Archive for category Web Design and Development
Five Tips for Working with your Seattle Web Design Team
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on November 19, 2013
You’ve looked around, done the research, and finally come up with the perfect Seattle web designer to create your website. But now that you’re ready to make the hire, you have to decide how to work with the designer. Many people go in with no idea of what is okay or not okay, but the following includes a rough guide. The following include five tips for getting through your web design process as easily as possible.
Decide What You Want First
One thing that a lot of people do when going into building their website is ask for multiple mockups or designs right from the start. While this may be a good idea for you to see which you like better, it’s not the best thing for the designer. Instead of asking for two designs, try deciding what you want first and allowing you team to put all of their energy into one fabulous website rather than splitting their energy on something you won’t even use. You can always ask for updates later.
Ensure Your Website Designer Knows You
Did you know that most website designers create sites based on your business and not just the fact that you have a business? Ensuring that your designer is aware of your target demographic, your business ethic, your name, preferred colors, and other factors that influence your sales also ensures that your website will be designed for you. Because there are so many ways these factors can influence your sales, you have to ensure that your website designer knows them from the start.
Work With Your Web Designer
It is always important to work with your web developer. Talk to them, ask to see designs in progress, and if at all possible, get involved. Stages where you can work with your designer include concept and design (you can create mood boards, outline what you want, and even help with initial sketches), creation (you can help test), and of course, get involved with the final design to ensure that the site is exactly what you want.
Avoid Overworking
You do want to give your Seattle developers your input to ensure that you get a quality design that suits your needs. What you don’t want to do is nitpick and overwork the design until it is quite literally shoddy. No design will ever be absolutely perfect so keep that in mind when you’re tempted to ‘move this two pixels to the right’, or ‘change that pink to a salmon’, for the tenth time. Check the design, study it, and then carefully make a few changes that work once rather than redoing them dozens of times. Your site will look better for it.
Don’t Rush
It can be tempting to send your web designer 20 emails asking when the site will be finished but the truth is that you should sit back and relax. Ask your designer for a fixed due date and then leave them to do the rest. While it might be nicer to have your website sooner, rushing the processes will only result in a second-rate website that you don’t love. Quality takes time, so just sit back and leave your designers to do their job.
Where Do You Look for Quality Seattle Web Design?
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on October 23, 2013
While there are plenty of web designers out there, many people simply have no idea how to find them, and going by the first page of results on Google tells you nothing about who is trustworthy, good, or worth the money. Others have no idea where to even look for web design services outside of the newspaper, Craigslist, or hiring an in-house design team. The truth is that web designers are everywhere, and usually the biggest challenge is not finding them, but finding a good one. Here are a couple of tips to help you on your search for quality Seattle web design companies.
The Best companies Have Their Own Sites
While you can find a web designer on Craigslist, in the newspaper, or even on eBay, you probably want to skip it. Many web design companies do advertise via online hiring sites, but all of the good ones have their own site. If they have a site then you can visit it, see the website, and see what they can do. Most web designers use their website as a working portfolio so it’s a good way to get a first impression of their work as well as their quality. If you don’t like the designer’s website, you might not like their work either. Of course, you should always look at available samples before making a decision.
In Your City
While you can look for web designers anywhere, or even hire out of Zimbabwe, the best web designers are those you can talk to, get a hold of easily, and maybe even sit down in a face to face chat with. For that reason, most people are happier looking for local web designers, right here in Seattle, rather than going to another city. If you’re worried about talent and quality, don’t be. Seattle has one of the best tech markets in the world, and therefore some of the best and most talented designers.
Tips for Getting the Best
Consider looking for more than one web designer, and then looking through their work to see which one you like best. Once you find a designer you like, you can start talking with them about your project to get quotes, timeframes, and other details. Many web designers can work with you from the ground up to brainstorm, design, create, and launch your website, and usually this is the best idea if you don’t’ already have a developer on board. Many designers will have online reviews that you can use to sort quality and average customer satisfaction as well, although you should do your own research rather than simply relying on what the internet says.
Choosing your designer is important, because who you pick will influence the final look and feel of your website. Just make sure you like their previous work, and that you like working with them, in order to get results you are happy with. For actually locating local web designers, you can try Google Businesses, an online equivalent to the Yellow Pages. Remember that you’re looking for a website, good reviews, and quality sample designs.
