FAQS

How much do you charge for a website?

Every website is different however most of our typical website builds are typically $1900 with 50% down. We offer a wide range of website services. See our general prices here. A full discovery and a written proposal is given first, then once agreed upon by both parties, a 50% payment is required along with a signed service agreement before work commences. Other payment arrangements are possible. 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 more than one business. Should I or can I use one website for all?

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, all WordPress websites have the ability to allow users with editable permissions, and at all different access levels. In other words you may assign users to your website’s administration but with different levels of access. An admin is the highest level and can edit anything, and could also really mess up a website! 6×6 Design will assist you with administering your website until you’re comfortable on your own. We also have video tutorials to show you just about everything from a complete beginner view.

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 content writing, 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 will I need it?

When you have a website, all of its files need a storage location so your website can be access over the internet. A web hosting provider server serves this purpose. Web hosting defined is the place that your web site files reside, also known as your web server.
6×6 Design’s dedicated server offers a 24/7/365 help desk, nightly full backups to a separate drive and dedicated IP addresses (if needed) through WiredTree.com. 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 $288 per year ($24.00 per month). 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 6×6 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 250MB email storage (more if needed). All email accounts use anti-spam and anti-virus protection built right in. We’ll even help you set it up on your computer’s email client like Thunderbird or Outlook.

Do we have to meet or work together in person?

Absolutely not. The internet has made business meetings very easy with screen sharing and the telephone. We can meet online and with your permission, log onto your computer screen while on the phone with you – even with multiple people in multiple locations at one time! If you require face-to-face meetings, be sure to mention that up front. Travel expenses may occur and be billable to you.

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. 6×6 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 can purchase and have as many domain names as you want pointing to your website. Only one domain name is actually used per website, however the other domain names you purchase can be pointed to (or forwarded) to the one active domain being used.
6×6 Design will locate, create, register and manage a domain name for you if you choose. If you currently have your own domain, we can point it to your new web site hosting address for you however we will need your domain name account username and password to do so, or we can walk you through it. A domain name is renewed yearly however we suggest renewing for 5 years to show stability to search engines.

Search for and Register your new domain names here with Godaddy.

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 or even a few months 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. One of the best ways to provide natural SEO is to continuously add new content to your website either by blogging or other means. Learn more about SEO and Search Marketing here.

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. 6×6 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 or on Facebook sidebars 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 Pay Per Click Advertising here.

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. 6×6 Design believes in creating a balance of both web design and SEO with every website we design.

What makes your website design different?

6×6 Design builds websites using professional industry authoring tools and software, both paid for and Open Source to code and optimize your website for user and search engine experience. We focus on web marketing and presentation combined. We hand-craft your website theme design and customize them to meet your standards. Even if we are redesigning your website, we do not use typical 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.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

SEO is an important part of search engine marketing. Search engines employ “spiders” (also known as a web robots, worms, search robots, etc.) to search your website files to make sense of your content on a scheduled basis determined by the search engine itself. SEO is the technical process of combining several key fundamentals of designing and/or enhancing a web site’s on-site and off-site content, meta data and structure to attract search engine “spiders” more often to index your website’s files 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 by search spiders” and understood by search engines and therefore more likely to show your website in their search results when someone is looking for what you do or have to say. Learn more about SEO and Search Marketing here.

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 6×6 Design wants to be sure your web site is included with. There are actually dozens of Internet search engines however Google, Yahoo and Bing 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. 6×6 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 – about $300.00 per year), 6×6 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, software and plugin updates, design updates to meet browser upgrades, server file maintenance, back up and security, web site analytics reporting and more. These tasks are usually beyond a web site owner’s abilities and should be done professionally to avoid problems. 6×6 Design offers web site maintenance in two ways:

1. Monthly Web Site Maintenance Agreement: This is a far better option for individuals who want their web site managed professionally and automatically.
2. “As Needed” Web Site Maintenance or Consultation: currently $75.00 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, 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.
• 6×6 Design will setup your Google account for you and send you detailed instructions on how to login and view your statistics.

How do I get started? Can you help me get organized?

We have a Website Planner form that allows you to type in your answers to common questions we would ask you and then you can send the questions and results via email to yourself. We suggest doing that first then giving us a call or email here.