Web Site Design Services - Northern California

So you want a new web site, or maybe you have a web site already but you're just not happy with it. What do you need and how do you get started?

Consultation

Planning and education are key to designing a successful web site. We offer a free one hour consultation to find out what your goals and expectations are. A good web site doesn't just happen, it must be planned and worked on by both the designer and the client. We feel it is important to educate the client from the beginning so that they can have a realistic expectations of the costs and benefits of owning a web site.

Key Word Analysis

Search engines and directories are key providers of traffic to your web site, especially in its early days. To get the best placement in search engines it is important to make sure your site is focusing on the right keyword phrases. The days of just loading your metatags with every keyword in your list are long gone. Search engines are looking for sites with real content, and that means you need to have a well researched list of targeted phrases before you even start working on the web site.

We can help you find, expand, and prune your list of keyword phrases so you end up with phrases that will bring results. By using the reports we provide, you can focus on the phrases that people are actually searching on, as well as see how much competition from other web sites there is for each phrase.

Domain Name Registration

It is much better to have your own domain name for several reasons. First, it provides you with ISP independence. If you decide to switch ISP's, owning your own domain means you keep the same URL. It also provides branding for the site, and it has some relevance for search engine rankings. We can register your domain for you using AIT Domains. The charge is $10 per year.

Hosting

We have a dedicated server with Hurricane Electric, one of the oldest and most respected web hosting companies. The server is located in a secure facility, with redundant power and Internet connections and it is serviced by people who know web servers inside and out. Our standard web hosting rate is $24.95 per month with a 5% discount for a 3 month prepay, and a 10% discount for 12 month prepay. Our web hosting accounts come with 100 megs of storage, unlimited POP3 email mailboxes, spam blocking, web mail, and log statistics. We support HTTP, HTTPS, CGI, PHP, and MySQL.

Web Site Design

There are several elements that make up the pages that you see when visiting a web site:

HTML

Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) is the basis of the World Wide Web. Somewhere between word processing tags and true programming, HTML is both simple and complex. Our HTML code is written by hand which allows us to write it very efficiently. So your pages download quicker and are more stable. We use layouts and coding that has been proven to work well with most browsers so that everyone who visits your site will be able to read and navigate their way through it. We typically design behind the curve, waiting to implement new HTML features until the vast majority of users have upgraded to browsers that can implement those features.

Graphics

We can scan existing artwork and photographs to use on your site, as well as design a custom look and feel for your site. We can even design a logo for your company if you are just starting out. In all our graphic work, we take into consideration the color, compression, and size limitations that the web imposes. We work carefully to provide a site that is visually interesting, yet still downloads quickly.

Scanning - If you already have photographs, we can scan them for you. We can scan prints up to 8.5"x11, and negatives or transparencies up to 4"x5". Our experts know how to get the best color, and resolution for the web. We are also experts at getting clear scans from printed materials such as brochures or magazines.
Photo Manipulation - Our Photoshop expert can retouch your photographs to remove blemishes, scratches or even complete objects like distracting signs. We can also create photo composites to illustrate your products.
Photography - We offer a wide range of traditional film based and digital photography services. Please see the photography section of our web site for more details on the photography services we provide.

Programming

Aesthetic Design & Photography can provide custom CGI & Javascript solutions, or we can provide you with many public domain solutions to your programming needs. Dynamic page design and database solutions can be provided with PHP and MySql.

Marketing

After getting your web site up and running, you need to generate traffic to it. We can help you get your site linked from other sites and make sure you're getting the best results from the search engines and directories. We will help you evaluate your traffic stats to determine where you are being successful in generating traffic to your site and what areas could use improvement.


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