We have decided to provide some of the most commonly asked questions about our web design services and their answers on this page so that you can learn more about the development process of your web solution. We also have a Glossary Section (educate) that you can feel free to browse. If there are any questions you would like answered that are not listed here, contact us with your request and it will be replied ASAP.

1. What do I need to do in order to accept credit card orders on my site?
2. I know that a lot of people are concerned about giving their credit card information online. What kind of security do you offer?
3. I want to put a site up, but I want to design it myself. Can you help?
4. I currently have my site somewhere else, what does it cost to switch?
5. How much does your service cost?
6. How many email addresses can I have?
7. How long does it take to get my site live on the web?
8. How does the billing work?
9. Can I make changes to the site? What does it cost?
10. How fast is your Internet connection?
11. How can I get my pages to the top of the search engines?
12. How do I register my domain?
13. How do I get started?
14. How much will the site cost?
15. How do I administer my site & view statistics
16. Can we easily add and remove items for sale on our site?
17. What should we do to get started
18. Phase in project development?

What do I need to do in order to accept credit card orders on my site?
Getting set up to take credit card orders online is not a difficult process.

If you already accepting credit card payments at your place of business ...

you need to decide if you want to have the transactions verified in real time when customers place online orders, or, if you want to use your current credit card authorization system and enter the transactions manually. If you anticipate having less than 5 orders a day on your site to begin with, we recommend selecting the latter option. You can always upgrade later to real-time authorization, with very little hassle.

It is possible that your current merchant account vendor allows for online transactions. We can assist you in comparing the pricing offered by your current vendor with pricing from the vendors we work with.

If you don't currently have a merchant account for taking credit card orders ... we can assist you in setting one up.

In general, the process works like this:

1. You apply for a merchant account with a financial institution.
2. Once your account is approved, GITS sets up your online order form so orders are posted to your merchant account.
3. You can either elect to have orders automatically processed or you can monitor them via a secure web page and decide whether to post or deny orders.

I know that a lot of people are concerned about giving their credit card information online. What kind of security do you offer?
GITS offers the Industry-standard SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption on our sites as part of our hosting packages.

This means that if you have any pages on your site that require the user to enter sensitive information (such as credit card order forms, user accounts, and private records), we will place the pages on a secure server that will essentially tell your web browser to encrypt the information it sends back to the server so it can not be intercepted and stolen.

We also provide secure email solutions so sensitive information can make it from your customer's desktop to your desktop with a very high degree of security.

I want to put a site up, but I want to design it myself. Can you help?
We are happy to work with you if you want to be involved in the design process or if you want to completely design your own site. It usually makes sense to have us set up some of the more technical part of the site - like inquiry forms and searches. You can have 24 hr. a day access to your server to post file updates when you wish.

Of course, we are also more than happy to provide complete site design services and to develop a site for you that will stick out above the crowd.

I currently have my site somewhere else, what does it cost to switch?
We offer FREE domain transfer for sites currently hosted at other hosting providers. We will take care of all the details for you and can usually have your site up and running on the new server within a matter of days. (It is always a good idea to keep your previous site up and running for a couple of weeks after making a server switch, because the routing updates that need to filter across the worldwide Internet can sometimes take a little time.

How much does your service cost?
If you haven't already seen our pricing sheet, you can review it for a full breakdown of the costs related to getting started with your website. We offer several packages geared toward businesses getting started on the Internet. If you want a custom designed website, we will be happy to talk with you to give you a bid on the project.

How many email addresses can I have?
You can have up to twenty email addresses included free with your monthly hosting fees. If you need more we can discuss other options. Keep in mind that an email address is different from a dialup account. The dialup account is the means by which you connect your computer to the Internet. You undoubtedly already have an email address with your current dialup provider. If you want, you can keep your dialup provider or we can set up dialup service for you.

How long does it take to get my site live on the web?
Generally, it will take two-three weeks from the time we start working on a "reasonable-sized" site to get it live on the Web. This time period takes into account the back-and-forth communication between us and you that is an integral part of developing the site.

