frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Why does my business need a website anyway? +

Maybe it doesn't? But most of the time your business would greatly benefit from having an online presence. There is no point having a website if no one ever sees it, or if it looks unprofessional (a bad website can be more detrimental than no website at all to your image!). But a professionally designed site with an easy to use interface and easy to read content, with good search engine abilities and a clever admin area to maintain your content will greatly increase your exposure to the public. The greater majority of people will simply search the internet for a business or service these days, rather than have to call someone to find out what they do etc. Often this will be the first exposure to your branding/image that they see - and first impressions account for a lot. Also selling online is a cost effective way of putting your products or services in front of a vast audience, and often a good way to supplement a business's income. there are too many reasons why Webster's are so important in this day and age.
Do I need a web designer or a web developer? +

You need both! Luckily we do this all in-house at Fuel. It is important to get someone who knows website design AND development when designing your new web site because there are MANY technical traps and MANY usability problems that can occur. It is definitely a situation 'where a little knowledge can be dangerous'. Besides this we can perceive the way the design will work based on the latest AJAX, Flash, or JavaScript technology and often make the site a lot cleaner and faster to use.
How much does a web site cost?+

This is completely dependent on the amount of time spent designing and developing your website. Most of our websites are completely custom designed and involve a good amount of time to design based on your current branding and your functionality requirements.

Rather than building something from the ground up, we can often save you money by using one of our many pre-made templates and customising the existing look and feel to match your existing branding. The advantages of this are that the costs are kept to a minimum, and the functionality is kept to an optimum level.
I currently have both hosting and email with another company and would like to know what's involved if I change to Fuel's hosting. +

There are many factors to consider here, but we always make this as easy as possible for you. You may not even have to change hosts (dependent on the CMS we use for your new website). With website hosting comes email also, but you always have the option to leave the email exactly where it is if you wish, as website traffic and email traffic can easily be separated through your Domain Registrar.
What is a Domain Registrar +

A Domain Registrar is the place where your website address points to the Hosting Severs, and is usually the place you bought your website name (URL). We like to use www.1stdomains.net.nz to buy our Domain Names, as they are cost effective and provide a good service (and we won an iPod off them)
What is Web Hosting, and how much does it cost? +

Web Hosting ranges, and is dependent again on the CMS we use for your website to control the content, but it where your website files are physically situated. As some of our solutions are PHP based, one is .NET and another is ColdFusion, each CMS has it's own individual requirements. We offer a range of PHP Hosting to our clients (only), more can be found here. Our CoreCMS is a hosted solution and is included in the yearly CoreCMS fee, see more at www.corecms.co.nz
Why can't I find my web site in the search engines?+
Again this comes down to many factors. Usually with new website URLs it just needs time. But with existing sites it is more often down to the fact that the website is:
1. Badly made and not using Web Standards
2. The website content (particularly the Home Page) is lacking
3. The site may have broken one or more search engine rules and has been either demoted or 'Black Listed'
We can usually fix these problems, but sometimes a website is better to be remade from scratch, otherwise it is like trying to put a modern performance V8 engine in an old car - you are only going to get so much performance from it compared to a modern chassis...
How do I update my website? +

Nearly every site we build at Fuel Design has a 'Content Management System' (CMS) to control content and add/remove pages etc. These range in power & price and will be a very important asset to most web sites because you can change content and review how it affects search engine ranking, let alone the fact that your content can be instantly and very easily updated. Click here to see our powerful range of Content Management Systems.
Will the Content Management System interfere with the website search engine compatibility? +

All our Content Management Systems (CMS) are designed to be fully integrated with your website search engine requirements. Some, like our CoreCMS, even enhance this by sending a file to Google/MSN/Yahoo every night to tell them to update their records. We have many sites that still retain there 'Strict Web Standards' even with the addition of the CMS. But this is a real issue when choosing a CMS, as many will greatly reduce the search engine compatibility.
Do I need to hire a local web site design company? +

Not at all, in this modern technological climate we develop world class websites for clients all around the world who want to take advantage of our skills and New Zealand's exchange rate. Even nationally we create many sites and 99% of the information we need can be discussed over the phone, via Skype or other such modern devices.