Frequently asked questions | Houston's new internet marketing & web design company. Create Design Inspire

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Where can I learn more about Create Design Inspire?

Our about us page offers plenty of information regarding our company. If you would like to find out more, then please contact us.

How can I contact you?

The best way to contact us is using our contact form. However, we understand contact forms don't understand urgency. So if you need immediate assistance please call us at +1(832) 426-2302 or email us directly at hello@createdesigninspire.com

Why should I hire you?

We know that most potential clients are skeptical of web designers. This is because there are a lot of firms out there that do not have ethical business practices. We are ashamed of these companies and this what we set out to correct.
Create Design Inspire, believes that your web site should not be the last item on your budget. A website today is a marketing tool and a vital part of any business or organization. We believe in providing quality and service to our clients. Our client's concerns with price is the furthest thing from their mind when hiring us. We offer sites that more than pay for themselves in service and more often than not in increased revenue from our marketing efforts.
Your website should evolve with your organization, but we understand that more often than not there is little time and even understanding of maintaining a functioning site. This is where we come in! While you focus on running your organization, we will work with you and focus on running you web site. We also assit in tapping into the valuable resources the internet has to offer brining you new leads and even new business. So contact us today and start building a personal relationship with us.

Do you really offer free site maintenance?

Yes we do. We consistently see companies charging an arm & a leg to make changes to your site. We won't charge you. If you need minor changes to your site, we are happy to do them quickly and without cost to you. Just send us an email and we'll respond within 24 hours or less.
We also understand that a few can spoil it for the bunch. So we've spelled out our maintenance policy just so that we can continue to offer this service to our clients without being taken advantage of. We know that none of our clients would do that, but this is our "just in case" policy.

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

Every site varies in length due to the complexity and unique structure of every site. We do our best at estimating time using our reporting technologies for each client. What we normally tell our clients, is that the best case scenario is usually a 2 week period to design, code, test, and launch a complete site. Our custom development sites which usually provide a more web application feel take around 2 months.
However, more often than not our design process is delayed due to delivery of content. We have instituted measures to try to avoid this but we cannot ensure accurate delivery without strong communication and teamwork from our clients. If you have a time frame for delivery, then please let us know and we will pace ourselves to meet your deadline.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is an identification label that makes browsing the internet easier. Instead of typing in addresses such as 216.239.51.99 to go to Google, you type in Google.com. Good idea huh? A domain name is an important part of any organization in need of a website. A domain name that is easy to remember and identifies who you are and often what you do is the best practice for establishing a good domain name. If you need help then please ask us or check out SEOMoz's article on choosing the right domain name.

Can I choose you to design my site & use my own hosting?

Of course, if you already have hosting we can certainly launch your site from there. However, our 99.99% up-time guarantee does not apply. We also have extra safety measures instituted for making site changes on an external hosting provider. We enforce strict password policies on connections and require all site changes be documented via email. Thank you for understanding.

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is simply digital real estate offered to purchasers. The hosting company provides a high speed connection to your files that is not available to your personal computer. When tied with a domain name it is an always accessible and highly available spot on the internet where your web site exists.

What is site maintenance?

Site maintenance is a service we provide to all of our clients. This includes regular backups, monitoring and changes to your site. We constantly monitor security and assist you in keeping your site up-to-date. We provide all of this at no extra cost to our clients. Our services also include regular review and analysis of your site statistics and traffic reports.

Do you offer any type of discounts?

We offer discounts to educational institutes and non-profit organizations. We provide specialized services for charity organizations, churches and 501(C)(3) corporations. Please contact us for details.
We also offer an amazing referral program that pays our clients for referring business to us. This is just one of the benefits of being our client.

How do I get you to design my site?

It's simple. Contact us and we'll get some required information from you. We will schedule a meeting with you to understand your needs and identify the goals of your website. We will then develop a project plan and perform some initial research to provide a schedule and any additional costs that may be incurred. A formal contract will be drawn up and once this is signed, we will begin work on your site.

What is SEO?

