Following are questions Belmont Designs customers have asked along with our answers.

If you have a question that’s not listed below, please e-mail us, and we’ll provide you with the answer you need.

What can a web site do for my organization?

Your site will reach potential customers that might not have heard of you otherwise and will allow customers to view and purchase your products or services even after working hours.

As long as it works, does it matter how it looks?

Studies show that attractively designed and navigable sites attract more viewers than lower-quality sites and get them to go deeper in the site and further along in the purchase decision-making process.

Do I need to hire a local web designer?

We create web sites for clients regardless of location. We make sure we communicate effectively with our clients through e-mail, phone, Skype, and instant messaging, according to their preferences.

How do I know you’re the right web development firm for me?

Having worked with a wide variety of companies, we know that needs vary, but an attractive, well-designed, and easily navigated structure is a must. Belmont Designs believes in communicating with our customers to determine your specific needs and wants, then delivering the expected results.

I’d like you to design my web site so what do I do next?

Just send an e-mail to info@belmontdesigns.com, and we’ll contact you to get started.

How much will it cost to develop a web site?

The cost of your web site will vary depending on the web hosting and domain name registration provider(s) you choose, how many pages you’ll have, if you’ll sell products or services on the site, how many and what kind of graphics you’d like to have, and how interactive you’d like your site to be.

Do you offer any discounts?

Yes, we offer discounts to nonprofit organizations. Please contact us at info@belmontdesigns.com for more details and keep in mind that we’ll need you to provide proof of your organization’s nonprofit status for our records.

How long does it take to have a web site designed?

We’ll provide you with an estimated time frame according to your needs, the size of your web site, the complexity of your site design, and our current client commitments.

What’s an URL?

Universal resource locator or URL comprises the address you typed in your browser to view a web page. For example, our URL is www.belmontdesigns.com so you would type in http://www.belmontdesigns.com to view our home page.

What’s a domain name? What domain name should I choose?

When you choose your own domain name, you get a specific web site address that you register with Network Solutions (the official registrar of domain names ending in .com, .edu, and .gov). Our domain name is "belmontdesigns.com,” for instance. The best domain names consist of the company name or trademark and are easy to pronounce and spell out to customers.

What’s web hosting?

It’s a monthly fee that you pay to have your site accessible on the Internet. We can provide web hosting for our clients.

My site’s currently hosted elsewhere, but I’d like to switch over to Belmont Designs. How do I do this?

Just send an e-mail to info@belmontdesigns.com, and we’ll transfer your domain name along with all of your existing web site content.

Can I choose you to design my site but use my own web host?

Yes, you can use any web host you like. Once we’ve completed your site design, we’ll need you to provide us with your web hosting ftp login user name and password so that we can upload your site for you.

What’s the difference between a static and dynamic site?

A static site is written in HTML, with each page being a separate document, without drawing on any database. The only way to make changes to the site is to go into each page and edit the HTML.

A dynamic site is written with more complex code and can do a lot more, according to your needs and those of your customers. Each page is built based on the information in a database, which can be changed through another interface. Dynamic sites can reduce ongoing maintenance costs though they usually cost more to develop initially. They require more complex coding along with the development of a content management utility to help you manage your web site information. As your site grows, it can also make data management much more efficient.

Many of Belmont Designs customers’ sites consist of a combination of static and dynamic pages (e.g., the contact information page would be static while the product catalog pages would be dynamic).

What content should I put on my site?

The type of content depends on your goals for your web site. If you’re offering products or services, you’ll want to provide the information – text and illustrations – that will influence your customers to decide to purchase from you.

What kind of site maintenance do you offer?

We offer our customers the opportunity to keep their sites up-to-date with new content that they provide us with on a monthly basis. Most effective web sites are regularly updated with new text and graphics, and that’s what will keep your viewers returning.

What are my eCommerce or online donation options?

You can take payments online in various ways – through PayPal, Mal’s e-commerce, Network for Good (just for nonprofits), or create a full eCommerce solution.

With PayPal (www.paypal.com), you can start taking payments quickly, especially if you don't have a merchant account, and you don’t have to pay any start-up fees. You can easily integrate their shopping cart into your site, which reduces development time. Your customers can pay you with a credit card or by sending a payment from their checking account (eCheck). PayPal offers a shopping cart and other free services for a charge of 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction. However, PayPal is not very customizable and may have a “start-up feel” though this is changing as an increasing number of people sign up for PayPal accounts.

Mal's e-commerce (www.mals-e.com) provides a free shopping cart system that’s remotely hosted. It allows you to accept PayPal, checks, and credit cards if you have your own way to charge them already (i.e., it stores the numbers for you to run off-line). For a small fee ($6 per month), you can upgrade your cart to integrate it with a number of popular payment gateways like Authorize.net, but you’d be responsible for other fees associated with payment gateways and merchant accounts.

Just for nonprofits, Network for Good (www.networkforgood.org) allows organizations to accept credit card donations on their sites. They charge 3% of each transaction.

Last but not least, you can create a full eCommerce solution that would include a merchant account from a bank, payment gateway service so you can accept payments into your merchant account from your web site (often bundled with the merchant account), shopping cart or payment script that integrates with your payment gateway, and certain server environment elements (e.g., SSL certificate and static IP). You can select from shopping carts that are available as prepackaged scripts (e.g., Magento), which can be customized for your situation, or you can choose to have a custom payment script developed to fulfill your specific needs. If you expect your site to have a high sales volume, it might be worth getting full eCommerce integrated into your site so that your customers can have a truly seamless payment experience and to save yourself money in the long run.

Why can't I find my web site in the search engines?

Once we submit your site to the top search engines, it may take several weeks or even months for them to look at it and list it in their directories. Trying to circumvent their reviewing process can actually get your site blacklisted so patience is in order. You can watch your server traffic logs for visiting search engine “spiders” or  you can have us review your logs for you for an additional fee, if you’d like, and advise you of milestones reached.

How can you help me get my web site listed on search engines, especially Google? Or how do I get more traffic?

We provide search engine optimization (SEO) services to enable your customers to find your site when they look for the products or services they need. Just send an e-mail to info@belmontdesigns.com, and we’ll contact you to get started.

If you have a question that’s not listed above, please e-mail us, and we’ll provide you with the answer you need.

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