We provide the services you need -- only the services you need. Every client can pick and choose from our offerings to perfectly meet the needs of the project at hand.

• Copywriting
• Website design
• HTML coding
• Search engine optimization
• Domain name registration
• Facilitating site hosting
• Posting and testing
• Content maintenance
• Other recommendations

 
Copywriting. Most sites provide information. Sometimes information can be taken directly from existing materials -- brochures, sales sheets, annual reports, and so on. But a new or small business may not have professionally written materials, or the documents available may not cover all the desired subjects. We can take your ideas and information and transform them into concise, well-written copy for your web site.

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Website design. Web design is an art form with unique rules; it takes a trained professional to know which graphical ideas can be successfully transferred to the web. Traditional print artists are accustomed to working within a confined, precisely sized canvas and can place elements anywhere within those borders. On the web, the user's screen size and browser choice determines the available space, requiring the designer to adapt to unknown variables. And the limits of HTML coding make precise positioning a much trickier endeavor. A designer needs knowledge of these factors to create a concept that can be feasibly produced for the Internet.

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HTML coding. It's a common misconception that HTML coding is a function performed solely by software. While it's true that there are programs available that invisibly translate pages into HTML code, the fact remains that fully automated processes are always inferior to an experienced coder using professional-grade software. Any program that gives the user unrestricted control over the page layout ends up generating convoluted code to reproduce that layout -- and while the resulting page may appear fine to the viewer, it doesn't look that way to a search engine that's cataloguing your content, or to a screen reader that's verbalizing your text for a visually impaired user. A web professional will create clean, straightforward code that can be understood by more than just a web browser.

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Search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is the process of working to improve your site's ranking in search engines. While there's no way to guarantee high rankings, there are steps that can improve your position: adding meta tags to your source code; having good titles on each page of your site; identifying search terms that your potential customer uses and then incorporating those terms into your site copy; reviewing how search engines interpret your site in order to pinpoint and correct any problems. These techniques are simple to implement, but too many site owners ignore this opportunity completely.

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Domain name registration. Every site needs a domain name -- a virtual address that guides users to a site. The rights to a name are purchased through a registrar and can be acquired for one or more years. If you haven't secured a name yet, we can guide you through the process or register the name on your behalf. Dotster is our preferred registrar, and we've enjoyed stellar service since we began using them in the late 90's. Having a reliable registrar is vital, as the thousands who recently lost their domain names after an organizational meltdown can attest.

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Facilitating site hosting. Having a domain name isn't enough; you also need a place to store your site where the world can access it. A hosting company provides you with that space and typically includes email service as well. Pair Networks has been our hosting company since 2003, and we've been very pleased; their pricing is competitive with most budget hosts, while their service is stellar -- extremely reliable with almost no downtime. And they're carbon neutral, making them an environmentally responsible choice. We can guide you through the process of obtaining hosting, or we can secure it on your behalf.

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Posting and testing. When the site is complete and has been approved, we post it live for the world to see -- but first we test every page and function to make sure the site works (and looks) as intended. We also test a representative sample of pages in the three most popular browsers -- Internet Explorer, Netscape and Firefox -- since they don't always produce identical results.

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Content maintenance. Inevitably, things change: your address, phone number, product line or services offered. Your web site should change with your business, reflecting the most current information. Content updates are simple for us and take very little of our time, so why struggle with it yourself? Let us make the changes and rest assured that it will be done promptly and correctly.

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Other recommendations. Need another technology service, but don't know where to get it? We're happy to recommend any vendor who's given us good service. For instance, we use iBackup as our provider of online backups -- an absolute necessity to protect against accidental data loss. (We started using this service after Hurricane Katrina; disasters can happen with little or no warning, so it's best to always be prepared.) We also like iStockPhoto as an affordable source of royalty-free images.

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