A. Depending on the nature of your website, a one time design paired with hosting is typically not enough to see the return on your investment for the design or the hosting cost.

The reason for this is because search engines give credence to freshly updated websites, websites with front end and back end SEO, and of course, companies that pay to have their pages at the top of the list for relevant search terms. 

If you are creating a website for a single purpose that is functioning as an informational or 'landing page'- say for an event such as a wedding or reunion - then it is completely fine to do a 'one and done' design, even build it yourself using popular CMS tools like Wix or WordPress that allows for visual drag and drop elements and integrations and leave it until the event passes, you can go ahead and cancel your hosting, and allow the domain registration to lapse. 

However, if you are creating a website to act as a virtual storefront, advertising page, or homepage for a business or service provider, then you will want to keep your content and design up to date and FRESH to get as much organic traffic and FREE exposure as you can.

Your organic search ranking (that is, where you rank without any paid advertising on the search platform) is based on many factors and that criteria is constantly changing. What worked five years ago doesn't even scratch the service for how we optimize pages for search engine rankings nowadays.

In addition to this, security issues start to arise as CMS and protocols make changes to their encryption and coding, such as the addition of https to provide more secure connections. Every time a new update is released for any CDN or CMS, your website will require maintenance and updates to each plug in or snippet of code that has been added to ensure that it remains compatible and stable (doesn't lead to crashes or slow loading times). 

In short, unless you only require your website for a temporary purpose and do not plan on keeping your page(s) online or your domain registered for an extended length of time, then a one time design and content creation can work.

Otherwise, we offer our managed services for the convenience of our clients that do not feel comfortable performing regular updates to their UI, databases, content, etc associated with their pages. Our management service also covers domain registration and renewal as well as hosting solutions with zero downtime migrations, transfers, and backup services so that you don't have to worry about potentially losing business because of a recent update that went sideways. 

A. The average cost of non-sales based design packages ranges from about $1000-$2000 per month for most businesses. This includes unlimited updates, maintenance, the design itself, managed hosting, email, content, SEO, and marketing services that most of our clients opt for when building a service package. 

Your price estimate or total cost will depend on a variety of factors - what your purpose is, what you are comfortable and capable of doing on your own or in-house, the size of your company or business, how often you want your website updated or redesigned, your marketing strategy, advertising budget, and the complexity of your request. 

We do not provide flat rate pricing because we allow for our clients to negotiate and change their service agreements at any time. We understand that your needs and your budget may fluctuate depending on the seasons or how you anticipate expanding or even downsizing. Whatever your purpose, we give all of our clients complete fiduciary transparency when making recommendations and deciding on your quote. If you don't need it, we won't sell it to you. 

Compared to the current market for similar services in the US and if outsourced, our services tend to fall on the more affordable side of the scale than other service providers and we pride ourselves in our transparency and the trust we have established with our clients. While we may cost more than hiring a design firm or developer from overseas, our USA based English speaking agents are at your service 24/7 when you will find others cannot be bothered or have a far more delayed response. 

A. The price shown on the estimate tool is a basic estimate that cannot account for the services provided by any third party partners (such as hosting and domain registration / renewal), advertising costs, and the hourly rate that your agent will be paid for content creation and editing services (if selected).

The build your own service package tool was designed to give our clients an idea of what the cost may be for what they're requesting so that it doesn't come from left field. In addition to providing this estimate, if you request your consultation from the same form your agent will review the options you have selected and information provided easily, allowing them to tweak and change your plan as we get a better understanding of your needs. Your agent does not receive any additional compensation for recommending additional services and their expertise is provided in the spirit of good faith and full disclosure so that you may make an informed decision moving forward. 

Should you decide that you do not wish to continue with a specific service or your agent suggests that you add on or remove a service, you may do so at any time during your contract to have the new service agreement applied to your next billing cycle. 

A. We suggest that our clients opt for transferring their hosting and domain registration to one of our partners because many find it much easier once we takeover management and we are easily able to access the DNS records, database, and server once migrated and transfered to instantly begin your design or overhaul. 

You may opt to use your own hosting provider as long as you currently have your domain registered with the same company as your host.

For example, if you have hosting through GoDaddy, we require our clients to also have their domain registered through GoDaddy. Why? Because it is much easier to access your web pages and account for management when both items are located on the same platform. While you can purchase your domain from virtually any broker and host your site wherever you choose, this creates continuity issues and can cause disruptions when it comes to serving you, especially if you yourself cannot access your DNS records, databases, or registration details. 

