FAQs

We know that the decision to start a website or update an old one is a difficult one with a lot of accompanying questions. We pride ourselves on education and transparency. Our goal is to make you feel comfortable that we are the right choice to bring your vision to life. With that being said, we've compiled a list of frequently asked questions from our clients that we feel might be helpful. By all means, if there's a question you have that you don't see an answer to, please don't hesitate to contact us! We're here to help.

Web Design

What is the difference between a full website and a landing page?

You know when you ask a friend if they know of any good...babysitters, or bakeries, or HVAC companies...whatever...that they’d recommend and they respond, “Yes! I love XYZ! Check them out! Their website is XYZ.com” Then you go to the website, land on their homepage and…have no idea what to click. Sure, they probably do offer the service your friend said they did. They’re probably great at it. But they offer about 10 other services too. So, you’re lost. It’s just too much. Scenario B - Same question, same friend…but this time their response is, “Yes! I actually just got an email from them today about that. I’ll forward it to you.” You click the email and it takes you to the same company’s website, but to a page specifically for the service you want. Problem solved! This is the difference in a website and a landing page. Of course businesses need a full website. There’s no getting around that. But when it comes to specific services and giving bite size pieces of digestible information, landing pages are the way to go.

A landing page usually has a specific call-to-action and typically captures information from the visitor, whether it’s just a name and email or a full form. A landing page serves one particular purpose and is not targeting a wide audience.



How much does web design cost?

I know, everyone hates this answer…but, it depends. It really does depend on so many variables though. We can say that most of our sites are between $1,200 - $3,500. Some of the factors that will determine cost are things like:

  • Complexity of site - Do you need an e-commerce site or any sort of payment processing? Do you require any sort of API integrations?
  • Domain and hosting - Do you need us to help with domain and hosting or will you provide your own?
  • Images - Will you provide high quality, non stock images?
  • Copy - Will you provide copy?
  • Age of site - Are we updating your current site or creating a new one? Believe it or not, creating a new site can actually be less expensive. Legacy sites from prior developers tend to require extensive clean up before we’re able to get started.
Having an effective web design is such an important piece of your business. Please don’t hesitate to reach out for a free estimate. We’re always happy to answer any questions and discuss your web design needs to help your business grow!



What is a domain and how much does it cost?

Your domain is your website address – i.e. www.garrisonagency.com. This can be purchased from a registrar like Go Daddy. Your domain is one of the most important pieces of your website, as it’s what users will use to access your site. We recommend a simple, short domain that’s relevant to your business with a .com extension. Try to avoid special characters if possible. For example, garrison-agency.com is not as easy for customers to remember as garrisonagency.com. Generally speaking, domain names cost around $2 – $20 per year. The cost of your domain is not included in your Garrison Agency invoice. This is a purchase you’ll need to make on your own, as it’s something you will own.



What is website hosting and how much does it cost?

All websites must be hosted on a web server. This is where the files (code, images, etc.) that make up the site are stored. The complexity of your site will determine your hosting needs. Typically, more complex sites, like WordPress, e-commerce or sites with API integrations, require additional server hosting setup. We use Amazon Web Server (AWS) hosting here at Garrison Agency. The cost for this setup is included in your initial invoice and runs between $200.00-300.00 + yearly costs of the server itself, between $10 - $45/yr. Less complex sites, like informational type sites or blogs typically do not require additional hosting setup or costs.



Content/Copywriting

What is copywriting?

Copywriting is the obsession of every word within a branded piece. Some call it strategic or persuasive writing. The ultimate goal of good copywriting is to encourage the reader to take action. Copywriting can come in many forms:

  • Webpages
  • SEO Meta Descriptions
  • Email
  • Product Descriptions
  • Print Advertisements
  • Real Estate Listings
  • Video or Audio Scripts
  • Direct Mail
  • White Papers



How much does copywriting cost?

This is another one for which we have to give the "it depends" answer. The base price is $200/500 words. This price can range drastically based on industry, piece type, and research involved. For example, a blog for the beauty industry would fall into the $200/500 words range, whereas SEO meta descriptions for a webpage would run closer to the $1,000.00 range.



