Q: What is a Domain Name?

A: A Domain Name points to a web site the internet. All web sites have a special address (called an DNS address) which is used to locate them on the internet. Web site addresses normally look like a series of numbers separated by dots. A domain name contains an easily remembered name, followed by a dot and an extension such as com, org, net, biz, info and others. Your visitors can type in your domain name instead of a series of numbers in their web browser to see your web site.

Q: How much does a Domain Name cost?

A: Generally our domain names can cost to per year. If the domain name is already owned by someone else you may have an option to purchase it from the owner or bid on it in an auction. Under these circumstances a domain name could cost you hundreds if not thousands of dollars.

Q: What kind of Domain Name should I buy?

A: Whenever possible, you should always purchase the .com version of the domain name. However, if the .ca, .net and .biz versions are available and it is feasible, you should purchase these too. Also, be aware that one of your competitors may buy the same domain name as you, adding hyphens to make it unique, and that some of your customers may end up at his site by accident.

To guard against this, it is a wise idea to purchase any and all variations of your domain name. For example, if your domain name was www.nightlights.com, you will want to purchase www.night-lights.com, www.nitelites.com, as well as www.nightlights.net and www.nightlights.ca if available and applicable to your particular industry.

Q: Why is an effective Domain Name is important?

A: Think of your domain name as your address, which in reality, it is. If no one knew the address to your house, how would you get your mail? How would service people be able to arrive for repair work? How could you direct people to your house in an emergency situation if you had no address? In the same way, having an ineffective domain name will not serve the intended purpose of directing visitors to your site. Having a keyword rich domain name is effective, and will also help in Search Engine Marketing.

Having any old domain name will just not do these days; you must have one that is effective. If the domain name you desire has already been taken, keep checking on it as the owner may wish to sell it, or it may soon be expiring and you could get it for a decent price.

Q: How can I lose my existing Domain Name?

A: If you register a domain name that is a registered trade-name or trade-mark then the corporation or individual that owns the right to the name can challenge you for ownership. There has been precedence in the Calgary area where companies have had to relinquish their domain names to trade-name owners. It is a good idea to check your company name and domain name to ensure that they do not violate another companies trade-name or trade-mark.

The other way to lose a domain name is to register the domain name with an email address that is not carefully managed. The email address that you register your domain name with is key to the control of your domain name. If you register your own domain name, ensure that you guard your email address.

If you lose control of the email address associated to your domain you will not receive automated renewal reminders for your annual domain registration. You may lose your domain name. We always ensure that this will never happen to you as our client. With our domain name registration services we manage you domain name for you, from the yearly renewal to hiding your private information, we ensure that your domain name is protected.

Q: What's an Internet search engine?

A: An Internet search engine is a tool that web surfers use to search the Internet. Think of it as a Yellow Pages for Internet web sites, but much more advanced. People type in words or phrases for which they wish to search, and the search engine returns a list of web sites that match that word or phrase. For example, a search for "online bookstore" might return web sites like Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble's Web site. A search engine is a critical tool in finding information, products and businesses on the web.

Q: Why is it good to trade links?

A: The main reason is to drive traffic to your site. When used correctly link trading can increase your number of visitors by the thousands. There are three main effects of having a lot of links out on the Internet pointing to your site.
         1. People will see the link to your site and click on it while browsing through your link partner’s web sites.

         2. Search engines will rank your site higher if you have high link popularity. Which means your site will show up on top and not on the bottom of the search results.

         3. Many search engines use what is called "Spiders" to crawl the internet and index new and updated old web site. If your site does not exist in the google.com; for example that means that google.com they have not indexed your site yet. The "Spiders" will more easily and more often crawl your web site if a link to it is placed all over the Internet. Your site will be listed quicker and it will be revisited more often.

Q: What's the difference between a Search Engine and a Web Directory?

A: A search engine searches all the sites on the web (or all the sites that it knows about on the web, to be more precise). A directory only includes sites that have been reviewed and accepted by a person. Search engines generally will find more sites than directories, because search engines automatically add more and more sites to their databases as they find them. But directories generally have higher quality listings because these sites have been screened and reviewed by a human being. Some search engines, like Google, Looksmart and Yahoo combine a directory with a search engine for comprehensive search results. 

Q: How do I get my site listed in the search engines?

A: If there are multiple links from other web sites to your site, then your site may already be listed in some or all of the search engines. Many search engines send out 'spiders' or 'bots' that endlessly follow links from web site to web site seeking out new pages to add to their index databases. If your site is not yet listed in a specific search engine, then you can generally find an "Add URL" feature on the search engine's home page that allows you to request that your web site be added to the search engine.

Q: What is included the FREE website consultation?

A: We will meet with you or consult over the phone and gather from you your website requirements. We will then prepare a free of charge report & quote for you to review.

Q: We are interested in your Standard Redesigner web package, but we have more than the 15 web page limit. What happens?

A: No problem. If your existing website has more than 15 pages we can still redesign your website.

Q: We already have web hosting, do we have to use your web hosting services?

A: No. We can still redesign and manage your website even if you do not use our own web hosting services as long as you provide us at least FTP access to your web server.

Q: What if we need additional training for your Content Management System?

A: We can offer you additional CMS training for your staff at any time. The additional training will be charged at our hourly rate unless otherwise agreed upon.