How does the billing work?
If we are designing and hosting your site, we will ask you to pay for half of the design cost up front and the remainder when the site goes live.

Hosting services are billed on a monthly basis. You have the option to pay by check, credit card, or automated deposit.

Can I make changes to the site? What does it cost?
We offer several options for maintaining your website. If you just need some minor changes, we will usually do them for free.

For more extensive changes, either we can do the maintenance, billed on an hourly basis, or we can set you up with access to your site to upload and edit your own pages. We also offer some very convenient ways for you to update frequently-changing pages via your web browser.

How fast is your Internet connection?
Our servers are on a network that has multiple rendundant T3/T1 connections to the Internet through UUNET, SPRINT, and CWIX. What does this mean in practical terms? Real transfer and download speeds are dependant on many factors, including the end-users modem speed, the total volume of traffic on the Internet, the number of hits being served by a webserver, and countless other variables. You can get a general sense of the speed of our pages by just viewing our pages and seeing how fast they load relative to other sites.

How can I get my pages to the top of the search engines?
Ahh. The magic question. There is no guaranteeed way to get your pages to the top of the search engines (despite what some firms might tell you). GITS uses custom software to automatically submit the sites of our customers at regular intervals. This service is included free with our basic hosting charge. We will also insert "meta tags" in your pages, which enable the search engines to more accurately index your pages.

How do I register my domain?
Registering a domain costs between $30-$35 a year, depending on the registration organization you use. But we will provide with First Year FREE Domain Registration with our every package and further just $15 for a year. And in case you want to transfer your old domain then also we can take care of the transfer process of your domain for you at no additional charge. You will still be responsible for paying the annual registration fee for that domain.

If you want to check if a domain name is available, you can do it right here by entering the name in the box below.

How do I get started?
If you are interested in moving forward with your website, we encourage you to fill out our "Getting Started" form. If you prefer, we can discuss your website needs over the phone. Once we have some basic information from you, we can better help you decide how to best go about designing your website and which hosting option makes the most sense for you.

Did we miss the a question that is most important to you? Please contact us and we will get right back to you with an answer.

How much will the site cost?
It depends on the complexity of the site. All our web solutions are custom built, and as such we cannot have a basic sticker price on any of our work.

How do I administer my site & view statistics?
Go to url www.yourdomainname.com/admin - everything you need should be in there.

Can we easily add and remove items for sale on our site?
Yes. We will provide you with an administration section where you can change aspects of your site

We hope that this information is useful to you - if you have any further questions, please don't hestitate to contact us and send in your own questions.

What should we do to get started?
Take a look at this Website Planning Guide, which may help you in your project.

Phases (Process) in project development?
Phase 1: Discovery A series of consultation meetings which we assess your target audience, online goals, purpose of your online venture, current marketing materials, corporate identity and online competition. These open-ended dialogues with you allows us to develop a preliminary requirements document and assures that we truly understand your business and that of your clients.

Phase 2: Content Evaluation During the assessment of your content, our project management team will work with your marketing staff to collect and proof all the actual text that will be included in the final product. Phase II ensures the interface we develop matches the quantity and type of information that will be displayed.

Phase 3: Info Architecture Utilizing the data collected in initial phases, we are now able to complete your project deliverables by developing a finalized “site map” designed to allow your users easy access to all areas of the site. During this process we will be placing key features to your site that will filter traffic to the mission critical sections of your site.

Phase 4: Interface Creation With all the information collected at the start of the development process our Imagination Officers can now develop the exciting new interface that will get the attention of your online clients. This process allows you to work directly with your project manager to act as the creative director on the development of your site. Phase IV normally becomes the most exciting portion of the development process for both our New Media Design Studio and our clients, as the content takes shape here.

Phase 5: Content Assimilation In the final phase, your graphic user interface is combined with the content to produce a final completed product. This phase includes a detail-oriented fine-tuning and quality assurance process designed to provide you with the level of perfection you require for your business.