Frequently Asked Questions
How To Provide Login Info
Login Info Needed – For all your logins, please provide:
- Login URL – this is where we go to login (such as https://www.lovettwebdesign.com/wp-admin)
- User ID/Name
- Password
Some Logins We May Need
Website Login
Web Host/Server Login – for access to your website files (such as siteground, bluehost, godaddy etc)
Google Login – for access to search console or analytics. Preferred method is to add our email address as a new user in google search console per Add User To Search Console Instructions
eMail Marketing Login – such as Mail Chimp, Constant Contact and Active Campaign
Social Media Logins – if you want us to manage your social media. For Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn, you will need to send us an invite and add us as a new user. The other SM accounts have logins that you can send.
How To Send Login Info Securely
Step 1 – Navigate to 1ty.me at https://1ty.me/
and enter all your sensitive login information in the form.
Step 2 – Click ‘Generate Link’ to retrieve a short URL
Step 3 – Email (or text) your short URL to us.
All the data you entered in the form is destroyed and no one else can ever access it.
Screenshare Instructions with FreeConferenceCall.com
Step 1 – A few minutes before our scheduled meeting, you will receive a ‘Meeting Invite’ email invitation from info@lovettwebdesign.com with screenshare info (such as below example) – Click the Join Online Meeting link
Step 2 – Client enter name and email address and click join, then client will see my screen (no software needed to download). You will then see our computer screen on your computer.
Step 3 – Audio – Easiest Way – Call Mark at 301-802-2228
* You Must Already Have A Google Search Console Account
Step 1: Navigate to Google Search Console ( https://search.google.com/ ) and log in.
Step 2: Select the correct property from the “search property” drop down.( note that Search Console is sensitive to matching the domain exactly.)
Step 3: Next, select the settings of your web property.
Step 4: Under settings select users and permissions.
Step 5: In the Users and permissions settings select Add User.
Step 6: Finally, on the Add user screen add the user’s email to your account, and click add.
We often get the question from clients, ‘How Can I Send My Login Info Securely Online?’ We recommend a simple, safe, secure and Free, method to send sensitive login info.
As you know, login info can be quite complex, so it needs to be communicated in a copy and paste format. Trying to pass it verbally can be a time consuming headache, so best to avoid it at all costs.
We recommend using 1ty.me
Follow These Simple Steps To Send Login Info Securely:
Visit 1ty.me and enter all your sensitive information in the form.
Click ‘Generate Link’ to retrieve a short URL.
Email (or text or skype or slack, etc) your short URL to us.
All the data you entered is destroyed and no one else can ever access it.
While a vast majority of my clients host their websites with us, it’s not required. If you would like to host your own website, we would need to gain access to your domain registrar to make some simple edits to DNS (Domain Name System) your configuration.
Yes! We’re great at communicating via phone and email, and our clients come from all over the United States.
No. We can get started by using placeholder content while you work towards completing your content.
Each project is different, but on average we have a website launched within 3 to 5 weeks depending on how proactive you are with content, approvals and revisions.
You always have full ownership over your website.
If we are hosting your website, although we’d hate to see it happen, you’re free to move your website to a third-party company. Since your website is built using WordPress, you can transfer it to just about any web host.
No. All of our work is performed in-house in Maryland, USA.
We used to offer email accounts with our websites, but technology has changed and there are better solutions now.
Most web hosts that bundle email service into web hosting give you a very basic email system. There often isn’t spam control, fraud or virus protection, and the storage space is limited.
Enter G Suite by Google and Microsoft Office 365!
Email services provided by G Suite and Microsoft Office 365 surpass those offered by our host, so consider setting your email service up with them and we’ll help you.
Yes, you are welcome to speak with our project manager about your website needs for free.
If you would like a consultation with Mark you’ll need to pay for it.
Website Consultation Rates & Info
Yes of course. I can login to your site and make minor changes, if needed, during your web consultation. Just give me your login credentials.
There are a few added features on the higher level plans that are self explanatory, however the main difference is additional time for web work.
