Thursday, February 23rd 2012

Help & Support

Posted on July 31, 2010 by admin

The following are answers to questions we are asked most often. If you don’t find what you’re looking for, please email us at
and we’ll be happy to answer your question.

Click on any of the questions below to view the answer, or scroll down to read all answers:

Here are the answers to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) from above:

General Questions

  • How can you help my business gain more customers from the Internet?
    Studio Creek Web Solutions combines four critical services to help you win more customers through the Internet. These include professional web design, professional copywriting, web development based on web standards and “best practices,” and effective online marketing that utilizes search engine optimization (SEO), social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Etc.) and email marketing.

    Customers will find your website by searching on top search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Once they are on your website, your design creates a strong first impression that tells them you aren’t a fly-by-night operation. Next, they are pulled in by professional copywriting that was written specifically to answer their questions and help them make an immediate decision to contact you or make a purchase. Finally, we create easy-to-use forms that make contacting your company or making a purchase very simple.

  • Who will be my contact person once we begin our project?
    We assign a knowledgeable and highly-experienced project manager as your contact person. Your project manager will work very closely with you to document the details of your project, answer all of your questions, provide you with frequent progress reports, and ensure your project remains on schedule. You will be provided with the direct contact details for your project manager after you place your order.
  • Will I be able to see and interact with my project as it is being developed?
    Certainly. You will gain access to our client area where you can view the progress of your project, complete with a progress report and list of to-do tasks for our team and for you (if necessary). You can also view the project on our test server where you can preview your website while it’s being developed.
  • How long does it take you to build a professional website from scratch?
    This really depends on how quickly we can get feedback from you after your order has been placed, and after we create the initial design. Generally we will have the first design ready for you within 1 week of you completing your order and our Project Questionairre, and as soon as you approve of the design it generally take another week for us to finish developing the website before it’s ready to launch. This puts the average project completion time around 2-3 weeks total for most projects.

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Company Questions

  • Where is Studio Creek Web Solutions located?
    Studio Creek is headquartered in beautiful Paso Robles California in the heart of San Luis Obispo’s Central Coast Wine Country. Our strategic location, half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles, lets us tap into the great resources of Silicon Valley while also giving us the space we need to keep our creative juices flowing.
  • What makes Studio Creek Web Solutions so much better than typical website design companies?
    Since 1999 we have been building quality websites and online marketing campaigns for hundreds of clients locally throughout California, across the United States, and even overseas.

    We utilize a combination of web standards and “best practice” technologies to ensure that our websites will perform well online. We maintain compatibility with today’s top browsers like Internet Explorer, FireFox, Google Chrome, and Opera and we also make sure your website renders correctly on mobile devices like the iPhone. We are experts in technology, design and marketing and we know what it takes to grow your business online through professional web design and effective online marketing. We also pride ourselves on offering some of the BEST WEB SERVICES at the BEST PRICES you’ll find anywhere on the web for services of comparable quality. All services are backed up with our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee so you can rest assured that you’re getting a great value with your website.

    Amateur website designers can “accidentally” get your website banned or not found at all from major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others by making just one simple mistake like putting a redirect on your homepage, or making the font size for links too small, or by repeating certain words too often, and so on. In contrast, Studio Creek Web Solutions is very familiar with the search engine “rules.” and we utilize “best practices” to ensure that we’re doing things in the most effective and ethical way possible. Our goal is long term growth and success… not quick results that don’t last.

    The difference between Studio Creek Web Solutions and amateur website designers is like night and day. With Studio Creek Web Solutions, you get a highly experienced and responsive team of Internet experts that work on your project with the one goal of exceeding your expectations. No missed deadlines, endless excuses, poor communication, sloppy work, slow progress, nonexistent documentation, and mediocre results that are the trademark of amateurs.

    To place an order, check out our Plans & Pricing to see how we can provide you with a professional website and online marketing plan that is perfectly suited for your business.

