Website Design In North Vancouver — Frequently Asked Questions
MW Web Design, a website design company in North Vancouver, BC Canada, creates websites for almost any type of small to medium-sized business and specializes in designing websites for the alternative health, holistic, new age, fitness and wellness fields. We also offer search engine optimization (SEO) and link building services to clients located in any Lower Mainland community of the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. Here, you will find answers to many of the most frequently asked questions we receive. If you do not find an answer to your question, please feel free to contact us.
MW Web Design was formed in 1992 as a division of a well-known and highly-respected Vancouver-based computer sales, service and support company on Vancouver's North Shore. At that time, the Internet was still relatively new (a 9600 baud modem was considered "cool" and Netscape 1.0 was "hot") so we began building websites for our computer service clients, helping them to establish their initial presence on the Internet. In the year 2000, we branched off into website design exclusively. We have been designing websites full-time ever since. For over ten years now, our entire focus has been on web design and nothing else — we have a passion for website design. The knowledge we gained from working in the computer service industry between 1992 and the year 2000 served as a definite asset to our web design venture. We are a husband and wife owned and operated business and recently acquired a third designer and search engine optimization specialist. Our services are often hired by other web development companies which keeps us very busy.
Q. Where Is MW Web Design Located?
MW Web Design is a home-based business located in the Central Lonsdale area of beautiful North Vancouver, BC Canada — just a few blocks down the street from the very "heart" of the city of North Vancouver. The majority of the websites we design are done via e-mail and by telephone. Most of the time, we do not have to personally meet with the clients we design websites for since the electronic age has eliminated so much paper and we also realize just how little time people have these days for scheduling meeting after meeting in person. Driving through rush-hour traffic, finding a place to park and dealing with delayed appointments takes up a lot of your valuable time. By following our design process guidelines and by using very effective communication by telephone and by e-mail in order to get to the heart of your details, we can save you a lot of time. And money. Although we are a Vancouver web design company, we have also helped clients in other Canadian provinces outside of British Columbia to put their businesses on the Internet — never having met them in person. We welcome all web design enquiries from clients located absolutely anywhere in Canada. We are set up for iChat, AIM and Skype for those of you with video conferencing capabilities. If you do prefer meeting with your web designer face-to-face, we will certainly be happy to arrange a consultation for you but this has seldom been necessary for the majority of our client base.
Q. Why Should I Choose MW Web Design?
MW Web Design treats every web design project as if it were our very own. We truly go the extra mile in creating unique website designs for our clients. None of our projects are built from pre-designed templates. Every little bit of heart and soul goes into the creation of your website in order to ensure that it will be original in its design. Our attention to detail is evident right down to the very last rounded corner of a graphic placed on a webpage. We are one of very few companies who will only commit to taking on one web design project at a time. This means that your project receives our full attention without any interruption. With this solid commitment to customer service, we never keep you waiting for productivity to happen — you never have to wait for answers. We get started on your project right away and create a working prototype for you within a very short period of time. Every single aspect of our web design services is performed in-house with absolutely no "outsourcing" involved, no reliance upon third parties and no subcontract delays. MW Web Design has stood the test of time and has become very popular among the new age, alternative health and holistic healing fields — much of our work has come by way of referral. We work hard for you in order to get the results you deserve as a business owner. But rather than take our word for it, why not ask our clients? After all, they know best.
Q. Which Business Types Does MW Web Design Work With?
Although many of our website designs have been created for home-based businesses and small to medium-sized businesses, we can work with almost any size and type of business. We have also designed websites for larger, corporate companies over the years. When we began designing websites full-time in the year 2000, our first design was for a holistic healing company. After this website was completed, the word soon spread and we found ourselves designing more and more websites based upon holistic healing modalities such as reiki, reflexology and others, as well as websites based upon astrology, new age and alternative health themes. Since that time, we have also designed websites for construction companies, architects and engineers, business management and development firms, interior designers, psychologists, hypnotherapists, fitness and health-related businesses, veterinary clinics, real estate organizations, musicians, computer sales and service companies and many other types of businesses. We will take on almost any design challenge — no matter what size or type of company you may operate.
Q. How Much Will My Website Cost?
This is a very difficult question to answer considering the many factors which determine the overall cost of a website — our design process page lists most of the factors which need to be taken into consideration when quoting on a website. You will find three different website packages on our web design packages page but we will require a certain amount of information from you first before we can provide you with an estimate. No two websites are ever the same which is why we simply cannot offer a "one size fits all" price.
Q. Does MW Web Design Provide Web Hosting Services?
MW Web Design does not directly provide web hosting or domain name registration services. The costs of these additional services are not included in our quoted pricing. For your web hosting and domain name registration needs, we recommend Vancouver Island's dotcanuck.ca — many of our clients already use their reliable and reasonably-priced domain name registration and web hosting packages. MW Web Design will be more than pleased to offer you the assistance needed in initiating and configuring these services.
