How much do your websites cost? What factors determine the cost of a site? Do I have to pay upfront or can I pay in installments? Do you offer web hosting? How long will it take to develop our site? What about maintenance and updates after the site goes up? What about e-Commerce? Do you offer Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Promotion services? Can you provide evidence that you'll really achieve a Top 10 Ranking for my site? How do you achieve such great results in the Search Engines? How much do your websites cost? Because sites range so widely in scope, complexity, and functionality, we can't provide a fixed answer to this question. For an exact price quote, simply call us toll-free at 1.866.414.4635 for a free project consultation. After hearing your desired specifications and requirements, we will provide you with a written budget and proposal for your project. What factors determine the cost of a site? Factors that affect the cost of a new web site include: Project size How large is the proposed site? How many sections or pages? Will it include a Product Gallery requiring thumbnail images and enlarged views? Is the site content already written or will you need assistance writing the text for the site? Graphic Design - Logo Do you already have a company logo for use in the site? Do you have this logo in electronic format? (i.e. Adobe Illustrator file) If not, do you need a logo designed for use in the site? Graphic Design - Photographic Assets Do you have digital images (in electronic format) for use in the site? Or do have only print images that will need to be scanned? Will you need professional photographic services to take digital photographs for you (i.e. product photographs)? Graphic Design - Flash Animation Will the site incorporate Flash animation? If so, how much? Will the homepage have a small amount of Flash just to add visual interest to the page, or will the entire site be created in Flash? Will the Flash have an audio (music) component? E-Commerce Will credit card processing be required for e-Commerce? Is the product something that will be available for immediate download (i.e. software, music)? Or will the product require shipping? Will shipping be integrated via FedEx, UPS, or USPS? Will website sales be integrated into an existing Inventory Control System at a store location? Content Management System (CMS) Our CMS is a back-end application that allows our clients to update their websites as easily as they would modify a document in Microsoft Word. No knowledge of HTML is required at all. Forms What kind of forms will be required? Simple forms include those commonly included in Contact Us sections of websites. More sophisticated forms allow site visitors to apply for employment positions and securely upload their resume and cover letter. Additional Functionality Are there any other functional requirements that will be included? Password protected area for members? New member signup section that provides username and password combinations? Blog? Site search function? Sign-up feature for e-Newsletters? [ return to top ] Do you offer web hosting? Yes. For the convenience of our clients, we offer a variety of web hosting packages depending on the needs of our clients. Our web hosting for business sites includes Urchin Site Statistics, the best traffic analysis tool available on the market. See Sample Urchin Stats. Additional features of our web hosting packages include: Multiple POP3 E-mail accounts E-mail Forwarding E-mail Autoresponders Urchin Site Statistics Regular Backups 99.9% uptime Do I have to pay upfront or can I pay in installments? You can pay in installments. After the budget has been agreed upon, a deposit of only 33% is required for our designers to begin work on your project. When you approve one of the final design concepts for further development, the second payment installment of 33% is due. The last payment is due immediately prior to launch, after all corrections have been completed and approved by you. How long will it take to develop our site? Our site development process takes between three and ten weeks, depending on the size of the project and the complexity of the functional components to be included. We pride ourselves on timely completion of all projects and strict adherence to all timelines and deadlines. What about maintenance and updates after the site goes up? Site information should remain current and accurate. Successful sites are regularly updated so that events, calendars, and other information remain up-to-date. We will work with you to continually update your web site. To all of our existing clients, Checkmate Productions offers prompt and affordable site maintenance at hourly rates of only $50 per hour. We also offer an optional Content Management System (CMS) that allows our clients to updated their own sites without any knowledge of HTML. [ return to top ] What about e-Commerce? We offer a variety of e-commerce solutions to securely sell any number of products online. All of our e-commerce sites employ secure SSL encryption, to offer the best online security and protection available on the market today. Please call us at 646.414.4635 to discuss the various e-commerce options that we offer. [ return to top ] Do you offer Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Promotion services? Checkmate Productions specializes in achieving top rankings for all of the web sites we create. We submit all sites to the search engines by hand, and custom code the HTML to achieve top rankings in the search engines. A Top 10 listing in a major search engine is an outstanding traffic generator. Each major search engine (i.e. Google, Yahoo!, AOL, etc..) uses different criteria to prioritize web sites in its listings. Our experts specialize in obtaining truly outstanding rankings and, once achieved, in defending and maintaining those positions. [ Return to top ]
Evidence of our Search Engine Success If you choose us to develop your site, we will get your site listed on the first page of all the major search engines, for the keywords and keyphrases that you give us. We guarantee top rankings in the search engines. Many web development firms fail to achieve excellent results in the search engines because much of work involved occurs after the site has already been launched (and the firm has already been paid). However, we pride ourselves in getting our clients listed on the first page (and often listed literally number one) for their relevant keywords and keyphrases. As evidence, here are examples of where some of our sites currently appear in Google (one of the most important search engines): [ return to top ]      Click to View Actual Results
(rankings accurate as of 08/30/04)       Site: www.CheckmateProductions.com Sample Keyphrases Ranking in Google.com new york city web designers # 1 out of  1,790,000 matching sites new york city flash designers # 1 out of     226,000 manhattan web design firms # 2 out of     138,600       Site: www.DrStolman.com laser treatments in new jersey # 1 out of      62,600 matching sites botox in new jersey # 1 out of      43,160 laser hair removal new jersey # 6 out of      33,000       Site: www.FindCancerExperts.com cancer second opinions # 2 out of    422,000 matching sites pathology second opinions # 1 out of      83,800 cancer diagnosis # 6 out of  2,890,000       Site: www.Hampton-Rentals.com hamptons rental houses # 1 out of    46,440 matching sites hamptons share houses # 2 out of    10,470 hamptons houses for sale # 5 out of    44,450 More search engine samples gladly provided upon request.
[ Return to top ] How do we achieve such great results in the Search Engines? Search engine algorithms use 55 different criteria to assign web pages a numerical ranking in their listings. The algorithms, like any software product, can be studied and understood. By understanding the criteria that the search engines utilize to give certain pages top listings in their rankings, we can reverse engineer the HTML code of our clients' web sites to satisfy the maximum number of search engine criteria and attain top rankings in the search engine results. Most people, and even professional web developers, think that all you must do is include appropriate 'meta-tags' in the HTML code. Meta-tags, which include a Title and Description for each page, as well as a set of Keywords, help some but aren't enough to get you listed on the first page (i.e. a top 10 listing). And it doesn't matter whether you're listed #34 or #121 because very few people scroll that far down the list. So, additional aspects of the HTML code that we customize include: title area keyword frequency, title area word count, link text keyword prominence, link text word count, body text content, image alt text, placing all Javascript and style sheets in external files, use of header tags, and much more. Contact info. Please feel free to call the Manhattan offices of Checkmate Productions toll-free at 1 866 414 4635 for a free, no-obligation consultation about your project. [ Return to top ]