FAQ

If you expect to do business with today's consumer, the answer is a resounding, "Yes!" The reason is that with the huge number of PCs in use in business as well as in the home, more and more, people turn to the Internet for information. Whether it's to purchase a product or service, or simply to find out what businesses can fulfill their needs, the Internet is as ubiquitous a tool for discovery as the Yellow Pages were just a few years ago.

Contacting St. Louis Web Development should be your first step. You don't have to know anything about computers, site construction or online marketing to work with us. We will guide you through all the content and graphic development, register your domain name, and provide hosting services.

Your site will be designed to run on all browsers, and, after your final approval, uploaded to an internet server system. It is then available for anyone in the world to view and learn about your product or service. If you have an e-mail address, users can also contact you.

What would you like to display on your site? Products? Information about the products? Product pictures? Information about your company? How customers can reach you? How customers can order products or services? The list is really endless. Products, product demonstrations, ordering procedures, and ways to reach you are just the beginning.

No bigger than absolutely necessary. While it may be tempting to put your entire product catalog on-line, chances are that it could be just too much for a visitor to plow through. What you probably want to do is present an overview of your company, a concise list of representative products (or services), and then push the visitor toward contacting you, either directly or via the web site. In short, don't try to overwhelm a visitor with the size and complexity of your site.

Web sites are not physical like a building. They take up physical space only in terms of memory space on a computer. The computer on which your site resides can be anywhere: it could be on the other side of the world or in a corner of your office. It only depends upon the web site host.

No. You're reading this so you already have all of the tools you need. Actually, you don't even need to be connected to the Internet to have a web site, but, to reach the visitors, you'd want the email facility at the very least. It is not necessary to be an internet guru to have a web site that promotes your product or service.

Getting you on the Internet can probably be measured in hours. Of course, that's a simple, one-page "billboard" - type presence that lets people know you exist. Getting the full site up and running will depend upon the size of the finished site.

The sky's the limit! How about sound? How about animations or video clips? All of those things are possible… BUT, we do caution clients about going overboard on the "bells and whistles." If the "dazzle" outshines the core message, you've gone too far. As long as those bells and whistles are real enhancements to the site, we're all for them, and we'll even help you determine just what they ought to be.

You can!!! Perhaps the question should be, "Why shouldn't I build the site by myself?" The answer is probably, "Time." If you're a busy entrepreneur who hasn't been schooled in site design and construction, you're better off running your business. While building a web site isn't some sort of mystical art, it does take familiarity with the tools to create and launch the site in a timely manner.

St. Louis Web Development has an initial brainstorming session with you to determine the scope of your business and the message you want to get to the public. The overall flow, content, general look and feel of your site is outlined, and existing web sites you may like or dislike are identified. After our initial design, we put your site on stlwebs.com/<yoursite (at a location virtually inaccessible to the public) for your review as it is being developed. Only after you have given final approval will the site be published to your domain.

Yes, you can, though we discourage it. The issue is tied to the question above. Without a knowledge of the procedures, you may find site maintenance to be a time waster for yourself or one of your staff. Also, there is a level of risk of inadvertently destroying either a portion of the site or, possibly, the entire thing. For the minimal cost involved, let the people who do it everyday take care of it for you. It will be faster and safer — and, potentially, cheaper.

If there are certain areas of the site which change frequently, it may be possible to create "snippet areas" where you can make the changes safely.

They'll probably use a search engine. A search engine is an interactive card catalog of all the sites on the Internet. The user types in a couple of words about what they're seeking, and the search engine produces a list of web sites that seem to have the requested information. The key to getting the search engine to recommend your site is the creation and use of "metatags." These are words that are imbedded in your site and provide the search engines with necessary clues to tell it what visitors will find on your site.

There are many search engines available to users such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Webcrawler, Lycos, etc. These are updated daily, and by using "robots" and "spiders" they go through web sites and read keywords and descriptions in meta tags. This data is then indexed for users to find sites containing selected information.

Primarily to make sure everything is still correct! When was the last time you really combed your site to ensure that everything is accurate? Not just prices, but what about phone numbers, hours of operation, ways for people to reach you? There are lots of things that could have changed that need to be updated. And, what about broken links, either to complementary sites or from page-to-page within your site? Is your site navigation as clear as it can be? How about the way the message is presented? Could it be clearer, or better said? The better question may be, "Why haven't you thought about redesigning or updating your site?"

Because for the small to mid-sized business owner who wants to get on the web, or who wants redesign or maintenance services, St. Louis Web Development provides the best value. We're technically capable, design savvy, we can provide what you want in a realistic turn-around time, and our rates are probably the most competitive around.