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Documentation

Everything you need to know about how a WebForGood website is planned, built, hosted, maintained, and handed off.

Overview

WebForGood builds free, mobile-friendly websites for small businesses, churches, nonprofits, clubs, and community groups. I design and build the site, I host it on a subdomain I manage, and I maintain it. You are responsible for your custom domain name, your content, and any information you give me. The full legal details are in the Terms of Service, and how personal information is handled is in the Privacy Policy.

How a project works

Every project follows the same basic steps. The steps can overlap, and some projects move faster than others.

1. Inquiry. You send a message through the project form on the homepage, by email, or by phone. You tell me about your organization and what you are hoping for.
2. Conversation. We talk through your goals, the pages you need, your audience, and any existing content or branding.
3. Agreement. Before I begin building, you read and accept the Terms of Service. Accepting the Terms is required before any work starts.
4. Content gathering. You provide your text, photos, logo, and any other material. If you do not have some of these, we can talk about options.
5. Design and build. I create the design and build the pages. I check the site on phones, tablets, and computers.
6. Review. I share the site with you so you can review it and request reasonable changes. See the section on changes below.
7. Approval. You approve the site in writing (an email is fine) before it goes live.
8. Launch. The site goes live on the subdomain I manage. If you have a custom domain, we connect it at this stage (see the domain section).
9. Maintenance. I maintain the site for as long as the Service continues. See the maintenance section.

What I need from you

To keep things moving, please gather the following where you can. Nothing here has to be perfect, and I can help with gaps.

• The name of your organization and a short description of what you do.
• The pages you want, such as Home, About, Services or Programs, Events, Contact, and Donate or Join (if applicable).
• Your written text for each page, or notes I can turn into text.
• Photos you have the right to use, and your logo if you have one.
• Your preferred contact email and phone number to display on the site.
• Links to your social media pages or other online profiles, if you want them included.
• Any colors, styles, or websites you like, so I can understand your taste.
• A custom domain name, if you already own one or want to buy one.

Timeline

My target is to build a typical site within about one week of receiving your materials and agreeing on scope. This is a target, not a guarantee. Timelines depend on how quickly you respond, how much content you provide, and how many rounds of changes are requested. Larger sites with more pages, custom features, or integrations may take longer. I will tell you if I expect a delay.

Your custom domain

A custom domain is the address people type into their browser, such as yourchurch.org. Your custom domain is your responsibility. This means:

• You own it. You buy or already own the domain through a domain registrar, and the registration is in your name (or your organization's name).
• You pay for it. Domain registration and renewal fees are paid by you directly to the registrar. These fees are not included in the free service.
• You keep it renewed. If a domain expires, the website may stop working at that address. I am not responsible for domain renewals, expirations, or losses.
• You control the settings. Your domain settings belong to you. I can help you point the domain at the site, but you must have access to make the change at your registrar.

Connecting your domain. When your site is ready, I will send you the exact DNS records to add at your domain registrar. These records tell the internet where your domain should point. Changes to DNS can take anywhere from a few minutes to a day or more to take effect. I will confirm the records with you before we make any change.

My subdomain. The site is first hosted on a subdomain that I own and manage. I keep ownership of that subdomain. If you use your own custom domain, your visitors will see your domain, and the subdomain will continue to be my hosting address. Your custom domain remains yours even if the Service ends.

Maintenance and hosting

Once your site is live, I maintain it at no charge to you while the Service is active. Maintenance includes:

• Keeping the site online on the hosting platform I use.
• Fixing bugs and broken pages I find, or that you report, when they are caused by my work.
• Making small content updates, such as changing text, hours, contact details, or a photo.
• Applying reasonable security and compatibility updates to the site's code.

Maintenance does not include major redesigns, large new sections, new features, e-commerce, or custom integrations. Those can be discussed separately, and any paid work would be agreed in writing before it begins. The site is hosted with third-party providers, so uptime is not guaranteed and occasional outages can happen outside my control.

Requesting changes

To request a change, email or message me with the page, the section, and exactly what you want changed. Attach any new text or images. I aim to respond within a few business days. Small content updates are usually handled quickly. Larger changes are reviewed first so we both understand the scope before I work on them.

During the initial build, the scope includes a reasonable number of review rounds. Additional rounds beyond that may require us to agree on a revised scope.

Cancelling

You may cancel after one full month of maintenance has passed since your site launched. To cancel, send a written notice (email is fine) to the contact address on the Contact page. Cancellation takes effect as described in the Terms of Service. When it does:

• I will provide you with your website files and your content so you can take them elsewhere.
• I will stop maintaining the site and take the site down from my subdomain on the schedule described in the Terms.
• Your custom domain, if you have one, remains yours. You will need to point it somewhere else, or it will stop showing the site.

Please plan ahead. Moving a site to a new host is your responsibility unless we agree otherwise in writing.

Common questions

Is it really free?

Building, hosting, and maintaining your site on my subdomain are free. You pay for your own custom domain name and for any third-party services you choose to add.

Do I need technical knowledge?

No. I handle the technical work and explain anything you need to do, such as changing a domain setting.

Who can see my form submissions?

Form submissions are sent to my email so I can reply to you. The forms are processed by SilentForms. See the Privacy Policy for details.

Can I use my own hosting instead?

Yes, if you prefer. We can talk through that option, and it would be covered under the cancellation process above.

Will my site show up on Google?

I set up page titles, descriptions, headings, and basic structure to help search engines understand your site. I cannot guarantee any ranking, traffic, or specific search result.

Still have a question? Contact me.