Q. Can MW Web Design Supply Images For My Website?
Yes. We include local digital photography services in some of our web design packages*. If you need photos of your business, your surroundings or of yourself, MW Web Design can certainly help. We also have a catalog of original digital photography plus you can choose images from our catalog of over ten-thousand royalty-free stock photos and clip art. For the most outstanding results, we highly recommend using a service such as iStockphoto to obtain the ideal images for your website. These images must be paid for (and licensed) for use on your website but the end result is definitely worth the small, additional cost. With millions of reasonably-priced images to choose from, you just cannot find better and more professional stock photography anywhere else on the Internet. Many of our clients have used iStockphoto with very satisfactory results.
Q. How Do I Get Started With MW Web Design?
Simply call us or send us a message — we will be happy to discuss your needs and walk you through the process of designing a website for you. In the meantime, on our design process page, we have outlined the steps involved when hiring MW Web Design to build your website. Have a good look at this page and feel free to contact us if you have any questions whatsoever. There is also a lot of good, common sense information on our web design tips page which we encourage you to read. Be prepared to spend a bit of time writing the content for your website. If you think you may have trouble writing the content for each of your webpages, we offer professional web copywriting services for an additional fee. Please feel free to ask us for more information on this service. The Internet is a very powerful tool as well as an advertising medium for your business. We want to make your website work for you — yielding the expectations and the results you desire as a business owner. Take your time when following our design process guidelines and make lots of notes. This way, we will be able to help you get started in the most efficient way possible.
Q. How Long Will It Take For My Website To Be Completed?
This is another difficult question to answer since it truly depends on how many pages your website will consist of, how complex the graphics are and how much content you have. Our prototyping process is fast and can take anywhere from a few days to a week to put together depending upon the complexity of the design (never taking longer than a maximum of 10 days). If you have everything ready for us (ie: your domain name registration, web hosting, content and images), we can complete your website within one to three weeks depending on the overall size of your website. The fastest website we have ever designed was Detail Pressure Washing which was completed in seven days (a small business package website). The longest it has ever taken us to complete a website was seven weeks for Vancouver Reiki, Inner Focus Holistic Healing (a corporate business package website which consisted of 40 pages at completion time and now consists of over 105 pages with all of its additions and updating).
Q. Will My Website Show Up In The Search Engines?
Yes. But it may take some time before you start seeing your website appear in the search engine results. There are dozens of factors that determine your overall search engine positioning — things like the proper balance between your title tags and content, how many competitors you have, how many other websites "link" to your website and many, many other factors. We create an XML Sitemap (a "hidden" file) for you which is uploaded to your web server and we submit your website to the search engines***. But please be patient — especially when your website first goes "live" as it can take a number of weeks before your website begins showing up when you do a search for your company's services on the Internet. How quickly your website will begin to appear in the search engine results is something that is completely beyond our control. Also — remember that no matter what anyone may attempt to tell you, no one can guarantee a #1 search engine ranking when it comes to search engine results. It all takes time. There is a lot of good information about search engines on our links page. MW Web Design offers additional services including link building and search engine optimization which can help to improve your search engine visibility.
Q. What Are My Payment Options?
MW Web Design accepts payment by VISA, Direct Debit or Company Cheque. Once you've accepted the prototype of your website design and we have "signed off" on the prototype, we will require a 50% deposit** on the finalized price we have quoted you. The remaining 50% of the quoted price plus taxes along with any extras, additions or changes that have accumulated during the course of the project will be due at upload time. British Columbia's new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) which went into effect on July 1st, 2010, is applied to all brand new website designs, re-designs of existing websites and all website maintenance where applicable.
Q. How Do I Update My Website After Completion?
This is actually explained on our design process page. Some of our clients have found that updating their own website can be a little overwhelming due to the learning curve required. Others have had no problem with updating their website, making changes and adding content and images. The majority of our clients prefer to leave the updating process up to us. MW Web Design offers website maintenance and updating services by the hour or by yearly contract. Please feel free to contact MW Web Design for more information and rates on our maintenance and updating services.
* Some restrictions may apply. Travel charges may apply for certain Lower Mainland communities of the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada.
** Deposits are non-refundable and are payable by VISA, Direct Debit or Company Cheque. Our payment procedures for search engine optimization packages work differently than the payment procedures outlined above for web design packages — please contact MW Web Design for details.
MW Web Design was formed in 1992 as a division of a well-known and highly-respected Vancouver-based computer sales, service and support company on Vancouver's North Shore. At that time, the Internet was still relatively new (a 9600 baud modem was considered "cool" and Netscape 1.0 was "hot") so we began building websites for our computer service clients, helping them to establish their initial presence on the Internet. In the year 2000, we branched off into website design 
