Frequently Asked Questions: Services Provided
- I want to sell my products or services on the Internet. Can you help me do this?
- Do I need a merchant account to accept credit cards?
- Can I hire the services of Grand Design to renovate my existing website?
- Does Grand Design handle search engine submissions for my site once it is up and running?
- Am I obligated to use your maintenance service?
- What kind of things can be provided to make my website more interesting to visitors?
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Answers
- I want to sell my products or services directly on the Internet. Can you help me do this?
Absolutely. If you are interested in having an electronically-enabled commercial site built for you, the regular pricing structure on the prices page won't apply. There are simply too many variables that go into building a commercial site. You'll need to call or send an email so we can discuss your specific needs.
Grand Design does not specialize in building huge, customized content management systems that incorporate large databases and dedicated hardware and software. That is the rightful "kingdom" of the big firms.
But small business owners still need ways to sell their products or services online. You don't need anything extremely complex to accomplish that. There are many very good Ecommerce third-party packages available that suit the needs of a small business.
What Grand Design does for you is all the research and detail work, all of the nitty-gritty of setting up shop and entering of data, taking care of as much of the messy stuff as possible so that you can continue devoting most of your time to where it belongs— your business.
»Back to Top - Do I need a merchant account to accept credit cards?
In most cases, yes, you do. Some of you may already have a regular merchant account, in which case it becomes even easier and cheaper-- you may not even need to pay anything extra on your existing account.
There does happen to be a way to avoid having a merchant account, but the cost of this "small business gateway" setup is actually a bit higher.
Both ways have their merits and drawbacks. We can discuss all of your options before you commit to a project.
Other ways of accepting funds include PayPal, or simply displaying your products, but providing alternate forms of payment, like personal checks, cashier's checks, mailable/faxable order forms or phoning in an order.
»Back to Top - Can I hire the services of Grand Design to renovate my existing website?
Grand Design is able to provide full design or redesign services for you. Websites can be information-based, commerce-enabled, marketing-related, or for any other reason you'd want to have an Internet presence.
Note: Grand Design does not accept web design projects for adult-oriented sites.
»Back to Top - Does Grand Design handle search engine submissions for my site once it is up and running?
Yes, Grand Design will submit your site URL to several of the larger search engines, and any smaller, specialized ones where applicable. Keep this in mind, however... the most important aspect of good placement in many popular search engines is search engine optimization.
With a customized website, your underlying [invisible] architecture builds in the factors that optimize your chances with spidering searches (Google.) For other directory-style search engines (Yahoo), direct submission is necessary.
With some search engines, you cannot get a listing unless you pay for it. If you opt for this type of listing, Grand Design can handle the submission process for you, but you must pay the listing fee.
»Back to Top - Am I obligated to use your maintenance service?
Not at all. Once you have paid in full for your design project and your site is "live" on your domain, our mutual obligations end.
Most clients have historically chosen to allow Grand Design to continue maintenance services, but if you or someone in your employ can handle the tasks, you do not need to pay for maintenance.
On the other hand, if you don't have the time, skills, or software to maintain the "freshness" of your site, maintenance services can be contracted at very affordable prices.
»Back to Top - What kind of things can be provided to make my website more interesting to visitors?
There are a great many features that make a site "sticky" to your visitors. Among those are opt-in customer email sign-up forms for information, notices and updates, sales and special discounts; maps to your location; newsletter sign-ups; a photo album or gallery; polls, guestbooks, calculators and calendars, press releases and article archives.
All of these features affect how interesting your site can be, but the primary concern for most visitors is how fast they can find the information they came seeking. No tricks, toys or extra "goodies" will overcome bad site design and poor usability.
»Back to Top