Online Web Design

Instead of heading over to the UK to find a good web designer to handle your design projects go online now and find an online web design Manchester, UK service. UK designers are equipped to create ecommerce web sites with shopping carts. The services can design your web pages and create simple or complex solutions to give you the best options in design. Designers in the online web design Manchester companies' focus on security when they are building your ecommerce web sites to ensure that when customers use your web sites that their information is safe. The secure sites are designed also to give you ways to accept credit cards.

When you have an ecommerce web site built by one of the online web design Manchester services, you are giving the option to choose your method of accepting payments from your web site. The designers will consider CCNOW, PayPal, Yahoo Direct Pay, Clickbank, and other options and work hard to ensure that you get the payment method you choose for your ecommerce web site. Payment systems are great tools that designers focus on in the online web design Manchester, UK services. The designers know the importance of giving your customers ways to place orders, and to pay for products online. In addition, the designers know how valuable it is for you to be able to sell your products on the Internet, thus the designers will look for options to help you out.

When the designers start building your ecommerce web site they will also focus on form pages. They know that customers need means to fill out forms to enquiry product information and so forth. While this is only the half of building ecommerce web sites, it is one of the most important parts of designing that the expert designers consider at the online web design Manchester services. 

Most people feel threatened by building their own web site because the codes and scripts in the programming aspects of design scare them away. Most of these people though do not have lots of money to spend on a single web site so they wait, wait, and wait until that day comes that they do have the money to hire someone to build their web site for them. You don't have to wait any longer, since the online web design Manchester services are making it easier for people to get their web site design the most cost effective way.

The online web design Manchester services are also designing with style in mind. Now you can get the web design you desire for half the cost. There is no better solution in design than having affordable and expert services combined to get you what you want. If you are ready to start building a web site now is the time to find an online web design Manchester service on the Internet. Even if you don't want an ecommerce web site, you have the choice of basic designs open to you with the UK web design services.

How to Choose the Right Web Design Company to Design Your Website?

Whether you want a new website designed for your company or are looking to re-design your website, finding the right web design company for your needs is the first and crucial step that will ultimately decide its success or failure. Unless your are an established business with an in-house Web design team the chances are that you will need to either hire a professional web designer or build the website or contract a web design company to do this for you.

Most businesses small or large do not have in-house expertise to design websites themselves and have to contract the work out to an external web design company. The importance of professionally designed website is essential. A poorly designed or an outdated website can have a negative impact on your company's brand and drive customers away to your competitors. A company's website is a window to its products and services and often the first point of contact with customers. It is vital for your website to present the right image and brand for your business.

Should you work with a Web design company or a Freelance Web designer?

Whether your website is designed by an independent contractor or a web design company you will need to consider certain issues before you make the decision. Both working with an independent web designer or a web design company have their advantages. Working with an independent web designer can be cost effective and flexible. Working with web design companies on the other hand may cost more but offers significant advantages. They are represented by a team of web designers who often possess wider skills and experience. Each member of the team will often specialise in a distinct area of website design and development, and will often be able to solve complex business issues with ease. Working with a web design company will provide your business with easy access to support as and when required or when something goes wrong.

Combining Web Design Business With Web Hosting Can Generate More Income For Web Designers

Web designers and developers are the foundation of the Internet. If you are skilled in web design or web development you can make a growing income on the Internet. The secret to making money with your web design and development skills is to include web hosting in your web design or web development quotes*or standard packages.

You can add $50 a month to your income, hosting your client sites with more ease. You don't need to get a dedicated server and you don't need to worry about trying to compete with web hosting companies. What most people think is just getting a website up. They contact the web designers first, without really knowing that there are web designers and web hosts. Terms with "web designer"get more searches per day than terms with "hosting". People are looking for web designers to get their sites on the Internet.

Web designers and developers can incorporate the sale of hosting into their web development and design projects. As a web designer you can bill your customers for the hosting fees within the design and then host the account for a year or on a month to month basis. You will be surprised at how much extra income you can generate from your web design customers.

Providing hosting for your web design clients will give you greater assurance that your customers will come back to you to make changes or update their site. This allows you to keep generating income from your work and customer base. Let's look at some numbers, and how billing for hosting on top of your web design work can make you some serious money. Let's assume you get paid $500 - $1000+ for a site design. If you charge your client for hosting as well you could generate up to $50 extra per site, per month in hosting fees. You could make up to $1100 to $1600 per site, per year instead of just $500 or $1000 per site. With 100 clients this could equate to $110,000 or $160,000 per year instead of $50,000 - $100,000 per year. On top of this, remember your client is more likely to come back to you to update and maintain your site which means more money for you, for easy work.

With a little effort and focus you could generate a very healthy income in your web design business. With tools like Joomla, WordPress and other highly customizable content management systems you can make the hard work incredibly efficient so you can focus solely on the design. Right now there are a myriad of powerful web applications, content management systems and shopping carts you can quickly install in your reseller web hosting account and produce a design for very quickly. There are also a myriad of ready to run, specialist applications written in ASP, ASP.Net and PHP that you can bolt on to your customers site, customize the design for and really impress your them. With these easily installable web applications you can very quickly impress your customers and raise the value of your web design fees - and the fact that they are specialist customized web applications you have put together, your web design customer will be happy to pay your hosting fees.

For your design business you don't need anything fancy, you don't need dedicated servers or specialists billing or server management systems. You can utilize the cost efficiencies of shared hosting to maximize your profit. One way to do it and a lot of designers do this, is get a new shared hosting account for each site they design and charge the customer more than they pay.

The better way to do it and really maximize your profit is to get a reseller hosting account where you can host all your customer sites in the one hosting account. This works out much cheaper than getting a separate account for each customer site. A good reseller account will give you far more room to move and even greater cost effectiveness which means even more profit and less effort.

