Month: October 2017

Web design Santee mainly focuses on the aesthetic appeal. Most people pay more attention to the overall look of their website than on the functionalities. Although a good web design is important, it is not the only thing you need to achieve success in web development. There is a lot more that ought to be done. Below are some of the crucial steps you will have to take when working on your website.

Get a unique domain name
The domain name is basically the address of your website. This is what a user types into his browser to get to your web page. The cost of a domain name is about $14.99 per year. A domain name is the second thing you need have after determining the name of your website. The best domain name should be easy to type and remember. It should also give a hint on what your website is about. This means adding a keyword whenever possible. Register the domain name that best describes your business.

Get a hosting service
Your website will have data. As a web designer Santee, you will need to make sure that that data is accessible at all times. This is why you need a hosting service. You can get a good hosting service for as little as $7.99. The hosting service will host your website’s data and also determine the load speed of your website. Getting a hosting service is the same as renting an office space for your business. This is where your website will be located.

Pick a CMS
Larger companies opt to creating their own content management system (CMS). However, this will not be a good option for the smaller businesses. You need a well maintained CMS that helps run your website on autopilot. WordPress is one of the best CMS you can use. There are, however, other platforms out there which include Drupal and Joomla.

Design your website
With the domain name, hosting service and configured CMS in hand, you can go ahead and work on your web design Santee. With this option, you can either work with a professional designer or build the website yourself. Most CMSs have made it easy for people to build their websites without relying on professional help. However, for the best results in web development, you have to consider the option of working with web designers. They will take the guesswork out of the equation.

Getting the website noticed
Once you have finished creating your web pages and adding relevant content, the next step is to get it noticed. This is where search engine optimization comes in. You will also need to invest in link building and blast your content through social media.

These are the basic steps you need to take when working on your own website. However, there may be additional steps needed. It all depends on what you want to achieve as a web designer Santee. For an ecommerce website for example, you have to think about adding a check-out process and a way to collect credit card information.

Web design Santee

Web designer Santee knows that for his work to begin in web development, he has to get a domain name and a hosting service. The domain name is the address of the website whereas the hosting service is what holds all the website data and determines the load speed and the overall performance of a website. With there being so many hosting services to pick from, deciding on the one to use can be hard. The good news, however, is that there are a few things you can look at to determine whether a hosting company will be right for you or not.

Advertising
The problem with free hosting services is that the host will impose advertising on your site. They do this to cover their operating costs without charging you anything. Some host will ask that you place their banner on your web pages while others will simply display popup windows every time your web pages load. There are also hosts that will impose advertising frame on your pages. Before signing up to free hosting, you need to know the type of advertising the host will use. The last thing you want is to pick a host that will tarnish your web design Santee with inappropriate ads.

Web space
The second thing you have to think about is the web space allotted. If you plan on expanding your website with time, will the host be able to accommodate your increased web needs? The majority of websites only use 5MBs of web space. When deciding on the host to use, you have to calculate the amount of space that your website will need. The space will depend on the media that you add. If your website will be using video clips and audio files, your website will take up more space than the one that only uses text.

FTP access
You ought to think about file transfer. FTP is used to transfer web pages and other web files from one computer to the host computer. Some free hosts will only allow you to design the entire website using their site builder. To make your work easier as a web designer Santee, you have to make FTP access mandatory.

File type limitations
There are some hosts that restrict the types of files that you upload. You may be restricted to JPG, GIF and HTML files only. Understand your limitations before you sign up.

Speed of access
If your site is frequently down, you will lose a lot of customers. Slow access will also have the same effects. Ensure the host offers reliable and speedy access. Read the reviews to see what people are saying about the service.

Bandwidth allotment
Most free hosts will impose limits on the amount of traffic that your site can get per day or per month. This is a limitation you have to give a lot of thought to. You don’t want your website to be limited when sales are booming.

