Do a web search in any major city for “web designer XYZ” (insert your city for XYZ) and you’ll come up with some pretty interesting results. These people are, after all, pros at [...]]]> The business of web designers trying to get their own sites to rank well can be a cut throat competition.

Do a web search in any major city for “web designer XYZ” (insert your city for XYZ) and you’ll come up with some pretty interesting results. These people are, after all, pros at getting their clients’ site to rank well (if the design firm touts itself as an expert in search engine optimization). Get your site on the first page of Google for that search term and you have a much greater chance of snagging a customer.

Web designers in Appleton are no different. Appleton, WI, is a fairly large metro area. If you take into consideration the extended urban communities (Little Chute, Kaukauna, Darboy, Kimberly, Grand Chute, Neenah, Menasha, etc.) it’s probably the 3rd or 4th largest collection of urbanites in Wisconsin. That’s a lot of people, a lot of businesses, and a lot of web design firms.

But, when you step back to consider your particular needs in building a website for your business you’re well advised to use other methods in addition to the Internet to find them. Doing an Internet search may start you on some good leads, but you ultimately have to consider many more criteria.

Some things to consider in choosing a web design person or team is to ask what their specialty is. Ultimately web designers can’t be everything to everyone. There are so many routes to diversify in the field of web design it’s really quite mind boggling. Be wary of any designer that says they’ll take on any job.

Areas of Specialty

Some areas of specialty in web design include Flash animation, video production, e-commerce development, content management systems, content writing, search engine optimization, social media campaign management, Adwords management, and link builders. I’m sure I’m forgetting some… probably many. But, these are the most common.

Currently web designers and Internet users are becoming less enamored of using/seeing Flash animation. Don’t get me wrong, Flash can be an effective tool to catch and keep a visitor’s attention if done in the wright way (which usually means VERY sparingly and subtly). Personally, I don’t do Flash. I’d rather subcontract that out then to take the time to become an expert in that particular software.

Good video production probably has much more power in converting browsers to buyers. Video and film is a powerful media to tap into people’s emotions. But great video takes not only years of being behind a camera and then analyzing hours of “footage” (maybe it should be called “pixelage” now?) to develop an eye for creativity in that media, it also takes some pretty pricey equipment. It’s my opinion that good video is generally a better investment than Flash.

The next biggest area of specialty is search engine optimization. It’s a bandwagon that’s hard to resist jumping in on. And why not? Making yourself an expert in how to get a site to rank well is a good card to play in convincing a potential client.

And the up-and-coming star is social media. Knowing the ever changing social media landscape and how to best use it for marketing purposes is a tough specialty to keep current on. For those designers that naturally gravitate to using social media sites for their own personal lives it may seems like the media is a natural gold mine for customers. The downside of social media is that the crowd can quickly turn on your business for the slightest infraction of on-line social etiquette. It’s an arena that’s not for the faint of heart.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth referrals are the time tested way, in any field, of securing new relationships with customers and clients. Personally, despite my love on the Internet and computers, I feel it’s THE best way to find your next gig.

Ask your friends and family that have hired a website done how they like it, how they like getting along with the designer or design team, how they feel about the follow up customer service they got. Their feedback to you is one of your best tools for hunting down a good designer.

Check Out Your Competition

Your strategy here? Pull up the websites of your business neighbors. You can usually find a link at the very bottom as to who designed and built the site. Follow that link back to the designer’s own website. Tour around their own site and see what you think.

But first, ask yourself 2 things before you pick up the phone. Do you like their site? And, can you find it on the first or second page of a search for their particular field (eg. “florist appleton”)? Then it’s probably safe to jump in and make a call of inquiry to the designer.

Face to Face

In the end a face to face meeting will give you a fantastic idea if this person is appropriate for the web design project you have in mind.

Do they ask a lot of questions of your business, like where your current clients are coming from and what vision YOU see for your website. Can they really grasp the nature of your business? Can they see that your business is your life blood, your vital source of income and respect the depth of commitment you have to nurturing your baby? Or do they blast you with techno-jargon and their grand idea for a website?

Your gut reaction will probably lead you down the right path in hiring them or not.

Finding the Right Fit

My final advice is to keep in mind that your least expensive proposal for a website should not be your only criteria for selecting a designer. You may end up paying more in the end when your cut-rate designer spends 6, 8, 12 months on a project that could’ve taken a more seasoned pro a week or 2. And all that time you were missing so many potential customer that could have found you through a Web search.

There are many web designers in Appleton to pick from. Take your time, do your research, and then trust your instinct as to who will be the best fit for your project.