Getting up and running with a good reseller hosting account is easy and incredibly affordable. For just a few hundred dollars per year you can host 50 or more sites. A quick search on reseller hosting will give you plenty to choose from. In our experience Windows hosting reseller packages are a good idea as a Windows reseller hosting account will give you the freedom and choice to run ASP, ASP.Net as well as PHP sites with MySQL or SQL Server databases. Linux hosting is incredibly efficient and gives you some of the cheap hosting options available but does not support ASP or ASP.Net applications. For an extra few dollars a month you can get Windows hosting and dramatically increase your options for your web design customers from a wider array of available web applications and freely available code in ASP and ASP.Net.

What a Professional Web Designer Should do for You

Once upon a time, a buriness could choose not to have a web site. They reasoned that they did not need a professional web site; they could do just fine without one. Then, one of their competitors decided to get a web site and a buzz was created. Not to be outdone, another competitor decided to follow suite. Then another and then another. Pretty soon customers were asking the business if they had a web site. Finally, they realized that they needed a website in order to keep up with their competitors. And so, the Internet exploded. These days, everyone has a web site. From large corporations to small businesses; families to individuals, everyone is on the Web. A friend of mine even created one for his infant child.

This article is created to speak to the few remaining businesses that have yet to tackle the Internet beast. You want to have a web presence, but it seems a daunting task. "Where do I start?" you say. "What issues will I need to address so that I make the most of my new web site?" you continue. This brief article will cover some of the areas of the webdesign process to pay particular attention to. We have designed many web sites for clients that had no idea where to start. We firmly believe that client education is a vital part of the overall success of the web project. Most professional web design companies have published some guidelines that will help potential clients answer some of their questions. It is with that in mind that we have written this article.

Why do you want a web site?

Will your web site be for personal use (just show some photographs to your family members, for example)? Will it be to advertise a business service? Will it be an informational web site, simply to pass on knowledge to the visitor? Will it be used to sell a product? Is it important that you show up #1 in Search Engines?

These are vital questions with which to begin. The answers you come up with will determine the direction in which the overall design should go.

Do you have a business logo?

If you have been in business, you may already have a logo or a trademark that your customers recognize. If that is the case, do you have the original graphic that can be emailed? It will be important to use that on your web site.

If you do not have a logo or anything by which your customers currently know you, do you have any ideas about what you might like, a sketch, a doodle or something similar? Whatever the case, usually a professional web design company can design a professional logo for you or reuse your current one.

Do you have particular colors that you want to use?

Not all colors work well on the Internet. Generally, selecting a few colors is the best path to take. Your web designer can help you select quality colors that will come together in a design that you will be proud to show off.

Have you seen web sites that you like?

Providing an example (or examples) of a site that you like is a good way to help your web designer understand the look you are after. A professional webdesign company will usually get this type of feedback from their clients. Then they will have a feel for their "taste" and can use that as a pattern for their site.

Do you have a web site domain name?

This is the actual address of the web site. It is what you will rattle off when someone asks you, "Do you have a web site?" If you do not have one registered already, your web designer can take care of that for you. Some web design companies may charge a yearly fee for this service, anywhere from $10 to $50. However, some web design companies offer this service at no charge. Make sure to ask your web design company about this upfront so that there is no confusion.

Do you know how many web pages you want for your site?

Almost all web sites have a Home page, a Contact Us page and a Links page. However, after that, you have to determine what you want features to emphasize about your business. Is it important that visitors know some history about your company? If so, you will need an "About Us" page. Do you have categories of product that you want to feature on your web site? If so, each category will have its own page. Do you want visitors to be able to fill out an order form when they are ready to buy something? If that is the case, you will need an "Order Form" page.

Your web designer will ask you about this facet of your web site, but it is good to think about this on your own before you take that step. As a rule, the more pages a web site has, the higher the cost. So choose a web design company that you are comfortable with and don't let them talk you into more pages than you really need.

Do you have graphics and photographs to use on your site?

If you have pictures to use on your site, are they in a high-quality digital format? As a rule, a scanned photograph will not look good on your website. The best pictures are ones taken with a digital camera. These can be used on the web site and formatted so that they have a professional look.

Many web design companies are able to take pictures for you. Usually, this service is an additional charge, so make sure you discuss this option.

Will you maintain the web site yourself?

If so, do you have an understanding of the Code Languages used to create your web site. Some of these languages may include:

• PHP
• HTML
• XML
• SWF

If you are comfortable with these languages, your web design company can probably setup the web site to allow you to maintain it yourself. However, most companies will not support sites in which the client has made changes to the original code. Make sure to discuss this during your initial consultation.

Some companies will create Content Management Systems (CMS). These allow their clients to update the website without having to touch the original code. With a custom CMS, if you can create a document in a Word Processing program, you can change your website content. This means you do not have to learn any programming languages and, at the same time, you do not have to call your web design company every time you want to update your site. Of course, the company you choose should always be available to assist if you get stuck. They should also be willing to e-mail you a link to show a demonstration of their custom CMS.

Hopefully, this article has given you some good guidance to follow on the path to your new web site. With some advanced preparation, you will tackle the Internet beast with no problem. The web design company you choose should be willing to supply you with a list of satisfied clients. Take the time to review the list. Contact the clients listed and ask them for their opinions of the company. This will give you some good information to help you make a good decision.

How to Find a Good Web Designer - Developer

Choosing a good web designer is not just about getting some guy to build you a good looking web site. There are many factors that can and will affect the success of your site. For you to know what qualifies as a good designer/developer you need to be educated. That is the intention of this article.

I believe that your web site development begins with a plan. A solid plan that incorporates search engine optimization,(SEO) and usability at its foundation. Building your web site in this manner will enable your SEO to be much easier with just minor tweaking and updating. At the time of this writing it is still not yet possible for search engine spiders, a.k.a: robots, to make sense of everything you have on your website.

