Web Design FAQ and Managed WordPress Hosting FAQ
There are so many different technical pieces to a website. Here you can find answers to common questions around the website design process, domains, hosting, ADA Compliance, and Google Business Profiles. The FAQs are separated by tabs.
Choose the right tab for your question then find your question on that page. If your question is not answered here, feel free to contact me and get your answer. This will also help me to have a complete FAQ section.
Top Search Engine Placement for a New Website
A new website will take a while to get top search engine placement. It might never happen if you do not keep adding to your website. High search engine ranking depends on many different things. Some of the ranking signals on a website are:
- Is there enough content on each page to let search engines know what the page is about?
- Does your web page contain headers, sub-headers, lists, paragraphs, well placed keywords, images, video and meta data?
- Is your website organized in a way that is search engine friendly?
- Are you adding content to your website regularly?
Why can’t my website designer purchase my domain for me?
Whoever owns the account that the domain is purchased in, owns that domain. If you let someone purchase it for you , in their account, they own the domain.
I have seen this happen often. It never ends well. Over time the person that purchased your domain might leave the industry, leave the country, retire, or pass away. Maybe they just stop returning your calls or emails. Now what?
If you do not have access to your domain, you will be rebuilding your website in the future on another domain. Not ideal, but I have seen it happen many times.
Protect yourself and buy your own domain, in your account.
The Knowledge Graph is the block of information pulled from Google Business Profiles that show on a search results page. The Knowledge Graph pulls in information from your Google Business Profile as well as other places on the web. For example, it might display some reviews from Facebook. Here is a partial image of my Knowledge Graph. The entire Knowledge Graph is too long to get in 1 screenshot.
Google allows business owners to add posts to their profiles. These accept images, a block of text, and a link or call to action button.
The different categories are COVID updates, Offers, Events, and What’s New.
These posts show on your Knowledge Graph when someone searches for your business. They make your business stand out from the competition, especially if your competition is not using this feature. They also let your future clients know that you are staying current within your industry and are the person to go to.
Yes! Products can be added through the Info tab or the Products tab. This is a great way to feature the products that you sell on your website. You can put them into categories to organize them.
Link to the actual product page on your website for purchase.
Products get highlighted on the mobile version of Google Business Profile.
This is an easy way to add content to your GBP account regularly.
Yes! Services can be added through either the Info tab or the Services tab. They get added per business category that you added to your account in the Info tab.
You can add all your services and include either a price or a price range. Descriptions can also be added. These will show on your account when someone looks at your mobile version.
One thing to watch for, Google tends to add services for you that they think you might offer. I check this area frequently and find that I have to accept their changes, then delete the services that do not apply. If you decide to keep one that they have added, fill it out completely.
The types of posts that can be added to your Google Business Profile account are as follows:
- Offers: These are specials or deals of your products or services with a starting and ending date. You can attach coupon codes to these posts. You can link to where the offer can be purchased.
- What’s New: General blog posts. These can be on any topic but should be educational. They can also be announcements for new products, new services, new hours, etc.
- Events: These are events that have a specific date and time. You can link these posts to anywhere on the Internet where they can register or purchase the event. These posts will stay active until the event has passed.
Posts used to expire after seven days. That is no longer true. You will still get an email from Google telling you your last post is about to expire. I take that as a reminder that I need to make another post.
Posting regularly in Google Business Profile helps keep your GBP profile higher in the search results.
Yes! Videos can be added by going to the Photos tab and selecting Video. The videos need to be under 30 seconds, under 75 MB, and over 720p resolution. They take a while to upload and up to 24 hours to render and view your GBP account.
Some of the businesses that have been sued for not being ADA Complaint are:
- Bed Bath Beyond Inc.
- Beyoncé’s Parkwood entertainment
- City National Bank
- Domino’s Pizza
- Kylie Jenner
- Pandora Ecomm, LLC
- Pharrell Williams
- The Hershey Company, Inc.
I hope you noticed that some of these are huge companies. They have the money to hire the best lawyers. As a small business, I assume you do not have to spend on legal fees and attorneys. These companies still lost – do you think you will win?
Preventing your business from ever getting sued is the best answer.
