Website Design Frequently Asked Questions

Generally my fully Optimized Business Website Designs start at around $2,300.00 and can go up from there. This is a terrific value considering even our basic website packages are developed on one of the finest Content Management Systems in the world, Joomla. Add to that the value of a business website that has been designed with Search Engine Optimization employed from the start. My level 1 business websites include the following:

• Up to 6 fully optimized pages including homepage
• Content Management System
• Up to two menus
• Optimized images
• Contact form
• Sitemap
• Blog post to announce your new site to the search engines
• 1 page rank 3 blog post announcing your new website
• Semi custom design
• 5 e-mail addresses
• Auto respond
• Google analytics installed

If I can answer any questions pertaining to Website Design and SEO feel free to give me a call, 360 431 8082. In a nutshell a Content Management System or commonly called a CMS is a powerful data base driven website. It has the ability to effectively manage and organize tons of content. It is generally considered the Cadillac of website designs. Most website designers have additional charges for this family of website platform.

I design all my websites with Joomla which is one of the finest Content Management Systems in the world. In fact there is only one CMS in the same class of website design platforms as Joomla. That is Drupal. I prefer to use Joomla due to the easy to use interface. This means my clients if they choose to manage their own website can do so with a little training. Joomla also has a great deal of third party components and extensions available that really contribute to the functionality and usability for both the designer and user.Take a look at my portfolioand see for yourself how stunning a Joomla website can look and perform.

If I can answer any questions pertaining to Website Design and SEO feel free to give me a call, 360 431 8082

Now that is a hard question. I have to ask what are your goals for your website? If you do not want to use your website as a marketing tool and first line of contact for Internet customers, then your brother in law or family friend will probably suffice. If you want to own a piece of the Internet and derive revenue directly or indirectly from your website a professional website designer is your best bet.

For a business website to rank well and perform up to your expectations you MUST have either your website designer be very proficient at SEO, you hire a SEO expert to oversee the project from the start.

The Internet has become a battle field for good placement in the organic search engines. Chances are a few of your competitors have enlisted a SEO professional, or better yet had their business website designed by a developer that has honed their Search Engine Optimization skills to a high level of proficiency. In a nutshell you must do the same to be competitive in the Internet Marketing arena.

If I can answer any questions pertaining to Website Design and SEO feel free to give me a call, 360 431 8082

Bill Gates said once "If you are not on the Internet, you are not in business". That was years ago but it rings louder now than ever. Society has come to expect a reputable business to have a company website.

An Optimized Business Website Design is like a business card on the Internet. For prospective customers searching for information or services on the Internet your business website will be their first contact with your company. Your website has a big job to do. It must reflect your business in the manner you want it to be represented. How many times has someone given you a cheap obviously done on the fly business card. What happens to that card, it goes in the trash usually!

Back to the original question how will I benefit from a business website?

1. Sell your products online. The ability to offer and sell your products online can boost a business bottom line. Additionally overhead to advertise your products is far less than a conventional physical store. Either as a stand alone e-commerce website or as a means to market more goods to public, business websites pay for themselves in a very short time period.
2. Business Websites are global. This means that you can effectively reach out and target a far greater market than you could ever possibly afford to with paper advertising. The world is your oyster!
3. Business Websites are probably the most cost effective form of advertising you can invest in.
4. Your prospective clients can view your Website 24 hours a day around the clock. When you close the doors at the end of the day or better yet on Friday, your website continues to work for you. They never need paternity leave, get sick, or quite and go to work for the competition.
5. One of the biggest reasons to own a Business Website is that your competition probably has one. In this day and age where up to 80% of searches for products and services are done on the Internet why give all that traffic to your competitors.

If I can answer any questions pertaining to Website Design and SEO feel free to give me a call, 360 431 8082

An Optimized Website is one that performs well in the organic search engines. To achieve that level of performance there are many areas of website design that need to be addressed. Ideally when a website is in the conceptual design stage is where SEO is first employed in the structural design. Trying to employ Search Engine Optimization after the fact is sometimes like rebuilding the foundation of a house after it is finished. Unfortunately sometimes you can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear!

The areas of a properly designed and optimized business website that are addressed:

1. Keyword and keyword phrase research
2. Competition analysis
3. Optimized page titles
4. Optimize meta description
5. Optimize h-tags
6. Optimize content
7. Optimize images and graphics
8. Optimize navigation
9. A few personal applications that are proprietary in nature!
10. Off page Search Engine Optimization
11. The working platform has a great deal to do with the performance of a website in the Organic Search Engines.

First of all your website must be engineered in such a way that the search engines know where you are located. Second we can generate content that includes keyword phrases that target your industry or services you provide in the Portland OR area. or instance I market website design and SEO in the Portland Oregon and Seattle Washington area. Through effective content not only the search engines but the viewers of my website clearly understand that I am a Portland Oregon Website Designer and SEO Professional.

