web design frequently asked questions, website design questions

What is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for "Search Engine Optimization". It is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the SERP (search engine results page) the more visitors it will receive from the search engines.

What are conversion rates?
The percentage of unique visitors who take a desired action upon visiting a website. The desired action may be submitting a sales lead, making a purchase, viewing a key page of the site, downloading a white paper, or some other measurable activity.

What are website metrics?
Website metrics provide statistics on site usage. They're usually sourced from a web analytics reporting tool, and include information such as: most visited pages, time on site, came from, keyword traffic, geographical visitor map, browser information, pages visited, and much more.

What are Meta tags?
Meta tags are HTML codes that are inserted into the web page, after the title tag. In the context of search engine optimization, when people refer to meta tags, they are usually referring to the meta description tag, the meta keywords tag, or the title tag. Basically these are snipits of information the search engines use in order to place your website in the proper category and or SERP.

What is meant by website abandonment?
The percentage of visitors who arrive on a page and leave (bounce) without navigating further into the site. Also known as a bounce rate.

Will my website get seen?
The million dollar question. Your website has the potential to get seen as much as any other website in its category, providing the proper meta tags, content and website usability standards are built in. There are no guarantees and if someone promises placement on a SERP you should be very cautious. It takes a lot of work and continued diligence on your part to get your website out there and seen. There are of course other means other than organic SEO results to help market your website.

Can I compete against bigger, more established websites?
Yes you can. Bigger more established websites will generally have a better web presence if their content and meta tags are in good order, but this does not mean you can't compete. There are several options available to drive traffic directly to your website, other than organic SEO >>. You can use an adwords campaign, buy links on directory sites that point to yours, buy banner ads on other popular websites that are relevant to your offerings, you can also drive traffic through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and forums.

Can I make changes to the website myself?
If you have information that changes on a regular basis and want to be able to update it yourself, we can install a news writer feature that allows you access to certain pre-established areas, all you need to do is go to your web site and the page in question, log in and make the changes yourself, you can upload photos, text, links etc. Any major changes to the site should be performed by us, all websites launched with Silk Stream get 4 hours free updates per year ( this is a lot of work actually). Costs for normal website work after the agreed upon build is $45 per hour CDN.

Why do I get so many different prices/quotes for the same job?
There are no absolutes in the construction of a website and there are as many different opinions as there are types of code to build a website. Some designers only work in one type of code, others may know several types, and then there are programs that allow you to build websites without even knowing how to write any code. Building websites from raw code such as PHP, ASP, or anything similar takes more time and cost more. Using a WYSIWYG program, such as the one this website is built from, allows for quicker website construction and a huge cost saving past on to clients.

How soon can my website be online?
It all depends on how big the website is going to be, but most websites from 7-15 pages can be done in less then 7days, 15-30 pages 7-10 days, more then 30 pages is a larger website so we would have to discuss the content etc to give you a practical launch date.
Note: Build times are based on client supplying content/copy for the website, if you require us to research and develop all the content a little more time is needed.

What are the different types of links?
There are many different links and they are an important part of the "getting seen" puzzle. Link building should be a monthly part of your website's growth. You, as the website owner, need to work on this or have a professional hired to do it for you. When Silk Stream Web Designs builds a website, we will do as much linking as we can to your site and of course take care of internal linking. more information on links >>

Is one type of code better than another?
That is just too debatable for an absolute yes or no answer.
I can say I much prefer PHP for large websites because it's free, open source code that everyone can use and improve, and you don't have to pay any fees or worry about copyright or infringement laws. PHP is very robust and able to perform any function that any other code can perform. For smaller websites, such as what we offer, we of course use a WYSIWYG program that writes the code for us and saves time and money for clients who don't require huge, dynamic database websites.

Is website content really that important?
Yes, Yes and Yes. One of the most popular SEO chants is "Content is King". This is a key part of getting your site seen and ranked well in the SERP's. The content must be inline with your meta tags >> and that's where we can help, by making sure that content and meta tags are working in conjunction with one another. We provide professional written or edited content for any website we build or redesign.

Why does one search engine rank my website well and another poorly?
This is a tough thing to swallow but the truth of it is that different search engines simply use different algorithms for ranking websites. These days, most SEO professionals will try to rank best in Google as it is, at present, the most popular search engine, (though not necessarily the best). Generally, if you do rank well in Google, you will most likely rank well in all others.

Are there other ways to get my website seen other than SEO?
There are several options available to get your website seen. Paid advertising, (adwords in Google, sponsored links in Yahoo), is one other way. Also Viral marketing is fast becoming a popular marketing choice for web-savvy users. This consists of having other people forward your link to friends or posting it on blogs for others to see. Facebook and Twitter have become a good resource for viral marketing. Buying advertising on larger portal websites can be very effective. Of course, linking is a very important part of the SEO puzzle and should be continually pursued. We are happy to discuss what may be best for your particular website as the circumstances vary depending on your product offering.

Can I increase the size of my website if I need to?
Yes, it's usually an easy process to add new pages of content, images, videos, or jsut about anything you may need.
This will be done at a rate of $45 per hour.

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What is a web-safe font?
Web-safe fonts are those fonts likely to be present on a wide range of computer systems, and are used by web content authors to increase the chance that content will be displayed in their chosen font. If a visitor to a website does not have the specified font, their browser will select an alternative font which may or may not render properly and make the page layout and design look bad.

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Frequently Asked Web Design Questions