What's the difference in content writing and copywriting?

Both copy and content writing should reflect a brand's voice and tone. They both should be emotional, concise, empathetic and consistent. It's when copywriting encourages the reader to take action, that content writing is more educational and informative. Blogs, for example, fall under content writing services. Other types of content writing are articles, magazine features, biographies, social media content and newsletters.



SEO

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is a complex and ever-changing beast. At its core, the purpose of SEO is to increase traffic to your website by optimizing your website's organic search engine results. Simply put, a website needs effective SEO to be found online.



How much does SEO cost?

Monthly SEO Maintenance packages range from $225.00 - $450.00 All SEO packages require a one-time setup fee to begin. This fee depends on factors like industry, age of website and your website's history of SEO. The range for this fee is $700.00 - $1200.00.



What's the difference in SEO and PPC?

The most popular analogy used to explain the difference in SEO and PPC is the real estate analogy. PPC, or pay-per-click advertising is the big, fancy vacation rental that you spend more money on for special occasions and only for a limited amount of time. It's not yours to keep. It'd get pretty pricy and unsustainable. Plus, when someone else bids higher than you, you get kicked out of your spot.

SEO on the other hand, is your home. It's where you live and invest the majority of your budget. Like your home, SEO requires maintenance and upkeep. That work that's done though, it's yours to keep. No one can take it away. It stays with your website as long as it's live.



What's included with SEO services?

Here at Garrison Agency, we pride ourselves on providing one-of-a-kind service to each customer. While many SEO companies are happy with cookie-cutter services, we believe that each customer is different and deserves to be treated as such. We tailor our SEO services to each unique business. The first step for SEO is a competitor matrix. This is an multi-point analysis of your domain, along with your top 7-10 competitors. This gives us a starting point of where you stack up against others in your industry and what work needs to be done on your domain and website. Once complete, you own this valuable asset which an be used for so much more than just SEO. After the competitor matrix is complete, we begin work on local directories and site structure. We maintain a list of 80+ local directories from which we pick and choose to list your business. Some of them will make sense for your unique business, some won't. Local directories are a great source of the ever-important backlinks that you'll hear a lot about when it comes to SEO. In addition to local directories is site structure. This is the guts of your actual website. There are over 200 different factors that play into site structure. Are your images labeled correctly? Is your copy laid out in a readable format? Do you have the right coding on the backend? We take care of all of these technical aspects that Google and other search engines look at. This includes checking for errors within your Google Web Console. Lastly but perhaps most importantly is SEO copywriting. When someone searches for your business keywords, what encourages them to click your name over your competitors? These are called meta-descriptions. We take care of all of this!



Miscellaneous

Do you do social media marketing?

We do not currently offer social media marketing as a service. We know. It's on our wishlist too. As a boutique marketing firm, providing the absolute best, most high quality service possible to our customers is our highest priority. We're perfectionists and we believe in giving 100% to 100% of our customers. We understand the time requirements involved in great social media marketing and at this time we're simply not able to commit that to each and every customer for social media.



Can you help me run paid ads?

Remember the real estate analogy (see SEO vs PPC)? At this time, Garrison Agency does not offer a service for paid ad campaigns. We believe in the power of organic SEO and would love to help grow your business with this investment into the longterm optimization of your search engine health.



Do you do graphic design?

Yes and no. We are not graphic designers by trade. Can we design graphics? Absolutely. If you need content created for your site or even an Instagram post created to match a page we designed on your website, we've got you covered. While we don't offer graphic design as a stand alone service, we can help with some things. Don't hesitate to ask. If it's not something that we're able to help with, we have a couple of amazing graphic designers that we work with regularly to whom we can refer you.



Can you make me a logo?

Logos are so important to your brand’s identity. It’s the visual that pops into peoples’ heads when your brand name is heard or read. If done well, it’s what will wind up on everything from t-shirts to emails, from your social media profile to your business cards. It may seem like just a little thing, but we like to leave this little thing up to those who do it best. If you don’t yet have a logo, let us know and we’ll put you in touch with an expert graphic designer who specializes in brand identity and logo creation.



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