Seattle Web Development Tips: Planning Web Content for Your Consumers
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on October 1, 2013
Web Design is a Multi-Step process that takes a lot of work from every member of the team or party, but one thing that is often easy to overlook is that the end result is aimed not at the person paying for the site, but at their customers. While this is easy to forget in the hustle of trying to make something that is appealing to you, it’s important to remember that customers come first, even with web content. So, how do you plan and design for your users rather than yourself?
Listen to Your Design Team
First and foremost, you probably hired your web developers because they’re experts, so, listen to them. Chances are that your web developers have designed a site or two and know what’s successful and what’s not. If you’re choosing a full service web developer like Rory Martin that also offers extras like social and marketing then they have an even better idea of what goes over well with consumers. When in doubt, listen to your developers, unless you absolutely hate the idea.
Take a Look at Your Competitors
While you don’t want your site to look anything like the competition, you do want to know what factors they have that make the site appealing to customers. Consider checking the layout, any apps, social integrating, blogging, or whatever else happens to be on the site to see what they do to make it more interactive and user friendly. Just remember that you don’t want to steal any ideas because you still want your site to be unique.
Consider Asking
If you already have a social site then you could actually get some great ideas by putting up a poll. Ask your consumers what features they would like to see, what is an absolute must, or even what features they hate about websites. Their answers might give you some great insight on what to do and what not to do on your site. If you don’t already have a fanbase don’t worry as your web developers have most likely already been through this a time or two with their own consumers.
Think Like a Consumer
Last but not least, if you want to make sure your web content goes over well with your users then you have to try to think like one. Decide which features you would like to see if you were buying your products or services, and if you already have a demo of the site, try it out without thinking of it as yours. Most people want a fast, easy to navigate site that offers the bare minimum of functions in order to work without being overly slow or confusing. Your exact demographic may want something different so try to think like a consumer to make a website for yours.
At the end of the day you want to aim for usability so keep that in mind when making plans for your website. While it is still important that you like your website, it is more important that your customers like your website, because they make you money.
Seattle Web Development: Why Your Website Might Not Be Converting Your Traffic
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Optimization, Web Design and Development on September 17, 2013
As a Seattle business owner, your website can expose your products and services to any of the 1.97 million people in King County. Unfortunately for you, if your website isn’t optimized for search, for conversion, and for sales, you won’t be making any money off of it. Even if you have a relatively large number of hits each month, you still might not be making any money. Why? Because your website doesn’t convert.
While there are millions of websites competing with yours, the majority of them are less than optimal. You however can take the steps, or hire a Seattle web development team, to help you create a high performance website that converts your traffic into sales. Here are a few of the reasons your website might not be converting your traffic into sales.
Incorrect Optimization
One of the main reasons that your website might be getting traffic and not converting is that you’re using the wrong keywords. Take a look at your keyword optimization and consider the following questions:
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Are these uniquely related to my business
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What Else would someone be searching for with these keywords
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Would someone looking for my products/services look for these keywords?
While not precisely a web development issue, incorrectly optimizing your website can mean that you get a great deal of traffic that isn’t necessarily looking for your business. Remember that a large number of visitors who leave your site immediately raises your bounce rate, and websites with a very high bounce rate are usually dropped to the bottom of Google search.
No Content Layout
If your content is a jumbled mess then your visitors might be confused. Consider whether or not you can land on a page and then clearly and easily navigate your way to where you can purchase what you’re looking for. No? Then your customers can’t either. Content planning is an important part of web design and if you haven’t carefully mapped out where your content is on your site, then you need to think again.
No or Poor Landing Pages
One of the best ways to sell products or services is to create a landing page. If you don’t know what this is, then it is essentially a web page designed specifically to introduce your visitors to your product and then make a sale. The whole point is to make a sale, without being spammy or overly salesy. Your landing pages should be properly keyword optimized and should include links
Your Site is Too Slow
While you do want plenty of information and content on your site, you don’t want to add so much information that it slows your site down. The average person will actually leave a website if it takes longer than 4 seconds to load, so you have to make sure your site loads quickly. Seattle web developers suggest that your optimal load time is at 1.5 or less seconds.
If you want your website to convert your traffic into sales then you have to carefully plan your content. Social media should be easily accessible so that visitors can check out your pages for more information, landing pages should easily point to sales pages and pages to get more information. The worst thing you can do for your sales is to write a convincing argument and then make it difficult for your customers to make a purchase.
Want to learn more? Contact our team of professional Seattle web developers today to find out what we can do for your site.
Seattle Web Development Tips – What Kind of Website Do You Need?