The Basic plan doesn’t include any additional time for minor web changes.
The higher level maintenance plans include various amounts of additional time for website changes such as adding content, images, links, styling etc..
Yes I can do an SEO analysis of your site during a paid web consultation if you provide login credentials.
Yes I can analyze your website during a paid web consultation if your provide your login credentials.
There are two approaches to Search Engine Marketing. One, pay a digital company specializing in search engine optimizations and search engine marketing to place your ad on the results page of a generated search, or two, the organic way.
In Organic Search Engine Marketing, we dont have to pay to place our brand, service or product on the result page. Using SEO tools, creating great content, and strategically placing relevant keywords, the link to your page shows up in a natural search as one of the top ten pages in the search category.
Advantages of organic search engine marketing
Is paid search engine marketing or search engine marketing via sponsored ads a better preferred to organic listing?
Statistics show that web users, more or less, assume that a sponsored ad is going to lead to a paid site or an expensive site and hence do not click on it.
Viewers are more likely to click on one or most of the first ten pages displaying in an organic list for the search of relevant keywords.
70% of the search engines report that web links shown in an organic listing are visited daily by viewers. This means that when your web page shows up in an organic listing you have the potential to attract consumers to your web page daily.
50% of the people using the search engine tend to reflexively focus on the top search results and more often than not do not even notice the content of the sponsor ads.
72% Google users have reported that results generated in their organic listings are more relevant to their searches than the sponsored ads.
The overall conversion rates of results shown in an organic listing are three times higher than those of sponsor ads or links.
The truth is viewers would tend to click on a sponsor ad because the content is gripping, and curiosity which leads a viewer to chase a paid presence. The conversion of a viewer who has landed on your web page out of curiosity into a potential customer is very low.
When a viewer clicks on the search result of an organic listing, he wants to visit that page because it is relevant to their search.The chances of converting such a viewer into a client are much higher.
We’ll do the best we can to provide a fixed price website quote if possible, however, we might not have enough details to do so.
A very common question is Why can’t I get a fixed price website quote for my web design & SEO ?
We know how much a car brake job is going to cost before we buy it, and we know how much a car is going to cost before we purchase it, however, we don’t know the total attorney or medical fees we’ll need to pay in advance. Certain types of work are much easier to estimate.
Work in areas that involve a number of constantly changing, unknown, variables, such as technology, is impossible to know the time needed for a project in advance.
In web design, web development and SEO, there are five challenges to estimating time in advance.
Why can’t I get a fixed price website quote | 5 Top Reasons
- Not enough details
For example, a home builder needs a high quality architectural drawing for a fixed quote. If a professional doesn’t do a discovery, and then prepare a detailed, expensive, time consuming, drawing/mock-up, there are unpredictable communication barriers. - Technology changes too rapidly
For example, perhaps since the last time I performed a similar task, the theme, plugin software, and WordPress core code has been updated and changed. These code changes are monthly occurrences which pose new problems which require new solutions. - Estimate Inaccuracy Issues
If the estimate is too high you get hurt. If the estimate is too low I get hurt. If we take it in bite-size chunks, such as one day at a time, and an accounting of work done is provided as we progress, it’s fair and manageable for both parties. - Scope Creep
Estimates and Agreements are often fraught with misunderstanding. For example, the word “Finished” is a misnomer. One person’s definition of ‘Finished’ is another’s ‘Incomplete’. In reality, websites and SEO are always a work in progress. Never a day goes by that I can’t think of a new website improvement that I would like to make. - Site Analysis Needed
If I need to work on your existing website, I have no idea what’s going on until I login and spend time analyzing the architecture, theme, plugins, code, HTML, CSS, deferred maintenance, issues etc..
For moderately priced websites, small web and SEO jobs, most businesses want to keep their upfront cost low, and choose not to invest in a discovery and professional drawing/mock-up. Instead they prefer a pay-as-you-go daily rate.
