Web Design Essex

by Christina on Tuesday 20th April, 2010 at 16:04 COMMENTS (0)

DR Adept Web Design Essex, a website design company who offers website designs to showcase your company and attract the customers you want.

DR Adept is a professional company providing Website Design and SEO services in Essex since 1998.

What to look for in a good website designer

Building a website page is not just a matter of throwing together some text and a few images then putting it out there for the world to see, there is a lot more involved and to do it right you need someone who can spend the time and has the knowledge to get it right first time. This is where a website designer comes in.

Domain names
Many reputable website designers like to offer a complete services which includes purchasing or renewing your domain name. They are simply doing this on your behalf and will register the domain in your name as it belongs to you.

Un-reputable website designers will purchase your domain and register it in their own name then lease it to you for a monthly fee.

Ensure you own your domain, if in doubt purchase the domain name yourself, using a domain registration company like 123-reg. You can search for a good name based on your business, or try out various alterations on the name until you find one that is available.

Hosting
Again a reputable website designer will want to offer a complete service to their client including hosting. This is usually a yearly fee to keep your website on a server and will cover the cost of renewing your domains and in some cases will cover small updates to the website.

You will be allocated an amount of bandwidth, if you go over this allocation expect to see monthly charges, although your website designer would keep you up to date and advise if there is a likelyhood of further charges and discussing the best way forward for you.

Find out exactly what the hosting fee covers and what it does not cover.

Do you want to be on a shared server keeping costs down or a dedicated server just for you which will be more expensive.

Most website designers will keep your options simple and offer a few packages and will help you pick the right one for you.

An un-reputable website designer will charge you a hosting fee, domain renewal fees and then charge for every little update to the website, including a 5 second copy and paste job.

Website designs
There are several types of website designs, usually dictated by the information you want to show on your website.

Static Websites are fixed pages created and saved then sent to the hosting servers. To update these kinds of websites the original pages need to be edited and re-saved. This kind of fixed website has more flexibility with design as the information is always the same and can be controlled more; a bit like creating a standard word-processing document.

Dynamic Websites build the details or pages as they are requested by the visitors, this enables information to be searched or updated easily with a content manager system. Dynamic websites are good for displaying a lot of information or news that can be targeted or selected by individual visitors making it more unique to each visitor.

Flash Websites are mostly used for marketing, advertising or games industry as there is a lot more media involved and it is more time consuming. Flash requires a lot of coding and is more in line with a video editor than a web designer.

Flash has seen a downturn over the past few years due to several new technologies including HTML 5 which is the new language used by web browsers, HTML 5 allows more media coding and makes web browsing more dynamic and animated.

JQuery is another technology which is a Flash killer, it encompasses Javascript and makes it easier and more friendly when dealing with different browsers, allowing designers and developers to design in special effects and animations without having to worry about or learn every type of javascript differences between each of the browsers.

Due to the time needed to produce a Flash based website, you can expect to pay far more for this type of design. Flash based website are not search engine friendly, although Google is getting better at reading them.

Landing pages
The majority of your visitors will come into your home page on your website. This is normally due to only the home page being indexed in the search engines and other websites linking to this page. If you offer more than one service or sell hundreds of products it is impossible to have everything on the home page and not confuse your customer.

When talking to your website designer about the initial design you need to consider your visitors and where you want them to enter your website.

These are called landing pages, each page will be targeted for each service, product category or product you sell. A landing page targets specific customer types and gets them to a page containing the correct information instantly.

This kind of targeted link or landing page is great for identifying what someone wants and can capture more details, also guiding the customer through the specific process required to get them to order.

Important rules in Website design
Navigation is key to a good web design, make it easy to find your way around the website and easy to go from one page to another without having to use your brain, some people will leave within seconds if they cannot navigate with ease.

The structure of your website needs to be as flat as possible.

Content of website
You are the expert in your area and can cut costs down by putting together your own content for your website.

However, if you feel this is an impossible task or you just do not have the time, your website designer should already be working with copywriters who he can bring on board when needed.

Be clear what your website is going to achieve.

• What is it you want to gain from having a website?
• What do you want to tell visitors?
• What information do you want to make available to your visitors?
• Do you want client logins and/or member only sections where some content is locked away from general visitors and the search engines?
• How do you want visitors to contact you?
• Do you need complex forms to gather information and then email through or just a basic comments or feedback form?
• Do you need animations to show the processes involved in your business?
• Do you need high quality photos or images created specifically for the website?
• Do you have a colour scheme, logo set or layout you wish to use, maybe in line with your corporate image?
• Are there any specific details the web designer should know before starting a design?

Whatever technology you choose and whichever hosting option you select make sure it is correct and appropriate for your website. There are many websites using a specific design just because it is what they want rather than what they need to make their website great.

Cloud Sourcing
If you have no idea what type of design you want, or would like to keep your options open, Cloud Sourcing could be the right choice for you. Cloud sourcing is a great concept involving you having access to many designers who will all look at your brief and come up with a design, you then get to pick and pay for the best one.

Websites such as design99.com allow you to specify your design criteria for a fee, then many designers attempt to win your money by creating a design they think will work for you. After you view all the designs you can choose the best design and your fee gets passed to the winning designer.

The disadvantage is you have to choose a design. The website designer may not offer other services such as hosting, and they may be a great designer but not good with the coding that actually makes the site work for you and your type of business and customer.

The advantage is there are some great designers out there building their portfolios who will use design99.com to build their business.

Filed under: website redesign COMMENTS (0) Tuesday 20th April, 2010