Frequently Asked Questions

Why should I choose Design Addiction?

We are a small Web Design Studio and take on only a limited number of projects at a time to allow us to give each client our undivided attention from start to finish. We will consult with you in depth to ensure that we fully understand your needs and ideas before we begin. We will keep you informed every step of the way so you can see your design in progress and make any changes you may want as often as necessary until you are completely satisfied. We will get your site up and running as quickly as possible and will be available to you anytime you may need help or have any questions. We strive to give you quality service at an affordable price.

How Much Will It Cost?

A basic professional 5-page website starts around $500. Adding extra pages, a photo gallery, dynamic content, custom forms, or other types of design elements will cost extra. Because each project is different, it’s best to contact us with your project details so we can give you a quote based upon your specific needs and discuss design options that will give you the most for your money.

What forms of payments do you accept?

For your convenience, we accept Paypal, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, cash, check or money order. All payments must be made in U.S. Funds. Please note: If paying by check, there may be a delay in starting work on your project until funds clear.

Returned checks are subject to a $35.00 fee. (US Dollars)

Who should I use to host my website?

We use Siteground Web Hosting for all of our clients websites. We have partnered with them to bring you excellent 24/7 customer service and tech support as well as very affordable web hosting rates.

What all is included in my web hosting plan?

See this page for a complete list of features included with your hosting plan.

What if I already have hosting set up with another company?

We would need the administrative login information to your current web hosting account or we could transfer of all of your files to our web host, and host your site with our partner Siteground, whichever you prefer.

How do I use my existing domain with a Siteground web hosting account?

You don’t have to transfer your domain name from your current provider to use another company’s web hosting services. Doing so just makes it easier for you to manage your domain and hosting accounts in one place. If you want to keep your domain name at your current provider, you only need to change the DNS nameservers of your website to point to the new hosting company’s servers. The following tutorials will guide you on how to change your DNS settings with the most commonly used domain name registrars:

GoDaddy Tutorial
Network Solutions Tutorial
ENOM Tutorial
NameCheap Tutorial

Please Note: Once you change the DNS settings of your domain name, it can take up to 48 hours for your domain to start pointing to the new server. The reason is that some registrars only update their DNS information once every 48 hours.

Also remember that changing your DNS settings does not change your domain name provider/registrar. You will still have your domain registered through the company that registered your domain name when you purchased it.

What do I need to know before I transfer my domain name to another web host?

Before initiating the transfer of your domain name and files, you must be sure that:

• Your domain name is not in “locked” status.
• You have access to the administrative contact email for the domain.
• You can provide the EEP code for the domain.
• There are more than 15 days until the expiration of the domain name.
• The domain was registered for the first time more than 60 days ago.
• The domain has an extension that can be registered.

You can then proceed to request the transfer of your domain and all website files over to your new web hosting company’s server. This process is done seamlessly and all of your existing file structure will remain intact. When you use our hosting company, Siteground, they will provide this service to you free of charge.

What is an EEP code?

The EPP code (authorization code) or also sometimes referred to as the Domain Registry Key, is a safeguard against unauthorized transfers of a domain name. The EPP code is required when transferring .com, .net, .org, .biz, .info and .us domain names. It is not possible to initiate a domain name transfer for these domains without an EPP code. You will need to contact your current registrar to obtain the EPP code before being able to initiate a domain transfer. Please note that EPP codes are case sensitive. If you are having issues with your host/registrar and you cannot obtain your EPP code, you may not be able to manage your domain and transfer it elsewhere. In this case it is best to simply register a new domain name for your site.

What information do you need to begin working on my website?

We will need information about your business, your personal and business contact info, products and services you offer, photos or graphics you’d like to use, the exact text you would like to use for each page, and any other information that you intend to present on your website. Any links to websites that you find attractive to give us an idea of your taste in design style.

How long will it take to design my website?

That is determined by many factors such as the size of your website, the complexity of your design, the amount of changes you make during the design process and our current client design schedule. Projects are taken in the order they are received.

Can I make changes to the site myself?

Yes! We use Joomla! and WordPress as content management systems (CMS). With a CMS you will be able to create new pages, edit existing pages, upload images, documents and more. A CMS allows you to make changes to your website at your convenience, while maintaining integrity of the site.

Will my site look the same in any web browser?

All of our designs/layouts are created on a Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system. All pages of the site are then tested in the latest versions of the most common web browsers; Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera for cross browser compatibility. While some browsers can display things differently than others at times, we do our best to make sure your site will look the same in each of these. Please keep in mind however, that we can not guarantee how your site will display in older versions of these web browsers and we have no control over what browsers your visitors are using to view your website. We suggest that you Download Firefox and use it as your default web browser and even offer a link to the download on your site for your visitors to download as well. It’s faster and more secure than Internet Explorer and other browsers and it’s totally customizable! *You do not need to uninstall your current browser to install and use Firefox.

Will you submit my website to search engines?

Yes, we submit all websites we design to the major search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Bing, as well as some of the smaller web directories and search listing sites.

Why can’t I find my website in the search engines?

Once your site has been submitted to the top search engines it takes a little time for it to propagate through the internet and allow the search engines to spider and list your website in their directories. How fast your site gets listed depends on each individual search engine’s update schedule. Eventually, every site does get visited and indexed by search engine robots.

What else can I do to promote my website?

We encourage our clients to put their website address on all of their business products, advertisements, business cards, newsletters, letterheads, checks, fax cover sheets, etc. Using some of the popular social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook are great promotional tools also.