Of course, for very large and expensive web projects, a substantial investment is made in discovery and mock-up upfront. In addition, time estimates are substantially padded to account for potential under-estimation errors. There is always an hourly component to aspects of the project as well.
SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.
“Off-site SEO” (also called “off-page SEO”) refers to actions taken outside of your own website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs).
Optimizing for off-site ranking factors involves improving search engine and user perception of a site’s popularity, relevance, trustworthiness, and authority.
This is accomplished by other reputable places on the Internet (pages, sites, people, etc.) linking to or promoting your website, and effectively “vouching” for the quality of your content.
Off-Site SEO Examples
- Adding your site to relevant directories
- Creating branded social media profiles on sites like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.
- Guest blogging and articles on relevant industry sites
- Reaching out to partners, clients, vendors, and suppliers to identify cross-promotional opportunities
The cost of SEO depends on the size of your website, the keywords you want to rank for, the industry you operate within, your target demographic.
SEO cost depends if we will be doing some, or all of the following SEO work:
Website code and site structure changes
- Renaming website files and creating 301-redirects for your old file names
- Re-coding your navigation to replace a Flash or JavaScript menu with search engine friendly JQuery
- Creating HTML and XML sitemaps and uploading/verifying them with webmaster tool sites
- Using special tools to improve your website speed – a known ranking signal
Optimizing on-site content
- Creating pages for every target service
- Creating geographically targeted content
- Revising title, meta, and heading tags for each page
- Adding information and reference sections to the site
- Ongoing blogging and news blurbs
Off-site changes
- Adding your site to relevant directories
- Creating branded social media profiles on sites like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.
- Guest blogging and articles on relevant industry sites
- Reaching out to partners, clients, vendors, and suppliers to identify cross-promotional opportunities
Keyword research helps us determine the keywords for which the site should be optimized for.
These are the words that potential customers might use in a google search.
What have you done so far?
If the answer is nothing, you need to start with a site audit to find out what needs to be done such as find broken links, check meta tags, page load speeds, check crawl errors etc.
Some of the most important SEO basics are as follows:
Install and configure SEO plugin, create meta titles, meta descriptions for existing content, create site map, notify search engines so they can crawl and index content.
Local Directory Listings
Keyword research
Create content
Get Online Reviews
No. SEO is not dead. SEO is still a vital part of online marketing.
On-page SEO is the practice of optimizing individual web pages in order to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines.
On-page refers to both the content and HTML source code of a page that can be optimized, as opposed to off-page SEO which refers to links and other external signals.
On-Page SEO Example
Website code and site structure changes
- Renaming website files and creating 301-redirects for your old file names
- Re-coding your navigation to replace a Flash or JavaScript menu with search engine friendly JQuery
- Creating HTML and XML sitemaps and uploading/verifying them with webmaster tool sites
- Using special tools to improve your website speed – a known ranking signal
Optimizing on-site content
- Creating pages for every target service
- Creating geographically targeted content
- Revising title, meta, and heading tags for each page
- Adding information and reference sections to the site
- Ongoing blogging and news blurbs
It depends on your budget. If your budget allows for a mockup, and you would like one, sure. However, it’s extra work so it adds cost.
It’s more affordable for me to design/develop your site online, provide access so you can see the work in progress, then I’ll make changes based on your feedback if necessary.
I generally maintain all my clients websites for them using one of my affordable maintenance plans.
However, if you would like to maintain your site yourself, and are capable of doing it properly, that’s ok with me.
Yes. I can set up a free Google Analytics account for you which will automatically record data about your website’s visitors.
If you know what domain you want, and if it’s available, I’m happy to register it for you.
Sometimes it can be very time consuming for me to get involved in the selection and registration of your domain, therefore I usually recommend that you purchase and register your domain on Godaddy or Bluehost (don’t need to purchase hosting), send it to me, then I’ll host it on my siteground account, design and build the site.
If you prefer another solution, just run it by me. I’m flexible.
Owning a website involves two often misunderstood elements …… a domain and a host. Understanding the difference is key to effective site management.