  • How many people work for Studio Creek Web Solutions?
    We currently employ a number of full time and on-demand Internet experts for the various roles within our company. Because our project workflow fluctuates from week to week the actual number of people working at any given time can varry but rest assured that we will always be able to address all of your we besign and online marketing needs.

    When you place an order, one of our talented Project Managers will provide you with a reliable interaction point during the course of your project completion process. This optimized approach helps provide the highest level of quality while taking all of your specific needs into account to make your website exactly what you need. Here is a breakdown of the design and development team roles:

    Project Managers – Each Project Manager is a certified “Web Professional” and has a minimum of 5 years of website design and development experience. They have demonstrated excellent knowledge, professionalism, proficiency, and they will work with you one-on-one to help you make the best decisions and manage our team in an efficient and effective manner.

    Internet Programmers – Our Internet programmers each have 4-year degrees in Computer Science or related program and have a minimum of 5 years website development experience in the LAMP framework (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). In addition, all of our programmers are skilled at database design and development. Each programmer has the capability to work with advanced APIs, and can program in multiple languages. We specialize in PHP because of it’s incredible power and performance. In addition, our Internet Programmers are skilled in Javascript and CSS.

    Creative Designers – Our Creative Designers each have a 4-year degree in Creative Design or a related field and have a minimum of 5 years website design experience. Our Designers are skilled with design software such as Photoshop, Flash, Fireworks, Freehand, and more. Our Creative Designers strive to create beautiful website designs that effectively engage your visitors and create the necessary structure to facilitate the lead generation process we design for your business.

    Online Marketers – Our Online Marketers focus primarily on Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization, link development, Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns, email marketing, directory and searh engine submissions, and other actions that are designed to help you build the traffic you need to succeed online. Our Online Marketing team begins with a complete keyword and competitor analysis and we customize our efforts for maximum effectiveness for your specific needs.

    Information Architects – Our Information Architects fine-tune page layouts, create the CSS (cascading style sheets), create the XHTML infrastructure and menus, and ensure cross-browser compatibility. They will help construct your website according to web standards and “best practices” and our Information Architects all have 4-year degrees in an industry related field plus a minimum of 3 years industry experience.

    Copy Writers – Our professional Copy Writers will create high quality copy (text) for your website that will help you increase conversion. We often see conversion (the number of visitors that perform an action) increase by up to 400% by re-writing the copy on your website. Our Copy Writers will work closely with our Online Marketing staff to ensure that your copy is optimized for search engines as well. Many of our websites are able to reach within the top 5 results for their particular keyword or phrase which really helps our clients bring in more leads.

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Website Design Service Questions

  • How do you ensure your designs will meet our needs?
    Our website creation process has been developed to ensure your complete satisfaction with every aspect of your project. When your project begins, we provide you with a special questionnaire that helps us quickly understand your needs and the needs of your website audience.

    This questionnaire provides us with the important information we need to create a website that will meets your requirements. After we send you the first design we will fine tune it until you are are completely satisfied, and only then will we develop the website based on the approved design. If you don’t like the initial design we will gather additional information about how to create what you need and this process continues until you are satisfied with everything.

    Once you are happy with your website design, we will proceed with the development of your project and ask for your feedback and approval at each stage until your project is completed and ready to launch.

  • Do you ever use “web templates” as a basis for your designs?
    Although we do offer Website Template Customization for clients who need it, our regular websites are fully customized from the ground up to provide you with a totally unique looking website that is custom tailored to match the look and feel of your business. You can rest assured that your website will be professional and unique and that nobody else on the web will have the same design that you do.

    When going with a website template, your site could look similar to a few hundred other websites on the web and these templates don’t usually represent your company very well since they don’t have your logo or precise color scheme. To mazimize your online selling potential we highly recommend going with our fully customized websites or with our Template Customization services where we can edit your template enough to make it unique compared with the original template. This is cruial for conveying a sense of authenticity online which is very important to your customers.

