Planning your website is a process that will have a tremendous effect on how it turns out. How well you have planned will effect how your new website will look, how well it will function, how completely it meets your needs and expectations, and how much it will cost! In this section we will try to address every question you may have about planning and creating your perfect website. There is a great deal you can do to reduce the total cost of your site. By planning thoroughly and providing the information we need in the form that we need, you can help us build your site quickly and to your expectations. This will save you money and possibly a few headaches!

Preparation

1. Decide the purpose of your site.
   • Do you want to provide information for clients and customers?
   • Do you want to sell products directly?
   • Do you need a Shopping Cart?
   • Do you need a Merchant Account?
2. Do you need to register a Domain Name? (ie: www.yourname.com) If so, we can help you check availability and register your domain for you.
3. Do you need hosting? High quality hosting at very reasonable prices is available with L & S Designs, Inc., or you may choose another company to host your website.
4. Plan out the number of pages and their titles.
• The name of your homepage might be your company name and whatever product you are offering.
• Titles/links to other pages might be "About Company", "Products", "Services", "Contact", "FAQ", "Guestbook", "Order Form", etc.
5. Get a copy of company logo, letterhead, (hard copy or digital format) brochures, catalog,etc. and mail or email them to L & S Designs, Inc.
6. Decide specifically what graphics/photos you would like on your site and which pages you want them on. Label them by name and where they will be located on your site. Send the photos for scanning or send digitized images on a diskette or CD.
7. Compose and format text to be on each page of site. All text and information is to be provided by the client via floppy disk or CD. You may also send them to L & S Designs, Inc. by e-mail on Microsoft Word. Otherwise, there will be a small charge for typing.
8. Decide if you want any additional options for your site:
• Shopping Cart, Site-Map, Guestbook, Links to Related Sites, Sound or Music, Animation, Additional Forms, Java Scollers & Effects, Autoresponders, Password Protection, Bulletin Boards, Database, CGI Scripting
9. Do some research on the www.
   • Using various search engines, do a number of searches using keywords that you think are best for a site like yours.
   • Bookmark the sites that come up in the top 2 or 3 positions when the keywords you have used bring up a lot of relevant websites.
   • This will give you important keyword knowledge, ideas for the layout and content of your site, and examples of sites that rank high with search engines for L & S Designs, Inc. to work from to design effective meta tags and keyword content.

Browse the links below or at the top of this page for answers to questions and for ideas about planning and building a successful website with L & S Designs, Inc. as your partner.

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What You Provide

1. Outline of website pages, starting with the homepage
2. Names of all links to other sections and all pages in each section
3. Titles for each page
4. Text for each page, must be in file form preferably Word, and formatted the way you want it to look on the website. We will need to charge an hourly rate to author, type or format text that is not in a formatted file form
5. Logo in hard copy or digital file form. Logo design is available if you need one for $150-$500 depending on complexity.
6. Graphics for each page in the form of photos for scanning or in digital file form. Each image should be labeled by name and the location where your want it displayed. Graphics that require extensive cleaning up or editing will be charged our hourly rate.
7. Keywords and a description that you decide are the most important to use for search engine registration. If you need us to help you we will be glad to for an additional fee.
8. All materials and information are to be provided to L & S Designs, Inc. in a timely fashion to facilitate project completion according to agreed upon timeline.
9. E-Commerce Only - Upon all products (items), graphics, descriptions, and categories being entered into your catalog it is up to you to ensure that all products (items), graphics, and descriptions are in the appropriate category. If any changes need to be made they will be done at no additional charge as long as the mistake is on our end. If the data entry mistake is in the excel spreadsheet that you provide us with a nominal fee will be charged to your account.

We will be happy to assist you with any of the above during consultation phone calls and via email. We are also available to take care of any part of the above that you cannot provide and will perform that work at our hourly rate.

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What L & S Designs, Inc. Provides

1. Custom design and layout including clean, validated HTML, validated links
2. Custom graphics, including lines, bullets, buttons, background, masthead and page headers from your logo
3. Meta tags utilizing keywords and site description provided by client
4. Basic search engine registration with the major engines.
5. One hour of consultation on our phone bill. Second hour billed at $.10/minute. Over two hours consultation billed at our hourly rate.
6. Completion of work in a timely fashion agreed upon by both parties
7. Uploading of your site to your domain upon completion of agreed upon work, and upon receipt of the total balance due.
8. Consistent, friendly service