Domain Registration
The domain is the internet address people use to get to your site. For example, the Lovett Web Design domain is lovettwebdesign.com. You can register a domain with any number of registrars/providers such as domain.com, bluehost.com, or godaddy.com, by paying a fee, usually $10-$35 yr to use that web address.
Selecting A Domain: Tips
Here are some considerations for domain selection:
Research. Study your niche and to know what the average user wants. Being aware of the most popular keywords and search terms will let you find a domain name that’s best suited to represent your project.
Make it easy to remember. Don’t go for something that is absurdly long or difficult to pronounce. A catchy and short domain name will greatly increase the chances of visitors remembering your website name.
Go with .com if possible. Currently, .com is taking a firm stand as the most popular domain name extension. Thus, it’s a good priority when buying a domain name, as most web users will easily recognize it.
Check for trademark infringement. To avoid any legal issues, it’s best not to register a domain similar to popular, well-established brands. You can use various online tools to look up trademark information and avoid such situations.
Avoid numbers and hyphens. While numbers and hyphens let you create more domain name variations, they can sometimes do more harm than good. For example, people can mistake the number zero (0) with the letter (o) or the number (2) for a word (two). Oomitting numbers and hyphens may be a good idea.
Look for close alternatives. If you already have a domain name in mind, think of possible mistype variations to make sure all the potential traffic reaches you. A great example would be amzon.com which takes you the main Amazon website, or fb.com which goes directly to Facebook.
Research social media platforms. Once you have a rough draft of your domain name, look it up on popular social media platforms like Twitter, YouTube, Instagram or Facebook. Even if you’re not planning to do anything with them at the start, reserving a page for your project will ensure it’s not taken by someone else.
Yes, we do. We ask our clients for a 50% deposit on all projects, to be paid before work begins on the website.
Absolutely. I can charge by an hourly rate, or you can purchase a monthly maintenance plan that includes some work time in it.
Yes. I can provide a way for you to view your site online as I design and build it.
Yes, I also know HTML, CSS, PHP and Javascript, and can program, in addition to being a creative designer skilled in photoshop and other design tools.
I’m located in outside of Washington, DC, in Gaithersburg, Maryland but I can help you with your website and internet marketing needs no matter where you are located.
Yes. I will create a custom website design that best represents YOU and your company’s unique needs.
I don’t create “cookie cutter” website designs.
My artistic ability and creative problem solving is perfect for designing modern, eye-catching, and lead generating, mobile friendly websites.
- You can snail mail a check to: Mark Lovett 627 Gatestone St Gaithersburg, MD 20878
- For small jobs you can pay securely online by credit card
- You can pay securely online with bitcoin
- I can set you up on monthly automatic recurring credit card payments
- It’s also possible to finance your site with monthly payments rather than a lump sum
Yes. I offer a web consultation service and can teach you online via screen share, or in person.
I’m available to help paying customers 24/7. Most of the time, simple changes can be done within tow hours!
If you need me, simply send a text message or email and I’ll get back to you same day.
Sometimes you can reach me instantly on live chat.
If necessary, we can schedule a phone conversation, in-person meeting, or even a screen share session.
Yes of course. I can host your website on my high speed cloud siteground account.
We do not use common, cheap, shared hosting solutions.
Our cloud platform offers fully managed, powerful dedicated resources and is optimized for efficiency and speed that guarantees a top performance of your site.
Yes of course. I have very affordable WordPress website monthly maintenance plans.
Of course I will provide you with a login to your website, so you can write your own posts, upload images, and do whatever you are capable of doing.
I can build a self hosted WordPress website for as little as $995 and up.
It just depends on how much work is involved.
90% of our web clients invest between $2,000 to $3,500 in their new websites.
I’ve built very simple WordPress sites and had them live online in as little as one day! I’ve also had sites take months. Most of my basic, small business sites are online within a week or so.
In general though, how soon your website work can be done done depends on a number of things, such as:
- The size of your website
- The complexity of your design
- Any advanced features you need
- When your content is ready
- Our current client design schedule
- Your timely feedback and input on our work
To get your website to display on the 1st page of google you need expert SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work done on your website.