Yes! Large companies are getting sued for not being in ADA compliance, and they are losing!.
There are people out there making a living from suing businesses that do not comply with the ADA rules.
This is terrible because most small business owners have no idea there are ADA compliance rules for websites. Most are familiar with handicapped parking or wheelchair entrances. But websites?
Videos that are not captioned or subtitled are not ADA compliant. Websites with low contrast between the font color and the background color are not ADA compliant.
Instead of businesses getting a warning and a written notice of how they are out of compliance (so they can fix the problem), people are making a living from suing – and winning!
An ounce of prevention will save you a great deal of money in this case. Will you get sued? Who knows. However, if your website is ADA compliant, it is more user-friendly.
Visit this page for videos on actual companies that have already been sued – and lost.
Google Business Profile (GBP) is Google’s program to get businesses listed in its Map area. If you do not have a GBP account, your business will not get listed in Maps. GBP is also where companies collect reviews, respond to reviews, make blog posts, add services, and add other information about their business.
The suite of ADA Compliance tools that Premium Websites offers is a program that can be added to almost any website. The program will give your website users the ability to:
- Zoom the text
- Change the font to one that is easy to read
- Change the text spacing
- Read blocks of text out loud
- Change the website contrast
- Highlight all links
- Highlight headings
- Change the curser, so it is bigger and easier to use
ADA (American Disability Act) compliance is when your website meets the guidelines set by the ADA. It makes your website easier for screen readers. The policies are set to make it easier for disabled people to use a website. Some of the things that it includes are:
- Text large enough to read without zooming the page
- Text that has enough contrast to be seen and read easily
- Images that have Alt tags (this is what the screen readers use to describe the image)
- The content uses headings and titles
- The website colors have sufficient contrast
- The website is easy to navigate
- The website does not use PDF documents
- Videos are captioned
There is more involved with the coding of your website. This list is just the basics.
We create websites for small businesses. Premium Websites offers web design packages that most small businesses will fit into. We can customize the package if you need a specific function or feature. Our packages start at $1595 and go up to $4195. Most websites that we create here in Vancouver, WA, will fit into one of those packages.
We do offer a 3-month payment plan for businesses that need it. The website will not go live until the payment plan is completed.
Why hire Premium Websites instead of a Freelancer?
Great question. Freelancers come and go. They are usually just making ends meet until they find the job they are looking for. Often, if you want to connect with them for changes in the future, they are no longer creating websites. They have disappeared or won’t return your call or email. I get many clients from people who have used freelancers in the past.
We converted to designing in WordPress when blogging became a reality for the average person. WordPress is now a complete content management system that can be optimized for excellent search engine placement.
Dotty has experience in what works for small businesses. She is a small business and tests everything with her company before ever using it for clients. She knows what works and what does not (or what no longer works) because she has tried it herself first.
Dotty is an advocate for your success Online. She has your back!
Dotty is transparent with her website packages and pricing. You will know the exact cost of your website project before work ever begins. There will be no surprises! This is rare in the Website Design industry.
Pricing is clearly marked – everyone gets the same pricing. Some website design firms make more affluent businesses pay more, which seems unethical. You can rest assured that you are paying for the functions your website needs, not based upon how much money you can afford.
If you want an honest conversation about website costs, functions, and any other website topics, give Dotty a call! 360-607-4767
You are 100% responsible for the content of your website. This means all text, images, and video. You must also own the copyright for the content. That means you cannot copy from other websites or steal images from other websites. Photos must be purchased from a stock images company or photographer or the pictures you took with your camera or cell phone. You will be the one that will be sued for copyright infringement if you use an image that you do not have the right to use.
I do not create content. I will reformat the content you provide based on my knowledge of search engine optimization techniques. However, you must provide the content initially.
This usually depends on the client. The biggest thing that holds up the website completion date is content. I can get a site up within three weeks of starting the project, yet this rarely occurs. I usually have to wait for the content to be created and submitted. I have clients that get their website up and running within a month, and I have clients that have waited over a year to complete the website. It is really up to you.
Search Engines like social Media sites. Your business profile will be ranked in a search engine as a web page. Having many different profiles linked to your website will give you a massive advantage over a competitor not using this strategy. Other benefits are; it helps your business build trust and credibility online, which is very hard to gain with just a website. It also gives your potential clients many different ways to find you or your business, increasing their chances of getting to your website.
