HOW OUR HOME INSPECTION WEBSITE DESIGN PROCESS
1.
After you have signed up for a plan and received our welcome email (likely how you got to this page in the first place) then you will respond with all the information that we requested.
It makes your website flow better and have better conversions if we can get all of the information up-front. Adding important information into a website after it’s been designed already is like trying to shove chocolate chips into cookies that are already baked – they need to be there, but would have been better if they went in from the start.
Please note that we require a professionally made logo in JPEG and PNG (with transparent background) format. We cannot make alterations to your logo as part of your plan. We ask that it be “professionally” made, as logos that are low resolution or have errors can make the website design look less than professional – and we like to have everything look awesome for you :).
2.
With the information we have, which you provided, we start building the home inspection website design process – woo hoo! It is very important to have a great logo – as we base your website on your brand – i.e. your logo.
We build your website concept on a remote site so it doesn’t interfere with your current website (if you have one).
Please note that we do not start any of your social media or any other parts of your plan (except citations in some cases) until we have your website ready. For Facebook, we can create your Facebook Page if you don’t have one, or use your current one and optimize it. For Google Business Pages, this will need to be created by you ahead of time (for ownership and verification purposes) and then we can optimize it afterward. Please click here to start your Google Business Page.
3.
Once we have the basic website concept done, we send it over to you to have a look. This will be just a concept and not the full website (it is usually just the homepage). We want you to see what we have in mind, and then you can approve or change things as you’d like.
Please note that in this concept we have not done grammar checks, things will not be polished and ready yet, and there will be changes to come – as it is just the concept at this point.
4.
After you have approved your home inspection website design concept, we will start polishing things up and building all the content out on the other pages.
All of our content is either provided by you, from your existing website, or originally written – not cut and pasted. We like to make sure it all sounds good, so we just need a bit to go through it all.
After that, we will send your entire website for you to review.
5.
At this point, we ask that you go through the website and email any changes you have. There may be grammar errors because our grammar check does not happen until after your changes are made. This ensures we are not grammar-checking content that won’t be there or will be changed later – hence allowing grammar errors to potentially sneak in.
We try to keep things very organized for you, so we ask our clients to send over all the changes in one email, and please identify the page and section that each change is on.
If you have wording changes, we ask that you please put it in a format where we can copy and paste your exact wording. We ask that you do not send any hand-written notes, as they are not always readable by everyone on the team.
6.
For your domain name (i.e. your website address) you will need to purchase this. It is important to own your website address, as this gives you control of your domain name and all aspects of how it works.
We usually recommend Godaddy for domain names, as they have a great domain name service (their hosting and email services are not that great… so just buying the domain name is enough from them). Try and buy it for 3-5 years if you can (for SEO reasons).
7.
After we have made all of your changes, then we can launch your website. We will need access to your domain name to point it to your new website. If you use Godaddy for your domain name, you can give us delegate access. Please do not try to transfer your domain name to us. Where your domain name is located is different than your website hosting – and you should always retain control of your domain name. We only point it to your website from where you bought it from.
If you are switching websites, then websites can go down for short periods of time during the transfer process, and this is normal and to be expected. We work hard to keep it to a minimum.
8.
After your website is up, then if your plan includes additional features (Facebook, Google Business Page, Landing Pages, Lead Capture, etc), then we begin on those, such as Facebook, citations, lead capture campaigns, and working on whatever level of SEO your plan includes.
Please note that the level of SEO on each plan is different, and the higher the plan, the more SEO and services come with it. SEO is large and complex with many moving parts. Please click here to see how SEO works. That will give you a basic overview of how SEO works.
Then you are all set! Most everything else is on the back end with things like structured data, browser caches, image optimizations, and those sorta things. And that’s how it works!
9.
Tracking – After we have put your website together and your campaign is running, we encourage our clients to monitor the progress of the site with Google Analytics. Google Analytics is free for you, and gives you objective, 3rd party data.
Website reporting software can present data in a way that makes an SEO company look good, or can even give false data. We are not into this – which is why Google Analytics is the right choice in our opinion. It will show you live traffic, traffic over a period of time, what people did on your website, and where they came from – among a lot more information as well.
Click here to start a free Google Analytics account. You will then send us the tracking code (click here to find it). Please do not send this code until after your website is fully launched. Also, please send the code in its entirety – we are unable to use screenshots of the code, or pieces of it (such as just the ID number). Please note that we do not manage your Google Analytics account, but we are happy to add the code for you.
All of our home inspection website designs are made custom for you. The type, style, color, and features of your website all depend on what you would like to see on your site – but more importantly, it depends on your logo as well. We base your website on your brand (i.e. your logo basically), so be sure to have a great, professionally designed logo, as it will affect how your website turns out as well.
All of our websites are mobile optimized (responsive) and are Search Engine Optimized (SEO). Your level of SEO depends on the plan you choose.
The extent to which we are able to customize your site also depends on the information you give us, the plan you are on, and the content you provide us. Custom images and alterations to images can be an extra charge depending on what you are looking for. Also, the smaller the plan, the less we are able to customize certain aspects (like custom videos, SEO, graphics, etc), but we can still fully integrate with most 3rd party tools, as was mentioned above.
For your reference, you can see our Terms of Service here: Click Here. These terms are “live” and may change from time to time – and it is the client’s responsibility to make sure to read them and be up to date with them. Also, please Click Here to see our privacy policy.
All of our regular plans include free development. We are able to develop the sites for free because we assume you will continue to work with us, but you are free to cancel at any time with enough notice. You can purchase your website and take it with you if you ever want to leave. The price would be dependent on how big your site is, how long you have been with us, how complicated the transfer would be, and other factors. The 30-day free trial also includes the time developing your website, which is typically 1-3 weeks depending on what you would like, how quickly you are able to respond, and other factors. If your website is not ready at the end of the 30 days (which is extremely rare) your billing cycle will still start.
If you are on a plan that includes landing pages, two landing pages are included for the first 4-6 months of your plan. Additional landing pages can be added later on at a rate of one every two months or so upon request. If you would like more than this, we can add extra pages at a rate of approximately $100 per additional page – depending on the level of content. Landing pages take time – and doing too many of them at once or trying to “flood” an area is not a good SEO practice. A slow and deliberate pace yields the best results. We tell our clients that it is better to be on page 1, one city or town at a time than to be on page 2 – 10 on several cities and towns.
Monthly payments are for the month behind, and not the month ahead. Missed payments may be subject to additional fees. We almost never have done this, but regularly missing payments or other situations that become out of the ordinary may necessitate this.
Please note that some of our plans have exclusivity and that after you sign up, we may not be able to complete your setup if you are in the same area as another client. We apologize for the inconvenience if this happens, but we try to make sure our clients are taken care of and that we don’t “sell weapons to both sides of the war”, so to speak.
