The difference between a web designer and a web developer is that the designer is a master at creating the" look and feel" of the website while a web developer is a master at making the functionality of the website work. Fortunately, Click-on-nik is a master at both!

When you are pricing out your projects, be sure that you look at the portfolio of your web designer/developer to be sure that you have a qualified person who can do both! Most Web Designers are amazing with the creative end, but not so great with the code. A designer can program a simple informational website with limited functionality. On the other end of the spectrum is the web developer. He can program a website to do just about anything, but it looks terrible.

Click-on-nik is fortunate to have a full staff that can not only design a unique website, but can also program the code to function exactly the way it needs to make your business work. Please email or call if you have any questions.

Meta Tags, in a nutshell, are keywords, image descriptions, page descriptions, unique identification numbers and so many other identifiers that help visitors find your website when they use a search engine to do research. When Click-on-nik develops a website, we work with our clients to come up with the most effective meta tags for their business.

Using Click-on-nik as an example, our keyword meta tags reflect our type of business and demographic. The keywords are the words and phases we think visitors will type into a search engine to find the services we offer. We list our founder's name, services we offer and list of clients. Notice that our name is misspelled. This is an intentional tactic to include more results. You can list any words that you think will help visitors find you!

	Niki Dobbyn Click-on-nik click graphics faulkner hospital mass health dorchester mattapan representative dave flynn dorchester web design murals Niki Dobin click on nik		Nik Nick clik on nik web design thin ice paintings dorchester design boston pro-tech shredding mattapan web design web illustrations clickonnik web design duxbury youth basketball		Nic Dobbin murals murphy community center mpha dorchester paintings Massachusetts public health association graphics click_on_nik design Boston design e-mccarthy illustrations

Meta Tags also involve key phrases that describes your company or mission. Click-on-nik's phrase is: Click-on-nik.com - Resource for Web Design & Graphics. We will use your phrase throughout your website in addition to your meta tags.

After you have your meta tags in place, you will want to know how the search engines will find you. These search engines are always sending out "spiders" to crawl websites and find you, but you may want to take it a bit further and introduce your website to the search engines so that it crawls it within the next two months. Let us give you a brief overview of how these tags work with the search engines using click-on-nik's website as an example:

First Scenario:

1. Click-on-nik introduces the website to several search engines.
   
2. Visitor goes to search engine to look for "click-on-nik"
   
3. It will return a page with the click-on-nik and a description that reads, "Click-on-nik.com - Resource for Web Design & Graphics"
   
4. Visitor can click on URL to visit

Second Scenario:

1. click-on-nik introduces the website to several search engines.
   
2. Visitor goes to search engine to look for "web design" to find web design services
   
3. It will return a page with a gazillion websites because web designers all over the world use the word "web design" in their meta tags
   
4. Visitor never finds click-on-nik

Now this is the tricky part and the specific reason why click-on-nik offers search engine friendly websites, but does not guarantee a listing order. They all have different criteria for listing. Some, like Google, don't go by meta tags purely. They also (among a 100 other things) take into consideration the names of the links on your page and their relevance and how many other OUTSIDE websites are linked to your website. For instance, click-on-nik asked friends, colleagues and clients for permission to have links on their websites that link to click-on-nik.com. In return click-on-nik has all of their websites listed on our website. This will bring click-on-nik up in the standings, but there is no guarantee that click-on-nik will be in the top ten in any given search engine. Some search engines require a nominal fee for prominent standings and others use top secret formulas to set their results page.

All of this is to say that every search engine has different criteria for the search results. You need to take the time to go through and decide what you're willing to pay, links you would like to trade, etc. in order to be listed where you want on the search results of these search engines.

Here are the steps on the free way to "Introduce" yourself to Google to have Google's "spider" crawl your website:

1. http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
   
2. It is quick and easy and asks for minimal information.

There are also steps that your webmaster can take in the webmaster's tools section of Google that are more advanced, and very well worth doing.

Yahoo:

1. http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
2. You will need to create a username and password to be able to submit your website, but it is very easy to do.

If you'd like to view your meta tags, just go to your website, click "View" > "Source" and it will be listed a few lines down from the top of the page. If you would like your keywords or description changed, please email the changes to click-on-nik. It will take us an hour to go through your pages and update them all. If you are not currently a click-on-nik client and would like to be, please contact us and we can update your meta tags too!