To display on the first page of google for a long tail keyword such as “PDF Afterglow Krai Wireless Headset” is easy!
To display on the first page of google for “Video Games” is hard :(
Check out this article for more details: ‘6 Best SEO Tips To Rank First on Google‘
The price of a website in 2018 varies between $1,000 to millions of dollars depending on your needs and the work involved.
Self Hosted WordPress Website Design and Build Average Costs
Average small business semi-custom web build $1,000 to $3,000
Average small business custom web build $3,000 to $6,000.
Average mid-size business custom web build $6000 to $15,000.
Average large business custom web build $50,000.
I am very familiar with a busy web development company that produces client sites that average $50,000.
Obama spent many millions of dollars on the health care site.
To find out the cost of a website , check out custom website design packages, get your free quote.
The best way to improve your website’s authority is to get other authoritative websites in your industry to link to your site.
Security Updates
WordPress websites (core, theme and plugins) often update for security purposes. We safely apply these patches and keep a backup in case things go wrong. We actively monitor your website for new major and minor updates and apply them in the background while your website stays live during the process.
Backups
If your website gets hacked and wiped out entirely, you need to start from scratch. To remedy this, we keep daily backups of your website, so if disaster strikes, you can be back up and running in minutes, not months.
Site Updates
WordPress websites (core, theme and plugins) often update for to improve functionality and design. We safely apply these patches and keep a backup in case things go wrong. We actively monitor your website for new major and minor updates and apply them in the background while your website stays live during the process.
Uptime Monitoring
Part of our Website Care Service is monitoring your website for downtime. If the site is down for more than a couple minutes, we investigate and fix the problem. Approximately 5 minutes of downtime in the middle of the night is natural. No one can guarantee 100% uptime.
- Domain — Every website needs a domain name. A domain needs to be registered, setup, managed, and renewed as necessary.
- Hosting — Domain names needs hosting to make your website live on the Internet. We have high-end servers that are both fast and secure. With cheap servers, you get what you pay for. Hosting can be really affordable, yet slow and easily hacked. Our servers are responsive and hardened against hackers.
- Email Hosting — Instead of operating a business under a Gmail, Yahoo or AOL address, use a professional email address that includes your website’s domain name. A typical business email address format is contact @ YourBusiness.com. We provide hosting for this new email address and support when you have issues.
- Uptime Monitoring — Guaranteed 99.99% uptime on our servers. This means your website will always be live and ready for your customers. Approximately 5 minutes of downtime in the middle of the night is natural. No one can guarantee 100% uptime. Best of all, part of our Website Care Service is monitoring your website for downtime. If the site is down for more than a couple minutes, we investigate and fix the problem.
- Backups — If your website gets hacked and wiped entirely, you need to start from scratch. To remedy this, we keep daily backups of your website, so if disaster strikes, you can be back up and running in minutes, not months.
- Security Updates — WordPress websites (core, theme and plugins) often update for security purposes. We safely apply these patches and keep a backup in case things go wrong. We actively monitor your website for new major and minor updates and apply them in the background. Your website stays live in the process.
- SSL — eCommerce websites must be secured by an SSL certificate. Otherwise, sensitive credit card information can be easily stolen. SSL certificates also provide a small SEO boost since the tech world advocates security. We make sure SSL certificates are properly installed and renewed.
- Analytics — What good is a website if you can’t track its performance? We install and monitor Google Analytics to give you real data on your website’s visitors. This includes how many people visited your website, if they returned, whether they’re on mobile devices or desktops, where in the world they are, and much, much more. Use this data or hire a professional marketing specialist to get the most out of your website.
- Performance Optimizations — High-def photography, videos, seemingly endless content, and lots of pages can cause websites to slow down, even on fast servers. Therefore, we have extra tweaks and optimizations we can do to drastically speed up your website. Some sites load twice as fast after we work on them! This benefits both your search engine rankings and user-experience.