Web Site Design

Too many web sites are undertaken by those with little knowledge of the elements required to build an effective web site. It takes a lot more than a software program or hosted web interface with canned layouts to make a good web site. These sites look terrible, are difficult to navigate and bring little if any traffic. They are eventually abandoned and restarted from scratch.

It is important to remember that a "good" web site means different things to different people, depending upon many factors. However, many common elements are required in order to build a web site correctly.

Careful planning is the key factor in accomplishing your goals. Even before that first page is laid out, you should have a very good idea of what you want your web site to accomplish, who your targeted visitors will be and what kind of information will be included on the site. How are you going to arrange the topics and subtopics of your site? We like to encourage the Customer to define the requirements of the site including:

1. Expectations of the site
2. The look and personality of the site
3. What products and/or services are to be included.

It’s a good idea to first sketch out your pages on paper and/or create a flow chart.

Your site should include:

• Good Visual Design - This starts with the owner defining goals along with the look and feel of the web site. Your Company or Corporate image should be translated to your web site. A good graphics designer can then create a compatible page or site layout.
• Good Technical Design - The site should be fast, intuitive, simple, easy to use and informative. A good balance of information and appealing visual elements is best. The structure should conform to currently acceptable industry standards. Sometimes, special custom modules must be created at the server to make your web site function the way you need it to work. We have a wide variety of programming skills available including HTML, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX, Flash, Actionscript, PHP, ASP, Java, Coldfusion, MySQL, XML, ECommerce, and CMS.
• Strong, Relevant Content - The source of this information is generally taken from existing Company documents, literature and previous ad campaigns.
• Assembly of Web Pages - This is perhaps the easiest step in creating your web site, although a good web page builder will often provide critical feedback about technical concerns or usability of the web site. Another overlooked aspect of many web builders is the failure to ensure that the web site is compatible with the many browsers and computer configurations in use. Have you ever visited a web site and found that the page is not displayed correctly? We develop and test your pages to work with all browsers so that your visitors will see the pages as you intended.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - This is what makes or breaks a site in attracting visitors. Without having your web site ‘search engine enabled’, minimal traffic will result and the site becomes a waste of time and money instead of a a valuable sales tool. One way to overcome this is by subscribing to paid advertising. This does work, but is a short term fix and can be very costly. Once started, you are locked in to advertising, because as soon as the ads stop, so does your traffic. A more cost effective and long term solution is SEO. This should not be an after-thought. The elements of SEO are best integrated into the pages as they are being developed. It is very time consuming and expensive to go back at a later date and attempt to work this into the site. This is a difficult task and the least understood of all the phases of development. Most web sites fall very short of accomplishing this or don't even consider it.
• Salesmanship - Once you have gained the interest of the visitor, you must encourage them to do business with you.
• Feedback - You should be willing to accept customer feedback.

With over 100 web sites to our credit, we have the experience to get your web site developed and published so you can begin to increase your sales.

We use the resources of graphics designers, programmers, SEO consultants and other dedicated, experienced specialists to build your site to your requirements.

Contact us today for a free consultation on how we can help you put together a great web site.
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