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on September 3, 2013
If you’re planning on taking the plunge and hiring a Seattle web development team then you have to know what kind of website you need. While you might think that a website is a website, you couldn’t be more wrong. Most sites are grouped into two main categories but there are numerous subcategories that offer specialized features and options. The two main types of websites are static and content, and both have their pros and cons.
Static Websites
Static websites are the most basic type of website and are usually the best for someone who doesn’t want any thing to do with managing their content. These sites feature fixed information that is not intended to be updated. The website owner usually does not have any kind of access to the website and has to call the developer to make changes. These types of sites are great for businesses with a relatively small amount of data and either a brick and mortar shop or services that are only available offline.
Content Websites
Content websites are the most popular type of website built by Seattle web development teams and for good reason. They offer more customization, more control, and more updates than static sites. Content websites are usually accessible by the owner and can be updated at will to add blog posts, new products, or even to change the web content. These sites typically either use CMS or some form of ecommerce GUI to provide a fully functioning and easy to use control panel for the site.
CMS – CMS is the most popular type of website because it is easy to set up and easy to learn. CMS or Content Management System websites can be powered by open source solutions like WordPress, Joomla, or Drupal, or can include a custom built option. CMS is essentially a control panel that allows people who are not experienced with code to update their website.
E-Commerce – Many E-commerce websites actually use some form of CMS, but e-commerce is usually considered to be its own subcategory of content. E-commerce sites allow you to directly upload content through a CMS system or a GUI (Graphical User Interface) to directly upload products, accept sales, and payments. These are typically harder to set up than CMS sites, but eventually work the same way in that a person who is not experienced with code can easily add and change content.
In some cases you might need something that isn’t available under either of the two standard types of websites so rather than getting a content site or a fixed site you might want something unique. These types of sites make up about 5% of the web, which is still a lot of websites. Unique sites often need specific parameters and functions but are costly and time consuming to build.
Most businesses prefer to use a CMS site because it is faster to get set up, easier to maintain, and can be edited quickly. Large stores with online products require e-commerce websites that can be used to upload and sell products. Last but not least, professionals such as carpet cleaners or accountants tend to prefer fixed content sites that they can upload with contact information and then forget about. All three types are perfect for different types of business but you can probably use your personal needs to choose one.
Need more information or want to talk about your website? Consider talking to us to ask for a quote, see what we can do, or get us started building your very own website.
Top Five Web Design & Development Mistakes You Can Avoid
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on August 22, 2013
If you’re working on, or considering having someone build you a website, then you have to plan, consider what you want, and make decisions. Unfortunately, it can be all too easy to make a couple of mistakes that will dramatically affect your website. Once mistakes are made, they can be difficult to fix, so make sure you go at it right the first time. Here are five mistakes you don’t want to make with your Seattle web designer.
#1 Not Making Plans
Did you know that you should plan or decide what you want for your website before you hire someone? Decide on a goal that you want to achieve, and then hire your Seattle website designer. Chances are that you can also hire the same company to do your SEO and maybe even social, so that you can begin reaching your goals before you even launch your site. If you haven’t planned, none of that is possible.
#2 Making it Too Complicated
One major mistake that many people make is wanting a website that is too complex. Sure it may be nice to add feature after feature, but most people don’t want tons of features. They want a smooth and easy to use website that runs as quickly as possible. Modern website design is all about speed and clean lines. Consider those factors as more important than most of the features your site could have. Of course, your website can still do plenty of things; just remember not to try to cram it all on the same page. Remember your web designers are the experts and they know what looks good!
#3 Forgetting to Communicate
If you don’t talk to your website designer, they will have no idea what you want. Usually it is a good idea to sit down and talk about what you like and don’t like, or tell them about it as you go along. Communicating is the first step to getting exactly what you want so don’t be afraid to speak your mind. Remember to explain why you do or do not like something, so that your designers have something to go on.
#4 Copying Your Competition
One major mistake that many people make is trying to copy their competitors. Even though you are hiring Seattle website designers, your content should be very different from other Seattle websites. The idea is to stand out from the crowd, not get into a who-can-do-the-same-thing-better fight. While there are obviously some features that you will need, your goal it to point those out, and then find a way to make them stand out from your competitors. Once again, your web designer is the best place to look for ideas.
#5 Rushing Your Web Development
Many people looking for custom web design want their website to go up as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, while many web designers are fast, it’s never good to rush web development. If you absolutely must have your website up within one or two weeks, consider asking for a theme that you can launch until your custom design is finished. Why? Because a rushed website will never be as perfect as you, or the designer, wants it to be.