Natural, or Organic, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a series of techniques used to drive a site to the top of the natural listings on a search engine. Efforts are focused on both on-page factors and link building.
An often neglected aspect of SEO is the selection of effective, high-impact keywords. If you optimize on the wrong keywords, the ROI will be non-existent.
Lastly, SEO must ensure that a site is indexed by the search engines. If a search engine does not know about a particular page, it certainly can't return that page for a query.

Why is SEO important?

Search engine optimization is important for a number of reasons including:

36% of searchers attribute top organic position with brand quality (eMarketer).
60% to 70% of all search traffic comes from organic listings (iMediaConnection).
90% of organic search traffic is driven from the top five listings (SearchEngineWatch.com).
62% of searchers view only one page of results before clicking (Jupiter Research)
Having the No. 1 listing in both organic and paid search can increase click rates by three times (SEO-PR)

Why shouldn't my company manage natural search internally?

In certain cases, managing SEO internally may be the correct decision. For those interested, we offer natural SEO training.
However, the landscape in natural search changes quickly, and what works today may well not work tomorrow. Our search marketing professionals stay abreast of all developments in the search engine marketing industry, and know what the latest, most effective techniques are.
In addition, a great deal of modern SEO involves the creation of external links. This is a laborious process, and many companies quickly learn that they would benefit from outsourcing their SEO efforts.

Do I need search engine optimization?

Well, of course, you have the option of not making your site accessible to search engines and directories...but what's the point of that? If you want your site to be found, then you must optimize it for search; and basically, that means you must make it visible to search engines. Web sites in today's competitive business market that are not optimized for search don't have much of a chance of being found by potential customers; and that goes for non-business sites as well.
There's really no excuse for not doing search engine optimization. If you go through the trouble of making a web site, then your intention probably is for that web site to be found. SEO just is the process that helps this happen.

How long does it take for SEO to kick in?

The amount of time required to see results of search engine optimization work range anywhere from 30 days for existing sites in local or niche markets to 24 months for new websites in a competitive of national/global market.

Why doesn't my site rank well?

Having your website rank high in the search engines is a science and the rules for search engine optimization (SEO) are always changing. Here are some reasons why you may be having poor ranking:

Incorrect usage of the TITLE tag or no TITLE tag content.
Too many occurrences of the same word in a page (spamming).
Missing H1 and H2 heading tag content.
Missing ALT tag content in your graphic links.
No meaningful content in the first 250 characters on each page.
Less than 200 words per page.
Very few pages on your website.
No links from other websites to your website (link popularity).

Also, you should always submit your site to any search directories manually. Please do not use automated submission services.

Does every page of my website need to be optimized?

In a word - yes. Every page of a website can be a potential entry point for visitors. You can't predict which page or pages will be ranked the best for specific keywords. As such, each page must be individually optimized for optimal ranking. Collectively, all pages of your website reinforce the common "theme" of the site, which also can help boost ranking. Don't assume that your home page is the most important page on your site.

Why is SEO so expensive?

SEO is a highly-specialized craft requiring much research, forethought, skill and can be extremely time-consuming to implement correctly. However, compared to offline and print advertising, SEO is quite cheap. The cost of having your website SEO optimized is by far the best advertising dollars spent and the return on your investment (ROI) can be very great.

What is Black Hat SEO?

Black hat optimization often employ "Tricks" such as hiding white text on white background, spamming keyword tags with hundreds of keywords, or cloaking, these black hat methods may appear to be a good thing, and in the past did fool the Search engine's. Today, the Search engine's look for these cheats and penalize your site for their use. We don't employ cheats or tricks to fool the Search engine's, we use approved techniques that meet Google's guidelines for webmasters.

Can you guarantee a number #1 position in search engines?

Nobody can guarantee a number #1 position or specific ranking for your site for a given keyword phrase. There are simply too many factors beyond anyone's control - the search engines changing their ranking algorithms, efforts made by competitors, and new sites being added to the Web.
Obtaining a specific ranking is analogous to managing a portfolio. Your financial advisor will do their best to monitor the stock market and other indicators and to make sure your portfolio is managed to the best of their abilities. However, your advisor cannot guarantee that your portfolio will be at a specific dollar value or even that the amount will be up at all by a given date.

Do you offer training services?

We can offer training services if you wish. Please contact us for more information.

What is paid search advertising?