In regards to marketing here in Portland first of all your website must be SEF (search engine friendly). It must be developed with SEO in mind. Once your business website is in good order in regards to search engine optimization you must employ a off page SEO campaign to develop inbound links.

These are the initial steps taken to market a business website in any geographical area.

Joomla is one of the two finest content management systems in the world. Drupal is the other CMS that is considered one of the finest. I prefer Joomla in comparison to Drupal because of several factors. These I must say are my opinion and can be debated, but bottom line Joomla and Drupal are the finest CMS. The reasons I choose to use Joomla are:

• Joomla has a much easier to use interface. This comes in to play when one of my customers feels comfortable adding thier own content and graphics. I can generally train business owners or one of their staff to add content and graphics in 4-5 hours of training. This is real plus and many of my customers appreciate this feature of Joomla content management system.
• Joomla allows much more flexibility in their templates. I do alot of totally custom templates for my customers and this attribute is a real plus for me as your web designer.
• Joomla also has at its disposal literally thousands of components, modules and plugins. The functionality that Joomla is terrific.
• Google loves Joomla! High end content management systems like Joomla offer excellent navigation and the ability to really organize content in such a way that the search engine just eat it up.

If you are considering commissioning a website design or a complete makeover I would strongly suggest you consider Joomla as the platform for your business website.

Feel free to contact me by e-mail or phone to discuss the possibility of using Joomla as the platform for your business website, or e-commerce website. 360 431 8082

No

Research has shown that bells and whistles do not impress viewers in the slightest. In fact it usualy anoys visitors.

Visitors or prospective clients are coming to your business website for one reason only, information. Why would you want to distract your visitors that are looking for information with a rendering of your website designers talents with flash! If your web designer feels the need to express his imagination, there are types of websites that use this type of appeal. Fancy footwork with code can actually hinder your website from ranking well in the natural search engines.

I personaly feel that business websites should be very functional, clean in apperance but well done.

Yes I do and personally find it very challenging. There are three main obstacles to overcome in my experience when designing a E-commerce website.

1. Look and feel-Most prospective E-commerce website owners want the home page to be full of graphics detailing their products. If I have said it once I have said this one hundred times "You cannot SEO a website full of graphics"! You must have well written relevant content on your home page to work with when the objective is to rank well in the search engines.
2. The design-I personally dislike the look and feel of most E-commerce websites. They seem to all look the same, cold and a hard sell right out of the gate. I work really hard at developing a soft, pleasing look and feel.
3. SEO-I like to educate my clients on the proper use of product descriptions in a E-commerce website. There is great opportunities for some powerful SEO if products are added correctly and with a good E-commerce Website Design. Portland Oregon E-commerce Website Design

Of coarse I do. In fact 80% of my clients are form all across this country. I am always asked how I can attract web site design clients from such a vast audience.

I market my web design business on a national level. With my skill set in Search Engine Optimization I put my nationally marketed website www.joomlaunlimited.comon the first page of Google for Joomla Website designer. This has developed a great deal of national exposure. In these economically trying times I am glad I chose to market myself in this way.

I do enjoy the exposure from my Portland OR clients though. I enjoy actually meeting my web design clients that comes from developing business websites in Oregon and Washington.

SSL means Secure Sockets Layer

When you connect to a secure web server, the server authenticates itself to the browser by giving it a digital certificate. A SSL Certificate is proof to the browser that a trusted entirely independent third party has effectively verified that the website you are viewing truly belongs to the company that that claims to belong to.

Customers who purchase from online sources are becoming more aware of security and will only purchase from online merchants who has a SSL Certificate on his hosting plan.

Most major E-commerce websites have a SSL certificate.

SSL Certificates are obtained from your Hosting Company.

All of my E-commerce shopping cart websites have a SSL Certificate. SSL Certificates cost around $100.00 per year including set up. It also costs additional for a dedicated server.

I use two different software packages for my E-commerce Website Designs, PDG Software and Virtumart. Let me outline the differences.

PDG Software- This is a high end software package that I personally like to use. As I am usually contracted to build E-commerce websites on the merits of also being a SEO professional with the ability to develop websites that rank well in the organic search engines, PDG is very search engine friendly with attributes that enhance the SEO of a website. PDG Software also fully integrates with Quickbooks. This is very instrumental in the ease of running a E-commerce website. For a good example of a E-commerce site please view www.chrisal-probiotics.com. This website is built in Joomla CMS, PDG E-commerce Software and has a Wordpress Blog with all custom templates. It is a good example of a well engineered website that is designed to rank well in the search engines, and offer the viewer good well navigated content.

Virtuemart is a Joomla Propietary Component. It is a good Component that is very cost effective and with the right plugins can almost integrate with Quickbooks. It is a good entry level E-commerce Component.

As a personal preference I recommend PDG Software for any serious business person wanting to develop a online business.