Note: If you’d like, you can skip the off-color backstory and go directly to how FAQs can be useful, today.

The first time I saw the letters F-A-Q strung together was in the early 1990s at a grungy little club in Athens, Georgia. The one thing I remember about the otherwise unmemorable band that was playing is the three letters scrawled on the body of the lead’s guitar: FA-Q.

FA-Q? It took me a set, but eventually I sounded it out. “Oh. I get it. Faaah…”

A couple years later, the people’s Internet began in earnest. AOL was handing out CDs with “free trial hours” by the zillions and everyone was rushing to get on the Web. Frequently Asked Questions pages became as ubiquitous on websites as “home” buttons. Trouble was, early attempts at FAQ pages were a hot mess. From a user’s standpoint, they felt like more of a FA-Q from frustrated programmers than an honest attempt to answer actual F.A.Qs.

The troubled history of FAQs

In the early attempts to convert their brand to this new media, a lot of companies found that once their main site navigation was done, they had some leftovers—the content equivalent of what happens to me when I try to work on an “assembly required” project at home (a fistful of extra nuts and bolts). The thing is built, but what do I do with this stuff that doesn’t seem to fit anywhere?

I have a drawer at home where I toss all my surplus hardware. For many early Web builders, the FAQ page became their site’s equivalent of the junk drawer. Read the rest of this entry »

We are talking with Oneupweb, a digital marketing company that specializes in building relationships and businesses through integrated online marketing and applied creative thinking. Founded in 1996 by Lisa Wehr, the company’s original mission was a simple one: to design websites. When clients began to want their sites to be seen by more people, Lisa gradually phased out the company’s design services and set out to uncover the secrets to improving a website’s position on major search engines. The rest is history.

Hile Design: Can you share a bit more about Lisa’s background, and tell us more specifically about what your company does today?

Oneupweb: Prior to Oneupweb, Lisa attended college with a focus on commercial advertising photography, worked as a forensic photographer, a mounted policewoman in Florida, and was a pretty serious musher with her own sled-dog team in Alaska. When she stopped racing competitively, she started a guided tour business. People would visit Alaska to learn how to mush dogs, and Lisa would act as their guide. In 1996, she wanted to bring in more business, so she went to Wal-Mart, bought a computer and taught herself how to use it. Word spread that she knew how to design websites, and the customers started pouring in. But they wanted their websites seen by more people, so Lisa methodically went about figuring out how to make that happen. The result was Oneupweb, a search marketing company. A few years ago the company moved to Traverse City, and just last year we moved into our new 23,000 square foot global headquarters on Grand Traverse Bay.

Today, Oneupweb is a recognized leader in digital marketing, providing services that include: natural search engine optimization (SEO), paid search marketing (PPC), conversion improvement and analytics, podcast production, online media planning and placement, social media marketing and search marketing consultation for in-house marketing teams.

Read the rest of this entry »