Frequently Asked Questions
About Banyan Theory & LightRail

You have questions, and we have answers.

If you have a question not answered here, please get in touch.

New Website Projects


How do I get started?

Call us or schedule a call to talk to one of our website experts, and we’ll answer any questions you might have — just answers, not a sales pitch.

Once you’re ready to go, we’ll just need 3 things:

  1. Contract – Simply review and sign online.

  2. Deposit – The deposit for a base website is $500. This money gets credited towards the one-time setup fee for your website.

  3. Profile – We’ll ask you everything that we need to know to start development on your website. This is where you’ll tell us about your office, staff, insurance carriers, products, and more. You can select your design template, upload your logo, and choose your branding colors. During the entire process, you can always reach out to your dedicated account manager with questions or specific customizations that are not included in the profile.

Once we have these 3 tasks completed, we start coding and in a week or less, we’ll send you a link to review the new website.


How quickly can the website be ready?

We work fast. Once we have all of your info, we can have your website live in as little as a week. Our customers generally request a few tweaks after reviewing their new website. On average it takes three to six weeks from signup to launch.


Why do the upgrades cost extra?

We believe in charging only for what you actually use. Some providers charge a flat rate and throw in everything they have, but we don’t think you should be required to pay for features we build that won’t benefit you.


How much of my time will it require?

The simple answer – not much.

Once you sign the agreement and pay the deposit for the website, the agency profile should only take about 20 minutes to complete.

Don’t worry about getting everything perfect, we can always make tweaks and changes during development, or after launch.

Depending on your level of changes/customizations, you can spend as much or as little time as you’d like from there.


Other


Why is there a setup fee?

Some providers advertise “no setup fees” but charge a high monthly fee. With that model, you likely still pay a de facto setup fee — monthly charges begin at signup, and you’ll pay that charge each month your site is being built. So if it takes two months before you’re ready to launch your website, with those providers you would pay “hosting” for those two months. Banyan Theory doesn’t charge for hosting until your website is live.


Do I need any upgrades?

In a word: no. Every website we build comes with tons of features included for free, including free SSL and search-optimized content. The upgrades we offer are for agencies who want more out of their websites and are willing to pay for the additional value.


Support


What if I need changes after the website launches? Do you offer monthly support?

We encourage agencies to keep their website up-to-date and relevant. There are a few ways that you can easily make changes to your website after launch.

  • LightRail: We have an easy-to-use website editor that allows you to quickly make common website updates. You can edit staff members, insurance carriers, page content, blog articles, office information, and more.

  • Account Manager Support: We never want you to feel “nickel and dimed” over changes. Every website comes with 1 hour of free support time during the month that you can use for website updates. Because the support time is free, it does not roll over and accrue “in the bank” if left unused. You will have a dedicated account manager to help with any questions or changes.

  • Custom projects – Large or complex changes that can’t be done for free can be completed as a one-time custom project. You can discuss your specific needs with your account manager, and we’ll give you an estimated price quote before starting.

Your account manager will always let you know if your changes can’t be completed for free. We will never send you a surprise invoice.


Are your websites accessible?

We believe wholeheartedly in website accessibility and take it very seriously. We’ve always built our websites with accessibility best practices in mind, and we continually update our websites as new technologies and techniques are available, and as industry best practices are updated. We work off of the WCAG 2.1 documentation, which is the standard for website accessibility.


Upgrades


Do you offer SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

We do not offer a typical SEO package. That said, our insurance websites are already secure, fast, and built with Google’s best practices in mind.

If you’re looking to help improve your website ranking, we recommend focusing on adding custom website content.

The best place to start is with unique blog articles and product content. Our SEO Boost and SEO Advantage options can help your website rank higher on Google.