Author: Tim K

When getting ready to get your web design Santee done professionally you will need to meet up with your web designer to discuss your vision. The duty of your designer is not just to build for you an amazing website but to bring your vision to life. In the first meeting with him there are a couple of things you will be required to do. Here are the key pieces of information the designer will request from you.

Your company background and culture

In order for a web designer Santee to build an amazing website he first needs to learn more about your business. What is your company all about and what kind of products or services do you offer. Who are your target audience? You company culture will also need to be conveyed throughout the website. This information will help the designer understand who your target audience are and streamline to create a website that compels potential clients to work with you. 

If you redesigning or building a new site

Your web designer will also want to know if you are creating a new website from scratch or redesigning an existing one. If you are redesigning, the web designer will need access to your old website in order to understand the things that you did with it. It is often cheaper to redesign a website than it is to build one from scratch. If you are building a website from scratch you will have to paint your vision vividly to the web designer. You may also need to bring links to websites that look like what you are looking for.

If you have content prepared

Your web designer will have to ask this question. This is because if you have your own content created then the web designer will have to build your web design Santee in a way that accommodates that content. For example, if you have a video you need added to your website the designer must create room for that. Having your own content created will also make work easier for the designer to complete your website.

If you need custom functionality

If you need special functionality on your website you need to inform the web designer of that. You need to make sure that the designer has the development capabilities to add the functionalities that you need. For example, if you want to sell products or services on your website you need a web designer Santee that has experience creating ecommerce websites.

Who will update the website once it’s online?

Last but not least the web designer will want to know if you need website management services or you will handle the maintenance on your own. You should note that some web design firms don’t allow clients to access to make changes to their websites. Ask the question on website management in the first meeting with the web designer.

Web design Santee

If you want the best web design Santee then you have to be prepared to work with the experts. Hiring an experienced web designer will guarantee that you end up with a professional website that does exactly what you want and then some. But how exactly should you prepare for the first consultation with your web designer. Here are some of the things you will need to do.

Define the purpose of your website

It is obvious that you are creating your website for a purpose, right? Then you need to know what you want your website to do in order to achieve your business goals. In the first meeting your web designer Santee will discuss how you want your website to look and feel. Now is also the best time to help the web designer understand your target audience and what they are looking for. This information will help the designer to understand the pages your website needs and content that will bring in the most traffic or ROI.

Have samples of what you love

It is not easy to paint your vision in words alone. This is why you should consider showing the web designer exactly what you are looking for. For example, if you have seen websites that look like what you need then you need to have links to them. Making sure the web designer sees the kind of website you want will go a long way in informing his vision. You also need to let the designer know what you love and what you don’t like on a specific website. With this information the designer will implement the best parts of your selected websites to create for you a website that is beautiful and cohesive.

Brandish your branding

The fact that you want to get an online presence does not mean you start from scratch. If you already have a business logo you need to bring it to the first meeting with the web designer Santee. The last thing you want is for your brand to look different online. Brand consistency is important and that can only be achieved by maintaining the same company style throughout.

Provide photos

Stock photos are cheap and easy to find. They are, however, not the best choice for a professional website. For you to humanize your website and give visitors a sense of your company you must take your own photos. Hire a photographer to take photos of your team in action. Don’t rely too much on stock photos.

These tips will help make the first meeting with your web designer a success. Remember that your biggest task is to describe your vision as vividly as you can so that the designer can bring it to life in your web design Santee.

Web design Santee

The work of a web design Santee is much easier today. This is thanks to the myriad resources they have to build a website faster and professionally. The hard part is, however, in winning the trust of visitors. If your visitors don’t trust you then they will not do business with you. If they don’t do business with you then your website will be a failure. If you want to win the trust of visitors on your website, here are some of the things you should consider doing. 

Get straight to the point

The first thing you have to do is to get straight to the point. The mistake on most websites is that of giving too many details without getting to the point. For example, when they land on your homepage visitors want to know who you are, what you do and how you stand out. Don’t go on and on describing the plight of your target audience or sharing nonsensical stories. Your visitors are running short on time. Your web design Santee should give them the information they need right away.

Use custom photos

Stock photos are quite popular today. This is because they are easy to find and cheap to use. The problem with them is that they are overused. If you want to win the trust of visitors you need to use custom photos. Hire a professional photographer and take photos of your own products and workers. Such photos are more convincing than stock photos which anybody can tell the people in the images are models and not real workers.

