webdesign.

Many people find choosing a domain name a daunting task. Not only do you have to come up with the right one, but with more than 350 million domain names already registered, finding one that’s not already taken can be a challenge.

Your domain name is someone’s pathway to you and your business, so it’s important that it’s unique, true to your business, and easy to read. When coming up with a domain name, keep theses tips in mind:

• Use “.com” domains –  “.com” is memorable and is what users will type by default when searching for you.
• Avoid hyphens or numbers
• Keep it short
• Try a domain generator for ideas – Nameboy is a great tool where you can type keywords to get instant domain recommendations.

Checking Your Domain Name’s Availability

Registering a domain name will give you ownership of it for a licensed period of time, but how do you know if it’s even available?

• Who.is (https://who.is) is my go to resource for checking availability.
• Hover.com (https://hover.com) is also a great place to check availability and look for alternatives if you first choice is already taken.

New Domain Extensions

The amount of top level domains, or domain extensions, has really increased in the past couple of years. Think outside the box, or .com, when looking for a domain. There is a whole list to choose from now – look for one that relates to your industry. Browse domain extensions at hover.com.

Ready to Register?

Our favorite registrar is hover.com. They include free privacy so your contact information is not published on the domain listing. Most other registrars charge for this.

Whoever you choose as your registrar, make sure you are the one registering it, not another company on your behalf. You, as the business owner, need to have control over that domain name. That is going to be the key to your website and email.

Depending on the site of your site it can take anywhere from 4 weeks on up. If we are building a 5 page brochure site and you have all your content ready to go it can go a lot faster. Keep in mind we always have a few sites in the queue so let us know as soon as possible if you have a launch date in mind.

SEO, or “Search Engine Optimization”, is the process of improving your site to increase its visibility when people search for products or services related to your business in Google, and other search engines. The better visibility your pages have in search results, the more likely you are to garner attention and attract prospective and existing customers to your business.

Google and the other search engines crawl, or use software to look at your site and add them to their databases. They then use algorithms to decide the relevance of your site compared to other sites when a word or phrase is searched on.

SEO is a very broad term and can be very complicated. We build our sites with a solid foundation for SEO. If needed we can then recommend strategies to improve rankings.

SEO is only one of the many components of Digital Marketing and  having a successful website. Learn more here.

Depending on how old it is and what theme it is built in, we can do a design refresh. This can be more cost effective than a total redesign. A lot of times the theme is outdated, or no longer supported, and a total redesign is needed.

A big YES! We build our sites in WordPress, a content management system (CMS). Once the site is built, we train you how to manage your content on your own. This can include products in your ecommerce store, your blog and content in your pages. Once you get started you will find it is very easy and intuitive. If at any time you would rather not update it yourself, we can take care of it for you.

Yes, you need hosting. And you should be aware of the different types of hosting out there. There are a lot of discount hosting companies that offer cheap rates. Beware of cheep hosting. The low cost sounds good but many of these companies add on basic necessities and functions of a good hosting account. It turns out to be costly in the end.  We offer managed WordPress hosting that is built for speed and security. There is a big difference between the two. Read this article to learn more.

As far as maintenance goes, regular maintenance is essential for a website to stabilize its flexibility and reliability.  Your website is comprised of many pieces of software which need to be updated on a regular basis. Many of these updates are security and bug fixes as well as upgraded functionality. We offer hosting + maintenance to keep your site safe, secure and fast.

This is the same question as “How much does a new house cost?”. It all depends on what you want! Everything we build is custom so before we start we go through your business processes and decide what goes in the site and how it will work. We then provide you with a detailed proposal so there are no surprises when it comes to cost and timeline. We always take in consideration your budget and will make recommendations for the amount of content and functionality.

Yes! An SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, encrypts data between the user and the web server. That means if your visitors are sending you personal information such as name, phone, emails, etc. that data needs to be encrypted to be secure. Your visitors want to see that their data is protected. Another reason to have one – Google will ding you if you don’t.

Your site most likely needs a design refresh every two to three years. You may not need a complete overhaul, but updating just parts of the site can make a big difference. After 5 years, sites start to look very dated and if it has been closer to 10 years, sweetie, you need a redesign!