Sagentic Web Design

Frequently Asked Questions

Knowledge Base

All 42 questions

Getting Support

How do I request support?

Email us directly, or reply to any thread you already have going with us. There is no ticket system to log into and no queue to sit in, and a written request gives us the detail we need to get straight to work.

Please avoid sending requests by text message or social media comment. Those are easy to lose in a busy day, and a request we cannot find is a request that does not get done.

What are your office hours and how quickly will you respond?

Our office is open Monday through Friday during normal business hours, and we answer most requests the same business day. Anything that arrives over a weekend or a holiday is picked up the next business morning.

Larger projects are scheduled rather than answered immediately. When something will take longer than a day, we tell you when to expect it instead of leaving you wondering.

What should I do if my website or email is down?

Tell us right away and say plainly that the site or your email is down. Outages move ahead of routine work in our queue, and the sooner we know, the sooner we can start looking.

Include what you are seeing, any error message on the screen, and whether it affects everyone or only you. Those three details often save an hour of diagnosis.

Who is my point of contact?

You are not assigned to one person who becomes a bottleneck the week they are out. When you call our office, we know who you are and why you're calling, because your account, your website and your history with us are in front of whoever picks up.

Design and content work usually comes back from our creative team, and technical or hosting matters from our development side. Either way, you never have to explain your business from scratch.

What information should I include when I report a problem?

Tell us which page or feature is affected, what you expected to happen, and what happened instead. If an error message appeared, send the exact wording or a screenshot of it.

It also helps to know which device and browser you were using. Plenty of issues show up in one browser and not another, and knowing which one narrows the search immediately.

How do I reset my password?

If you can still sign in, change your password from within your account settings. If you cannot sign in at all, send us a request and we will issue a reset for you.

We will never ask you to send us your current password, and we do not need it in order to help you. Anyone who does ask you for it is not us.

Website Changes & Content

How do I request a change to my website?

Send us the change in writing through the contact form or by replying to an existing email thread. Tell us which page it affects and paste in the exact wording you want, rather than describing it.

Exact wording saves a round trip. When we have to guess at phrasing, you end up reviewing a draft and sending corrections, which turns a ten minute job into a two day conversation.

What website changes are included in my plan?

All of it. Content updates, new photos, staff changes, hours and pricing are included, and so are the larger things — new pages, new sections, added features, and a fresh redesign when your website needs one.

We do not charge by the hour and we do not meter support. Separate services such as a logo or a second website are quoted on their own, but anything your existing website needs is part of what you already pay.

How long do website changes take?

Most routine updates are done within one business day, and small corrections are often done the same morning we receive them. Time sensitive items such as a closure notice are handled immediately.

Larger work is scheduled rather than queued. If something will take longer, we tell you when to expect it instead of leaving you checking the site each day.

Can I edit the website myself?

Yes. Your website is built on a content management system, and we can give you access to edit the sections you want to maintain yourself, with training to go with it.

Many clients prefer to send changes to us instead, which is entirely fine. Nothing about your plan changes either way, so pick whichever fits how you actually like to work.

I made a change but I do not see it. Why?

Your browser is almost certainly showing you a saved copy of the page. A hard refresh usually fixes it, and checking the same page on your phone is a quick way to confirm the change is really live.

If it still looks wrong after that, tell us which page and which browser you are using. Occasionally an edit is saved somewhere other than where it was expected to appear.

How do I send you photos and documents?

Use the shared folder we set up for your account. It handles large files that email attachments cannot, and everything stays in one place where both of us can find it later.

Send original files rather than screenshots, and do not shrink images first. We can always make a large photo smaller, but we cannot add detail back to one that has already been reduced.

Billing & Renewals

When am I billed and how?

Invoices are sent by email automatically from our billing system. Monthly accounts are prepaid every thirty days from the date the account was established, and annual accounts are invoiced ahead of each renewal.

Payment is due before the service period it covers, renewals included. If you would prefer a different billing arrangement, tell us and we will see what we can work out.

What does my monthly or annual fee include?

We do not charge by the page or by the hour. Your fee covers hosting on our own servers, one domain registration and its yearly renewal, your security certificate, analytics setup and reporting, software and security maintenance, and unlimited support.

