FAQ

The truth is, every business is different and the needs of your website will vary from others. That means the best way to get started is to hop on a call with us. (Book a free consultation here.)

Once we hop on the phone we’ll use our 15 years of experience to help create a custom plan best suited for your business model. We pride ourselves in our integrity and will only recommend the services that offer the most ROI for your biz. There are a handful of core business models and we make sure that the plan we offer fits in to the model and systems your business uses.

When we’ve got the scope of your project nailed we’ll send you a contract and initial invoice (typically 50% for web design), once we’ve got your John Hancock and first payment we send over our content development guide. We’re bragging a little, but this guide is an absolute work of art. It makes the sites we build have so much more accuracy for your particular business setup and just launches you way ahead of other sites.

Once your content is submitted we start building. In a couple weeks, voila! your site is complete! We run through the site page-by-page in our walk through, tidy up any final edits, then boom – we go live! Super easy!

Yes! Our website development service includes a complimentary content development guide that will provide prompts for the 10 most common web pages. You’ll receive this guide by email after your initial payment has been made and your contract has been signed.

If you’re still getting stuck, you can always purchase our copywriting services and have us do it for you.

It’s important to remember that you are the subject matter expert when it comes to your business and industry. The more you put into developing your site content, the better results you’ll get.

Due to the nature of the service, we cannot offer a trial for our product. However, you can request access to our demo site or contact us for further questions.

We understand that a well-made website is the foundation to a successful business and the central hub to sales and marketing campaigns.

We build our websites with precision, using 15+ years of industry experience to give you every advantage possible in a crowded market.

Our websites can help:

CONVERT MORE LEADS
Our sites are meticulously designed around the most effective conversion strategies. Each site exceeds the standards for over 15 conversion attributes.

INCREASE PROFIT
A premium website helps instantly legitimize the credibility and quality of your business. This boost in perceived value helps you justify higher prices and grow your business faster.

GET YOUR BUSINESS VISIBLE ON GOOGLE
Google and other search engines offer your new business the benefit of free traffic and we use our proprietary process to help get you listed on the search engines FAST.

SAVE YOU TIME
Maintaining, optimizing, and supporting a website is a very time-intensive, never-ending job. We handle the technical parts (our expertise) so you have more time to focus on your expertise.

IMPROVE YOUR WEBSITE’S SECURITY
We complete a 10-point security checklist before your site launches and continuously monitor your site for suspicious traffic and activity.

BlackBolt Collective does not limit resources for normal use. Each account is allotted generous server resources; however, we do expect user to play fair while using our system.

You can further check our Prohibited Use Policy as listed in our Acceptable Use Policy.

Sometimes, we get asked about whether or not we will work with websites that are deemed Not Safe for Work (NSFW). We do not work with these kinds of websites for a variety of reasons.

Some specific websites that we DO NOT work with include:

• Violence
• Hate speech
• Illegal activities
• Unauthorized resellers
• Explicit pornography

• Cannabis/CBD
• Gun/weapon sales
• Political/Free Speech

Once your site and any applicable addon services are completely paid off, ownership of your site will be transferred to you.

Until then, BlackBolt Collective maintains ownership.

Any payments made before the site gets transfered to you go toward the work we provided up front, and as such, are non-refundable.

You can acquire backend access to your website once your website is paid off with no outstanding amounts due or owing.

No. We do not provide downloads of your website.

Content Management System (CMS) is a software application that allows users and web designers to build and manage websites without having to code it from scratch. The most widely used open source CMS platforms include WordPress, Joomla and Drupal.

Our websites are built using WordPress which is the most popular content management system in the world.

To edit your website pages you should have basic computer skills and be able to work comfortably on a computer. However, the beauty of our website plans is that we do all that for you with our hosting & maintenance packages.

No there is no need to install any software, all you need is access to the internet to be able to access the backend of your website.

Yes. In order to use our services, you’ll need to provide your own domain. Be sure to let us know if you need any help finding one and we’ll send you our domain purchase resource.

Yes. We can integrate with existing email service providers or help you set up new email accounts with your own provider.

Yes. Our websites come with fully managed cloud hosting, ensuring high uptime, improved speed and improved security.

Each website comes standard with 10GB web space and ~10,000 monthly visits.  If your site needs more disk space than that our support team will reach out to upgrade your server resources.

Providing superior performance, security, and speed means working with premium hosting. The hosting we provide is integral to fulfilling our superior quality standards.

There are no hidden fees.

The only extra charge you may encounter is if your server resources need to be upgrade because your site is CRUSHING IT! In which case our support staff will reach out to you with more information.

Each website project comes with a generous 10GB web space and ~10,000 monthly visits. It’s uncommon for more resources to be needed, and even then, adding web space starts at just $10/month.

If you require extra components or features for your website during your rental contract then you’d pay for them like any other addon.

