A. We do build Web Sites without e-mail addresses, or ability to process forms for this type of client. Granted the Web Sites don't generally perform as well as they do for businesses who have a computer and Internet connection as well as a product or service to sell "On-Line" and take credit cards via the Internet.

   But face it, if your business only takes checks, the customer has to mail them to you anyhow. It's just a push of a button for the customer to print an order form off your Web Site. Having your phone numbers and business hours, along with product/service description and photos, go a long way to promote your business even if you don't have a computer.

Q. I want my Web Site in the top 10 of all the search engines. Can you build my website to get me there?

A. Quite Frankly... NO! If you meet a designer who says he/she can, you ought to be looking for the nearest exit to the building you are in. Each major search engine looks for different criteria in a Web Page. Some search engines aren't even engines, but data bases that you have to enter your own Web Site into before you will get listed. Currently only 18% of all Web Sites are even in the search engines.

   I have built and maintain web sites that are in the top 10% of most search engines, but these are specialty sites like my "Antique Fire Truck Sites". I've got other web sites that are number one (1) in a couple search engines, but how you get number one (1) is due more to the words, and order of words that folks type in, and how the search engine reads these words.

   Additionally, research of accesses to "all" web sites Web Venues Internet Services^™ has built and maintains, shows that only about 20% of web site visitors use the search engines to get to a web site. The other 80% either type in the URL (web site address) directly, or come in from other related web sites, via "links". This shows, that while search engines are important, they are nowhere near as important as everyone would have you believe.

   Here are two (2) articles from "Web Hosting Magazine" (an industry publication) on search engine positioning keywords, internal workings, costs to get rankings, and more. We use many sources to track trends in search engine technology, but these articles are written in "Plain English" and are easy for the lay person to understand. These articles are displayed in Adobe^® - Acrobat^® PDF format. If you don't have the viewer on your computer (most do), you may download it here: .

Optimize This - Published in 2000: This the second article in the series and digs deeper into the internal workings of a search engine, things you (and your web designer) can do to improve placement. Both of these articles cover "Costs" involved in paying directly for ranking, or paying a "Professional Optimizer" to help with rankings.

   Web Venues Internet Services^™ strongly believes (with few exceptions) if you follow our recommendations in web site design, and self promotion of your web site, your sales or service will grow at a steady rate without paying these exorbitant rates to bring visitors to your web site.    If you give us the material we request when we plan the function and design of your web site, we can build the site to improve your chances at a higher position in the search engines, but there is no way anyone can promise you, (and believe it themselves) the top 10%, let alone #1 in every search engine.

Q. My best friend who built his own web site, says META Tags are the most important part of a web page, for getting ranked in the search engines. He also said you don't use them. What gives?

A. Again as a professional Web Designer, it is my obligation to follow trends in what works, and what does not in search engines and the Web as a whole. Search engines once required META tags to quickly reference web pages within their respective data bases. However search engines have become smarter over the past few years, they have wider bandwidth (speed of information transfer), and faster computer processors to crunch information it downloads from web sites.

   Search engines now check META tags and other hidden items contained on a web page, against content of the web page (not the complete web site), these items reside on. If a word in the META tag or other hidden text isn't in the "Body" of the web page it's reading, it throws the page along with the rest of the site out of the data base. Not only that, but they block you from ever getting in their data base again.

   If you have solid content on your web site you will eventually be picked up by the search engines. Once you finally get in, you don't want to be booted out because you updated your page and no longer have that one word that doesn't match the META tag. Additionally, the majority of search engines are getting away from META tags altogether as they have been abused over the years. We will be happy to insert them on your web site if you so desire, but it does create extra time/cost to do so, to insure they match the content of a specific page in your site exactly.

Q. What else can I do to promote my Web Site then? If I'm going to spend the money I want to make sure people find me!
A. Fair Enough! But let's take a quick look at other advertising media.
(Based on a demographic area (population center) of about 58,000 persons.)

• Phone Books The person reading it is usually in the area it serves, not so good for hotels/motels and other facilities that require advance reservations, or for the person looking for their services for that matter. Can only be updated once a year. With cost starting around $4,512.00 per year, ($376.00 month) for a ¼ page ad.

• Newspapers Again serves local customers and those who subscribe. Can be updated more often with moderate production costs. Depending on area, starting around $99.00 for a 1 day run.

• Radio Wider audience than the previous two, moderate production costs, longer lead time for updates, wide cost differential depending on Market. Cost $150.00 and up for one (1) thirty second spot daily depending on market.

• Television Same as Radio, but with much higher production costs, longer lead time for updates, and average four (4) times the cost and up.

• Web Site 24 hours a day promotion, supplements your other advertising, unlimited text descriptions of product or services, full color photos, interactive data, order forms, On-Line payment options, and more.