Add testimonials

You need to add testimonials on your website. This allows your visitors to read or view what your customers are saying about your products or services. Reviews on your blog posts will also do wonders. However, for them to work well you need to screen all comments before publishing them. Not all your customers have something positive to say and some comments are from people trying to ruin your reputation.

Link your social media pages

Your business should have a social media page. You should link your website to your social media. In addition to that, your web designer Santee should add social media widgets which help visitors share your content easily on their social media.

Add your contacts on every page

Last but not least, your contact details should be easy to find. Make sure you add your address and contact details on every page and also have more detailed contact details on a contact page.

Web design Santee

When it comes to web design Santee we all want to end up with a website that stands out from the crowd. You also want a website that gets loads of traffic and one that improves your business. This is not a simple thing to do. If you are worried your website is under performing, here are some of the most important things you should consider doing to make your website great.

Provide basic information to users

The whole reason visitors are on your website is to learn more about you. With that in mind, you must never fill your website with general content. Your homepage should provide basic information about your website. Answer the question on who you are right away. If visitors cannot understand what your business is about immediately after landing on your website they will click away. Your contact information must also be easy to find. In addition to having a contact page you should feature your contents on every page.

Testimonials

There are so many scammers out there. Prior to doing business with any business people want to hear from other shoppers. This is where the need for adding testimonials comes in. Your web designer Santee does not necessary need to add testimonial videos but an area where you feature what your clients are saying about you. Testimonials will help you win the trust of new customers.

Stand out from competitors

In web design today you don’t necessarily have to code everything from scratch. There are so many templates you can use to build your website. The problem with these templates is that they increase the chances of your website looking exactly like that of your competitors. Even when using WordPress themes you have to customize them so that they stand out. The last thing you want is for your website to be confused with that of your competitors. The good news is that there are numerous branding tools you can use to make your website stand out. Make use of them. If you have extra money to spare hire an experienced web designer Santee to customize your template or simply build your website from scratch.

Secure

Security is very important today. Antivirus software and web browsers will inform your visitors if your website is not secure. In addition to making sure your website cannot be hacked you also need to use SSL encryption. This will keep the data of your visitors secure.

There is a lot more you can do to make your website great. These points will, however, get you started on the right path. Always keep up with the trends and look at what your competitors are doing to stand out.

Web design Santee

If you are thinking of getting a new web design Santee it is important that you understand the costs that are associated with the project. The amount you stand to spend depends on the type of website you want to build. It is also good to note that ne websites costs more than redesigns. With that out of the way, let’s take a quick look at the unavoidable costs of building a website. They include the following.

Domain name, hosting and SSL

The first thing your web designer Santee will do is register a domain name. This is the address to your website. It is what visitors’ type into their web browsers to get to your website. Domain name registration will cost between $10 and $30. If you plan on purchasing existing domain names you can expect to spend more.

Hosting, on the other hand, is what enables you to store your website files on a remote server. There are so many hosting packages to pick from right from the cheap shared hosting option to the more expensive dedicated hosting option. Hosting on Hostgator starts at $2.75 per month. Most hosting companies also offer free domain registration. Today you also need to think about SSL certificate. This is what makes your website secure. The cost for an SSL certificate on GoDaddy is $69 per year.

Custom design/ templates

With the domain name and hosting you can get your website online. However, for it to be user-friendly you have to work on its design. This is where web design Santee comes in. You can hire a professional to help with the design. The cost of working with a designer starts from $500. Alternatively you can use templates and customize them to your liking. This is a great option if you are using WordPress. Free templates exist but if you need premium theme you will have to spend money. Most of the themes have to be customized further. In this case you have to set a budget of at least $200 for the theme.

Content creation

Your website will not be complete without the content. Content is the soul of your website. Poorly done content will easily frustrate visitors. Content is made up of text and multimedia. With text content you can work with freelancers who are more affordable. For the images you can use stock photos. Refrain from using the free stock photos.

Special features/ plugins

Last but not least, if you need more functionality on your website you have to spend a little bit more. You can hire a web designer Santee to code the features you want or simply install plugins. The cost for the special features will depend on what you need.

Web design Santee

Your web design Santee will be affected greatly by the type of images you use. Needless to say, a website that has no images will be boring. Visuals make it easy for visitors to consume your content and also make a website more interesting. But which images should you use? In this post we will be discussing your options when searching for the best images for your website.