Spiders love text. They don't read javascript and they do not have the ability to read complex flash text or images. Making sure that your entire web site including all its pages are indexed by the spiders is essential. If they can't see your pages, it may as well not be there.

So what does all this mean to you in your search for a web designer or web developer. In case you're wondering why I refer to designer and developer as if they're two different things, the fact is, is that they are.(if you want to be technical). Web designer seems to be the general term thrown about as one who makes or builds web pages. However this is usually the person who designs the physical appearance of the web site. He usually just works with images. Since there's more to building a functional web site than just pretty pictures and fancy moving graphics, it may surprise you that a web page can in fact also be a computer program, or more appropriately, a web application. This is the behind the scenes code that gives the site its intelligence, so to speak. Some web designers are only responsible for completing a physical design for your site. If they don't code in HTML or CSS, the design usually photoshop or fireworks, then goes to the coder, who actually puts it all together using html, CSS and in some instances a scripting languages like PHP, asp.net or ruby for back end programming. The end result is a web page that renders in the users browser and depending on whether some scripting was included, also allows the user to interact with the page and make choices and decisions. This is the very short version of a somewhat complex subject.

If you can keep this in mind when you go over the contract it will help you understand why the programming aspect (developing) of your site is usually pricier. Any serious web design company will have an in depth contract and should not hesitate to explain details of the contract to you.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defines standards and best practices for web design and development and you should make it a point to ask your web guy whether they will be designing your website with standards compliant code. This just means adhering to the W3C standard.

If they say that they intend designing the layout of your web page using tables, insist that they don't. For two reasons:

1. Using tables for layout is not standards compliant and could adversely impact page loading times. (not good) The more code in your page the larger the file and the larger the file the longer it takes to download.
2. Updating and maintaining web pages will be much harder, and could take longer, which may translates more being more expensive.

10 Things To Think About When Selecting A Web Designer

1. Look at the detail of the web design company's own website. This is almost always a good indication of the level of detail your new website will have. See if you can find any areas that have added level of detail, such as images with added effects. This could be rounded corners, gradient effects, colour fading etc. No matter if you do not want those design elements on your own website, it gives you information about the designers and their eye for detail and quality.

2. Know what you want. Even if you don't know the technical aspects or terms of web design, you should have a fairly good idea of what you want the end result to look like. If you leave vital parts of your website design and functionality to the web designer, you are likely to pay more than you have to. If you don't know what kind of features you could ask for, look around online at some larger websites. If you are selling products, you could try and look at ebay.com or amazon.com for some design ideas. If it works for them, it most likely will work for you.

3. Ask if a detailed quote is available. Just as with other areas of business where you have little or no idea how things are done or how long they take, it is important to get a breakdown of services that you are paying for. Are they only giving you a total price for the web services you have been discussing over the phone or email? If so, they are not giving you information that you can use to compare other web design companies with. You should ask what their hourly rate is which can help you figure out from the total cost how long it is going to take to design the website!

4. What level of support is available during and after building your website? It is very important to know how many changes you can make to your website while it is being built that are not going to cost you extra. Is the web design company giving you an option to view work in progress? How about if you change your mind on a design aspect after the website has been designed? These things need to be part of your contract before you agree to have work done. You don't want a surprise invoice for "additional requested web design work" to land in your inbox. Always be clear on what is going to be charged for and what is part of the web design package.

5. What do other clients think about the web designer? If you want to get an honest and unbiased opinion about this, there is no better way than going straight to the source! Find a previous client's contact information and send a quick email asking if it is possible to have them share some of this information with you.

6. Will your site be search engine friendly? Becoming part of major search engines such as Google and Yahoo is the inevitable next step after standard web design work has been completed. When you have a brand new website filled with information about services and products you offer, you want people to find it! Search engine optimization, or SEO as it is usually called, is an art form that takes years to master. It is a constant challenge for the web designer to keep up with ever-changing rules that the search engine companies make for who is more "important" in the search engine rankings.

The Efficiency of Professional Web Design

Generally speaking, web design is a creation of designs in the web pages of the web site. It constitutes more innovated and technical aspects with huge information. Different types of web design technologies contain the process of modeling, designing, structuring and executing the aspects which are suitable for the web site. Web designs may comes up with collections of more designs as per the ideas and plans to make the web site with more new web designs. Web design structure includes contents, files, tags, update pages, graphics and so on.

Generally, web site comprises of web designs and web designs forms major part of the web site. Today, in our competitive world, web design fetches more demand and it comes through all over the world. Web designing is the important and essential requirement for each and every website which is found in search engines. The process of web development is done by the professional, qualified web designers who possess more experience and knowledge in the field of web site designing.

Web design can be made using efficient applications, featuring CSS, HTML and many other kinds of languages. Every work made by the web designer should be compact and the web design created should be structured has it is easy approachable and easily understandable to the web searchers. When proper web designing is done for the web site, then the particular web site fetches more demand among the web searchers as well as the web designers come up with more popularity among the people.

To provide effective and competent website design to the client, professional web design firms are available in the web market for reasonable prices. Nowadays, best web design companies are available in more numbers, giving you a varied choice of hi-tech web design technologies and strategies.

In efforts to increase sales and profitability, more and more companies are turning to online marketing initiatives - specifically, search engine optimization. SEO implements the art and science of the mixture of technical and marketing into a finely tuned website that is both search engine, ranks well for certain keywords and phrases, and suits your audience a perspective buyer and seller. And, finally, you get a professionally well-crafted web site which will guide you to the world of successful business.

New Concepts In Web Designing & Web Development - Offshore Outsourcing

What is a website?

A web site usually consists of text and images. The first page of a web site is known as the Home page or Index. Some web sites use what is commonly called a Splash Page. Splash pages might include a welcome message, language or region selection, or disclaimer. Each web page within a web site is an HTML file which has its own URL.