It also covers the work itself, including content updates, new pages and sections, and a redesign when your website needs one. Google Workspace for email is available separately, as are additional and premium domains.

What happens if my payment is late?

A late charge applies once an invoice is more than fifteen days past due. If an account stays unpaid, web services including email access can be suspended, and restoring them carries a reactivation fee.

None of that is our preference. If money is tight or an invoice arrived at a bad moment, tell us early and we will work with you rather than let it escalate.

How do I update the card you have on file?

Send us a request and we will pass along a secure way to enter the new card. Never email us a card number, and never read one out in a voicemail.

It is worth updating the card before it expires rather than after. An expired card on a renewal is one of the more common reasons a service lapses unexpectedly.

How do I cancel my service?

Submit a cancellation request through the contact form and we will confirm it with you by email before anything is switched off. We will never cancel an account on a verbal assumption.

Tell us where you want your domain and email to go afterward. We would much rather hand everything off cleanly than have your website and email stop working the same week.

Do you offer refunds?

Generally no. We do not refund hosting time that has already been used or work that has already been done, and third party software and subcontracted work are not refundable once purchased.

If something went wrong on our end, that is a different conversation and we want to have it. Tell us what happened rather than assuming the answer is no.

Domains & Email

Who owns my domain name?

You do. Our contract states plainly that the domain belongs to you and that you are free to move it into your own account whenever you want, even though we register it under our company name on your behalf.

Registering it ourselves is what lets us renew it on time and change your DNS settings the same day you ask. Whose name sits in the registration record does not change who owns it.

Is my domain renewal included in what I pay you?

Yes. One domain registration and its yearly renewal are included in your contract price, and we handle the renewal ourselves so nothing lapses while everyone assumes someone else was watching.

Additional domains are billed separately, as are premium domains, meaning any name that costs more than twenty five dollars to register. We tell you the price before registering anything extra.

What happens if my domain expires?

Your website goes offline and your email stops arriving, both at the same moment. For domains we register and renew for you, this is ours to watch, and it is the reason we keep the registration on our account.

If you hold a domain yourself at your own registrar, keep auto renew on and a current card on file. Once a name lapses and its grace period ends, anyone can buy it.

Why is my email going to spam?

Usually because the records that prove your mail really comes from you are missing or out of date. Mail providers check those records on every message, and anything that fails the check gets filtered.

The fix lives in your domain settings rather than in your inbox, so it is not something you can solve by changing a setting in your mail program. Let us know and we will check it.

How do I add an email address for a new employee?

Send us the name and the address you would like, and we will create the mailbox and pass along setup instructions. Most requests of this kind are handled the same business day.

Tell us at the same time whether the new person needs access to any shared or group addresses, and whether they are replacing someone whose mail should be forwarded to them.

An employee left. What should we do about their email?

Tell us as soon as you know. We can change the password immediately so the account can no longer be reached, then forward incoming messages to whoever is taking over that work.

Please do not simply delete the mailbox. Deleting it destroys the mail history and bounces anyone still writing to that address, which is usually a customer.

My mailbox is full. What do I do?

Old messages carrying large attachments are almost always the cause. Emptying the trash and junk folders, then removing the largest attachments, recovers most of the space quickly.

If you find yourself near the limit regularly, more storage is a better answer than a monthly cleanup. Tell us and we will look at what your current plan includes.

Why do you need access to my domain settings?

To point your domain at your website, keep your email flowing, renew the security certificate that puts the padlock in your browser, and connect new services. All of that lives in your domain records rather than in the website itself.

We never need your password for any of it. Every major registrar lets you add us as a manager, and you can remove that access whenever you choose.

Can I move my domain into my own account?

Yes, whenever you like. Your contract gives you that right outright and we will not stand in the way of it or ask you to justify it.

We would steer you away from it unless you are leaving us, though. Once the domain sits somewhere we cannot reach, every DNS change has to be made by you, which turns same day fixes into scheduling problems and makes an outage take considerably longer to resolve.

Access & Accounts

What accounts do you need access to?

Only the ones needed for the work you have hired us to do. That usually means your domain records, and where we manage them, your Google Business Profile and social media pages.

Each platform has a proper way to add us that never involves sharing a login. You stay the owner, you can see exactly what we can reach, and you can remove it at any time.

Why will you not accept my password?