A. In most cases, we can easily transfer your domain to your hosting provider or one of our hosting partners if you purchased it already from another broker / platform.

If you do not currently have a domain, you will need one to start your first website and we are happy to provide many different affordable options in the way of brokers.

Your agent may also suggest that you secure additional domains to further your reach and to ensure that your brand propagates online. By doing this, you will have multiple addresses your potential visitors can visit you through that are either redirects or mirrors of your main website. 

If you opt to select one of the dedicated, VPS, or managed WordPress Hosting options from our partner, you may be eligible to secure a domain name for free or $1.99 for a one year registration as part of your service package. We will let you know if any such offers are available, including any promotions or discounted offers for hosting services that we believe you could benefit from. 

A. Everything performed on your behalf or through a contract with your company is the property of yourself or the company contracting us, including any and all intellectual property created and distributed on your behalf. 

Your accounts, credentials, registrations, etc. All will also remain under your company or personal name and your agent will provide you the credentials and information you will need in order to access these assets in a compiled folder dedicated to your project. We do not store our clients information / credentials in databases or networks online. Your secure documents with this information will be compiled from handwritten logs each agent keeps for their clients to further your security.

You may access your web pages, advertising accounts, databases, networks, social media, domain registrations / DNS records, host servers, shared drives, and any associated digital materials or accounts at any time throughout our contract.

From time to time, we may ask if we can showcase designs and content created for our clients on our portfolio or as part of a resume for the dedicated agent. You have the right to request that any claim of ownership or reference to yourself or your company be removed from any of our pages, including any agent portfolio or resume, at any time. 

For more information on how we store and use data from our clients and visitors, view our Privacy Policy. 

A. If you love your current theme or design, who are we to tell you any different? If we can use your current interface and setup to manage and maintain your pages in the way you have requested, we have no problem leaving everything the way we found it. 

However, in some instances, keeping the same design comes with issues that we are obligated to inform you about before we attempt to work around them.

Older WordPress themes have security flaws that have been resolved in recent updates while some themes or designs not be compatible with what our agents are educated with and experienced working with. While we will always do our best to maintain the website that you want the most, in some cases, it may be ill advised or impossible. In which case, we will try to redesign your pages to be as close to the original as possible. 

Even older designs saved as .HTML or CSS files are not cross compatible with mobile devices or tablets, which amount to 65% or more of web traffic nowadays. This means that when someone views your website on their cellphone or tablet, the interface may appear broken or extremely hard to navigate, the images may not load properly or at all, and some elements may not work as the browser does not read them properly. In this case, we will attempt to redesign your web page using HTML5 using compatible integrations and maintain the overall theme as best we can. 

Finally, every web designer and developer is different and will naturally have different tools in their toolbox. Just because we may not be familiar with the CMS or CDN or do not recognize the code or scripts your website is running doesn't mean that we can't create something just as functional that meets your visual and practical Specifications. 

A. While we integrate front end, back end, and on page SEO strategies for all of our design projects and clients throughout the service agreement, it is important to note that the first page of search results - at least the first 20 - are typically reserved for sponsored ads. That is, those Advertisers are paying good money to rank at the top.

While we offer Google Advertising and Marketing services, we want to stress that keyword and target phrases for organic traffic is free and while it may not always land you on the first page for very general search terms, for more specific searches we can guarantee you will find yourself among the top ranking results. 

This is incredibly important for small businesses and brick and mortar businesses to note, however, as Google advertising campaigns can be expensive and even though we can track conversions, clicks, calls, and visits to your store, unless you are directly selling a product online through your website, there is no way to draw a direct line between making a sale and your ad campaign's ROI. 

For example, if you're a small brick and mortar / local business that sells boats, if you type in 'boats for sale' in the search bar, chances are you won't see yourself in the first page results. This is because this is a very generic search phrase. It doesn't imply that someone is looking for a boat to buy in your location or even a model that you offer. For small business and local SEO, we focus on more specific search terms and phrases that relate to the person's intention for their search.

While you may not be at the top for general search terms, something like 'boats for sale near me' will weed out competitors on the larger national scale and streamline your results to your location where your business will rank at the top. 

The same applies to virtually any business or product. The SEO strategy we use on your website will be dictated by your purpose, what you want people to know or what people come to you for, and the fine details such as your proximity to your customers, offering specific models, products, or services in your store that make you unique, and all of this is combined to create organic traffic that comes from just good web design.