Paid search, often known as Pay Per Click (PPC), is a form of advertising offered by the various Internet search engines. Advertisements are attached to particular keywords (or key phrases), and shown only when someone searches on that keyword. The major paid search providers are Google, Yahoo and Bing Search.

What is pay per click advertising?

Most advertising is purchased on a cost per impression basis. This means that the advertiser pays whenever someone sees the advertisement. Pay Per Click is purchased on a cost per click basis. The advertiser only pays when someone actually clicks on the advertisement. Most paid search advertising is handled on a Pay Per Click basis.

How does paid search differ from natural search?

Paid search can be launched quickly. Natural search generally takes months to show a return. Paid search focuses on a large number of keywords. Natural search needs to be focused on a few high-return keywords. And paid search is highly measurable. Tracking results on natural search is more difficult (although not impossible).

Isn't paid search expensive?

Poorly managed, paid search can be very expensive. Properly managed, it can be a goldmine. Most critical is that the results are carefully tracked, and that the data received from tracking is used to optimize the advertising.

Should I start with paid search or natural search?

We strongly recommend that you start with paid search. This allows you to test a large number of keywords, and to measure the results on a keyword by keyword basis. This information can then be used to target effective, high-impact keywords for your natural search efforts.
Unfortunately, much of our industry doesn't agree. They tend to focus on untested, often ineffective keywords. This may be due to the fact that natural search services tend to be more profitable than paid search services, as most of the money in paid search goes to Google and Yahoo.
In our view, the only legitimate reason a business should focus on Natural Search before proving out keywords on Paid Search is that the company is in an industry niche that is not hypercompetitive and has fairly obvious primary keywords with significant search volume.

How long will it take to receive results?

Once the accounts are created and activated, traffic should be received by the website within hours, if not minutes. Generally, traffic will ramp up over the first few days of the campaign.

How do you track results?

Most notably, we track results beyond the click. An increase in website "visibility" doesn't pay the bills.
The first step is to determine what is being measured on the site. In most cases, a site is either attempting to sell directly, or to generate leads for an offline sales team to work. We refer to these actions as online conversions.
Once the conversions have been defined, there are a number of third-party technologies that allow one to connect such conversions with their original source. The amount of information given is quite limited, and there is no way to ensure that transactions are not being counted multiple times.

What about click fraud?

Click fraud is a legitimate problem with paid search advertising. The major paid search engines have technologies in place to prevent click fraud, but they do not always work. We closely monitor our paid search accounts for suspicious behavior. This often results in a credit being made to the account by the search engine.

What is click fraud and how concerned should we be about it?

Click fraud is the act of sending fraudulent clicks to PPC advertisers. The clicks can either be generated by automated technology or via actual manual clicking on advertisements. The goal is either to generate revenue for affiliates or to increase the costs of a competitor.
Click fraud is certainly a problem, but the degree of problem is difficult to determine, as the search engines have not been forthcoming with real data. Given that they make money from click fraud, this is unacceptable and will likely be remedied in the courts (the lack of data, that is).
To their credit, the major search engines seem to be working hard to fight click fraud. We’ve seen them issue refunds to our clients before we were even able to ask.
Third party fraud detection tools can also help. When shown evidence of click fraud, the search engines generally will issue a refund.
In the meantime, it’s something of a cost of business in the paid search game. One should certainly keep an eye out for suspicious behavior, but realize that all one can do is lower it, not remove it entirely.

What is a bid limit?

A bid limit is the maximum you can spend per click for a particular keyword. While receiving clicks for less than the bid limit increases profitability and is very much welcome, it is extremely important to have an upper boundary.

How do you calculate bid limits?

The formula for calculating bid limits is as follows:
Transaction Value x Conversion Rate x Advertising Percentage Transaction Value represents the value of the online transaction. For instance, if you are selling widgets for $100, and your cost of goods is $60, the value of a transaction is $40. If the site is collecting leads, you need to determine what a lead is worth.
Conversion Rate is the percentage of website visitors that submit a transaction. If 200 people come in on a particular keyword, and ten of them submit lead forms, the conversion rate is 5%.
Advertising Percentage is a strategic decision as to how much of the value generated by a transaction should be allocated towards discretionary advertising spend.

