Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

How much do your websites cost?

Because sites range widely in scope, design requirements, and functionality, we can't provide a general answer to this question. For an exact price quote, simply call us in Salt Lake City at (801) 633-4262 for a free project consultation. After hearing your desired specifications and requirements, we will provide you with a written budget and proposal for your project.

What factors determine the cost of a site?

Factors that affect the cost of a new web site include:

  1. Project scope
    How large is the proposed web site? How many sections or pages? Will there be subsections and subpages? What are the expected production values? Sites that are graphically complex may require the creation of custom illustration and animation. Will the website include products requiring the creation of thumbnail images and multiple product views? Is the website's text content already written or will your firm need assistance in writing and editing text content for the website?

  2. Graphic Design - Logo Development
    Does your company already have an established company logo for use in the website? An electronic version is highly preferable (i.e. vector format). If you don't already have a logo, you'll likely need a logo to be created for use in the website (as well as any printed materials such as stationery, envelopes, brochures, catalogs, etc.)

  3. Graphic Design - Photographic Assets
    Do you have high-quality photographic images for use in the website? If not, we can help you find excellent, relevant professional stock images. For most business types, stock images are readily available. Some types of business are highly specialized and may require you to provide photographs relevant to your particular business. Will you need a professional photographer to take digital photographs for you (i.e. product or location photographs)? Would your project benefit from photographs taken from a drone (i.e. real estate development projects)?

  4. Graphic Design - Animation or Video
    Will the site design include animation or video? If so, how many unique animations will be required? Do you need video created or edited? What about video taken from a drone? This is an excellent way to show properties or progress in real estate development projects.

  5. E-Commerce
    Will online sales (e-commerce) and credit card processing be required for your website? What types of products are you selling? Should they be available for immediate download (i.e. intellectual property, e-books, software, music)? Alternatively, will your products require shipping and handling? Should shipping and tracking be integrated via FedEx, UPS, or USPS? Will website sales be integrated into an existing Inventory Control System used at an existing physical store location?

  6. Content Management Systems (CMS)
    We work with many Content Management Systems, such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. These tools are back-end application that allows our clients to create, edit, manage, search, and publish content to their websites in much the same way that you might modify a Microsoft Word document.

  7. Additional Functionality
    Are there any other functional requirements that will be included? Online reservations? Password protected content for members? Photo archives? Blogs? Email marketing & online newsletters? Pay-per-click advertising?

Do you offer web hosting?

Yes. For the convenience of our clients, we offer a variety of web hosting services depending on the needs of our clients. For more information, please visit the web hosting section of our website.

Do I have to pay upfront or can I pay in installments?

You can pay in installments. After the budget has been agreed upon, a deposit of only 33% is required for our designers to begin work on your project. When you approve the design composition for further development, the second payment installment of 33% is due. The last payment is due immediately prior to launch, after all corrections have been completed and approved by you.

How long will it take to develop our site?

Our site development process takes between four and ten weeks, depending on the size of the project and the complexity of the functional elements that will be included. We pride ourselves on timely completion of all projects and strict adherence to timelines and deadlines.

What about maintenance and updates after the site goes up?

Site information and features should remain current and accurate. Successful sites are regularly updated so that events, calendars, and other information remain up-to-date. We will work with you to continually update your web site.

To all of our existing clients, Checkmate Productions offers prompt and affordable site maintenance at hourly rates of only $50 per hour.

We also offer an optional Content Management System (CMS) that allows our clients to updated their own sites without any knowledge of HTML.

What about e-Commerce?

We offer a variety of e-commerce solutions to securely sell any number of products online. All of our e-commerce sites employ secure SSL encryption, to offer the best online security and protection available on the market today.

Please call us at (801) 633-4262 to discuss the various e-commerce options that we offer.

Do you offer Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Promotion services?

Salt Lake City Design Interactive specializes in achieving top rankings for all of the web sites we create.

We submit all sites to the search engines by hand, and custom code the HTML to achieve top rankings in the search engines.

A top listing in the major search engines is an outstanding traffic generator. Each major search engine (i.e. Google, Yahoo!, MSN, etc..) uses different criteria to prioritize web sites in its listings. Our experts specialize in obtaining truly outstanding rankings and, once achieved, in defending and maintaining those positions.

Search engine algorithms use 55 different criteria to assign web pages a numerical ranking in their listings. The algorithms, like any software product, can be studied and understood. By understanding the criteria that the search engines utilize to give certain pages top listings in their rankings, we can reverse engineer the HTML code of our clients' web sites to satisfy the maximum number of search engine criteria and attain top rankings in the search engine results.

Most people, and even professional web developers, think that all you must do is include appropriate 'meta-tags' in the HTML code. Meta-tags, which include a Title and Description for each page, as well as a set of Keywords, help some but aren't enough to get you listed on the first page (i.e. a top 10 listing). And it doesn't matter whether you're listed #34 or #121 because very few people scroll that far down the list.

So, additional aspects of the HTML code that we customize include:

  • title area keyword frequency,
  • title area word count,
  • link text keyword prominence,
  • link text word count,
  • body text content,
  • image alt text,
  • placing all Javascript and style sheets in external files,
  • use of header tags,
  • and much more.

Contact info.

Please feel free to call the Salt Lake City offices of Checkmate Productions 1 801 572 9884 for a free, no-obligation consultation about your project.