After each web page is created, they are typically linked together using a navigation menu composed of hyperlinks. Faster browsing speeds have led to shorter attention spans and more demanding online visitors and this has resulted in less use of Splash Pages, particularly where commercial web sites are concerned.

Turning a website into an income source is a common practice for web-developers and website owners. There are several methods for creating a website business which fall into two broad categories, as defined below.

1. Content based sites

Some websites derive revenue by selling advertising space on the site

2. Product or service based sites

Some websites derive revenue by offering products or services. In the case of e-commerce websites, the products or services may be purchased at the website itself,

What makes a Successful Web Design

The Importance of Professional Web Design

Professional web design is important to your companies image. It will help your business grow, helping you to reach many other businesses and customers that may not know that you currently service their needs. A quality design is important for any company that wants to keep ahead of their competition.

Three main keys to a professional website are: Multiple-browser usability, minimized load times with the use of valid CSS, and valid HTML code that will not cause frustrated visitors to leave your website due to loading errors or prolonged load times.

Professional Web Design is your first necessary step towards Internet market and is essential for making an impactful first impression on those who visit your site. Your website should be done by web design professionals. To put it simply, what separates professional web design from poor web design is whether or not a designer or web design company takes into consideration the above items when designing and building a website. Usually, a web designer or web design company claims to offer professional web design services for their clients. However, should they be promoting "web design services" rather than "professional web design services".

Whether you are trying to establish yourself as an online presence or acquire more clientèle, the quality of your website is crucial. Successful, efficient, professional web design is not easily accomplished, though. And, you must be careful about selecting a designer because poor web design will give visitors a poor opinion of your company and your products. Forrester Research estimates that poor web design will result in the loss of 50 percent of potential repeat visits, due to an initial negative experience. A professional web designer will talk with you about your business, your customers, and your expectations, before even talking about the design of a new website. Another source of poor web design is often derived from an internal employee.

Blatant unprofessional web design shows a lack of professionalism, thoroughness and thoughtfulness in general. More often than not, poor web design is complemented by spelling mistakes, which makes it 

even easier to spot businesses that you wouldn't want to deal with. Poor web design is one of the leading causes of small business failure. One of the most glaring examples of a poorly designed website is single-browser compatibility. There are literally thousands of home-based Internet businesses struggling to make a living online and having a poor website is one of the leading causes of small business failure. However to end on a more positive note, although poor web design will almost guarantee you anonymity on the search engines, good web design will ensure that you have the best possible chance against your competitors.

What to Look For in a Web Design Program

You've decided that Web design is the career for you. You're ready to jump into the game, but you're going to need some education on how to design Web sites first. However, with literally hundreds of schools offering courses in every possible permutation - Web site design or graphic design with a focus on Web sites; certificates or full degrees - how do you decide which program meets your needs?

Skills taught in a Web Design program

Web site designers require a vast array of skills, not all of which are (or can be!) taught in the classroom. However, there are certain skills that all Web designers should know. First among these is HTML (HyperText Markup Language) code, which comprises the building blocks of the Web. All Web sites, no matter how fancy or how focused on Flash animation, consist of HTML at their core.

Although most designers now use Web editing programs such as FrontPage or Dreamweaver to design Web sites, in order to understand what is actually happening when the Web site loads, you need to know HTML. For entry-level positions, this markup language can be enough, but for more advanced positions, you should learn one or more other markup languages, such as XML (eXtended Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), as well as one or more scripting languages, such as JavaScript 

and ActiveX.

You will also need to learn the basics of making a Web site look neat and professional. Although it may seem elementary, there are a wide range of techniques involved in creating a Web site that flows well. A logical site is designed to allow the user to quickly understand the purpose of the Web site, and to easily find the information he or she needs. Although this is obviously more of an art than a science, there are many techniques that help users navigate each page within a site more effectively and quickly. As a Web 

site designer, you should be fluent in these techniques.

The Five Basic Elements of Web Design

The basic elements and principles involved in web design are true for all other types of design. These principles will show you the most effective way to put together the various design elements to come up with a good and effective site. A good company emphasizes the fact that web design is not simply about slapping all those HTML tags on the page, but it involves the use of principles to build a pleasing and useful design. Your company will need you to make the most aesthetically attractive and effective web design, so make sure you keep these elements in mind:

Balance:

Web design Balance is the equal distribution of the heavy and light elements on a singly page. Balance in your web design is concentrated in your page layout. You must achieve visual balance in your web design all throughout the page, not only in the initial view. You web design company might commonly suggest you to center the text and all the other elements on your page. It is also very common to set your page on an invisible grid system to create the balance that you need. There are three types of balance that can be achieved when designing a page.

• Symmetrical. This is achieved by placing all the elements in an even fashion - a heavy element on the left is matched with another on the right. Be careful with symmetrical balances as you do not want your site to look flat or plain boring.
• Asymmetrical. These are more challenging to build, but there are strategies to achieve this which can include the varying texture, color and image positioning and size to arrive at a pleasant looking page.
• Discordant. Symmetrical. Web sites that are off-balance suggest action or motion, so you can create a discordant design on purpose. This type of designs make viewers uncomfortable or uneasy, so they are best used for sites that are intended to make people think.

Qualifications To Become A Web Designer

To become a web designer in the UK you don't really need any formal qualifications by law in order to set up on your own and start designing websites for clients. This is both a blessing and a curse to professionals wishing to work in the web design industry. On one hand it makes it very easy for professionally skilled individuals to join a rewarding and potentially very lucrative industry. On the other hand the industry is given a bad name, confused and cheapened by cowboy web designers, who enter the industry without adequate qualifications, skills and experience.

This article outlines the qualification that you will realistically need in order to embark on a career in web design and obtain a role with a UK web design company.