As an example, let's say you have a transaction that you determine to be worth $100. For a particular keyword, the conversion rate is 4%. You're looking to grow as quickly as possible, so you set the advertising percentage as 50%.
The formula would be: $100 x 4% x 50% For a bid limit of $2.00 per click. Bid limits should be calculated on a keyword by keyword basis, as the conversion rate (and sometimes the transaction value) can vary greatly from one keyword to the next.

What is permission marketing?

Permission marketing is a term coined by Seth Cordin used generally in reference to online marketing. Marketers obtain permission before advancing to the next step in the purchasing process. For example, asking permission to send email newsletters to prospective customers. This type of marketing functions off explicit permission (email or catalog request) or an implicit permission (querying a search engine). Marketers feel this is a more efficient use of resources because the offers are only sent to people that are actually interested in the product or service.

What is SMM?

SMM involves promoting content in various ways to social media users, in attempt to increase traffic and exposure. SMM can involve developing content that targets social media users, building a network of other users, requesting votes from others, and anything else that involves getting votes and traffic from social media websites.

How can I use social media to build links?

There are basically two different ways to build links with social media. First, by submitting your content (or having someone else do it for you) you may be gaining a quality inbound link from the social media site itself. However, some social media sites use nofollow tags on links to discourage spam submissions. The second, and more effective, way to build links through social media is to develop excellent content that creates a lot of buzz with social media and will encourage other bloggers and website owners to link to you. Social media sites are an excellent platform for added exposure that will lead to more links.

Why does traffic from social media websites convert poorly?

Users of social media sites are generally arriving at your site just because they want to see what content is hot or popular with other users of the site. In most cases they have no interest in buying products or clicking on ads, that doesn’t fit into their purpose for using the social media site in the first place. Another factor is their attention span. Since social media sites provide such a high quantity of links and content, it’s very easy for social media users to leave your site and move on to the next option.

If social media traffic converts poorly, why is it worth my time?

If your intent is to directly sell products (or something similar) it probably is not worth your time. In this case there are other things you could be doing with your time that would likely create better results. However, in most cases social media marketing is worth your time because of the exposure, name recognition and branding opportunities that it presents. In addition, it doesn’t cost anything to promote content with social media (unless you hire someone for this purpose), and there are other benefits, such as increased search engine traffic through link building, and the opportunity to gain new subscribers.

What are the biggest social media sites?

Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Yahoo Buzz, and Delicious are some of the leading major social media sites.

What are the best social media sites for newbies?

StumbleUpon is an excellent source of traffic for new blogs and websites because it doesn’t require a large network or a lot of votes to get decent results (see 7 Reaons StumbleUpon is a New Bloggers Best Friend). Niche social media sites are also a good place to start because they are generally easier to have success with as compared to major social media sites (many niche sites might only require 5 or so votes to become “popular”, while it may take 200 or more with Digg).

How many social media sites should be used?

While there are hundreds, if not thousands, of social media sites out there, it’s impossible to use them all. Generally, it’s more effective to use a small number (I recommend 2 to 5) actively, and if you want to have accounts at other sites that you use ocassionally, that’s fine. Because part of being a successful social media user involves building a profile and a reputation at the site, it is much more realistic to achieve this when you’re using a small number of sites consistently.

What is the difference between SMM and Social Media Optimization?

The term Social Media Optimization usually doesn’t include the act of promoting content through such methods as requesting votes. SMO involves creating the right content and setting a website up to be friendly to social media users, but doesn’t go as far in terms of promoting the content.

Why are Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Optimization often mentioned together?

Many SEO experts also offer SMM services, and in most cases it is primarily for the purpose of link building. Search engine rankings are heavily influenced by inbound links, and one of the best ways to build links is to leverage social media.

What can a social media consultant do for me?

There are a number of different things that a social media consultant can do for you. They may help you to develop an overall strategy for using social media to effectively promote your site. They may help you to determine what types of content you could use to target social media users that would be relevant to your site. They may actually write the content for you. And, they may also help with promoting the content and getting votes for you.

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Our contact info

P.O Box #720881, Houston, TX 77272
(832) 426-2302
hello@createdesigninspire.com

Create Design Inspire

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