Posts Tagged web design tips
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.
10 Things You Might Not Think of When Designing Your Website
Posted by Rory Martin in Web Design and Development on April 18, 2013
Whether you’re designing your website on your own or paying someone else to do it, it’s always possible to forget about some of the smaller things that can help your website. Unfortunately, a lot of people miss these and then somehow never get around to having their web designer put them in. So what do you need to know while designing your website? Read these tips and then make sure your Seattle web design company or team knows exactly what you want.
Clean Design
While it is okay to include bells and whistles in your website design, studies show that a clean and even minimalistic design will have better results. You obviously do not want your website looking like its old, but you don’t want it looking cluttered either. Consider aiming to have at least 30% of each page occupied by blank space. This space can be utilized to make the area look bigger, easier to read, and less cluttered.
Integrated SEO
SEO is one of the most popular marketing mediums of the last 20 years, but most people don’t start to integrate it until they start to work on text. Did you know that you can utilize HTML tweaks to make sure your SEO is good to go from the start? By utilizing canonical links, externalizing JS and CSS file sheets, and including microdata and meta descriptions as necessary, you can increase the HTML SEO for your site. Don’t know what any of this means? Ask your Seattle web designer.
Clear Branding
Your website is an extension of your brand so make sure its present. Your brand colors, logo, personal style, and tone all make up part of your branding so ensure that each of these elements are utilized on page. Websites with clear branding come off as more authoritative, more business centric, and create a better impression than those with no branding.
Search Bar Integrated Above the Fold
The fold is where your site cuts off on a computer screen and it does make some difference to your ads, your search, and your impressions. Below the fold ads get much lower impressions than those above it, and the same things goes for your search bar. If users do not see search when they immediately go onto the page, they might not think you have one. Good places for your search bare include above the header, in your menu bar, and just below your header.
Sitemap
A sitemap tells search engine bots where to go on your site so you should make sure you have one up as soon as your site goes up. You can always edit the file later, and they usually only take a minute or two to make.
Multiple Browser & OS Compatibility
Whether you live on Google Chrome or on your Blackberry, you have to make sure your website is compatible across all browsers and all popular operating systems. Considering a mobile optimized site, ensuring that your colors remain the same across browsers, and using a font that is supported by a wide variety of browsers and devices is your best bet for ensuring compatibility.
Web Optimized Images
Did you know that a large image can slow down the load speed of your site? Setting all of your images to 72dpi will ensure that your images are web optimized, and will load more quickly. The size of the image can be large or small, but make sure it isn’t too big, or your site will suffer because of it.
Integrated Statistics and Analytics
Want to know who’s on your site, how they are getting there, and what they looked up to find you? Analytics are your best bet for finding any of this information so make sure you have something installed. Google analytics is the most popular option although there are many more free and paid options. What are the benefits of installing your analytics code from the start? You can use it to do comprehensive A/B testing to find what works and what doesn’t on your site.
Consistency
What does consistency have to do with web design? Actually a lot! You want your website to look the same on every page because this has been proven to have a better effect on first impression for a visitor. Consistency looks professional so make sure you utilize it across your website.
Contact Information
Did you know that many websites actually do not include contact information? If you’re selling a product or service, you need to have at least an email and name associated with your website. You can also consider including a mailing address and phone number, although not everyone should include the address. Contact information shows visitors that you are trustworthy and that the site is operated by a real human being.
If your Seattle web designer is not using all of these items in your design, you should definitely think about having them start.
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