Value of uniqueness

Stock photos are a favorite choice for web designers Santee when creating a website. This is because it is easy to find the exact photo you need here and also own license for a small fee. The problem is that the images you buy are in no way unique to your website. Other companies can buy and use them on their websites. This is unless you get an exclusive license. If you must use stock photos and want to find one that is unique, you should always avoid picking photos from the first page of results. Most people pick the images in the first few pages. Dig deeper in the search results to find an image that is not overused.

Custom images

If you want to create a website that is unique and professional then you should consider using custom images. In this case you need to hire a professional photographer to take the kind of shots that you need for your website. This option is more expensive and is not for everyone. However, if you can afford the custom shot images then you will be able to really stand out.

Be aware of licensing

Most people don’t consider the license under which images are being offered on stock photo sites. There are three common licenses: rights managed, royalty free and creative commons. Each of these licenses has unique requirements as well as restrictions. Take time to understand how the licenses work. Your web designer Santee can help select the right license.

Image sizes

The size of the images matters a lot. Enlarging tiny images will be tricky whereas using images that are too large will have negative impacts on your website’s performance. You need to determine the size of image that you need before you start shopping. Your images will also need to be prepared for web delivery as well as be optimized for download performance.

Photos of people are tricky to use

While people respond well to pictures of other people on a website, you have to be careful whose face you use on your website. A photo of someone your customers view as shady will hurt your website. Use photos with people who reflect the audiences that will be using your website.

Web design Santee

Prior to starting work on your web design Santee you need to pick a domain name and get the right web hosting service. The domain name will be the address to your website whereas the hosting service will be where your website files will be stored. Picking a domain name is easy but it takes a lot of research to find a reliable hosting service. In this post we shall be looking at the crucial things you need to consider when choosing a hosting service.

Pricing

The first thing you need to consider is obviously the price. There are many hosting plans out there. The cheapest one is the shared hosting. The choice you end up making will depend mostly on what your website will need to do as well as your budget. A web designer Santee can help determine the hosting needs of your site and help you pick the most reliable and cost-effective option. The key is to look at what is included in a hosting package rather than picking a package because it is cheap.

Features

When considering the features you have to look at things like bandwidth, disk space, email storage and monthly transfers. You also need to be wary of companies that claim to offer unlimited disk space or bandwidth. Dig deeper to properly understand what they mean by unlimited. The secret to selecting a package that offers everything that you need is to make a list of the features that your website must have then browse through the features offered by a hosting company until you find one that works best for you.

Support

Last but not least you have to think about technical support. The last thing you want is for your website to be offline simply because there is a server-side issue that the hosting company is taking too long to fix. Check the reputation of the hosting company when it comes to customer support. You also need to make sure that the company offers various ways of contacting them. This should include phone, email and live chat. There should also be a support center on the site that has product guides, FAQ, community support and tutorials.

These are the most important things you need to consider when choosing a hosting company. How well your new web design Santee performs will depend on the services offered by the hosting company. The hosting company can determine how fast your website loads and your hosting package can affect your SEO. Seek expert help before making your choice.

Web Design Santee

One of the hardest decisions a web designer Santee makes is that of choosing the hosting plan to use. There are so many options out there. If you are not careful you might end up with a plan that limits your website. In this post we shall be discussing the four main types of hosting and their pros and cons.

Shared hosting

This is the most common package with people on a tight budget. It is ideal for small to medium sized business websites and blogs. When getting started with web design Santee this is the package that most people choose because of its affordability. It offers all the essential website functions that you need at a fee that can be as low as $10 per month or even lower. The issue with this package is that your website will be hosted on the same server as other websites from other customers. This means the performances can go down at certain times of day when the shared resources are strained.

Managed hosting

This package is the same as shared hosting with the only advantage being the level of support. The provider will manage your hardware, operating systems and applications. WordPress hosting is the most common form of managed hosting. This option is more expensive than shared hosting but comes with extensive features and better website builder options. It is an ideal option if you want to build a professional website on your own.