We accept payment from all major credit card companies. Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.

You can purchase add-on products at any time from our store.

If, on the other hand, you’d like an addon product added to your monthly billing, contact billing to have the cost prorated into your remaining contract payments.

Although we don’t think you’ll ever want a refund, we will gladly refund your purchase if it’s requested within 48-hours of placing your order.

However, once the design work has started, we will be unable to offer any refunds. Charge backs terminate your website plan and any associated services. See your contract for more information.

We’ve made a lot of effort to streamline the onboarding process so we can get your site up and running fast.

1. After you give us the go-ahead we’ll send over your contract and initial invoice. 
2. Upon successful payment and signing your contract, we’ll send over your onboarding information with your Welcome Packet, Content Development Guide, Edit Request Information, and a few of our most popular Add On Services. (Be sure to check your junk/spam box just in case.)

If you do not receive either of these within 5 minutes of paying/signing your contract, please reach out to us for assistance.

Once you’ve signed your contract you’ll have 14 days to provide your website content.

Whatever is not provided will be omitted so be sure to be very thorough. (The Website Content Development Guide in your onboarding email will be a really helpful tool for you through this process.)

Once you’ve provided 100% of the content we need for your site we’ll schedule it into our earliest build days available. Your site will be ready to go live the very next day!

Ofcourse!

Pretty much everything you need will be in your onboarding email. In it you’ll receive:

Welcome Packet – covers what to expect when working with us,  links to essential information, and how to get the most out of your plan.

Content Development Guide – is a comprehensive scaffolding for your website content. It tells you everything we need to build your website and offers a content guide for 10 of the most common web pages.

Edit Request Information – explains how to effectively request edits including information on the best screen capture tools.

Add On Services – our most popular website addons

• Text Edits
• Switching Out Banners
• Header or Footer Information
• Changing Plugin Settings
• CSS Adjustments
• Adding Blog Content Provided by You 
• Context Edits
• Formatting (Margin, Padding)
• Switching Out Images
• Adding Coupon Codes

• Custom Development (PHP, Plugins, Themes, etc.)
• Updating Custom Code
• Graphic Design
• PSD to WordPress
• Creating Content
• Adding New Pages
• Building out a New Website or Subdomain

EXAMPLES

Adding a Blog Post

Included: You want us to upload blog content that you created with attached images that have been sent and formatted for WordPress with clear instructions.

Not Included: You want us to create a blog post, find images and upload to WordPress with no instruction for formatting.

Editing Website Copy

Included: You want us to take the text that you emailed to us and use it to replace the current content on your About page.

Not Included: You want us to write content for or design your About page.

On-Site SEO Changes

Included: You want us to change some page titles, meta descriptions or fix specific SEO errors found in your latest report and you have provided clear instructions on what exactly needs to be done. 

Not Included: You want us to help with keyword analysis, rank tracking, backlink outreach or SEO consulting.

Google Search Console Issues

Included: You want us to help fix some specific minor WordPress errors found in your GSC account.

Not Included: You want us to fix every issue in your GSC account without context or priority.

It depends on the ticket, but in general, 2-6 hour reply time & 24-48 hour resolution time (within business hours). 

We get a lot of questions about response and resolution times. Here’s the most honest answer we can give you: it depends on the ticket.

This is why we don’t have an official SLA, just a general timeline for when edits should be completed based on a few factors.

How website edits work

1. Within 2-6 hours you will receive a manual response email from our team that we have opened the ticket, have assessed the request complexity and are actively working on it or need more information.>
2. Within 24-48 hours you will receive a resolution email with the changes made as a result of that ticket or request.

Factors that can affect this timeline

• Our team only performs one edit request at a time. This is to make sure conflicts are never created in your site from 2 changes being made at once! That means if you submit 5 edit requests at one time, we’ll handle them one-by-one. This just means you’ll need to be a bit patient as we work our way through your multiple simultaneous requests.
• If you send in a request that’s high-complexity, it also may take our team longer to address it. We pride ourselves on doing work quickly, but even more on doing safe, diligent work. More complicated requests also require some patience on your end as we effectively tackle it for you. If a ticket is complex and our team needs more time, we’ll let you know if it is outside of that 48 hour window. 

Ways you can help our team be more efficient

• Sometimes we need additional information or direct feedback from you to move a request forward. If you receive an email that requires additional information, please reply to it as soon as possible so our team can continue working on your request!
• Because we don’t offer phone or livechat support, please use the resources we’ve included here to make sure your edit requests are as detailed as possible.

1. You can access the Ticket Dashboard here.
2. If it’s your first time logging in, simply click Login in the top right corner and then Lost Password.
3. Reset your password via a link in the email you’re sent.
4. Login to our Ticket Dashboard using your new username / password.

We only offer support via email and our login support dashboard.

If phone support, livechat support or real-time screen sharing are must-haves for you, we’re not a great fit. No hard feelings!