  • How long does the design process take?
    The design process generally takes 1 to 2 weeks depending on how fast you can get feedback to us. Most designs are completed in about 1 week, but we will work on your design until you are completely satisfied. Remember, your design is a critical element of your Internet success and it is very important to get it right.
  • What software tools do your designers use?
    Our design team primarily uses Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and other Adobe Suite products. We sometime use other tools for special purposes and we also use some of the top programs for developing Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Javascript, XHTML and other technologies to create a high-quality experience for your visitors.

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Search Engine Marketing Optimization

  • What is Search Engine Optimization?
    Search Engine Optimization means tuning up your website so it will perform well on the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and others. Each of these search engines rank pages in a different way so it’s important to combine as many “best practices” together to formulate a winning strategy that will allow your website to outperform your competitors on the keywords that your customers are searching for most. We combine our search engine optimization services with social media optimization, Pay Per Click (PPC) and email marketing to ensure that you have all the major bases covered in your online marketing endeavor.

    We use a combination of “organic” search engine optimization, social media, and pay-per-click search engine marketing for fastest results. Organic search engine optimization involves helping the search engines find your website and creating the ingredients to get your website indexed and ranked as highly as possible. This process involves search engine optimization, link building, search engine and directory submissions, and other tactics that have been proven to be effective.

    Since organic search engine optimization can take weeks or months before you start seeing results, we include pay-per-click campaign management for all of our Web Pro All-In-One Plan customers. This allows you to purchase clicks to your website for as little as 5 cents and up. This strategy allows you to get visitors to your website while waiting for organic results to kick in, which is usually a good way of kick starting an online marketing campaign.

    We usually recommend Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing since these are the two largest providers of PPC traffic, but Facebook and other sources are also gaining momentum and can also provide you with an effective campaign.

  • What search engines does your firm focus on?
    You’ve probably seen advertisements online (or in a SPAM email) that claim you can get your website submitted to hundreds of search engines but the truth is that only a few of the top search engines really matter. With the dominance of Google in the search engine world and the slow rise of Bing and other engines, you should really only focus on these major search engines if you want to increase your results in the best possible way. Simply submitting your website to hundreds of search engines will do absolutely nothing for your business and is a waste of your money (imaging your website being a straw in a haystack of several billion other websites.)

    For this reason, Studio Creek Web Solutions focuses on only the top search engines and directories including: Google, Yahoo, Bing and others. We optimize your website to get results from the top engines that your target market knows about and utilizes.

  • What is your search engine marketing process like?
    After you place your order we will send you a questionnaire that helps us collect all the details we need for your project. We use this information to create a customized search engine optimization strategy that includes a complete keyword and competitor analysis, search engine optimization, link building, and other “best practice” online marketing tactics.

    A Keyword and Cometitor Analysis involves researching the keywords that your customers are likely to put into the top search engines when they are looking for a company that offers the types of products and services you provide. We utilize tools that help us calculate how many times each word or phrase is searched for on a monthly basis and we compare these keywords to your closest competitors who we find online to develop a competitive strategy that is designed to put your website above that of your competition.

    Search Engine Optimization involves fine-tuning the elements through out the website so it clearly targets the keywords that your customers are searching for. After we make your website more “search engine friendly” it will help Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search engines more easily identify the content of your website which will in turn help your website rank higher in the search results.

    Link Building involves identifying and submitting your website to relevant locations that can link to your website. Search engines like Google are built around calculating how “authoriatitive” a particular website is based on the links that are coming into the website. In order to compete in popular keywords and phrases, an effective link building strategy is crucial and we can help you design one that works for your business.

    Be very careful with links from non-relavent websites… like the kind you usually find connected with link farms or free-for-all (FFA) directories. Submitting your website to these types of websites can actually hurt your search engine rankings and they this type of behavior can actually get your website banned from major search engines all together. Link building is very important and needs to be done with care which is why it’s important to hire a company that utilizes only “white hat” search engine optimization and link building practices.