If you can, it is always better to go with commercial web host. They offer you more options. Free hosting will most certainly frustrate you.

Web designer Santee

Web design Santee is a must have in today’s society. Most of your customers are online and if they can’t find any information about you online, they will go to your competitors. This is the main reasons why having a website is so important. However, before you get started, there are a couple of things you need to understand about creating your web design. The sole purpose of this post is to educate you on the important factors you need to pay attention to when working on your design.

Target audience
People are not the same. How your website will look and perform will depend on your target audience. The first step in web development is hence to identify your audience. Who is your website targeting? Having a solid grasp of who your website will cater to will enable you to design a website that will be appreciated by your audience.

Look around
Now that you have identified your audience, the next step is to see what your competitors are doing. Review as many websites as you can. This will give you some insight as a web designer Santee. The insight will help you not only include the best elements in your design but also help you identify the elements that will never work for you. The more websites you review the better.

Keep it simple
The main complaint most visitors have is that they don’t know where to look or where to go next when on a website. If this happens to you, you will end up dealing with high bounce rates. Keeping your web design Santee simple is the key to achieving success. Everything needs to be displayed in an easy to read and easy to navigate manner. Visitors should be able to find their way round your website with ease.

Content is everything
The reason visitors keep coming back to a website is because the website offers fresh content that can help them. As a web designer Santee, you must not just focus on the font choices, colors, logos and images but also on providing high quality content. Your website should have content that is relevant to your audience and one that is up-to-date.

Mobile friendly
The website you create should have a responsive design. It should be usable by people viewing it on desktop computers and those using mobile phones. Needless to say, having a responsive website will improve your ranking on search engine results. This is because search engines are giving priority to mobile friendly websites in their ranking.

Loads fast
How fast your website loads will determine the amount of bounce rate you end up dealing with. That is why your focus needs to be on creating a website that loads super-fast.

There is a lot more that needs to be done when working on your website. However, the aforementioned points will help you be a more efficient web designer Santee.

Web design Santee

Web design Santee often requires that you hire the most competent team for the job. Yes you can do most of the design work on your own but if the website must do more than just holding static content, you will need expert help. There are so many companies that offer these services. The only problem is that you cannot rely on all of them to deliver solid results. When you want to hire a good team to help with web design, below are some of the most important things you should consider.

Experience in your area
The most important thing you need to do is to ensure that the web designer Santee you are about to hire has considerable experience working with companies in your area. The reason for this is because plays an important role in search engine rankings. The designer you hire must be able to optimize your website for geographical listings as well as directories. Still on experience in your area, you must make sure that the designer has helped create websites for businesses that are similar to yours in size and specialty.

Lowest prices are not the best
Remember that you get what you pay for. The case is the same in web design Santee. If a designer is offering the lowest rates, there is a good chance your work will be outsourced to a third party or you will end up with a cheap looking website. To succeed in online marketing, you must make sure that you get quality custom templates. Request for samples from the designer and know what he will bring to the table based on the stated price. Understanding what is included in the price is very important. The last thing you want is to pay a designer only to end up with templates with no content.

Access to the content management system
The content management system is what will help you make changes to your website. When searching for a web designer, you must make sure that they will give you access to the CMS once the work is done. This will allow you to update your website whenever you want and even work with a different designer.

Easy to contact
The ideal web designer Santee is one that is easy to get ahold of. Communication is very important in web development. You should be able to contact the designer whenever you want to. It is only through communication that the designer will understand what you are looking for. Don’t pick a company that forces things to you.

Portfolio and testimonials
Last but not least, before you commit, you need to go through the developer’s portfolio and testimonials. This will give you a lot of information about the competence of the developer and what he can and cannot do for you. Too many negative reviews are a red flag.

Web design Santee

Web design Santee has been made easy by the presence of great web development tools. You no longer need to hire a professional web designer to help with the project. There are so many resources that you can use to create your own website and fast. However, creating an effective website calls for research. Below are the key requirements that your website should have.