This confuses most people who do not deal with setting up websites. There are two components involved here. The first is the DNS Server and the second is the Host Server.

When you set up a website, you have to pick a domain name (a.k.a. web address or URL). The place where you register your domain name is called your DNS Server. You can go to DNS Servers like Network Solutions, Register.com, godaddy.com or another company and find out if the domain name you'd like to have is available. If it is, you register it with that company for as many years as you'd like to own it. The company you register your domain name with is where your domain name lives.

Then you find a Host Server. There are a million hosting companies out there ready to give you a bargain, but click-on-nik hosts only those who become clients with a reliable hosting company, imaginus.com. Your host gives you space to put your website files and manage your email among other things. This is where your website lives.

The big question: If your domain name lives on your DNS Server and your website lives on your Hosting Server, how can users see your website?

When you set up the DNS Server, you are required to put in the information of your Host Server. When a user types in your domain name it initially goes to your DNS Server which then sends it to your Host Server where your website files live.

If you are in need of a website and do not know how to go about setting up your Hosting and DNS server, please contact Click-on-nik and we can either walk you through the process or do it for you!

Click-on-nik provides visual design services for both private and commercial web design projects as well as hand drawn illustrations in a variety of formats and media for any and all occasions. The owner, Niki Dobbyn, is an experienced artist who creates thoughtful and original visual design solutions for the specific requirements of each project.

This is how click-on-nik normally approaches the web design process:

Contract
Click-on-nik sends the client a contract that outlines every step of the process. It explains what services you will receive for the logo, web and possible web maintenance and hosting in the future. The cost and payment schedule is listed. There is an outline that you help us create that shows what pages will appear on your website and we will explain, in detail, how we will work together to develop the best website for your company needs.

Logo Component
If you are in need of a logo, we sit down with you to verbally gather your ideas and express creative solutions you may not have considered. We ask that you look around the internet to find examples of things you like and don't like. WE NEVER COPY, but we like to know your tastes and goals for your website and we've found that a visual example is much easier to express than a verbal one. Then we take those ideas and design three samples for you to choose from. If you find one you really love from the three, we are on to the next step. If you would like to take aspects from one logo and combine them with another logo, we can design a new logo. From there we can make one minor change and then we are on our way to the web component.

Web Component
Similar to the logo phase, we site down with you to verbally gather your ideas and offer additional creative solutions. We ask that you look around the internet to find examples of things you like and don't like. WE NEVER COPY, but we like to know your tastes and goals for your website and we've found that a visual example is much easier to express than a verbal one. We design three web samples. You pick which websample you like the best and we can either go with it or make some changes to it. A second option is to take aspects of the three samples and combine them. We will create a new design from these aspects that will fit your company's needs. If we need to make a minor revision from that point, it's no problem!

Once we have the design nailed down, click-on-nik begins to take the image and program it into a website. Any major changes to the overall design will bring us back to the first step, so we ask you to be sure that the design is exactly what you'd like. When the websample is web ready, click-on-nik sends the test URL to you for your approval. From there, you begin sending us the content and we continue designing the rest of your website. Whether you require a shopping cart, content management system or a simple information-only website, we add all of the code that makes the website function the way you want it to function. It is a very easy process and you can call us at any time for suggestions or help. We never leave clients in the dark or confused as to where we are in the process.

Other Components
You may like to have Search Engine Optimization services, Marketing services and/or Printing services after your website is developed. Please let us know and we can recommend vendors who are experts in their fields and have worked with click-on-nik in the past on other projects.

Click-on-nik is a full web development source with integrity and genuine love of the design process. If you would like to have click-on-nik design a website or redesign an existing website for your business or personal needs, please don't hesitate in contacting us!

The best way to submit updates to click-on-nik is by email. Phone edits take time and run the risk of typos and confusion. Email edits can be quick and cause less confusion. Here are some examples on how to compose an update email using the click-on-nik website as an example:

Copy the URL of the page you want updated

Paste it into into an email

Copy the existing text that needs to be updated

Paste it into the email

Type the updated text into the email:

You can add multiple updates using this formula and then SEND the email to nik@click-on-nik.com. Click-on-nik will send an email confirmation and let you know when to expect the changes.

It's THAT easy! Call, 617.298.3099, or email, nik@click-on-nik.com, if you have any questions.