Why you Need Professional Web Design Company to Build your Website?
Many people, especially those who are running small businesses, prefer to do their own web design work instead of hiring a company in order to save money. So in case you need a website… should you go for a web design company or should you use your friend, who is in his second year in college, getting an IT degree and calming that for $300 and less than 2 weeks can build everything you may need?
Well…It depends a lot on how you perceive the importance of your website. Why do you need a website in the first place and how seriously you take your business is the other question.
For the success of your online presence it is very important how your website is designed, and how the information on your website is organized. X Style Studio’s designers and web developers are progressive and passionate about every aspect of the industry. We use the latest programming and graphic design techniques to keep your company on the cutting edge. Whether you are looking to communicate with potential clients, expand your on-line presence or generate sales, X Style Studio will provide the solution that more than meets your expectations.
Having already designed, developed, and deployed multiple professional websites, our team can bring you experience that you can never attain designing your own website. X Style Studio can offer you a complete package of services: from online brochures to customized Content Management and e-commerce website applications. Our talented team of designers, programmers and usability analysts use the latest techniques to create your custom needs. Our attractive and professional web designs will help you reach new markets and find new customers for your business.
Search engine optimization — SEO — is another ineluctable aspect that you can never ignore if you intend to get targeted traffic from search engines and only an experienced web design company knows how to create and develop search engines optimized websites.
At the end, it is really up to you whether you want to hire a web design company or you want to create your website on your own, however it is always advised that you consult wilt professional designers before you make your choice.
We have the answers you are looking for… Conant us for a quote!
10 Important Steps in Designing Your Website
Designing a website is a simple as well as a complicated exercise; it all depends on what sort of website you’re looking for. If it is a simple five-page website intended to showcase a very small business you can quickly fire up a free webpage creator, create a website and the navigation system and quickly upload the files to the remote server. Thousands of people are doing this on a daily basis.
Professionally designed websites, on the other hand, go through a strenuous procedure to make sure that every part of the website contributes towards the bigger objective of the website because when large investments are made and huge revenues are expected even small things can create big shadows. That’s why before getting down to designing a website — whether you are an amateur quickly designing a website for you small business or you are a Web design company creating professional Web designs — you need to follow time-tested procedures. Below I will quickly discuss 10 steps to designing your website.
1. Planning: Planning helps you make a list of what you want and what you don’t want. It also helps you set your priorities straight so that you know where you have to go regarding the design of your website. While you are drawing the plan you will need to figure out what sort of audience you are going to target and for what search engines you will be optimizing your code. This depends a lot on what you are going to promote from your website. Planning will also let you know what sort of development platform you require for your website and what budget you will need for it.
2. Domain name: Your domain name should be commensurate with either the name of your website or the kind of service or product you are going to promote through it. Many people prefer to register a domain name representing their business instead of some esoteric name. For instance if you provide Web design services it is preferred that the phrase “Web design” appears some way or another in your domain name. After registering your domain name — if you are using a third-party server — you will need to change the name servers. The name servers will be provided to you by the hosting company.
3. Web hosting: Although you will need hosting when you have completely designed your website it is good to arrange hosting service beforehand because then you can keep testing the various pages that you design. Also once you decide to host your domain on a hosting server, when you change the name servers it will take anywhere between 48 to 72 hours to propagate the information over the Internet.
4. Website design structure: Before designing your website it is advisable that you create a design structure using some graphic tool. This way you will be able to create a visual image of how your website is eventually going to turn out. This will also help you organize your information according to the layout that you have in your mind.
5. Design and development: Once you have the structure, you can start creating the design of your website. You can either use some GUI or you can learn a bit of HTML and hand-code the layout. You can also use some free blogging or content management system software to create various pages. In fact once you have the basic layout you should apply that layout throughout the website and this can be achieved using CSS Web designing techniques. If you require some server side or client side coding you can do it in this planning phase.
6. Uploading the website: You need to upload your website to the remote host once you have completed designing it. You can use any of the freely available FTP clients to upload the complete website. You will need to get the FTP address from the hosting company.
7. Testing and debugging: No matter how smug you feel about your website the real test will occur when you have uploaded it. If there are some problems in the design that you’ve created or the code that you have written you can remove the creases here. Problems may crop up because there might be a different design and development environment on your PC and there could be a completely different environment on the hosting server.
8. Spelling and grammar checks: I am suggesting this check after you have uploaded your website because you may need help from someone else and once you have uploaded the website it is easier to access all the pages from anywhere in the world and hence anybody can conduct the spelling and grammar checks.
9. Browser compatibility: The compatibility issues with different browsers can be a big headache if you are not aware of them. Sometimes web designs don’t look similar in various browsers. For instance a website may look stunning in Firefox, very mediocre in Opera, and totally collapse in Internet Explorer. You’ll either need to carry out some workarounds or leave the features that are causing the conflict.
