Here is a list of questions (and my answers) to help you compare web service providers:
Please contact me if you have a question you don’t see on this list.
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Do you specialize in building sites for legal, business, and medical professionals? How so?
Yes. I build websites and blogs exclusively for legal, business, and medical professionals. I do this for one main reason … they are the industries I know best. After many years of marketing and building such sites, I’ve come to understand the purchasing process well and know what a website and blog must do to build business.
If you’re trying to figure out if a web designer or agency is a specialist or generalist, just take a look at their own website … if you read something like “we design and build websites for all of your business needs,” it’s a dead give away that they’re generalists and know little about how to build business for your specific industry.
When you hire a generalist, who may be good at building websites but knows little about how your industry works, here is how the conversation starts:
“OK … how do we do this?”
When you hire me, a specialist, who also builds good websites and understands your purchasing process, here is how the conversation starts:
“OK … here’s how we do this.”
I think that sums it up pretty well. Most legal, business, and medical professionals don’t have the time and energy to help the web designer figure out how the website should work. Because I do know how the industry and purchasing process works, all we have to do is follow a proven, straight forward design and writing process and get straight to work … we save time and avoid a lot of headaches.
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What is WordPress? Is a WordPress site better than a custom-built site?
WordPress is an open source website and blog building and management platform developed by the collective talents of hundreds, if not thousands, of web developers from around the world. It is the most functional, reliable, and easy-to-use web building and management tool I have ever seen.
Is a WordPress site better? It depends.
For massive or uniquely complex websites, custom-developement by an agency or in-house web team is probably the best way to go. But that’s not what 99% of legal, business, or medical professionals need or want to pay for. A WordPress site is more than adequate. It looks and performs as well, if not better, than a custom-built site … and costs much less.
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Why are your prices so low? Why a monthly maintenance fee?
Because I build clean, high-end websites and blogs with WordPress, I save a lot of time and eliminate custom development costs. Those savings are passed on to you. And as WordPress technology advances, your site is automatically upgraded. I also review your site every month to ensure your site content remains current and continues to build business. There is no reason your WordPress website and blog shouldn’t perform well and easily pay for itself for 10 or more years. In the long run, I earn what I need by keeping you as a satisfied customer.
Custom web designers and agencies can’t do that for you because they suffer a significant initial investment of time and development cost. As a result, they must charge a large upfront fee to build the site. Once the site is built, you’re often on your own. You get little help maintaining and getting the most out of the site. In as few as three or four years, the site erodes and requires upgrading. You then face more development fees, or worse, the need to build an entirely new site … again.
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Who owns my site?
Once the site is paid for and launched, you own it. I don’t handcuff you by withholding copyrights or source files. If my web services are no longer needed, I provide you a CD copy of all the site files to do with as you wish. Not all web designers and agencies offer the same.
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How will I know if my website and blog is performing well? Do you guarantee first-page search engine ranking?
To keep it simple, here’s how you know if your site is performing well:
- first-page Google ranking for your desired keyword phrase (e.g., “plastic surgeon colorado springs”)
- W3C-compliant code (visit: validator.w3.org and type in your web address for results)
- 100% uptime service
Tip: to check if a web designer builds compliant code, visit validator.w3.org, type in their own web address or client addresses and view the results. If you see errors, you might think twice before hiring them.
There are other useful measures I provide you every month (i.e., unique visits, bounce rate, time spent on site, # pages viewed, incoming links), but if the site is doing the above, it’s doing about as well as can be expected.
While I generally do well to get first-page ranking results for clients, I do not guarantee first-page search engine ranking. No one can. Be careful if anyone tells you otherwise. Certainly, your site should be optimized to perform well in the search engines, but a first-page ranking is dependent upon several factors, such as:
- do you regularly add relevant content to your site?
- do other relevant and reputable sites link to your site?
- how old is your site?
- do you write and name pages using relevant keywords?
- does your site receive a lot of traffic?
- how many sites compete for the same keywords?
Caution: trying to ‘game’ the system can have detrimental results. If a search engine service such as Google determines you are trying to cheat its system with search engine ‘tricks,’ you risk having your site blacklisted. Once blacklisted, it’s nearly impossible to get your site a favorable page ranking ever.