Cloud hosting

This is a more reliable option. With cloud hosting your website will be hosted on multiple severs instead of just one. This means your visitors will be directed to the server that is closest to them thus guaranteeing faster loading speeds. The only drawback with this hosting plan is that the cost is extremely high. The option is thus ideal for larger companies.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS)

With this option, the hosting provider will divide one sever into virtual services. Each website is then hosted on an individual virtual server in the same way as dedicated servers. Unlike shared hosting where resources can be strained by other users, you will be assigned specific resources which mean your assigned resources will never be exhausted by other websites. The cost starts at $20 per month.

Dedicated servers

This is the option your web designer Santee will recommend when money is no object and you need an extremely secure website. You get assigned a whole server. You can thus count on fast load times. The option is ideal for large businesses that have high traffic websites. The cost starts at $100 per month.

Your choice of hosting plan will depend on your budget and website needs. Always talk to your web designer for advice when choosing a hosting plan.

Web Designer Santee

Hiring a web designer Santee is the obvious first thing you need to do when working on a new website. The problem, however, is that not all web designers will deliver the results you need. The first step you need to take to avoid web design mistakes is to hire a reputable web designer that has lots of experience creating the kind of website you need. Here are additional mistakes you need to avoid when working on your website.

Forcing users to think

This is a very common mistake people make. If your web design Santee is not obvious and self-explanatory then you are forcing users to think. Your website’s architecture and navigation has to be intuitive. Visitors should not struggle to get from point A to B. Your website should use recognizable links and an easy to understand path. As much as being unique is great, you must never create a website that is too unique that visitors have no idea where to go next.

Squandering the patience of users

An important point you have to bear in mind at all times is that your visitors are impatient. What this means is that if your website takes long to load up or your content doesn’t deliver the important points fast you will end up losing visitors to your competition. You have to go right to the point. Visitors want instant gratification. You also need to remove all barriers. Don’t force visitors to subscribe or register in order to access your content.

Adding distracting features 

This is without any doubt the worst mistake you can ever make in web design Santee. Distracting features include popups, auto play videos and audios. These features only succeed in distracting visitors. When the distractions are too much most visitors will simply leave your website and never come back again.

Not making the content easy to scan

Not many people today read through the content. Most people simply scan through. This is why you need to highlight the important points in your content and always make use of subheadings and listings. The idea is to make it easy for visitors to scan through your content without missing the important points.

Not making use of the white spaces

Large blocks of text will make it hard for visitors to understand what you are talking about. Your content should be made of small paragraphs and elements separated with white spaces. White spaces help reduce the cognitive load for the visitors.

Not testing before launching a website

Last but not least you have to test and retest your website before and after launching. It is only by testing that you, the web designer Santee, will be able to find problems and fix them before they affect your business negatively.

Web Designer Santee

As you plan your web design Santee, the most important thing you need to do is understand how users think. Remember that you are creating a website for the users and not for yourself. You want a website that will resonate well with your target audience. In this post we will be taking a quick look at the important facts you need to understand about Internet users.

They appreciate quality

The quality of your web content matters the most. As a matter of fact, if your website offers high quality content users are willing to compromise the content with advertisements and the poor design. It is for this reason that some websites with a poor design but great content end up garnering more traffic year after year. Content is important than design. This doesn’t, however, mean that you overlook great design. Your web designer Santee will be happy to let you know that a good web design is what makes it easier for visitors to consume your content.

They want proof

Prior to placing an order users will first do research to learn more about your brand. Most of them will focus on user reviews. To build credibility on your website you need to add testimonials and user reviews. They will help you win the trust of new clients.

They don’t read, they scan

Regardless of how good your content is, users will most of the time not read every word. They scan through the content to find what they are looking for. That is why you need to be straight to the point, add listings and always highlight the important points. It is good to note that most of your audiences will not read your long post to the end. 

They are impatient and crave instant gratification

If your website takes long to load visitors will click away to another website. This is due to the fact that people expect a page to load up in less than three seconds. Your web design Santee must, therefore, be created with speed in mind. Additionally, when reading your content, if you don’t get to the point fast they will leave. Always assume that your visitors are running short on time and drive the point home instantly. The case is the same when it comes to the checkout. The more clicks you require from them the higher the chances they will abandon their cart.

They want to have control

Last but not least, users want to have control. This is why you should endure your web designer Santee doesn’t add auto play videos, audios or popup ads. Users don’t want new windows to popup and they want to be able to go back with just the ‘Back’ button.

This information will come in handy as you work on your next website. Don’t focus too much on creating a website that you want but one that your visitors will love.

Web Design Santee