10. Backup: Having a backup is as important as uploading the website because by mistake if you spoil your new design or the server crashes all your hard work will go down the drain. So never rely on the backup facility provided by the hosting company; always have your own backup.
Communicating with Clients
All graphic and web design begins with the client’s need to communicate a message to a receiver. It is the responsibility of the graphic/web designer to interview the client to determine the parameters of the message. The graphic designer plans the method of communication (design) by defining the needs of the client. The designer-client understanding is the most crucial step in the success of the communication process.
What is the goal of the communication?
• Selling, informing, marketing, entertaining, etc.
Who is to be the receiver of the communication?
• The audience: age, gender, education, business, etc.
Are there specific typestyles required for the piece?
• Determine if the type font is: supplied by the client for application on PC or MAC computers.
Is the Video/Images files available on disk?
• Determine if all media information can be supplied by the client
Are specific guidelines required for use of the logo or corporate identity elements?
• Determine if the logo is: supplied by the client, digital or hard copy, and is defined in a corporate identity manual.
Is there a specific style required for the piece?
• Determine if the style is: formal or informal, part of a series, or a new look.
Can the client provide samples of work?
• Determine if the samples are: from the current company, from the client’s competitor, successful or unsuccessful attempts to communicate, etc.
Are there any other style considerations not yet mentioned?
• This question may be left open-ended, to encourage the client to review their perspective of the piece.
What clients should provide their designer
I find checklists can be very useful, so I’ve prepared a checklist of things that clients should provide their designer at the outset. To follow this list will ensure the client and designer are dealing professionally as well as creating an efficient work flow.
The original article and more resources and information can be found here:
http://www.traceygrady.com/design-checklist-what-clients-should-provide-their-designer
A budget
Knowing the client’s budget allows the designer to establish what they will be able to realistically achieve for the money, and to perhaps suggest a range of options.
A complete list of the client’s design requirements
The client must make clear at the beginning just how much design work they will require, e.g. layout for a business card, letterhead and envelopes OR logo design plus web design plus email marketing template. Occasionally unexpected new design needs emerge for the client when a job is well underway, but any “extras” which are requested after work has commenced will involve more time and money, and should be bound by a new contract.
I once had a prospective client say “We don’t know yet how many layouts we want, so can you just give us a rough quote estimate in the meantime?” How can a designer quote on an unknown quantity or scale of work? That would be like asking an architect to quote for designing your house but not telling him how many rooms you want. It’s impossible.
A clear outline of why the design work is necessary and what the client expects to achieve
Whether it’s a print campaign, posters for a conference stall or a multimedia presentation, every design job involves a goal to be fulfilled. It’s good for the client to think through precisely what that goal is when preparing to meet with the designer. Equally, it’s important for the designer to ask questions about the client’s objectives, because the designer’s job is primarily about meeting the client’s needs.
An outline of who the target market or audience is for the design work
This is very important information which will guide a designer in all aspects of the work they do. An advertisement or poster aimed at teenage boys will look vastly different to one designed to catch the attention of their parents. Look at a well-designed promotional campaign and you will easily be able to tell who it has been designed for. A client who has a detailed understanding of their target market will get the design which best suits their needs.
A deadline
Even if the work isn’t urgent, a deadline is important for effective time management. Unless the scale of the design work is small, it may be useful for the client and the designer to negotiate a series of deadlines for stages of work.
High quality images
If the client has an existing logo to be used in the design work, it should be provided in vector format. The most common vector formats are Postscript (.eps) and Illustrator (.ai). A vector format allows the logo to be made bigger or smaller without losing image quality and clarity. A .jpg file is not a vector format and may not represent a client’s logo at its best, depending on its size.
Any photographs provided by the client should have a high resolution. The best resolution for photographs is 300dpi (dots per inch). I always recommend this to my clients even if the photographs will go on the web. Although the final photo will be published on the web at the lower resolution of 72dpi, I prefer a higher resolution to begin with. This enables me to better optimise any photographs (where necessary) and there is greater scope for resizing.
Images and text in their final form
Any text, photographs, illustrations or other material provided by the client should be given to the designer before work commences. It can be a drain on time and resources if a designer is left waiting for these things halfway through a project. All materials provided by the client should be in their final form with no future revisions necessary. Any changes which have to be made after the design work has been done will cost time and money.
Ownership info for third party images and text
When the client is providing images or text sourced from someone else, it’s crucial to also provide information on the legal permissions which have been obtained for the use of the material (if any are required). If attribution is required, the details should be provided to the designer before any work commences. This also applies for any other material (e.g. music or video) obtained from a third party.
Samples of previous design work (where applicable)
If a client has a seasonal marketing campaign, or their corporate identity needs to be revised, it will help to provide past design samples to the current designer. It’s useful to discuss what worked or didn’t work for the client last time, particularly in terms of customer/audience response or the direction which the client and/or their organization wishes to take in future.
