What costs will I incur if I have Affordable Web Design Ltd. creates a website for me?
There are three basic costs: a one-time cost of creating a web design*(most of our custom sites range between just under $1,000 to $3500 and over, depending on the amount of work required and the amount of custom programming requested by the client), the yearly domain name registration* ( $25 per year for most extensions, such as .com, .net, .org, .biz and $30 per year for .ca and .tel) and yearly hosting* (mostly around $10 per month, payable yearly).

*quoted rates apply to Affordable Web Design clients - professional competition pricing is usually higher. The above rates apply to our custom sites only.
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I already have my domain name and hosting for my current site. Is this a problem?
Not at all. We will work with any current host and/or domain name registrar and if you are happy with them, there is no need to switch. It is also possible to leave your domain name with your current registrar even if you want to use our hosting services but you have already paid for a year's worth of domain name registration.
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Can my high school/college-aged son or daughter create as effective a site for me as you can?
Although there are many people who can create a visually pleasing website, very few of those have current search engine optimization knowledge and even fewer have any kind of marketing experience. A commercial website is an investment in your business and must be effective in order to be worth having. We offer you many years of marketing experience as well as the technical knowledge to create an effective site targeting your market.
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Can you guarantee me a top ranking or "positioning"?
"Ranking" or "Positioning" is a complicated process which differs from search engine to search engineand depends on what people type into the search bar when they are searching the web. Even as Google themselves say, noone can truthfully "guarantee" a top placement in the search engines. However, we at Affordable Web Design Ltd. do create your custom website in accordance with all the major search engine parameters, as a service to our clients and the majority of our clients are ecstatic over the results!
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Is there a difference between Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) services?
When we create a custom website for our clients, we incorporate the most popular current search engine parameters - this is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. If your site is static and has very few changes over time, it may tend to slip in the rankings as newer same-subject sites come onto the world wide web and the simple process of doing minor updates to your website every few months or so may be all you need to bring you right back up in the rankings. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) services are a separate "web science" which are supposed to constantly track your ranking, and make changes when necessary, on an on-going monthly basis. This SEM process is effective but often too expensive for small businesses, often averaging around $200 a month. There are always advertisements from people offering to optimize your site but they are usually only referring to the same Search Engine Optimization procedure as we already incorporate into all our customized sites and these are general ads where the sender has never even checked your site for proper optimization.
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Would I be able to look after my own site once you have designed it?
Yes. However, unless you have HTML computer language knowledge, the only way to look after the content of your site is to have a Content Management System incorporated into your website, which is an additional cost because it is programming. This programming script will allow you to manipulate your content, although you would not be able to change the page structure or "look" of your design. If you have such programs as Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, and possess basic computer capabilities where you feel that you can handle photo uploads and know how to work with images, then this might be the way for you to go! If you are not comfortable with computers, or you do not have these programs, you are better off leaving updates to us- we do updates quickly and efficiently, and save you any hassles!
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Is it better to have animation or not?
This depends on your target audience and how fast their computer equipment can download a page. If your market is a technically sophisticated one where most of the users have high-end equipment and software, then download time is not an issue. If you are targeting the general public, keep in mind that a large number of users are still using slower dial-up modems because of their location, which will affect their download time and patience. We have the necessary programs to optimize download time, however a large number of animations, pictures and videos will affect the time it takes to download at the slower modem speeds.
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