Five Things You Should Consider Before You Hire a Seattle Website Designer
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on July 30, 2013
If you’re considering hiring a Seattle website designer then your first step should be to sit down and brainstorm. While you don’t have to know exactly what you want when you hire your web designer, it does help to have a good idea of what you need. If you have no idea, a good web designer will still be able to help you but it will take a little longer. Here are a couple of things you can think about before you make the hire.
Your Budget – If you don’t know what your budget is then you can’t hire anyone. Consider how much you can logically afford to spend on web development, design, and launch. If your web designer also offers SEO and Social for your launch, consider how much you can afford for that as well. Consolidating your budget can still save you a lot of money but you definitely want to know how much you can afford to spend.
Who You Are – While this might sound silly, you have to know who you are before you design your website. Whether as an individual or as a company, you have to be able to put down your style, your policies, and even your attitude on paper so that a designer can work your personality into your website. Part of this is deciding your business policy.
What You Need – What do you need in a website? For example if you’re a restaurant owner then you probably need interactive menus, a stylish but polished design, and maybe a forum for leaving reviews. On the other hand if you sell shoes then you need a fully functioning e-commerce website with size, color, and probably even shipping options. Depending on the exact type of your business you could need entirely different websites. For example an automotive web shop is different from a shoe shop. Take some time to consider what you think your website needs in order to function properly.
Time Frame – How quickly do you need a website? If you need to launch quickly then your best bet might be to hire a website designer who can work well with templates so that your website goes up more quickly. If you can take your time and prefer something more unique, going custom is always a better option. You could also have a template put up and then switch to a custom design later. Telling your web designer your expected launch date can help a great deal with planning so that you get your site when you need it.
What You Want – Last but not least, you should consider what you want. If you have no idea, consider poking around your competitors websites and see what you like and don’t like. You won’t ever be copying items from their pages, but you can get a pretty good idea of what you dislike so that you won’t have anything similar on your website. Likewise, you can make a list of features, colors, and styles that you do like to help your website designer bring something that you love to life.
Hiring a great Seattle website designer is just one part of launching your website. Luckily, while you will have a part to play in the form of deciding on colors, styles, and features, your designer will do most of the work for you.
The Vital Role of Web Hosting on Your Online Presence
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on July 5, 2013
If you’re thinking about setting up a website then you have to consider your web hosting as an important element of your site. Web hosting affects more than you might think as it influences your website speed, uptime vs. downtime, and even your SEO. While it might be tempting to simply choose the cheapest web host available, here are a couple of reasons why you should take your time, research, and find the best Seattle web host available. So how does your website hosting affect your site?
Speed – One of the most important factors of any web host package is speed. The faster your site loads the better, and for multiple reasons. The first is that many people believe that Google considers the speed of your website when choosing sites to bring up first in search. Fast websites obviously come up first while slower sites come in second, third, or on the next page. Another consideration is that studies estimate that you lose traffic if your website takes longer than a second to load. At 3.5 seconds, more than half of users have already hit the back button rather than waiting for it to load. In fact, a study by Google showed that traffic dropped by 20% when the load page of their sites was increased by just .5 seconds. Therefor you need a reliable host that loads your website as quickly as possible.
Reliability – While speed is an important consideration, uptime is also a very big concern. You most likely want a server with an uptime of 99% or more, so that your website stays online. A good web host should have multiple backup servers so that your data stays safe and is protected during outages.
Location – Many people don’t consider the location of their web host but it is sometimes a good idea to work with a local host. A local Seattle web host gives you easy access to your server, makes it easy to call a technician to ask for help, and might make updating and loading your website faster, especially if you get mostly local traffic. Sometimes the country location of the server matters as well because some countries have a larger reputation for spam than others, for example China, the Ukraine, and Russia are all hotspots for servers that also host spam sites. Going with a local server helps you to avoid these issues.
Last but not least, you can always ask your Seattle web developer for advice on where to get your web hosting. Many, like Rory Martin, offer their own dedicated web hosting so that you can get full service web development, design, and hosting all in one place. Best of all, if your web host is provided by your web developer, you can trust that your site will be easily uploaded and set up for a single price, rather than you having to pay multiple companies. Generally your final choice should also depend on the pricing, packaging, and what is included as well as the factors that are listed above, so consider researching your options and choosing what is best for your website.