Because sharing a login is bad for both of us. Email is not a safe place to keep a password, shared logins break two factor authentication, and nobody can tell afterward who made which change.

Manager and delegate access solves all of it. Your login stays yours alone, and we get exactly the permissions the work requires and nothing beyond them.

Someone who had access to our accounts left. What should we do?

Tell us as soon as you can and we will review who currently holds access to your website, your domain, and your social accounts, then remove anyone who should no longer be there.

This is worth doing even when someone leaves on good terms. Old access tends to sit unnoticed for years, and it is far easier to remove it now than to untangle it later.

How do I remove your access?

From the same screen where you granted it, on whichever platform it was. You never need our permission and you do not have to ask anyone first.

Please tell us before you do, though. Once our access is gone we can no longer maintain the settings your website and email depend on, and routine fixes become something we have to walk you through step by step.

Do you need access to our bank or payment processor?

No. We never need access to your bank, and we will not ask for it. If your website takes payments, the payment provider is connected in a way that does not expose your banking to us.

Anyone claiming to be from our team and asking for banking access is not us. Please tell us if that ever happens, because we want to know when our name is being used.

Getting Found Online

Why is my website not the first result on Google?

Search results are ranked against every other business competing for the same words, and they change constantly. Position also depends on who is searching and where they are standing when they do it.

The more useful measure is whether the right people are finding you and getting in touch. A top position for a phrase nobody searches is worth far less than steady calls from the ones they do.

How long does search engine optimization take to work?

Months, not days. Search engines need time to recognize changes, and competing businesses are working on the same thing, so improvement tends to arrive gradually rather than all at once.

Be careful with anyone who promises fast results or a guaranteed first position. Those promises usually rely on tactics that work briefly and then cause lasting damage.

My website traffic dropped. What happened?

Seasonal patterns explain most drops. Many businesses see predictable quiet periods, and comparing this month to the same month last year is usually more revealing than comparing it to last month.

Real declines do happen, from search engine changes or technical problems. Tell us what you are seeing and we will look at whether something needs attention or it is the normal rhythm of your year.

Will AI search hurt my website?

It changes how people find you rather than removing the need to be findable. AI answers are assembled from the same sources search engines already use, including your website and your business listing.

Which means the work has not really changed. Accurate information, a complete business profile and clear descriptions of what you do are what get you included in an answer.

Should I be running online ads?

For most of our clients, not yet. Your website content and your business listing bring in enquiries without a monthly budget behind them, and that work keeps earning after the spending stops. Advertising stops the day you stop paying for it.

Where it does earn its place is a launch, a seasonal push, or a service you want visible before you have built up any ranking for it. Tell us what you are trying to achieve and we will tell you straight whether ads are the right tool and who should be running them.

Security & Trust

Is my website secure?

Every site we manage runs over an encrypted connection, which is the padlock you see in the browser. We keep the underlying software patched and renew the security certificate before it expires.

Security is maintenance rather than a one time setting. Most websites that get compromised were running software nobody had updated in a long time.

Do you back up my website?

Yes. Managed websites are backed up regularly so we can restore your site if something goes wrong, whether that is a technical failure or an edit that did not turn out as intended.

If you are about to make a large change yourself and feel uneasy about it, say so first. It is easy for us to take a fresh backup before you begin.

What happens if my website is hacked?

Tell us immediately. We take the site offline if needed to stop the damage spreading, find how the intrusion happened, clean it up and restore from a known good backup.

Then we close the door that was left open. Restoring a site without finding the original weakness usually means the same thing happens again a few weeks later.

Does my website need to meet accessibility standards?

If you are a Colorado local government or public entity, yes. House Bill 21-1110 has applied since its July 2024 deadline, alongside Section 508, and we build and maintain those sites to the WCAG guidelines those rules point to. If that is you, it is already part of what we do for you.

For businesses and nonprofits there is no equivalent deadline, but complaints are rising every year. We build to the same standards regardless, because an accessible site is easier for everyone to use.

I received a suspicious invoice or email about my domain. Is it real?

Probably not, and you are welcome to forward it to us before you pay or click anything. Domain records are public, so every business with a website receives these, and we will tell you at no charge.

The pattern is always the same. An urgent deadline, a threat that your website or listing will disappear, and a link that avoids your real account entirely.

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