Mobile friendly
The first thing you have to make sure of is that you build a website that is mobile friendly. The world is changing. Today, over 50% of Internet users access the Internet using mobile devices. This means if you are only focusing on desktop versions of your website, you will end up failing as a web designer Santee. Having a mobile friendly website doesn’t mean you have to run two versions of your website. A responsive web design will adjust itself to fit on any screen size it is being viewed on. Needless to say, a mobile friendly website will help you get more traffic and enable you to rank well in search engine results.

SEO friendly
Away from mobile friendliness, your website ought to be search engine optimized. The mistake web developers make is that of assuming that just because you have a great web design your website can survive on that. For you to reach your target audience, you have to make sure that they can find you. This is where SEO comes in. The whole purpose of SEO is to help your website be listed on search engine results. For this to happen, you have to think about keyword research, link building and creating remarkable content.

Loads fast
The speed of your website will determine the bounce rate. The higher the bounce rate is, the more your reputation will be tarnished. You need to work on a web design Santee that is optimized for speed. The majority of Internet users will click away from a website that takes longer than 5 seconds to load up. Remove the unnecessary elements and optimize your website’s code for speed.

Original and quality content
Having low quality or duplicate content will not only affect your SEO efforts negatively but it will also push visitors away. People are looking for fresh and helpful content. Your everyday goal needs to be creating original and high quality content.

Call-to-action
Last but not least, you must tell your visitors what you expect of them. This is where the call-to-action comes in. It has to be clear. If you need them to sign-up to your newsletter or make use of a sale, tell them. A call-to-action will impact your website positively.

These points will come in handy when working on your website. It is good to keep up with the times as a web designer Santee. Strategies that worked a decade ago may be obsolete today.

Web design Santee

Web design Santee has been simplified by the presence of such content management systems as WordPress. The best thing about WordPress is that it has a huge support community and hundreds of themes and plugins to pick from. To save time on coding, you must consider using the plugins. In this article, we will be taking a look at the top WordPress plugins you must have for a business website.

1. OptinMonster

It is a conversion rate optimization plugin that enables you to convert the abandoning visitors into valuable email subscribers. It is a popular plugin for webmasters who want to grow their email list. Needless to say, as a web designer Santee, you don’t want to lose valuable customers. This is what makes this tool the more important.

1. WPForms

This is a beginner friendly contact form plugin. It is a drag and drop form builder that will help create your contact forms, order forms, subscription forms, payment forms and just any form that you want. The best news is that you will also find the WPFOrms Lite Version which is free. The pro version of the plugin is available for people who are looking for the advanced features.

1. MonsterInsights

This is a Google Analytics plugin. The plugin will enable you to link your website to Google Analytics thereby allowing you to learn more about your visitors. The data you collect here such as where the visitors are coming from will help optimize your website in a manner that boosts your earnings. There is both a pro and free version of this plugin. You choice will depend on the features you need on your web design Santee.

1. Constant Contact

This is a great WordPress plugin for managing your email lists. It will help you build your list as well as send them to your subscribers. The platform is beginner friendly with an easy setup. There are tools to help add the signup forms and a lead generation tool such as OptinMonster.

1. Sucuri

This is a security plugin. As a web designer Santee, you want to make sure that your online business is protected. This plugin serves as a firewall. It will monitor as well as protect your website from malware threats, DDoS, brute force attacks, XSS attacks and other attacks.

1. BackupBuddy

After creating your website, you have to account for the fact that it may crush or be attacked by hackers. You therefore need to have a clean backup to help restore it fast. you need a good backup system and BackupBuddy is one of the best plugins you can use.

There are so many WordPress plugins you can use. The key is to make sure you understand the reputation and intent of the publisher before installing the plugin. You must also note that the more plugins you have on your web design Santee, the slower your website will be. Only install relevant plugins.

