.: Welcome to ParrotWebs FAQ Section....
Here we will try to answer some of the most often asked questions people have when they are
trying to determine which tact to take when considering a website.
If you have a question, write us and we will answer as quickly as possible. Perhaps we will
include it here to better serve future visitors.
Custom Website Design
Why Custom design? Why not use a website
template or one of those online site builders? It is cheap..gets the job done.
That is a perfectly valid question. The answer is ranking and branding.
Template sites produce the same unpersonalized look, contain the same text
and provide no real presence of your business. Our custom look is all yours. It can stretch and grow as your
business grows. It is also built with "best practices" in place, so nothing in it
causes penalties in search engines and keeps your site from ranking high and harvesting that all-important search traffic.
There is also a particular amount of wisdom involved that a qualified, experienced webmaster can offer.
These bits of wisdom can make the difference in your site being deemed an "authority" site by Google and achieving over time what Google terms as "trustrank". These
are all things you want your site to achieve. The site designer must know the design factors that determine the fate of your site.
Simply buying a template or using a "sitebuilder" service will NOT give you the knowledge to create a successful site.
What does it cost to have a custom website made just for me or my business?
No professional webmaster can give you a blanket price for a custom website unless he knows all the details
of what your needs and wants are. The good news is we are offering a custom 5 page business site for as low as $595.00 right now as one of our summer specials.
There is more good news. We don't charge for a consultation to determine exactly what you need. We will be happy to meet with you
at your place of business and discuss your project if you are local. If not local, we can utilize email and phone to hammer it out.
What is the process to go thru to have a website up and running?
With our first meeting, we will decide exactly the type of site your business requires. We determine what subjects and sections for your website, colors
logos, graphics, if you need a shopping cart, credit card acceptance, type of layout that most appeals to you. We find what you have so far as ready content and pictures
and other pertinent information. As soon as we know these details, we can give you a very close estimate of cost. All in one meeting. If we can come to an agreement that is mutually
beneficial to both parties, we will then spend a few days working up a sample of what your site will look like.
At the second meeting, we will show you our vision of what you want. We will discuss changes and enhancement if wanted. At this point we can give you a firm price. Then it is
up to you. If agreed, we can give you a time frame and then flesh out a contract. We do require a 50% upfront payment before we begin work with the final payment due upon having
your site "go live".
What is SEO and why do I need it?
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of promoting your site in a way that makes it seem important to the search engines
such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and so forth. It is what gets you ranked so that you show up in the first page of results. Certainly most businesses want to be #1 in the search results
for anyone searching for their product or service.
Do you need it? Not neccesarily. Some businesses simply have what we call a welcome mat site that only
validates this business thru having a webpage. In today's world, if you don't have a website you can be considered incomplete as a business. Some loan papers are not even considered
unless the business has a website.
What do you consider as the biggest no-nos of web design?
Okay..I admit it..I put this question in here so I could add my favorite pet peeves on this page. Here are just a few things that I see
web design companies stick in clients faces and sites every day...
#1 pet peeve..an entire site made of flash!
Sure, it looks good..real entertainment..but search engines can't read flash!!!! Flash is the same as "a nod to a blind horse". Search engines send out cyber "spiders" to go thru your site
and collect information to decide what your site is about. Spiders rely on html and text to analyze this information and feed it back to their data banks. Pictures and flash mean
nothing to the spiders. Actually, pictures can have an alt tag that contains information as to what it is. Flash does not.
As a case in point: Two years ago I had a possible client that
decided to go with an all flash site. He was impressed with a site built by a young man for a company that sold law enforcement gear. It was a shopping cart site built entirely in flash.
Just to test it out, I ran keyword phrases in google to see what would pop up. These were phrases copied directly from the site. I could not find the site in the returns for those
searches. I finally put in the city, state and title of the site...nothing. It did not come up. The search engines just did not understand this site at all. There was no "search food"
for them.
Flash can be used in a site. But sparingly. Banners and ads. Very Limited. BTW..That business never succeeded and is now defunct..gee..I wonder why?
#2 Landing pages..introduction pages.
Those pages that appear when you first go to a site that have flash or picture that you have to endure
or click out of to get to the main site. Tell the truth. Why do you go to a site on the web? Information! And you want it fast! Have youever gone to a site and clicked out
because you got tired of weeding thru it just to find the information you were looking for? So, Why would you want to build a site like that?
Give the visitor what they want.
Quick access to your information and clean, obvious navigation thru your site. It is the golden rule in cyberspace...treat others the way you want to be treated.
#3 Scrolling text, flashing pictures, things that take a long time to load and slow up your webpage.
Now truthfully...broadband has made heavy load times a kind of non-issue. But still, all these things added to a webpage..all that movement..draws the eyes away from your information.
Do you have something to hide? Do you want to use the old trick of watching the magicians moving hand? You don't..do you...You want to give that site visitor every bit of information
you can cram into their eyes as quickly as possible because you have goods/services that are better than anyone else out there! That is why you are in business!
#4 BAD NAVIGATION..MENUS...
There are certain no-nos that I see repeated over and over by dull witted webmasters.
There is nothing worse than being deep into a site and not know where you are. You
can't even find your way back to the home page to start over. Every page should have either a complete menu or a crumb trail to lead you
back to a main page to find your way to other information you are seeking.
There is one other thing...Javascript menus. Usually a drop down or flyout menu. It looks great and seems to give you great
navigation thru the site. And that is great. What is the drawback? Search engines have a terrible time with javascript. It is extremely difficult for them to parse javascript. Consequently they
miss pages or abandon the site unfinished. Some webmasters actually put a complete html menu at the bottom of each page to overcome this problem.
At Parrotwebs, we design with a complete css driven drop down menu when needed. With a css menu, all links are clearly displayed in the code of the page. Each and every page.
The search engines have NO problem following these links throughout your site. It takes more expertise and sure..it's difficult..but it IS the best solution for the client.
Nothing else comes close.
#5 Search engine submission services..PUHLEAZE!!!..Companies that sell these services should be extremely ashamed of themselves. It has been repeated over and over again by
representatives of the search engines that you do NOT need to submit your site to get indexed by the search engines. Their advice is to get some links and they will find those and follow them to
your site. They WILL find you naturally. They PREFER to find you that way. In fact, mechanical..electronic..automatic..(whatever you want to call it) submission can actually get you punished by the search engines.
A good webmaster will at least get you a few links to get you indexed. They will also get you a google account to jump you off properly. Enough on this subject.
#6 Google! Google! Google!..Why do you go on about Google?
Because Google SHOULD provide you 67% of your traffic. That is the analysis of about a 1000 webmasters around the world. I am a senior member of a group of webmasters that spends much of it's time
analyzing search traffic. Google is the 800 lb gorilla. It is the lifeblood of traffic to your site. It is what people use. If you can't be found in Google..on the front page of the returns.."above the fold"..
you aren't getting the traffic your business deserves.
#7 Music..Sound..Noise..a great big no-no!
Unless you are a news or entertainment site..sound is a no-no. Some poor schlep is sitting in his cubicle landing on your site and your music screams out. He just killled your site.
These are the basics but we will be adding more questions and answers as we go along. Please contact us thru email or by phone if you have additional
questions. Our goal is to make you extremely happy and delighted to do business with us.
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