Search Engine Optimization and Web Design

Do you have questions about Web development? Not just SEO, but Web development in general? If so, this is the place to post your question. It won’t cost you more than a few minutes to post your question and we promise to respond within 24 hours. Check the day after you post to see the answer to your question.

Please use 101, 201, 301 and 401 as necessary to post.

We find that many visitors are searching their favorite search engine that lead them to L.T. Creations, LLC. Statistics show that many are looking to have specific questions answered. You’d be surprised how many people are asking the same questions. So don’t be shy…post your question.

Some recent questions/searches:

1. If you were making a website with a database how would you do it?
2. How much would it cost to have someone update a web site and create a database?
3. How to design database system?
4. Web design price standards?
5. Is the forward slash symbol ( / ) used for web page designs?
6. Web effectiveness guidelines?

1. If L.T. Creations, LLC. were designing a database and content management system (CMS) for your Web site we would ask a “lot” of questions before answering. But, in general, if you have a simple Web site planned and are going to sell products or services, we suggest Zen-Cart for your project. It’s “open source” which means it’s free, and you only pay for the time to custom design or propagate the pages, but the default installation is free. Or, you can add the content (propagate) yourself and save a great deal of money. Usually, Zen-Cart can be up and running in less than an hour. However, there is the issue of “skinning” (making the pages look like a design for your specific business – custom design) the look of the pages so that it doesn’t look like it was a “site-in-a-box” design. If you are considering a very, very invloved Web site, something that may even include a social networking system in addition to selling things, you should consider Joomla – also open source software. Joomla is not for the novice. There is a learning curve with either selection, but Joomla will mandate you have a professional modify, install, add modules and prepare the site to a “turn-key” finish or you will have about a year in “trial-and-errors” to get even close to what you want.
2. Updating, or maintaining a Web site is something you should expect to pay on an hourly basis. There is no way to know how long it will take, but a good professional will be able to provide a good idea of the cost. This question also asks about a database. It’s simple to create a database – but creating the database is not really the question. There are tables, fields of information, in a database. Each field/table is accessed for the specific information contained in that table. HOW you access that information requires a content management system (CMS). The CMS inputs and retrieves the data. It’s the CMS that will cost you the money. Now, refer to question 1. However, if you have a very involved and ‘different’ project you may have to consider a “custom” CMS. L.T. Creations, LLC. can provide that for you at a better price than any other professional. NOTE! If you attempt to use ‘other’ than a professional CMS, you will be throwing away a great deal of money. DO NOT be sold a ‘cheap’ CMS. You will not be able to use it, it won’t do what you need, and it will have a lot of bugs. And, you will find that the creator is not willing to fix anything once you have paid even half for the work. Generally, a “custom” database and CMS will start at about $5,000. Using Zen-Cart (as described here) will start at about $200., and using Joomla will start at about $400. Your specific price depends on what you want the CMS to do and the look you want for the pages.
3. How to design a database? If you have to ask you are asking the wrong question! If you are asking so that you can “dabble” in creating one yourself, then research www.MySQL.com/ where you will find all the answers you want. MySQL is open source (free) database and usually found on any ‘professional’ server. Do not consider SQL (a Microsoft platform) if you are a beginner.
4. There are no ‘standards’ for pricing in Web development. Prices will range from $12. per hour to $120. per hour (or perhaps more) and it all depends on the person or company to whom you are talking. Notice we didn’t specify that you would be speaking to a “professional”. This is because there is nothing to stop a novice from selling their services to you at twice the average professional Web developer price. Somewhere around $50. per hour is what you should expect from a good professional, however. Paying more does not mean you are getting a more ‘seasoned’ professional. But paying less than $40. per hour means you found someone who is either desperate, non-professional, or “off-shore”.
5. The forward slash (/) is used in XHTML. If a tag has no ‘ending’ tag or ‘closing’ tag, you must use the “/” before the > to show that the tag is completed. Here is an example: <img src=”images/nerd.jpg” width=”200″ height=”150″ alt=”Nerd” /> The image tag does not have a closing or ending portion of the tag. Therefore, it must end in the forward slash then the greater-than sign.
6. Web effectiveness guidelines? Also found in this blog are answers and a great deal of information about search engine optimization (SEO). If you want your Web page(s) or entire Web site to be effective, meaning, you get a lot of visitors to your site, you’ll need to make sure you have done all the optimization possible. So do some research here inside our SEO pages starting with SEO in General.

We hope you have a lot more questions. You can post them here, or add them to the ensuing Q & A pages.