While we don’t offer phone support, we’ve made email and help desk support a huge priority here and you’ll find our email support fast, effective and friendly!

HOW WE STREAMLINE THE PROCESS

We’ll also give you a ton of resources to help make email support even more effective for you.

That includes.

• Access to free screenshot tools
• Resources for free and easy screen recording software like Loom
• Login access to a ticketing dashboard for full transparency into what’s being worked on.

These all help tremendously in making sure you’re able to submit detailed edit requests to our team, avoiding email back-and-forth and getting your edits done quickly and effectively.

We’ve set up our pricing structure to stay pretty lean and with our local team, it just makes more sense to handle all our support through email. While we don’t offer phone support, we’ve made customer service a huge priority here at and you’ll find our email support fast, effective and friendly!

HOW DOES 24/7 MONITORING WORK?

We have automated tools that check the status of your website(s). They ping your sites managed under our monthly subscriptions every minute of every day.

These pings simply check to make sure your site isn’t giving a 400 or 500 error.

If our automated software finds that your website is down or showing non-normal activity, it will ping our help desk and somebody on our support team will address the issue.

We have automated tools that check the status of your website(s). They ping your sites managed under our monthly subscriptions every minute of every day.

These pings simply check to make sure your site isn’t giving a 400 or 500 error.

If our monitoring software finds that your website is down or showing non-normal activity, it will ping our help desk and somebody on our support team will address the issue.

Our business hours are weekdays between 9am-5pm, Arizona time.

We  provide premium WordPress security to your website(s) for free under our website management subscription.

Here’s what you can expect:

*Available on Enhanced and Premium Hosting Plans.
** Available on Premium Hosting Plans only.

We prioritize security at BlackBolt Collective, which means we’re incredibly diligent about the transfer or personal data, website passwords, credit card information, etc.

• We use tools like 1ty.me to securely hand off personal information.
• Every single member of our team activates 2-factor authentication for every piece of software we use that offers it, including all software that contains customer data of any kind.

Speed and Performance optimization is essential to a high-converting website and is something we take very seriously. We keep your website fast on an ongoing basis.

During your build, we’ll work through our proprietary procedures and implement our 12-point optimization system to give you the best possible optimization.

Here’s just a few of the things we do:

• Utilize Cloud Hosting
• Compress Images
• Optimize JavaScript and CSS
• Leverage Browser Caching
• Inline Critical CSS

Balancing monetization and performance:
Websites with a number of marketing plugins, serving Google Ads and monetization options do present a challenge when it comes to performance optimization.

While we may not be able to achieve perfect scores on these sites, our team is confident we can deliver positive and impactful results while maintaining your existing monetization options.

We update plugins, themes and core files on every website we manage.

This includes:

1. A full battery of testing before updates are made (when necessary).
2. Executing updates using our safe procedure.
3. Troubleshooting after updates have been made to ensure all designs and functionality are intact.

Full backups done before updates.

Before we start the process of executing a set of updates, our engineers will perform an extra full backup of your core files and database. Safety first!

Scheduled Updates.

Most of our competitors set updates to roll out automatically. We’ve seen sites down for days from other providers because of plugin incompatibilities that no one had eyes on.

We do things differently here.

Our engineers perform manual WordPress updates on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis – depending on your package.

This is actually safer from a security standpoint than daily updates because we get to witness and troubleshoot unforseen consequences at the exact moment of update to prevent any site downtime.

If an update needs extra help to roll out we will create a staging site to perform the updates on and push it live seamlessly.

They are safely handled by  during low-traffic hours.

This ensures that any possible issues around updates wouldn’t adversely affect your site when the majority of people are active.

Updates can be done on staging first.

We’re also happy to perform the updates on a staging server before pushing them live for another layer of security if you’d like us to.

This is especially helpful for websites with advanced functionality like WooCommerce, membership, etc.

What about premium plugins from 3rd party developers?

We will gladly perform the necessary plugin updates to any previously purchased or future purchased plugins, for example, WooCommerce Subscriptions.  You can either give us the logins to the account of the plugin you purchased or you can send us the updated file and license via WeTransfer or similar. We just need the plugin and licenses to update it.

We will not purchase or pay for any premium plugins or licenses on your behalf, you will need to do this directly with the plugin developer.

There are a few reasons for this:

• Sometimes plugin updates are released with bugs. Updating less frequently allows the plugin developer to get rid of these bugs before we add them to your WordPress site.
• Batching more updates together means an easier manual review. That in turn means a lower probability that something bad will happen or break your website.
• We’ll be doing all these updates during lowest traffic times. That means a safer environment and minimal issues for your visitors.

We always make an exception for more major plugin updates, such as WooCommerce. When major updates come out for this, we’ll make the updates far more slowly to ensure that your website remains running smoothly without any hiccups.