1. Why does my business need a website?
Websites are simply an incredibly affordable and effective way to market your business. Unlike the yellow pages, websites are inexpensive, are accessible from anywhere in the world, and can carry much more information than even a full-page listing. Unlike a brochure, you won’t have any printing and distribution costs, and you can easily update your site with ongoing changes.

A website will increase public awareness of your company. The Internet is on 24 hours a day, so potential and current customers are able to learn about your products and services at their own convenience in an interactive, compelling manner. And your employees won’t waste time on the phone fielding frequently asked questions or mailing out printed materials when PlanetGuide sets up your website to address common inquiries.

Consumers today expect any company worth doing business with to have a website. They see it as a sign of credibility and dedication. As long as your site is professional-looking and well-designed, a website will put your business up in the same league as larger competitors.

2. What is e-commerce?
Your website can do more than function as an online source of information. E-commerce, or electronic commerce, is the concept of setting up a site to function as a retail store. PlanetGuide can give your business’s website the ability to display your merchandise in innovative ways and to accept customer orders through the Internet. Your site can automatically calculate shipping charges and securely process credit card information. Of course, your online store will always be open and require no staffing.

3. What are the costs associated with my website?
The main expense for a new site involves its conception and design. As websites can vary widely in scale, how much your site will ultimately cost depends upon its size and functionality. Other start-up costs include purchasing a domain name and registering your site in search engine directories. PlanetGuide agrees on a fixed price with each client before beginning site design, so you won’t have to worry about any surprise hidden costs.

Once your site is built, it needs to be hosted on a server in order for Web users to be able to access it. PlanetGuide offers a variety of different hosting packages for a monthly fee.

You may want to periodically update or make changes your site. Some updates you can perform yourself free of charge. For other changes, PlanetGuide’s fees depend on the amount of work needed.

4. Do you redesign existing sites?
Yes, we do. Typically, a site redesign is quicker and costs less than building one from scratch.

5. Once PlanetGuide builds my site, does it belong to me?
Everything about the site—content, structure, design—is yours. If you prefer, you do not have to choose PlanetGuide to provide hosting, and you are free to hire someone else to make any future changes to your site.

6. How does PlanetGuide go about building a website?
Please see our Process page for an overview of our process.

7. Can I monitor PlanetGuide’s progress as the site is being constructed?
PlanetGuide will create a private web link to be used for viewing progress on your site and for testing. The knowledge of this link is strictly limited to the parties involved.

8. Can you tell me more about what goes into building a website?
Before we begin work in earnest on your site, PlanetGuide will develop one or more design concepts for approval and feedback. The visual components include identity, mood, color palette, images, layout, typographical treatment, and others. We also pay close attention to navigation, making sure users can find what they’re looking for easily and with a minimum of mouse clicks.

After your approval of our final design presentation, we delve into creating the images, header graphics, navigational buttons, and icons. We finalize the site’s colors, fonts, and logos and work on a variety of components such as links, banners, and labels.

PlanetGuide also develops a database structure and a variety of behind-the-scenes elements. Depending on what PlanetGuide and your company have decided on for the site, we set up administrative user levels, administrative tools and menus, functionality, user registration and login features, passwords, cookies, forms for users to fill out, and other features.

9. What type of testing to you do? Will my website work on all computers?
PlanetGuide performs the first stages of testing internally. Then, the beta version is uploaded to the private link where you can click through the site and see how it flows, and PlanetGuide conducts further trials at this stage. The server that will host your site is rigorously tested and re-tested to ensure stability and security.

In addition, we thoroughly test the prototype under different browsers including the latest versions of Internet Explorer, AOL, and Netscape Navigator on both PC and Mac platforms. All our sites are developed to work with at least 4.0 browsers, the lowest common denominator standard, and we keep in mind those users who still have 56.6k dial-up connections, which are slower than the increasingly popular broadband connections.

10. Will you teach me how to work with my site?
Yes. Depending upon what was decided upon in the initial agreement, PlanetGuide provides training for Web administration tools, synchronization, and the importation of legacy databases and website content.

11. I don’t live in the New Orleans area. Can you still design my company’s website?
No problem. PlanetGuide will learn about your goals and discuss concepts over the phone and through e-mail. We can receive your files electronically and through FedEx or the US Postal Service. The private Web link we create will allow you to monitor our progress on your site from anywhere.

12. Do you only design websites for companies?
Although PlanetGuide’s core business is creating company websites, we also develop sites for non-profits, community organizations, clubs, special events, and individuals. Don’t hesitate to ask us for a free quote.