Any designer you commission for your website design should at least be familiar [...]]]> When first embarking on a new website design; an important part of the design process should consider exactly how the website is going to be promoted. This is particularly important if you want the website to be found by the major search engines.

Any designer you commission for your website design should at least be familiar with a process called SEO search engine optimization, know how to use meta tags, and understand the limitations any search site has when it comes to spidering your website.

SEO Search Engine Optimization

The first thing that needs to be understood is that when an inquiry is typed into a search site such as Google, the software will try and find websites that are the best match for that inquiry. The actual inquiry itself is called either a keyword or a keyword phrase.

Some keywords are used far more frequently than others so even at the stage when you are first creating the content for your website you should be targeting the keywords that are entered into the search sites more frequently. Ideally your content will exactly match the keywords and provide the best chance for your site being listed high up on the search engine results pages (SERP).

It is also important where you place the keywords; the first place the search site looks for the match is in the name or title of your site, after which comes the sub titles and headings followed by the description and then finally in the content text.

This is done on a page by page basis rather than a site basis. So each of your pages should have titles, headings and descriptions that accurately reflect the content in that page, and that match frequently entered keywords.

This is why finding and using the correct keywords is such an important part of SEO search engine optimization and why you need to be writing content for your website that will ultimately help the search sites match you to inquiries.

Search Engine Friendly Navigation

Many modern website designs have adopted the use of flash, java driven menu systems and graphics as navigation elements. The upside of this approach is that excellent graphical images can be created that are very aesthetically pleasing.

The downside is that search engines cannot find text that is buried in a graphical image or is delivered by an external java script file. For all intents and purposes, search engines look for text; including the text that provides the links to other parts of the website. So when spidering the site the primary method for finding all the pages included and establishing the contents of the pages is by reading the text on the site.

There are ways and means of overcoming this problem. For example a site map containing information that describes all of the pages of interest to the search engine can be submitted to the search site so that listed pages are included in their index; this is rather than relying on the search engines finding the pages for themselves. There is a protocol that has to be followed for a site map to be accepted; but this is not particularly difficult to achieve.

You can use what is called the ‘alt’ tag to provide descriptions of any images included in the content of your site. There are other reasons for doing this anyway to ensure design standards are met in general.

There are also techniques that can be used to create navigation systems that can look equally as impressive as some of the script driven methods but are text based and consequently search engine friendly.

Meta Tags

As a final word on this subject, make sure that your designer also understands the use and implementation of meta tags. This is information included in the header of the website page that for the most part is invisible to visitors but serve the purpose of providing instructions to search sites to help them understand how to deal and interact with your website.

Taking care of all of these factors will ensure your website is truly search engine friendly.

About the Author:
Brian Stephens. Visit Moulin Website Design for more information on whats involved when designing a website. SEO Search Engine Optimization provides an in depth look at SEO in general.

There are lots of companies available in the market to design a web site. Now the question is [...]]]> In today’s world a website is representing the Business brand of your company. People are very cautious to take decisions about which web site design company to choose from as there are many choices available in the world.

There are lots of companies available in the market to design a web site. Now the question is whom to choose? It will not be easy for you to get the correct person or company because it requires little homework. The simplest thing is there are few simple questions you need to ask before selecting the website design company or an individual which delivers you quality output with reasonable price. With price there are other parameters to take into consideration such as company portfolio, Resource skills and qualifications, strength of the company etc.

You first need to take a look at the company portfolio. This is an easy way to judge the capabilities of the company. You need to consider basic questions like: Is their portfolio versatile? Do you see depth in their capabilities? Does they only work in similar kind of domains? You can prepare a checklist of your thoughts to judge a website design company. The basic skills you should look into website design companies can be expertise in Graphics Design software like Flash, Photoshop HTML and SEO etc.

The price of the web site design companies varies from one to other. Out of all the companies in the market you will find mostly two kind of pricing pattern. The first one is to charge a fix price for entire project and the second is price per resource count. Now it is up to you to choose correct web design company from these two kinds of pricing patterns. The best way to judge a web site design company is to ask them to provide a presentation of their skills and capabilities along with their portfolio and while seeing presentation you can ask related questions to them to satisfy your needs.

You should not get attracted with the size of the companies or their infrastructure. Rather you need to ensure that the web design company will be able to meet all deadlines. Often the complexity of the website is greatly affecting the time line. In that case you can ask for what if they do not meet proposed deadline?

You can consider about individuals who have proven experience into web site designing and Graphics Designing. Also check for the certification if they have in Web design. This will make sure that you met the right company to hire for your web designing project.

About the Author:
SPINX Inc, is a leading Website Design Los Angeles company offers services like Web Design Pasadena, Website Design West Hollywood, Website Design Santa Monica & also across the world.