     Entry level hosting rates as low as $9.00 per month (with annual pay plan) with simple professionally built, one (1) page web sites starting at $200.00. Full featured, multiple page web sites start at around $600.00 You can save even more if you use one of our "Retired or Bid Proposal Web Sites" located at the bottom of our "Portfolio Page".

     Now, our recommendations on getting people to your web site, and in turn your business. Start with your current and potential customers.

  • Put your web site address and other important company information in an "E-Mail Signature File"

  • Make sure your web site address is included in your telephone answering machine message.

  • If you use phone book display ads, make sure your web site address is included in the ad.

  • For standard phone book ads, either replace your street address with your web site address, or purchase a third line so you can include it.

  • Include your web site address with your phone number on your "FAX" machine send stamp.

  • Get a rubber stamp made. "Visit Our Web Site At: http;//www.mybusinesswebsite.com/" and stamp it on your bills, receipts, bags, envelopes, and letters you send out.

  • Put your web site address on your Business Cards as prominent as your phone number, if not bigger. Business Cards are very inexpensive so do your reorder now and throw the old ones away!

  • Call your "Stationary Printer" now and have them change your letterhead template and all other templates and stencils to include your web site address, again as large or larger than the phone number. By getting this done now, it won't be overlooked next time you order new stationary.

  • Make sure your web site address is included on all print, radio, television ads you purchase.

  • If you have company vehicles with lettering, get the web site address put on them.

  • If your vehicles aren't lettered, a simple web site address on the bumper or back window is non obtrusive, and can be very effective.

  • Any products you sell should have your web site address along with your name and phone number somewhere on them.

  • Get your web site address up on your storefront and business signs.

  • When you are searching the Web for something, take a minute and submit your web site address to the search engine you are searching on. Make this a point to do once a week with a different search engine. After all, no one knows your business as well as yourself. You are your biggest asset in promoting your business with your web site!

Q. Why hire a professional web designer, when there are so many web page design programs on the market?

A. While Web design software does have a place among entry level designers, students, and non essential business services; and can give positive results, it tends to add unnecessary code which slows load times, and has limitations and other restrictions.

   There are also other factors to consider. Answer the following questions for yourself, before you decide to purchase a WYSIWYG (What You See, Is What You Get) Web Site Design Program.

• Are you good at Graphics Design?
• Do you know what should, and should not go on a web site and where?
• Are you current on web marketing trends?
• Will your web site display well on other computers, operating systems, screen resolutions?
• Will your completed web site work well at slower than average download speeds?
• Do you know how to optimize or fix these items if they don't?
• Will my finished product do what I need it to do to promote my business?

   Then ask yourself, "Is my time better spent learning a new program, and the other items listed above, or is it more valuable doing other things?" Then, make your decision based on your answer. I used to work on my car to save money, now it costs me money in lost time elsewhere, not being properly set up to do the task at hand, and frustration at not always having the correct or necessary tools to complete the job in a professional manner. For the purchase price of a "good" web design program, you can have a Professional Web Site, custom built for your business.

Q. What are these "other restrictions" you eluded to above?

A. Like everything else in computers and the Internet, things change rapidly. Web Design Code is in constant revision. When you wish to add new features with a "program" you may be required to purchase the "latest" version (assuming the program is still on the market) to get the needed results. A professional designer can rework your existing pages with little effort and cost.

Q. I've been told you can't have a "perfect" web site. Why not?

A. Unlike "print" ads, a web site is viewed on many different computers with various operating systems. All of which may have screen colors from 16 colors to 16 Million plus colors, monitors from 13" to 25" and growing, screen resolutions from 640x480 to 1280x1024 pixels and above, and modem speeds down to 9,600 bps.

Also, font size, style, background, graphics, and other settings on a system affect how a web page displays. A Professional Web Designer takes all of this and more, into consideration when building a web site, and goes for a "good" overall presentation. A web site built to look "perfect" on one system, can be "atrocious" on another.

Q. I just bought a new computer for my office with a 19" monitor, and noticed the Web Site you built me last year sits in the center of the screen. The text and pictures stay about 2 inches from either side. Why is that?

A. As I discussed above, one of the things we take into consideration when building web sites is how it displays on the vast majority of monitors out there. We currently build web sites at 600 pixel resolution (also known as dots) wide. Doing this prevents folks with 13", 14", and 15" monitors from having to scroll side to side as well as up and down. This also stops the page from "Falling Apart", (that's having the text float to the sides, causing the pictures and other graphics to overlap), as I'm sure you've noticed on other sites with your new, rather large monitor.

   As we've said, there are many variables to take into account when building web sites, and this is just one of them. We take the time to make our web sites view well on the vast majority of machines out there. Since the Monitor is the single most expensive part of a computer these days, your customers tend to hang on to their 13" to 15" ones when they upgrade. As monitor size, and resolution increase on the majority (95%) of visitors to a web site, we will widen our viewing area. To do so before then would chance driving your customers away.