Monday, May 9, 2011

Website Redesign: The 5 Biggest Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

My hairdresser told me that the customer earlier in the day had such a bad experience at another salon that was wearing a wig to her appointment. Below, her hair color was observed and the hair itself was coming out in clumps. The client was horrified and incredulous that her blow again and it was all over her time to calm down and try to repair some damage.


As a freelance web developer, I often feel I'm watching the equivalent of web design experience. So many companies, especially SMEs, are duped into buying a web design and CMS (Content Management System) packages that are expensive and do not fit their business. Others pay top dollar for the design and then find out that it is not feasible on the web.


You may think that sounds like a gift reliable web developer like me, who then gets a job, but I do not like. It makes people distrustful of the industry and small and medium enterprises despair seems that they do not understand your website or how to make it work for their business. This is not good for my business. So, here are my top tips: five pitfalls to avoid when considering a web site design or redesign of the web

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1) the budget, budget, budget


During the process of designing and developing your website, there will inevitably be some to-ing and fro-ing between you and your web developer to do things the way you want them. When you ask a developer to bid for the project, make sure you get a quote broken down into specifics. Find out exactly what is included in the quote and whether it is a flat fee or hourly rate. What happens if exceeding the project site? Enabled web hosting? What is Search Engine Optimization? Ongoing maintenance?


Any web developer or web design company is different, but once you have your quote, get a second and a third from other sources, just to make sure it comes true for web development you want done. There is no harm in letting web developer knows that you are getting a second read: it will mean that you get the most competitive prices or package

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2) Determine that the end product should be valid HTML


web developer or web development company you choose should be able to produce code, run it through HTML and CSS validators and show you the results. Many graphic designers who also claim to produce web pages work in Photoshop, so they produce an image is not code. Other developers use Flash, which will look very nice, but it will be completely unreadable to Google and will not work on all browsers on some of the iPhone. It's a bad idea to overuse of images or Flash to your website, because they damage your Google ranking.


If you have a graphic designer who will produce images that then be translated into HTML, that's fine, but be aware that the cost will increase as other professionals will be required.


3) Ask for a built-in Content Management System (CMS)


So many web designers and developers offer a CMS as the standard that it should not be adding to your account to make this request. Content Management means that you will be able to update your site to meet your needs in the future. This is especially important for blogs and news pages you will need to be up-to-date.


4) Ask what measures the company uses to provide you a good place to Google and Bing


In other words, Search Engine Optimization investigate. Until now, one of the best ways to do this without even having to pay a web developer at Google is probably the key words for their site and see if you can find them. If they can not optimize your own web site, you trust them to improve your?


Keep in mind that SEO is a game of two halves. The first is the page of your website must be designed so that the content works for you, not against you. Here are the biggest reasons for using pictures and Flash (see above), but it's worth CSS and clean HTML and site structure are also important. Your website designer must ensure that your text content is relevant to your keywords, which are heading the right size may point out the right keywords and images that are properly marked for text readers, to name just a few SEO design considerations.


the second phase of the SEO happens once the site is up and running and it primarily involves promoting your website through other websites, social media, etc. This part of SEO can be within your control and authority as the owner of the company, but if wondering, web development company to do it for you as well, ask for proof of previous success and get a list of bulleted action web developer happens to be the name of your website.


5) Take ownership of


When you agree on a price for the redesigned Web site, to determine whether or not purchasing the copyrights to the design as well. Will the web developer want to backlink to their site and that is wrong with you? If bespoke features (eg customized web hosting, CMS, SEO tools) is used, do you tie this to buy a certain product or service from a web design company in the future?


Keep in mind that you may want to change things around in the future, so keep things as flexible as possible. There are many open source programs out there that will help you maintain your independence, so you can keep costs low.


There is, of course, the thread that runs through all of this advice. Employing a web developer you can trust and establish a good working relationship in which both parties can be expected to be met.

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