I have had clients contact me through Facebook – they prefer that method over email or phone. Meet your clients where they are comfortable. The more social media sites you have profiles on, your website and business will perform better. Don’t feel like you need to fully participate on every social media site; you do not.
Social Media encompasses many different sites. Any site that is interactive with the user can be considered social media. They can range from video and photo sharing sites, blogs, microblogs like Twitter, social sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious, or any industry-specific websites. Social Media sites help build brand recognition, reputation, credibility, and links to your website.
The recommended minimum Social Media site are:
- Google My Business
If you want more results, add:
- YouTube
- Any industry-specific sites
High ranking in search engines is dependent on many different factors, including the number of keywords in your content and links.
Never trust a web company that says they can guarantee first-page placement on Google. For one, Google does not design its search engine to be easily manipulated. And even the world’s top search engine experts would never claim to have a search engine “figured out.” The best way to be placed high in the search engines is to write a lot of good, relevant content for your website. This gives your site a lot of credibility and offers tremendous value to web users. Any page you want to be ranked well in a search engine needs to have 500 words. Lack of quality content is the biggest reason websites do not rank well.
This depends entirely on when the search engines send out their web crawlers or spiders to index your site. This can take one week or two months! We help the process along by submitting your sitemap through Google Search Console. This lets them know you would like to be added to their queue for indexing. Using Google Search Console helps get your site indexed within days of its launch.
Maintenance is updating a website once the initial design phase has been completed. We offer maintenance on an hourly basis. Most good websites have new content updated regularly. Fresh content is what will keep your visitors coming back. Maintenance can also be:
- Keeping all plugins and the core WordPress files updated (Included with our hosting)
- Keeping content on the site current ~ employees come and go ~ is your Staff page updated?
- Troubleshooting any issues
- Adding or deleting images
- General changes to your website
No, but it is recommended. We provide Managed WordPress hosting. This means that the hosting account is configured for your specific website. We will update the plugins, theme files, and core WordPress files. Our hosting is also more secure and faster than shared hosting accounts.
If you choose to go with Shared hosting, keep in mind that your website will be vulnerable to hacking and other nefarious activity.
There are a few hosting companies that we can recommend. Any host that utilizes Cpanel might be a good host for WordPress. We also have a list of hosts that we do not recommend because they do not work well with WordPress or are hard to contact when you have issues.
Recommended:
Not recommended:
- Godaddy
- iPage
- Dreamhost
- Network Solutions
- Bluehost
If you do not have a host picked out already, I will help you with your choice when the time comes to purchase a hosting account.
Website hosting is required for your website to be accessible on the Internet. The hosting company stores all your website files to be accessible on the Internet.
Good hosting companies help to ensure your site is up and running 99.9% of the time. Hosting companies also possess the communication equipment to provide fast access to your site so that your pages load quickly. Hosting is based on an annual fee that you pay to have your site accessible on the Internet.
Not all hosting companies are equal. Many do not play well with WordPress. Many offer cheap shared hosting that is shared worldwide. Do you want your files on a server with people doing questionable things on the Internet?
That depends. What are you going to do with it? Do you need brand recognition or an online identity? If you do, registering a domain name can be a great place to start.
Your company will look more professional with email coming from “you@yourcompany.com” than it would from “you56743@aol.com”. However, if you want a fun site to tell about your family or something for a special occasion that only a select few will know about, then a free subdomain from wordpress.com would be a great way to go.
Simply put, it is your address on the World Wide Web. It is what you type into your web browser’s address bar to get to a website.
Our domain name is PremiumWebsites.net, or www.PremiumWebsites.net The www is no longer needed. Either way, you type it, the same website will be delivered.
Domains are purchased at a company like GoDaddy and need to be bought in YOUR name by YOU. Do not let a friend, web designer, or anyone else purchase your domain for you. Whoever buys it owns it.
“Dotty is an award winning web designer. She designed and manages the website for the Fort Vancouver Lions and won the regional award (WA,ID and British Columbia). If you want your website to make a difference – have her take a look at it!”