    How long does it take to begin seeing results from search engine optimization?
    Most search engines have a long backlog of sites they need to index before they can get to new submissions. For that reason, it can take a few weeks or up to a few months before your website begins to appear in top search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

    The pay-per-click alternatives can generate results within just a few days and allow you to select an appropriate daily and monthly budget for your campaign. When using pay-per-click, it’s important to choose your keywords wisely and also to create thoughtful ads that will generate qualified leads. Google gives you a better placement and better prices for higher quality ads so this is often a crucial factor in the long term success of a pay-per-click campaign. We can help set up a pay-per-click campaign for you at no additional charge as part of our Web Pro All-In-One Plan.

  • Does your company utilize ethical “White Hat” search engine optimization practices? (no-Spam)
    Certainly! We understand and completely abide by ethical search engine optimization practices and “best practice” guidelines provided by the top search engines.

    There is never any risk of your website being banned from search engines when you use our services. You can’t always guarantee this with when working with amateur firms or do-it-yourselfers. It’s not because anyone doe anything malicious to try and trick the search engines, but it often occurs when innocent mistakes are made that can only be avoided with the knowledge and experience of a search engine professional.

  • What are the risks associated with using “search engine software” and amateur firms?
    The single biggest risk is having your domain name banned from the major search engines forever. The next biggest risk is having a website that simply doesn’t perform which means nobody clicks through to your site and you don’t get any leads online. To gain top search engine rankings, the magic mix of elements is the combination of search engine optimization, social media optimization, a strong link building campaign plus pay-per-click advertising.

    Always be careful when working with amateur search engine marketing people because they rarely have a comprehensive understanding of how search engines work and how different techniques can actually hurt or help your website over the long term. The last thing you want is to get your website banned from search engines forever.

    To order our search engine optimization package, check out our Plans & Pricing to see how we can provide you with affordable search engine optimization abd online marketing services that are perfectly suited for your business.

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Programming Questions

  • What kind of functionality are you able to create for my website?
    Studio Creek Web Solutions specilizes in “editable” websites that feature an award winning Content Managment System (CMS). This system will allow you to log into your website and make changes yourself, although we also offer FREE website updates for all of our Web Pro Plan customers for anyone who want’s a hand with making updaets. In addition to the ability to edit your content, we can also create eCommerce systems, online contact and order forms, image slideshows, event calendars, refer-a-friend applications, and several other systems you may want to use. Check out our Plans & Pricing to see a current list of the tools that come standard with our Web Pro Plans.

  • What programming languages and technologies do you use?
    We focus on PHP website development (the most powerful and one of the greatest web programming technologies available today.) We also utilize Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JavaScript and XHML for a complete solution that works together seamlessly.

    Our tools and techniques that are based on the PHP programming language allows us to provide you with the same types of solutions that many leading Fortune 500 companies use, but at an unbeatable price.

  • Will my website be cross-browser compatible?
    Definitely! All of the websites we build are cross-browser tested with Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera browsers on both PC and Mac operating systems. Your website will also be easily accessalbe on mobile devices, such as the iPhone and the iPad.
  • What other standards does your firm adhere to?
    Many website design and development companies continue to use outdated HTML tags in the websites they develop rather than utilizing modern Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and XHTML. Using outdated technology like this actually inflates your web pages with useless tags and creates more “code” for search engines to read through before reaching the actual content on your pages. This also increases the size of web pages which causes pages to take longer to load. Google and the other search engines actually reward you for having a streamlined website with quick-loading pages and a compact optimized architecture so we focus on developing websites that utilize many of the “best practice” optimization and architecture techniques that the most successful websites count on.

