Frequently Asked Questions

Sites can either appear in the natural / free listings or within the sponsored / paid listings. To be top in the free listings, your site needs to demonstrate superiority on the search term by having a wealth of current information. To be located in a priority position within the sponsored listings, it's simply a matter of how much you spend and how competitive. A new trend in site promotion rests in social networking. By actively networking on sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, site owners are actively drawing very qualified traffic to their sites vs the passive baiting that's typical with search engine optimization.

Creating meaningful impact to your site's visitors is best accomplished by employing the services of a strategic communications design partner. A communications study can ferret out chore positioning of your company as well as defining who your target is and how to best communicate to them. Significant positioning can be achieved with as few as 1 or 2 meetings. From there, the right visuals, tag lines and overall design can anchor from those discussions. And to your site's visitors, not only would your site look really cool, but it can grab their attention in a way that will inspire them to act on pursuing your products and services.

The more you can have prepared up front, the more economical and accurate a quote can be produced. If you can provide a simple outline of your objectives, a list of competitive sites you think are doing a good job and then finally a desired delivery date, the process can begin. It's then nice to start with a phone review of some basic questions to be sure we are a right fit for your objectives and what resources should be on the initial team. Once that's established, a face-to-face meeting with our team and yours can really flesh out the basis for a plan and estimate. From there, things kick off in parallel typically with concept design and copy being created while the content management system is installed and structural information is added. Applications are roughed out and content added as it's received. From there, a rough version of the complete site is reviewed, then a final stage of completion, tweaking, reviewing and then installation to the live server. That's followed up typically with analytics set up and then some promotional campaigns.

Our sites are built on a content management system which includes web based editing tools. Advanced editing can be done against XSLT, css and Javascript files. While our CMS is SQL based, rarely is the database ever needed to be edited directly. New data structure can be controlled via web based editing tools.

Bonsai is a web based and database driven content management system. Dreamweaver is more-or-less a flat, HTML editor and cannot be used to interface Bonsai or most content management systems. Manual HTML editing is possible with the Bonsai content management system with it's own WYSIWYG editor.

We have a site fully dedicated to the Bonsai CMS which includes video tutorials on common editing procedures.

There are 2 key approaches to consider in putting engaging video on your site. The first approach centers around presenting a professional image to your customers by using professional equipment and resources (HD camera, lighting, actor, director, editing, etc.). The second approach which can run in tandem to the first can be considered more guerrilla or Youtube style, can be more amateur and immediate (using a Flip video or webcam) and posted in higher frequency. The first can be something that's produced once a year. The second, can be done regularly - say monthly. The key with both is that they are both professionally written & planned. The foundation of your strategy and message should never be amateur.

The average cost for a site consisting of 25 to 100 pages of content, several applications (i.e. rep locator, product page,Google search, etc.), some Flash development and custom interface design is around $10,000 to $20,000. Sites that are an extension of existing sites (i.e. a microsite) can cost between $2,500 to $5,000.

New sites, completely built from scratch take on average take 6 - 12 weeks to construct. Some sites have been turned around in as little as 4 weeks when all the content was completely defined and ready.