Qualifications Needed:

First of all, to become a web designer one of the pre-requisite qualifications in the UK is to be higher educated. This means a minimum of a Higher National diploma (HND) in a computer or media related subject or better still, a degree from a red-brick university. I personally hold a first class honours degree (BSc) in computer science from the University of Sunderland, which I am certain allowed to get me a foot in the door of one of the leading web design companies in the Yorkshire area. Studying for such qualifications allows you to develop an awareness of the industry and allows a lot of time for self learning of software skills and web design techniques, which are critical for a career as a web designer.

Skills Needed:

Some (but not all) of the skills which you will need in order to become a web designer are:

HTML

CSS

Photoshop

SQL

ASP / PHP

Macromedia Development Packages

Flash

Of course the skills that you need will vary depending on the area of web design that you intend to pursue. Graphically oriented web designers will need strong graphic design skills such as adobe photoshop, fireworks and flash. Web Designer that are more coding oriented will need a strong command of the following skills: HTML, CSS, SQL and ASP or PHP. The latter are usually referred to as web developers rather than web designers.

Getting All Important Web Design Experience:

The time taken to achieve competence in web design technologies in my opinion is 3 years this can be coupled with the time it takes to study for a degree at a UK university. Of course formal qualifications are only a small piece of the puzzle. It is the experience gained from your first web design job that you will find most valuable.

From my own experience, I learned more from my first 6 months working in the web design industry than I did during my 3 years at university. There really is no substitute for the experience of working with a professional web design company and being able to ask experienced web designers for help and advice.

Developing A Specialism:

Over time it is definitely worth developing a web design specialism. For me it was the development of search engine optimised website. It was that particular area of web design that took my interest and the area in which I have excelled as a website designer. Becoming a specialist in a particular area will really raise your stock and will allow you to become and expert in your own particular niche.

Web Site Design and Choosing the Right Web Design Company

It's been several years since you had someone design your company web site and now it's outdated. You are losing business to competitors that have quality designed web sites with great layout and navigation. This may be your first company web site and you want to make the most of your money and time.

How do you choose a quality web design company that will understand your companies' objective for designing or redesigning this web site?

First, you need to answer a few questions.

1. What is your budget and time frame for completing the web design or redesign project?

2. Are you going to be using original content and pictures for building this web site?

3. If this is a website redesign, are you planning on getting updated images and content for this new look and layout or will you need the web design company to supply them for you?

4. Does any one at your company have basic editing skills and will they be able to update the website content or will this be an ongoing job for the web design company you hire?

5. Are you looking for a local web design company?

6. Do you already have an idea of your web design colors, layout, and navigation?

Knowing the answers to these questions, will help you when you locate the right web design company.

Now it's time to find the right web design company for your needs. Go to Google and search for local web design firms and you will see how many results show. Take "web design orlando" for example: Results 8,860,000. Wow, there are a lot of results for "web design orlando".

Don't panic, you will probably find a company that can do the quality web design work you need in the first 50 results. Quality web design firms will have a portfolio of work online that will show an example of their custom web design work. Start at the first web design result on work your way down.

Examine the portfolio to see if there is anything equivalent to the web design layout you are imagining. You will be able to tell immediately if this web design firm is right for your company and its look and feel. Find out how long they have been in the web design industry and compare that to how many quality web sites they have designed in that time. 

If this is a redesign, find out how many web site redesigns that have completed and ask to see the web site before and after the redesign.

Find out if they have the staff available to work on your entire web design needs and that they know the programming necessary to complete the job in a timely manner. Ask for references, a top end web design firm will be glad to offer up references on the web design work performed. Most web design references will be glad to talk to you about the quality job your potential web design company did on their web site.

Depending on your web design budget, it may help to several quality web design companies to talk to. You will want to get at least 3 estimates and it never hurts to have more.

Remember, when it comes to your business and your companies exposure on internet, take you time locating a quality web design company. Your future may depend on it.

Web Design-Impact Beyond Measure

Like a 'mind-boggling' yet enthralling Pablo Picasso painting, it is essential for websites to create captivating and thought-provoking material to lure an audience and, secure a solid fan base. Naturally, abstract paintings require quite a bit of out-of-the-box thinking when deciphering the artists' vision, thought and message. This is the kind of allure that a website needs to uphold so that it can become successful over time. By ensuring that users are sufficiently stimulated on a continual basis companies will eventually attain devoted subscribers. This is what every company desires, though the trick is to develop a site that is not clad with complicated design elements (which could affect usability) and bland content that'll bore browsers to tears, but to establish an effective balance.

Of course, if a website does not contain substance one cannot expect a great response or loyal following, now can you?

According to research, a website that has relevant and informative content can help to position a company as professional in view of the interested and targeted consumer. If a website can clearly and efficiently show a potential customer that the company is knowledgeable and up to date in their field of expertise, the consumer becomes confident and trusting of the services offered. Take into account that a web site is multi-functional entity that serves as a communication tool, thus it plays a central role in improving the impact and image of a brand. Consider your website a personal interaction with both current and potential consumers. Because of this very notion, even the slightest 'balls-up' can jeopardize a company's reputation. Yet, however gripping a website's content may be design elements have a dramatic, if not crucial impact and contribution to make.

There are a few prominent aspects of a website that is greatly influenced by web design. Keep in mind that web design's influence on the success of a website runs deep. These are but a few significant and fundamental elements that are magnificently affected by web design.

Usability is key

When a user punches a few keywords on a keyboard, instant and relevant information and a no fuss policy is expected. Instance coffee and fast-foods bears testament to how today's world has evolved into a fast-paced, 'I want it now' society. The Internet is certainly a result of this mindset. Life has become easier, like baking a cake from a box. Most users have a short attention span, when it comes to finding the information that they need and want. Because of this very reason, usability is a vital. As far as making content easy to find, with good web page design, a user should not have to wonder what to do next. Navigation is there for a reason and, makes thing easier and get information to the user ASAP!-which is what you want. The next step should always obvious. The easier it is for customers to find what they are looking for the likelier they'll buy or enquire.