    Studio Creek Web Solutions utilizes CSS, XHTML and an award winning Content Managment System (CMS) so that your website is easier to maintain, loads faster, and is more search engine friendly. CSS allows us to streamline the content and the design side of your website into two different parts which lets us minimize the code and provide the search engines with the richest, most well organized infrastructure possible. This alone is vital for helping you rank better in the major search engines.

    We also try to completely eliminate table-based design layouts wherever possible. This technique allows the pages on your website to render faster for your visitors which increases performance and decreases exit rates.

  • What software tools do your programmers use?
    Our programmers do a lot of hand-coding and we use some of the latest software packages from Adobe and other leading web software providers. The end result is always a site that is clean, well organized, loads quickly, is created with semantic markup, and utilizes a number of “best practices” in order to ensure high performance and optimal quality.

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eCommerce Questions

  • Who needs eCommerce on their website?
    Most websites can get by without eCommerce capabilities, but if you are selling products that can easily be purchased online…you will increase your sales by accepting payments directly from your website.

    There are many options for accepting online payments. In addition, you can choose to have a product catalog if it makes sense or simply allow users to purchase an individual product by filling out a single form.

  • Will I need a “Merchant Account”?
    A merchant account is a wise choice if you expect to be processing a lot of transactions, or if you want the ordering process to be as seamless/transparent as possible for your customers. Having a merchant account allows you to process the transaction completely on your website.

    Alternatively, you can use a third-party payment processor like PayPal for instance. With PayPal, you do not need a merchant account or even a registered business for that matter. PayPal is very recognized and respected, but using PayPal requires that visitors "All-In-One"ly make the purchase on PayPal’s site and then get redirected back to your site once the transaction is complete.

  • What about security?
    If you will be collecting sensitive information such as credit card numbers on your website, security is very important. Otherwise, hackers can see the credit card information passing through the Internet. To avoid this, you use something called a Secure SSL Certificate which encrypts all information between the server and your customer’s web browser.

    Secure SSL Certificates can be purchased from Verisign, Thawte, and many more companies. Prices can range be as much as a few hundred dollars, and there are annual renewal fees that typically apply as well. Godaddy.com is now offering Secure SSL Certificates for under $30 per year.

    Please note that if you are processing payments using a third-party payment processor like PayPal, you don’t necessarily need SSL security on your website because the order will be placed on PayPal’s secure site.

  • Are there additional fees involved for processing online payments?
    If you have a merchant account, you have already negotiated fees with your bank. However, you may also use a payment gateway that makes it easier to process payments on your website, helps protect you from online credit card fraud, and provides detailed reporting and virtual terminal capabilities. Gateways typically charge between $15 to $40 per month and sometimes apply a cost per transaction fee as well. We can help you make the best choices for your needs and budget.

    If you are using a third-party payment processor like PayPal, there aren’t any monthly fees…but the per transaction fees are higher. This can be a good starting point if you will begin with a lower transaction volume or want to start simple. You can always upgrade to a merchant account and/or gateway when you are ready.

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Sales Copy Writing Questions

  • What is professional copy writing, and do I really need it?
    Copy is the wording on your website that explains your products and services in a persuasive yet informative way to your target audience. The goal is to focus on benefits and provide answers you know customers will need before they can make a purchase. If executed correctly, well-written sales copy can dramatically reduce your sales cycle and often capitalize on impulse buying.

    In addition, sales copy should be written in a search engine friendly manner. We optimize your sales copy for search engines and your target audience. This can help your sales information rank higher in search engines and puts your website directly in front of your best prospects.

    Sales copy isn’t “required”, but it is another element that will impact the profitability of your website.

  • Do you write copy for all of my pages, or just a few key pages?
    We generally write professional copy for all of your website pages if you sign up for our Web Pro "All-In-One" Plan.

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Web Pro Plan Questions

  • How do I know if your Web Pro Plan is right for me?
    Our Professional Website and Ecommerce Design Web Pro Plans make the most sense for companies that want a custom website designed or redesigned that includes everything needed for Internet success.

