This first step is called the "architecture" of the site. It starts with getting information from you. Will the site be for business or personal use? What is the purpose of the site? What would you like to accomplish with people that visit? What pages are needed (we go over this point step by step getting information on each). We collect any photos or graphics (like logos) you may want and textual content for the pages.

This stage not only covers the design concept of the site but also the navigation of it (which page will link to which page, etc.). The architecture is critical (as the whole site is based on it) and we are excellent at it.

Mock-ups (or artistic renditions) of the site are provided to you very fast - usually within 2 working days. From here we work to finalize the artwork and it then moves to the next phase. 

Page creation. Once you decide on a particular look we get very busy building the pages with your content, pictures, graphics, etc. After this is done you are requested to check it for approval and after any adjustments are made this part is complete.

Concurrent with the pages being created if there are any e-commerce or other programming functions needed they are done. This includes shopping carts, forums, user interfaces (username/password and private information), order tracking panels, etc.

Regular updates are provided as the project moves forward and revisions are made until completion.

Absolutely! This is an important service we offer. On our Domain Registration page you can go directly to a registration page, search for various names and register them -- you don't have to purchase other services from us to use this service, and the prices we offer are excellent!

Hosting refers to where your web site is stored. Everything you see on the internet is saved on a computer somewhere. Hosting companies offer high powered computers for this purpose. Some offer the service for free -- in exchange for you allowing them to advertise on your site -- while others charge fees large and small.

Think of hosting as rent. Your site needs a piece of real-estate for people to visit it. Once your site "moves in" to its new home it can have users visit. The quality of the hosting is a big issue and there are many opinions on the subject. The main points to consider are: 

1) The number of sites hosted on each server.
Some cheap hosting companies cram a tremendous amount of web sites onto one server. While this sounds like good business sense what it means to you is that server will not have its full computing resources available at any given time because it's trying to serve so many. 

Imagine you were serving guests for dinner, but instead of 6 or 8 guests you had 900! The quality of your service would be poor at best, non-existent at worse.

2) The amount of disk space you are purchasing.
Many inexpensive hosting companies offer tremendous disk space for next to nothing. The old adage, "You get what you pay for" applies.

Get the idea of what a building lot might cost in your area. Now get the idea of a company offering 10 acres of land for the same price as that lot; and in the same area you live in! It's not very likely they'll stay in business or they're not really giving you what you paid for.

3) The amount of bandwidth you are purchasing.
Generally speaking, bandwidth is the amount of data transmitted or received per unit time. This takes the resources of the server computer to "hand it out". This has everything to do with the above 2 items.

If you have a host that puts a ton of sites on one server you can quickly see that bandwidth will become a problem as soon as any volume of visitors comes to your site. Why? Because the computing power of that server will be spread too thin.

Overly cheap hosting (meaning promises of overly high disk space and tremendous bandwidth for a small fee) is meant for sites that are failures. Why do we say this? Because the host doesn't think you'll ever amount to anything traffic-wise so can offer this tremendous "deal". The people with sites listed on these types of servers generally aren't expecting much in the way of traffic so they're "safe".

We wholeheartedly expect volume traffic to our sites -- particularly business-related sites that take advantage of our marketing services. And yes we offer inexpensive hosting, but it's realistically priced relative to what you're paying for -- this way neither of us gets ripped off.

No. Most servers that host web sites are either Windows based or Unix based (these are two different operating systems that handle computing tasks in unique ways). In either case we've got you covered. 

This is an excellent question. After all, what good is a web site if no one comes to see it and use it? Besides submitting your site to search engines and directories on the internet (which is vital if people are to find you by searching for you) there are other marketing strategies to take advantage of.
 
What we offer is a service called Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Imagine someone doing a search on Google, MSN, AOL, or Yahoo, and right there on the first page, is your web site! Don't believe it can be done? Web promotion is commonly built into our web site packages and comes with a unique Performance Guarantee:
 
"Your web site will be on the front page of at least THREE of the TOP 15 Search Engines within 3 months, or you will pay no monthly SEO fee until it is!"

URL Forwarding is a service that sends people from one web address (URL) to another. Think of it as Call Forwarding for the internet. Let's say you put your new web site on a free server. Your web address (URL) might look something like: "http://www.free_server.com/member_name/your_web_site" which could be difficult to remember and certainly isn't professional. With URL Forwarding your visitors need only type "www.your_url.com" (whatever name you've chosen and paid for) and they are automatically forwarded to the other address.
 
Some companies have many web site addresses that all forward to the same site. You can do this too -- come up with several different URLs that describe your product and use this service to send them to your one site.

You can also benefit from others that have an existing URL. Let's say someone has a URL you'd really like to have. Well, you can purchase it if/when they let it expire or you could purchase it from them directly (let's say they're closing down or something). If they've established any amount of traffic it will now be directed to your site! Some companies buy up URLs by the dozens (ones that have anything to do with their product name) and have them all forwarded to their site -- it's a little known secret of how to amass more traffic.

"Masked" refers to the service of not allowing a visitor to see the actual web address they are at. In the above example if you just used regular URL Forwarding (non-masked) any visitor to your site would see the address of your free server. With Masked URL Forwarding all they'd see is your short, easy to remember URL. This allows you to have a great URL, not have to pay for hosting services and look professional at the same time. However, if you decide to pay for monthly hosting, this service isn't necessary.

Meta-tags are basically words or commands put on a web page that browsers, search engines and directories can see but are invisible to visitors to your site. One of these tags is used to display a title on your browser (if you look at the very top of your browser this page says, "Bridgeway Design Services: Frequently Asked Questions"). There are other tags that do various things. 

Search engines and directories used to look for a meta-tag regarding key words — you'd list the key words describing the content of your web page and they would index your site accordingly. The more relevant the words were the better chance you had of your site being pulled up in a search by someone. However, this was abused and as a result none of the major search engines look for these tags anymore.

We will use whichever meta-tags are relevant and appropriate for your site.