The original article and more resources and information can be found here:
http://www.traceygrady.com/design-checklist-what-clients-should-provide-their-designer
Search Engines Optimization – Paid Vs. Natural Search
When people become involved in Internet marketing one of the things that comes up are the differences between natural and paid search. Both strategies have their pros and cons and can be very effective as part of a marketing strategy.
Paid search is when your ad shows up at the top of a Google search or along the right-hand side of the results page. These are called ’sponsored ads’ and are paid positions. Every you click on one of those ads the owner of the ad pays Google. This is also known “pay-per-click” advertising. The amount you pay is determined by several factors, including what you’re willing to pay every time someone clicks on your ad.
Natural Search is when you type in a keyword. Links and descriptions shows up on the left-hand side of the search result page. You wind up on the first page by having relevant content on your Web site and links to your site from other relevant sites. Getting to page one can be a long process. There are many companies that claim to be able to get you on the first page of Google. That may be true if the search term is very specific and no one else would ever search for it but you or if they’re using a “black hat” method that could get your site banned from the search engine.
Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and BIng are really just databases. When you do a Google Search you’re not searching the Web, you’re searching Google’s database. There are two ways to get into these databases. One is to submit your site to the different search engines. In 6 to 9 weeks the search engine will index your site. They capture key elements from the code on your page and your content. These are then stored in the database. When a user types a keyword into a search engine the algorithms determine the which links should be displayed as a result of your search.
The other way to get added to the search engines data base is to have the search engine software find you through a link to your site from another Web site back to yours. The software, known as “spiders,” will periodically “crawl” your site to see if you’ve updated it.
One important thing to know is that each page on your site is indexed individually and each page stands on its own. The rankings are based upon the combination of correct meta tags, relevant content to the keyword they’re trying to get rankings for and link popularity.
As long as the search engine can index the site, clearly read the meta tags and content, the better. An issue is when a site is built using Flash and little content (search engines cannot read or index “Flash” sites). Also, if the bulk of the relevant content is in PDF format, search engines cannot read the documents. If the search engines cannot index the relevant text there won’t be any rankings.
The bottom line is this – paid search means you pay for your position. The benefit is if you have the funds you’ll get instant traffic. Stop paying and the traffic dries up quickly. Natural search is free traffic but it’s built over time. The advantage is that if done right, it can provide visitors for a long time to come.
Article Credit: webreference.com/promotion/natural_paid/
Small Businesses – Why you need a website
1. Your Competition Has a Website. If you are in direct competition with another business that has a website, they have a clear advantage!
2. Deliver Significant Information. More than ever before, people are turning away from traditional means of finding information and looking online.
3. Improve Customer Confidence. With a professional website, your business will instill customer confidence and will greatly improve your overall image.
4. 39% higher revenue – Small Businesses Have Higher Revenue. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses that have websites are averaging $1.07 million per year in sales more than small businesses not online. That equates to 39% higher revenue.
5. 217 Million People. That’s a lot of people. In fact, it is the number of Americans that regularly use the Internet. Of those, 43.7 million use broadband. Worldwide Internet usage is one billion.
6. Establish More Customers. According to the Small Business Administration, 50% of Internet sales are from new customers. Having a website will significantly improve your customer reach no matter what services or products you are offering.
7. Not Just Local – Global. Most small businesses are only able to market to their town and surrounding communities. With a website, you can take your goods and services across America and around the world.
10 Most Talked about Logos of 2010
I find the Logo of a company to be the single most important peace of it identity… With corporate awareness on brand identity value increasing day by day, logo designs are hard to be missed. Each year we see tons of new and fresh logos evolve, conglomerates and mergers taking place and numerous logo redesigns happening.
Some designs are regarded as the best logos of the year while several face severe censure from the design community. Some of them are criticized for their exorbitant logo prices, while others are refuted on visual grounds. Following is a list of 10 most talked about logos of 2010.
Check the full article I found on logoguru.co.uk…
The New Rules of Website Design, Usability and Revenue
I was just browsing the internet and found this great article form Website Magazine:
Your website can be your business’ greatest asset or its biggest liability, depending on how well you understand the relationship between visual aesthetics, usability and sales. Digital marketing leader OneUpWeb has released a new study that breaks down the keys to success in today’s ultra-competitive environment.
The white paper, Revolutionizing Website Design: The New Rules of Usability, reveals the new standards in website form and function and shows how they directly affect sales. To identify the formula for building balanced websites that deliver maximum returns, OneUpWeb evaluated 100 sites across four different industries: e-commerce, business-to-business, travel and hospitality, and higher education.
full story, you can find here:
http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2010/06/16/the-new-rules-of-website-design-usability-and-sales.aspx
