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Having a website to promote your small business online is almost a must in today’s society. Some potential customers won’t even consider a company or business without checking their website first. By creating and developing a strong online presence to promote your business, you will look more up to date, more professional, more accessible (customers love convenience), and you will reach a much wider market, thereby growing your business.
Naturally, because having your own website is so beneficial to the success of your business, you’ll need to consider website design. The specific design and look of your website is paramount. It’s not enough just to have a website—you’ll need one that looks attractive, professional, is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and provides well-written, helpful, and appropriate information. Potential customers only give a website seconds to determine if they have that they are looking for so the layout and design of your homepage can actually make or break a sale.
But what if you don’t know the first thing about website design? Don’t worry, as this is fairly common. Just because you’re a small business owner doesn’t necessarily mean that you must be equipped with website design knowledge. In fact, for many business owners, the opposite is true. You have a number of options with respect to website design for your business: learn to do it yourself (create your own website), get a friend or family member to do it for you, or hire a professional web designer to create your site. Each option has its own distinct advantages and drawbacks.
Do It Yourself
If you already have some knowledge and skills in website design, then this option is easily your best bet for creating and developing a site for your business. It will be fairly quick and simple for you, fun, and it will save you a lot of money. However, even if you don’t know much (or anything) about website design, this option is still advantageous in that it does save money, and in the end you will get some quality education out of it: learning some basic website design skills, which is sure to come in handy in the future.
The major downside is that site design is quite time-consuming, particularly if you have no background in website design. A professional programmer with require four to eight weeks to develop a custom designed website and without experience it could take much longer without the help of online html editors. Luckily, most of today’s web programs have built in “site builders” which allow users with only rudimentary knowledge of how websites work build a professional looking website in very little time.
Using a Friend or Family
If you know somebody (a friend, family member, neighbor, or co-worker) who would be willing to design your website for you for a small fee or even free (to develop their portfolio, give them some practice, and create more experience) this may seem to be an attractive option. In fact, it can be very attractive, seeing as it saves you both time and money. However, keep in mind that if your acquaintance isn’t a professional and is still developing skills, your site may not look very professional, it may not be what you had envisioned, it may have quirks and flaws that you won’t know how to fix, and maintenance and updating may prove to be a challenge from your end. It could also take a lot longer than you had anticipated, as well, especially if the designer isn’t being paid. However, if your friend or relative happens to be an actual website design professional, then by all means, put them to the task if they’re willing. Offer them some compensation, of course, but expect to pay significantly less than you would with a professional you don’t know personally.
Professional Site Designers
Hiring a professional website designer or company is certainly the most expensive option, but this is also the option that will definitely give you the most professional-looking and top-quality website—which is what you need in order to attract customers, make sales, and make your business boom. In addition, this option will also save you the most time, so if you’re in a bit of a hurry to get a professionally crafted website developed, then hiring a professional is definitely the way to go. In your search for the right person or company for the job, make sure they are able to help with most of the following aspects of web design: domain registration, hosting, the actual design, ecommerce, credit card payment structure, security, marketing, copywriting, and maintenance/upgrades.
Many business owners don’t know where to look for professional website design help. One option is outsourcing your IT. There are many different outsourcing companies and websites you can visit to help you with your website design needs. On these sites you can find many professional web design professionals and companies that will be able to do your job for you. Two notable and well-known outsourcing sites are Elance and RentACoder .
Tips for Good Design
Whether you do it yourself, get a friend to help you, or hire out professionally, there are a number of important “dos and don’ts” with respect to website design and business growth you need to follow.
Your Should:
· make important items as clear and obvious to your visitors as possible
· design your text, paragraphs and fount for easy readability
· be generous with information and keyword rich details
· use the “ALT” tags on all major images and graphics to provide alternate text
· test your site as your visitors will see it
· be “backward compatible” for visitors with less colors and lower resolutions
You Should Not:
· use a busy background
· overwhelm visitors with too many colors, graphics, animations, or images
· use too many CAPS, bold, or italics in text
· make text files and graphic files too big
· use images, icons, and graphics that look like buttons if they aren’t buttons
· use random music playing in the background
· have only a high bandwidth, flash only, or dynamic content only site
The Importance of SEO
When designing your website consider the effects it will have on online marketing and search engine optimization. Creating a stellar website to showcase your products or services and promote your business won’t be all that helpful if nobody can find your site or even knows that it exists. You definitely want your business’ website to avoid becoming a part of the “lost web”—a large collection of websites that exist, but nobody, including search engines, knows about them.
Clean codes, keyword-laden content, tags, and linking are four important areas that will help you improve your search engine ranking. Clean codes refer to neatly HTML-coded websites; one tip here is to avoid working in MS Word with website design. Second, remember that content is king, and make sure your website’s content is not only well-written but appropriately laden with the right (relevant) keywords (what people search for online). Title tags and the meta-description tags are also important, and should contain relevant keywords. Finally, acquiring inbound links (links from other relevant sites that point to your site) improves your search engine ranking. Don't assume your professional designer will include all of this in your website...specify that you want a search engine friendly design at a minimum.
Search engine optimization (SEO) involves optimizing your website so that it ranks higher in search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN, which means it will come up closer to the top when people search for the products, services, or information that you offer. The entire SEO process is quite long and comprehensive, but there are a few basic tips you can learn from our article on website marketing.
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