Web Design & Web Development Blog

as imagined by consumers

1. “My friends brother’s can build me a website – everyone is a web designer”

Sometimes this is the case, when that person is a web designer by trade. It’s funny how something simple like changing a navigation to something more usable can improve a websites conversion rate by a mile. Sure, I can build my own house if I got a book or two, but would I really want to live in it?

2. “I have FrontPage/DreamWeaver, therefore I am my own web designer.”

On the same note as the previous one. These are just tools, just like a sledgehammer, but does that mean you can carve a work of art? Can you chisel out the fine details by hand (edit HTML code). I still encounter several designers who use such tools, but still cannot make a simple hyperlink by hand, let alone diagnose bigger HTML and CSS problems.

3. “A great web design is cheap, and is a commodity these days”

This is true, if you want a cheap site. You get what you pay for still rings true, but be sure to shop around for a good web designer. The cheaper the site, the better your product, business, sales, marketing, persuasion copy needs to be. Great web designers are getting more difficult to find these days amongst the sea of wannabes.

4. “Moving a little box, or other changes, on my website should only take a few minutes”

Structural changes can take the longest. Plan, outline, wireframe, your site before filling it in. Then once it’s filled in, avoid the layout constantly.

5. “It looks so easy, so it must be easy”

A web design is not a Microsoft Word document. Browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc…) are all different and confused amongst themselves, and our job is to make all of them work, while be limited within huge constraints.

6. “I saw this other site that looks and acts great, so I can have the same thing, right?”

Sure, but would you know the difference between a $1,000 website and a $100,000 website? Most people wouldn’t. Sure you can have anything you want, just be prepared to pay for it. I have lost track of how many people wanted a site like Nike.com or some dynamic, drag-and-drop, t-shirt factory website; oh, and all for under $1,000.

7. “I want my site a certain way, and my way is right”

Again, no. If you hire a very experienced web designer, chances are they know more than you do. I have seen numerous great websites go down the tubes when the client wanted to change it. If your web designer says that your ecommerce website does not need a splash page, and that it will only reduce the number of people that buy from you, then believe him.

9. “My website will be finished on time and on budget”

Web design is like anything else. Unforeseen delays, challenges, and changes are all possible and probably quite likely.

10. “We web designer is on-call, can make changes on demand at my will”

Especially not true if it’s an independent freelancer. Typically, keeping them on the phone to make changes while you dictate them only works for smaller changes.

10. Every website is created equal

There is a lot of short and long term value that can go into a website design that a consumer should be aware of as they shop around.  A custom, high quality website design is often needed, while other times it’s not (for the ultra-budget minded).

I will detail some of these out in upcoming posts.

Or why it’s maybe not best to hire your brothers friend after all

It’s going to begin by reviewing their portfolio, but even their portfolio is not going to tell you about all the bad designs, or designs that were never properly completed. Simply asking them is unlikely to get you a real answer either.

When hiring a custom site designer, call around and ask a half-dozen website designers in your area. If you find prices from other companies that simply don’t fit in, be cautious. The ol’ adage still applies “If it’s too good to be true….”

You may even find a friend or a student willing to try it out. These sometimes work out, but truth is, you will have no real assurance that they really know what they are doing if your site’s goal is to drive business, sales, reputation, etc… This is much more true when dealing with anything beyond an informational, or brochure type of site; but even a great brochure site needs to have a purpose, unless you need it just to make you feel good about yourself. Which ones of these apply to your informational site?

• create awareness
• capture interest
• fuel desire for prospective new business
• generate qualified leads
• be marketable through channels such as search engines
• educate
• maintain contact with and inform current clients
• be easy and affordable to maintain after its complete
• be engaging

Here are a few real-world examples:

1. For example, there was a company that had an informational site with the ultimate goal of using the store locater feature. After a complete overhaul, this goal (or sometimes referred to as “conversion rate”) increased by 50 times. I am sure they had a lot more business as a result at their brick-and-mortar store fronts.
2. I have seen sites built beautifully using Flash (usually un-beknownst to the site owner) but they were practically impossible to rank in the search engines the way they wanted to; nor could they simply hire another site designer to ever edit it for them since they did not have the original Flash files. This is really bad if you need to switch designers as it may force a complete redesign.
3. I am not a trained as a custom site designer, and I built a site once for a family member. After a redesign later on, the conversion rate, and therefore sales, tripled. Yet more proof that hiring a great custom site designer can really help an online business.

In my next post, I will cover some of the questions you should ask when trying to find a potential custom web designer

And why it may or may not be for you

When all is said and done, a custom web site design definitely costs more than a template website design. But, does your site really need a custom website design? Maybe not. For example, if you scan the 100 top converting retail websites, you will see that most of them are virtually identical in many regards. Some are literally mirror images of other web sites. You would think they were all using templates. And trust me, those companies spend a lot more on brand recognition than smaller companies can afford to.

Perhaps this standardized look and feel is slightly less common once you venture out of ecommerce, but even then, in all the years I have been involved in custom website design, I have yet to find a real study that shows template sites are less effective than complete original custom web site designs.

A custom website design can add originality and enhance a site that depends more heavily on its brand image.  Does it equate to more dollars? I have not seen many cases yet. More important factors are questions like does the site drive the visitor to action, and can they accomplish the goal with the greatest ease possible?  Resturcturing of websites, or their layout has been shown to be very important in driving sales.

I am not trying to steer you away from a custom web site design, but I know that is is not always a necessity for every company that is in its infant stages.  I can count numerous, insanely great looking sites (that you probably know) that simply do not make money.  They have much bigger things to worry about.  Of course, for most well-established businesses, spending $1,500 - $7,000 on a decent custom website design is very good option for them.

I am actually aware of numerous cases people I know are buying “custom web site designs” built, only to have a slightly modified template delivered to them (unbeknownst to them).  I’ll cover that another day though…