It's like being stuck in the queue at customs at the airport, waiting for your turn to be serviced. Frustrating isn't it?

It's been noted that too often web sites are focused on looking attractive without considering the user. Many have won prestigious design awards, yet perform extremely poorly and as a result lose customers by the thousands. According to research 50% plus of online sales are lost because visitors aren't able to navigate through a website and find what they are looking for. Another factor that plays a major role is how long it takes for a website to load. Research states that it makes good sense to ensure that a website loads fast. Studies have shown that if visitor are forced to wait for more than 8-10 seconds for a page to load, clients run a serious risk of losing potential consumers.

As a rule of thumb, every single web page should load in at least 8 seconds or less, preferably on a 56k modem.

Flash has been named as a huge factor when it comes to the usability of a website. However, Flash has become a popular tool in internet marketing and is now widely used across the web. But, there can be drawbacks so it needs to be carefully determined whether or not a site will benefit from its use. One of the benefits of using Flash is the visual appeal of it. It can be used with navigation, by adding interesting visual graphics. Although, one disadvantage about using Flash is that not all internet browsers have a Flash player moreover, not all users may want to download it. Needless to say, Flash technology tends to discourage usability for very apparent reasons. Flash can cause bad design, break the Web's fundamental interaction style and it also consumes resources that would be better spent enhancing a site's core value. Approximately 99 % of the time, the presence of Flash on a website hampers the usability and distracts the attention from the site's core value and purpose.

Web Design is The Essence of Your Business

Web Design is Fun. It is undeniably a practice of design, a process by which problems are solved. For the millions of web surfers out there, your web design is their first impression of your business and your credibility. The key issue in web design is how to add value to the user's experience, how to make them feel that they truly got something out of visiting your web site. User-centered web design is all about giving the control back to the user, which brings us to the term Accessible Web Design - the art of creating webpages that are accessible to everyone regardless of any device in use. No doubt web design is important, but usability in the other hand, is king. This importance will lead you to find a professional to design your web site right. The complexity of the resulting web design is somehow determined by the goals and budget and affordability in this aspect, is in fact a reality.

Design ideas don't have to be hard to find. For you out there that have specific ideas which are ready to be implemented, you just need someone with the technical know-how to turn them into web reality. Get ideas about the latest web design trends and communications concepts by looking analytically at your competitors sites. Evaluating example products is one way to get ideas for detailed design. From these set of ideas, you can then conclude on your final approach on how you want your assigned designer to get the whole thing done.

Flash is already the Web's standard for dynamic web animation. In creating original cutting-edge design there's nothing better than using Flash Web Design. It is by far, a very versatile and popular method to add eye-catching action to your web site. Flash is also probably the trendiest technology currently used in web design. However a slow-loading web page or flash movie makes seconds seem much longer, if you happen to "overdo" it. Flash does not only associate itself with animations but also as great complimentary values to other media such as presentations, videos and audios.

When you create your own web page keep the importance of shape in mind. You don't want certain things to be in the extra large department when other items such as your text is relatively small to keep up with the overall ratio size of the presentation. Another important item to consider in your websites is the level of seduction. Yes, you read that right. If you've ever got lost in the maze of some websites, you'll know the importance of intuitive web design. Seductive websites provide users the reason to stay longer by providing good typography and by not underestimating the importance of navigation. Knowing the importance of this, you cannot afford to take a chance on any trial-and-error method. The importance of writing quality wdb content is also equally important. Nevertheless, until recently, though, a greater emphasis has been placed on the importance and overall influence of color in the field of web design.

Web design is a complex discipline that involves a wide range of skills. In fact, I'd go as far as to say, web design is information design. In my experience, web design is primarily about the business. Every new web design is the solution to a design problem that can be summed up in a series of constraint questions - Who is my audience? An extraordinary web design is mandatory to a successful business, hence the goal of web design is simply not merely to dazzle, but to deliver information to the widest audience possible. Web design is exciting, it changes day by day. These changes will reflect your company's complete product and service presentation. Web design has always been made up of some basic premises, and if you understand them you can help deliver pages that will impress and illuminate your readers. A successful Web design is paramount to a successful business.

What You Should Know About Web Design and Hosting

I recently received a call from a business in the Healing & Health industry. This person asked her web design guru for a simple addition to her web page. He refused to do it and told her to log in and do it herself! When she decided to give the web design work to me to do, he deleted her entire web site and database! Are you ever the true "owner" of a web site that you paid money to own? The people that you as a business owner trust with your entire online business, are these people worth of your trust? Your business is the one way of serving online clients, are the people behind it worthy of your trust? It is no joke to lose a web site that existed for the past 6 years and the database with all your client contact details and the people you resell to monthly!

How can business owners protect their web sites and online assets? Web designers should make a full backup copy available to every site owner on request; right after the web design is complete and online. As the web design progress, a new backup copy should be available to you. Content managed web sites or the so-called Database websites, the actual database and a backup of your normal web design should be available to you. Ask your web design person up front, even before you choose a particular designer, if the source code and web design files would be available to you.

Graphics and content for your web site 

If you as a business owner pay a person to design graphics and write up content for your web site, you are entitled to this content and in reality the owner of it. Web design Tip: Your web graphics are utilized on letterheads and business stationary - why pay another graphic designer for this - insist on the content that is rightfully yours. You own them because you paid for them.

Let us look at domain hosting. 

