FAQ

We like to allow about six weeks for development time for an average site, but this schedule depends on the complexity of the site and how soon we get any content you may need to provide, such as photos, logos, etc. Many sites are built in less time, but it depends mostly on how big your site is and how soon we receive the necessary material. (An exact development schedule will be spelled out in your contract.)

Email the material as file attachments to msummers@sumsites.com. Please send photos in .png or .jpg format, and text as .txt, .doc, or .rtf files. You can also simply type (or paste) the text into an email. No formatting is necessary.

You also need to register a domain name and subscribe to a web-hosting service.

You can register a domain name and buy hosting service at any one of thousands of sites. GoDaddy.com is a popular and inexpensive option, but your choices are vast. If you need help on choosing a domain name or a hosting service, we're happy to give you input, though the final decision is yours.

You don't really have to get hosting service until the site is finished and ready to be uploaded. We start work on your site as soon as we receive a work order and initial payment. Your hosting service will email you log-in info for your domain server as soon as you register with them. Simply forward that email to us at msummers@sumsites.com so we can upload your site to the web.

While we're building your site, it will reside on our secure development server. We will send you a link so you can look at it any time you want. You can share the link if you like, but just remember, the site won't be ready for prime time until it's completely finished. For that reason, you probably shouldn't make it public until then.

We build sites to be search engine-friendly, so that they are organically optimized for good ranking in search results.

However, because search engine optimization (SEO) has become such a vast industry that it's nearly a full-time pursuit, we no longer offer "tweaked" SEO as a service. Changes in search algorithms are so frequent now that it's best done by companies for which SEO is the sole focus, or which have a staff dedicated to that service.

Social media offers a vast array of ways to promote your site, many of them for free. A Facebook page or Twitter account can be a good vehicle for sharing information about your company without paying for advertising. Of course, be sure to include your web address in any other advertising you may do; e.g., print ads, your company newsletter, your letterhead, etc.

We accept major credit cards and PayPal online, and business or personal checks via snail mail.

You do. SumSites retains no copyright or ownership of any site we build for someone else.

If you like, SumSites can maintain your website for as long as you own it. SumSites will negotiate a maintenance agreement with you based on the projected quantity of monthly updates required. If you anticipate needing a lot of on-going changes, then a monthly maintenance contract is the more cost-effective way to go. If you think you'll rarely need changes or only small ones, then a per-hour rate for maintenance is more cost-effective.

Yes. You own all rights to your site and have FTP access to it through your third-party hosting service. If you prefer to have someone else take over maintenance once the site is built, you're free to do so.

Yes, if you are comfortable doing so and are proficient in HTML5, CSS3, and other scripting languages or technologies the site may use, If not, then we don't recommend it. One typo in the code can cause an entire page to display incorrectly and may take hours of troubleshooting to find and correct.