    Because this is a package, you save more money than if you were to request all of these services and features individually. So the Web Pro Plan is right for you if you basically need everything.

    Are all aspects of the Web Pro Plan completely customized to our needs?
    Yes, the Web Pro Plan defines the scope or amount of work provided, but all of the work is completely customized to meet your specific needs. To understand what is included, please see our Plans & Pricing page.

  • What kind of website (and results) can I expect from the Web Pro Plan?
    The Web Pro Plan provides you with a complete website customized to your needs about the size and quality of the StudioCreek.com website you are on now. The only real difference is that there are some custom forms on StudioCreek.com and you may not need these kind of eCommerce capabilities.

    Results will vary based on a number of factors including the demand for your products and services, level of online competition, and so on. Please get in touch with one of our representatives so we can learn about some of these factors and help you understand what you can expect.

  • What if I don’t need everything in the Web Pro Plan?
    Many companies don’t want or need everything in the Web Pro Plan. Often times, a company will ask us only to create a professional website design that they can use to build their website themselves or they will ask us only for search engine marketing assistance. Still others might need an email or database form created. Please send an email to with your specific needs and we’ll be happy to help with whatever you need.

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Newsletter Questions

  • How often is your Studio Creek Web Solutions newsletter sent out?
    Our Studio Creek Web Solutions newsletter is usually sent out every 2-4 weeks.
  • What information do you provide in your newsletter?
    We provide tips and industry secrets about attracting the “right” visitors to your website, how to get more visitors to take action, how to recruit other sites to refer their visitors to your website, ways of increasing your search engine rankings, how to capitalize on impulse buying, and much more.
  • Do you provide my email address to any third-parties?
    Studio Creek Web Solutions does not provide your email address or any other personal information to any other company. Nor will we ever do so in the future. For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.
  • How do I Subscribe or Unsubscribe?
    To subscribe, simply email us at and provide your Name and Email Address and we’ll get you set up.

    To unsubscribe, simply reply to one of our newsletters with the word “Unsubscribe” in the subject name or click on the Unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email and we’ll take you off the list.

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Pricing/Payment Questions

  • How much do you charge for your services?
    Studio Creek Web Solutions has a flat-rate pricing model that can be scaled up for more aggressive online marketing needs. Our Standard Web Pro "All-In-One" Plan costs $99 per month with an initial $995 set up charge. Our Web Pro DIY Plan is perfect for the “Do It Yourselfer” and costs $49 per month with a $495 set up charge. All Web Pro Plan customers will receive FREE monthly updates and our Web Pro All-In-One Plan includes many extra benefits at no extra charge. Check out our Plans & Pricing for more details.

    If you’ve looked around a bit, you have probably realized that most firms don’t provide their pricing information. We believe in being very up front with our clients (plus, we have great pricing!) We are able to reduce costs for our clients because we utilize many best practice techniques in how we run our business and because we have taken measures to reduce all aspects of our own costs.

  • Do you have a “minimum” project size?
    Our minimum project size for new websites is $495 which is the price of our Web Pro DIY Plan. If you just need some simple website updates, we can accomodate you on a case-by-case basis. Please email us at with an outline of what you need and we can send you a customized quote.
  • Do you require full payment up-front?
    We require you to complete your order and submit the payment for $995 or $495 (depending on what plan you choose) before we can begin your project.
  • What payment methods do you accept?
    We accept major credit cards (Visa, Master Card, American Express) and checks that are submitted electronically. We also accept Paypal and Google Checkout.
  • Do you have a “Guarantee”?
    We offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee on all of our work. If you’re not happy with our work we won’t stop until we’ve met all your project requirements and received your approval. In addition, we guarantee our work on an ongoing basis. That means that if you experience any future issues that weren’t uncovered during testing, we will promptly fix it for you at no charge.

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