I have also come across very suspect hosting companies. Some hosting companies physically disable the standard functions in the control panel of their server$2C so the owner of a web site cannot log in and create web site backups! Why would they do that? Yes there are space limitations on any hosting server, however why would one keep a backup on the same server? Should the hosting server ever have a problem it would only make sense to have your web design backed up elsewhere.

Let us look at Server Reliability. 

Some hosting companies look very promising up front. The smaller company that is just entering the wild world of online advertising may find nothing wrong with his hosting company. Now it gets to a point where the business would like to start selling online and promote his services through having an online blog and a bigger better web site is required. Therefore, he pays the regular web design person to do the web design and host it where it was all the time... The business and site gains hacker attention and is down three out of five days! Make very sure your server is secure. If you have to, get your web design done and host it on a server for a probation period. If you are not happy, use your backup copy of your web design and get a reputable hosting company to move the web site for you.

Always think of the future 

It is very unpleasant and unprofessional to have online clients get to your business web site and it is offline. Error pages drive visitors away and 90% of them will not return as they start to fear that your web site is not trustworthy to open on their computers. Everybody by now knows that often we get lead to suspicious web sites through e-mails. I personally recommend rather paying a little more for a lot more in future by hosting with a reputable company. 

Support Does the hosting and web design company provide you with a phone number so that you can call them when you have a problem? Do you have to talk to a server through e-mail with hardly any human intervention? I have found that when hosting companies provide you with a phone number to talk to a real person, they more then likely have the structure in place to provide you the excellent service that you need for something as important as your business web site.

Web Designers

At the risk of simply stating the obvious, web designers design websites.

However, even a brief surf round the web shows that not all websites are the same (or as effective) and, by implication, not all web designers create websites in the same way. Whether websites are good, bad or indifferent, web designers have a huge responsibility for the ultimate success (or failure) of any website.

How Do Web Designers Design Websites?

The first thing that a professional web designer should try to do is to understand the client's exact requirements. Entering a few basic search terms for a client into a search engine should give an indication of the current state of the client's web presence and might trigger some obvious questions that the web designer should ask the client.

The client's answers to the following questions can be helpful to the web designer:

- Is a new website required or does an existing website need to be redeveloped?

- Is an e-commerce website or an information only site required?

- What products or services does the company or organisation provide?

- What is the client's target audience?

- Does the client have demographic information about the target audience?

- What information is to be provided via the website?

- How does the client use logos and branding?

- What competition does the client face from other websites?

- How will the website be updated and maintained?

Web Design Companies - How To Choose The Right One For Your Business

Your website is your company's calling card on the internet so you need to have one you're proud of and does the job it's meant to, and offer pleasant viewing for your browsers which can only be achieved with quality web development. That means getting a professional web development company to develop your site and create web based solutions for your business. But before approaching a web design company, you should clarify your requirements. Here's how you do it.

Firstly, you must establish your goals. What's the purpose of your web site? Are you selling products, displaying your portfolio, announcing your services? What do you want your visitors to do? Put yourself in your visitor's shoes. What do they expect to find at your website?

Next you have to set your budget. Having these figures in hand at the beginning can help in your negotiation with the web design companies. But don't reveal your budget. Always get quotes based on your needs first. The first thing you would probably do if you live in Liverpool is, go to Google and search for web ddsign companies in Liverpool. Take the advantage of the global reach of the internet and search for web design agencies in UK. Also take into considerations if you have any technical staff you employ, would you need to do the maintenance of the sites yourself? If you do not have the staff, then web based solutions could be the right option for your web development, which are offered by many web design agencies in the UK, how would you find these companies? Just do a quick search in Google for web design agencies UK and it should bring up a long list of web design agencies in the UK. But then it is down to you to single out the right company for your web development needs. However, you could do a more specific search for certain areas like web design companies in Manchester, which would be more local so you can go to see your web development company when you may need to. Web design companies in London would tend to be more expensive compared to the rest of the country

How To Identify Fake Web Designers -- And Choose A Real One

Like going on a blind date, choosing the right web designer can be an adventure fraught with false hope.

Unlike a big corporation, a small business generally has a tight budget--especially when it comes to advertising and promotion--to engage a big web design agency to serve their online marketing needs.

With the understanding that a cheap-looking website is not the best way to represent your business--or that you do not have unlimited funds to throw at web designers on the off-chance that you'll get something that resembles what you want--there exist good small design studios and professional freelance web designers with reasonable rates, fortunately.

Here are some tips on how to choose the right one to meet your small business needs.

Identify the Fake Web Designers

Check out their portfolio!

Do they look professional? Is the style of the designer something you would like to have on your own site? Are they logical, easy to use, and provide what's needed to help customers achieve their (and the clients') goals/ That means that a lot of business development has gone into them.

Web Designers vs Web Programmers

There are many web designers who are actually programmers who know little, if at all, about design. They use templates that are created by other professional designers. Unfortunately, templates aren't customized to your unique business.

Moreover, with advances in software applications, it is easier than ever to create and build a website. These software can help anyone build a website without knowing a thing. However, there is a distinct difference between creating and designing one.

Design, be it web or print, is about communication. Without the necessary design knowledge how could the programmers do an effective job communicating with your prospective customers?

How Can Good Design Help Your Business

Design is about you--what you know, what you see, and what you have to say. Behind every design is a vision, a purpose, a reason to be. Web design is not about decoration but communication; about making your words and vision visible, giving it form and body for all the world to see.

While the sales copy of your website remains vital for the effective selling of your products or services, the use of typography, color, graphics and layout help lead your prospects read and navigate your website.

This makes your page a pleasure to read and increases their overall user-experience.

A professional, well-designed website has been proven to increase sales!

Web Design Process

The web design process is also a matter of planning, what to include and what to exclude, good design, appealing text, how to sell, what business plan to follow, and more.

Like any other marketing medium, it requires a lot of work by individuals who understand what visitors and the search engines like to see: properly organized text. Combining a nice layout with SEO isn't easy, make sure the designer understands both the human and search components.