Web design Santee

Web design Santee is no longer as difficult as it used to be a few years ago. Thanks to there being so many user friendly CMSs, plugins and themes, almost anyone interested in creating a website can do so. However, to create a website that meets its objectives, you have to plan ahead. In this article, we will be looking at the key steps you need to take when working on a website.

Set goals
If you don’t have a purpose for your website, you will end up creating a website that will never satisfy your needs or those of your audience. You need sound goals before you get started. Start by identifying the purpose of your website and then consider your target audience. How many visitors are you planning on getting every month? What level of sale and signups should your website be able to sustain? A web designer Santee must have measurable, specific goals.

Set a budget
Now that you know what your website should be able to do, the next step is to create a budget. Even when using free platforms like WordPress, you have to note that you will still have to spend money on both hosting and domain name. Start by comparing prices. What is the average cost of hosting per month and how much can you get your preferred domain name for? Your budget should also include the cost of working with other professionals such as SEO experts, content writers and so on.

Know your content
The third step is to understand the content that will be featured on your website. Yes this could have been covered in the first point but it is worth looking at it as an independent point. Will you be using too many images or just text? Are you planning on creating a product catalogue? The content that will be used on your website will impact your choice of web design Santee. You must have a content strategy before you start creating your website. Make sure that you have also made a list of the pages your website will have and the features that will be on every page.

Buy a domain name and get hosting
Now that you are set with the first steps, you can go ahead and buy a domain name. The name should either be the name of your business or related to what your business does. Make sure the domain name is easy to remember and type. Second, you need to get hosting services from a reliable service provider. Steer clear of free or shared hosting if you are serious about creating a great website.

Pick a CMS
The last step is to select a CMS. This is what will manage your content. WordPress is a great choice. Don’t be too compelled to create your own CMS as that will make things harder for you as a web designer Santee later on.

These points will certainly help you plan your web design Santee and get started with the development. The most important thing you need to do is to know clearly what your website should be able to do.

Web design Santee

Web designer Santee today has is easy. There are innumerable tools that can be used to avoid excessive coding and also to manage your website easily. However, for you to get what you want to create, you have to plan properly and never take any development step for granted. In this article, we will be discussing the 6 things that you will need as a web designer to start your website.

A clear goal
The lack of a goal is what has seen many people end up creating a web design Santee that proves completely useless. Not having a goal means that you will not have anything to focus on in development. You have to know why you are creating the website and what it should be able to do for you. For example, the web design for an ecommerce website will be completely different from that of a blog. Make a list of the things that your website should be able to do and move on from there. However, you need to make sure that your goals are realistic and measurable.

A name
Your website will need a name. This is the hardest step most people get to take. The name of your website must be unique because you will not be able to buy a domain name that is being used by another webmaster. The ideal name has to be related to your business, easy to remember and easy to type. Having a unique website name is more important than having a website. The last thing you want is for your loyal customers to mistake you for your competitor. This happens when your name is not unique and it will lead to lost business.

Web hosting
Your website will need a home. The problem is picking the right hosting plan can be intimidating. As a web designer Santee, you will have too many things to consider. This includes the bandwidth, storage space, support and many more. Your hosting service should be affordable while at the same time provide you with everything you need to run your website smoothly.

Content
Prior to working on your web design Santee, you also need to think about the content. This is the soul of your website. It is what keeps people coming back for more. Will you be using only text or a combination of text, images and videos? The type of content you will be using will determine the type of web design you end up creating.

Digital marketing
Last but not least, if you don’t invest in digital marketing, you will find yourself lagging behind. Your website needs to be found through search engines. This is where digital marketing comes in. Account for SEO and link building. Social media marketing must also not be ignored.

The six steps will help you get started on the right foot when working on a website. However, as a web designer Santee, you still need to spend more time learning more about web development. You have to keep up with the trends if you wish to excel.

Web designer Santee