resell CI Web Design Inc. services?
Yes. We offer Reseller Plans with excellent prices for you to easily start
your own profitable business.