The result is pages that perform well for visitors and rank high for specific keywords.

No doubt, there are many who can turn out professional websites, but few who will volunteer to spend dozens of hours consulting with a client, designing a clear and unconfusing website, and sweating over ad copy, pictures and all the major and minor details -- in essence, creating a online marketing vdhicle.

Online Marketing

The number one mistake that most first time web site owners make is that they don't know what to do with their site after it's designed. It is very possible to have a beautiful site designed for you and no one ever sees it.

A website is merely another means of marketing your products or services. With hundreds, if not thousands, of websites sprouting out everyday, competition is fierce. Having a "web presence" for your business has virtually become an understatement.

A good designer will not only help you create a professional looking site, they will also ensure that your site gets a good ranking with the search engines so that your site can be easily found online. Make sure that your designer will optimize your site for the search engines and submit it to the major search engines. Your website need to rank reasonably well in search engines.

Web Design Prices and Costs - How to Get A Fair Web Design Quote

If you're looking at commissioning a web designer to build you a website, one of the first things that you will need to know, is the monetary cost. This article will explain to you why there is such a huge variance between web designers and their quotes and will give you some advice as to how much you can expect to pay to contract a competent web designer in the UK.

First of all you have to have a rough idea of what it is that you want from your website. You have to have thought of what you want to achieve with the website. What are its objectives? You will then need to have thought of a basic structure for your website. There are many website examples out there for you to have a look at; the important thing is to have an idea about what structure you want for the site - meaning a rough outline of the numbers of pages and the content (text and images) that will make up each page.

Once you have your project objectives in mind and a rough idea of your websites structure you are in a position to start contacting suppliers. There are multitudes of web design companies everywhere and in our particular area of the UK - Doncaster there are lots of web design companies to choose from. The key thing to remember is that everyone wants your business. The web design marketplace is completely saturated so you as the buyer have the upper hand!

As in all other industries there are people who provide excellent service, there are people who provide an average service and there are also cowboys (people who sell web design services without the necessary knowledge and experience to do so).

What you have to think to yourself is this: If a person promises me the earth for £1 does that mean to say that they can deliver it? The best advice I can give is to be realistic. There are lots of really good city based web design companies throughout the UK that provide excellent services. They are always there to take your calls and you even get your own personal account manager to handle your requests and hold your hand through the entire web design process. The services of such companies are wonderful but this obviously comes at a price. City based offices, account managers and admin staff are large overheads and the prices charged by large city based web design companies reflect this. If you have a modestly sized website, which needs to be under content management system control, don't be surprised if the web design quote runs into tens of thousands of pounds from a major city based web design company. If you are looking for a top quality 100% inclusive, comprehensive service and your company can afford this kind of bill then I would suggest using a big city company every time.

Don't Get Burned By Web Designers

If you bring up the subject of web design with small business people, it wouldn't take long to find someone who has been burned by a web designer. Perhaps they have even come to the conclusion that a web site is not worth the expense. Let's look at how and why that happens, and outline some success principles that will help you when you need web design services. Since so many web designers get it wrong, the web design principles that actually work may surprise you.

One of the problems with web design is that software programs have made it seem easy to create a web site. If you have the software, it would not take you long to build a web site. There are an abundance of inexpensive templates available to make it even easier to put together a web site. Getting a professional looking web site is not difficult at all. So you may wonder, why is that a problem?

The process of creating a web site does not end with making it look professional. In fact, that could very well be one of the least important aspects of a web site design. Let's face it, there are ugly web sites that make a lot of money. Since life is not fair, there are great looking web sites that make little or no money. I'm not saying the professionalism of your web site is not important; I am saying it's not enough.

There is a serious flaw in the web design industry, and small business owners are especially prone to fall victim to it. The problem is that usually, very little business planning goes into a web site design. Too many web designers are more concerned with selling web design than taking the time to build an effective web site.

This deficiency stems from the fact that very few web designers are marketing people. Small business people do not have big advertising budgets, so they are easily attracted to the low rates of average web designers. Good marketing means setting priorities and effectively using your resources to accomplish goals.

The one element I find seriously missing in web design is the very thing that is fundamentally important; that element is uniqueness. A Unique Selling Point (USP) is one of the basic tenets of marketing. You must answer the questions: why should I buy from you, and, what makes you different from my other choices? If you fail in this area, your web site visitor will not be kind to you. They will leave and not come back; they will probably not tell you why they left either.

Is Your Web Designer Ripping You Off?

Nobody likes being ripped off - especially if they're in business.

Yet most businesses are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to their web designer for shoddy, substandard work. Are you?

Luckily, there's a quick and easy way to find out.

Go to:http://validator.w3.org, type in your website address and click on the "Check" button.

If the page you see says "failed validation" in red writing, you might need to speak to your web designer - especially if there are more than a handful of errors.

Is your web designer one of the cowboys?

Unless you own a cattle ranch, you probably don't want to employ cowboys. You certainly wouldn't put up with substandard work from a builder or electrician, would you? What about an accountant that didn't understand tax laws, would you want them handing your finances?

Well, most web designers produce websites that are shoddy and substandard - and worst of all they don't even know it.

How can I tell if my site isn't up to standard?

Many professions and industries have standards. With some professions, like medicine or law, you need a qualification before you even start doing it. Other industries, like food processing or construction, aren't so strict about academic qualifications, but they do have standards that have to be met - like health and safety or food hygiene standards.

There's no academic qualification you need in order to become a web designer. All you need is a computer with internet access and the confidence (or in some cases arrogance) to call yourself a web designer.

However, although many people (and most web designers) don't know it - there are standards for websites.

What's more - it's really easy to test your website to see if it's up to standard. All you need to do is visit a website (http://validator.w3.org/) and you can test your site.