Why Joomla? A Look at the World’s Second Most Popular CMS
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on June 27, 2013
Joomla is a CMS or Content Management System that is most often used by small businesses who want to easily control and update their website. CMS is the best alternative for anyone who does not want to call their developer each time they want an upgrade but they can be open source or custom built depending on the owner’s needs. While many people choose to have a custom built CMS, most choose to go with the much more affordable option of using an open source option like WordPress, Drupal, or Joomla.
Currently Joomla is estimated to have been downloaded and installed more than 30 million times, making it the second most popular CMS on the planet, just behind WordPress. While WordPress is the best choice for blogging websites, the majority of people who choose Joomla are business owners. But why would you want to choose Joomla? And why do Seattle web design companies choose Joomla so often?
Easy to Learn
Joomla, like other CMS, has a learning curve. However, with literally hundreds of free tutorials on the web, you won’t have to constantly ask for help for simple itmes. Unlike a custom CMS you are working with an open source option meaning that there are plenty of options for free training, tutorials, as well as full classes at some colleges that will help you get into the swing of things. While you don’t have to learn to develop Joomla, which takes longer, you can easily learn to user your CMS to its best advantage without spending a great deal of money.
Plenty of Apps
Joomla currently has a database of more than 6,000 extensions. These ad-ons are similar to apps or applications and can be used to quickly and easily add features to your site. That means that if you want to quickly add a temporary feature then you can just use an extension. Of course, if you want something permanent that is unique to your site, you might still want to think about having your web designer develop one for you instead.
Fast Setup
While Joomla does take time to develop, it has been proven that the CMS goes faster from design to launch than most other CMS. This means that you spend less money, waste less time, and get your results faster. Of course, developing any website takes time, especially if you are looking for a feature rich platform. Joomla however can be a little quicker than many other solutions.
Stable
Joomla is one of the most stable CMS options on the planet which is alone a huge credit. Working with stable, pre-designed solutions means that your web design company can get right to the item at hand, which is designing your website. Instead of building and testing a CSM solution for you, they can concentrate on building your site, not your CMS.
Joomla has its pros and cons but considering that it is the most popular business choice for CMS, it definitely has more pros than cons. If you’re considering using Joomla for your website you can contact us to talk about your web design needs. We cover Joomla as well as custom CMS designed for your business.
Want to learn more? Check out our Seattle web design page to see what we offer and what we can do.
Web Design for Restaurant Owners: What to Consider & Look For
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on June 15, 2013
Seattle is well known for its food and night life with well-known restaurants serving up everything from gourmet delights to cheap eats. From Canlis to Dick’s Drive In, Seattle is very much proud of our food culture, and for good reason. Despite this, more and more people are beginning to look online in search of new eats to try, and while the search usually starts with social media, most people will visit a website before going to a restaurant. So what does your restaurant need to convert more traffic?
Visual Design – Visual design is one of the most important aspects of your restaurants website and your web
design should reflect that. The only purpose of the site is to showcase your food and tell people how to get there, your Seattle web designer should be aware of this enough to work with you, use photos from your food, and then design the site around the food. While every website should be different you do want the focus to be on the visual aspects of your business, which should mostly be food. If that requires hiring a food designer and photographer before hiring a web designer then go for it. Food based websites tend to covert much more because you show that you are confident in your cooking skills (or your cooks cooking skills) and that you have beautiful food.
Ease of Use – Your website should be easy to use and navigate, otherwise people might not get past the home page. Make navigating pages, returning to the home page, finding the menu, and calling the restaurant to make a reservation as easy as possible. If people have trouble finding something, or trouble getting from page to page then they will almost definitely leave the page.
Interactive Menu – Every restaurant website should have a menu, yours can be as simple or as complex as you like but consider going interactive. Being able to click on each dish to see a photo, or a tantalizing description is sure to leave your customers wanting to try it. All you have to do to get an interactive menu is discuss it with your Seattle website designer and see what they can do within your budget.
Personality – Your restaurant has personality, your website should have that same personality. Unless you happen to have a lot of photos handy to communicate your style and personality across to the web designer, then you want to look for someone local who can easily visit to get a feel for the vibe and atmosphere of your restaurant. Communicating your personality and atmosphere into a website is the best way to make your restaurant site stand out from the rest so that you have something truly fabulous.
Want to know more about having local Seattle web designers work on your restaurants website? Contact us today to learn more about our work with some of the best restaurants in Seattle, and what we can do for you.
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