Archive for September, 2007

How To Get A Custom Website for FREE!

September 17th, 2007

The quick answer is: You don’t. Your odds of doing this are about the same as winning the lottery.

In website design and development, just like most other things in this world, the adage of ‘You Get What You Pay For’ stands. But this adage applies ten-fold in website design and development.

With the proliferation of freelancers who call themselves website designer to the thousands of off-shore companies who work for a few dollars an hour, you can, indeed, have a very inexpensive website built for your business. Unfortunately, you will get exactly what you pay for: poor design, sloppy programming, confusing navigation, and so on. Not to mention the miserable customer experience you will have. If you think calling the toll free number for Dell customer support is bad, then sit down, because you have a whole new type of misery in store for you when you work with freelancers and cheap web development firms.

It is widely agreed that a website is a reflection of your business. If you want to appear shoddy and cheap then perhaps this is the route for you. If, however, you are serious about your business you will need an intelligently designed website. This means you hire a web design firm that has years of experience in design, website strategy, and technology.

Look for a web design firm that has that perfect blend of the three divergent capabilities it takes to produce compelling design. A great web development firm fuses art and science, solid logic and inspiration, primitive intuition and cutting-edge know-how to build fabulous websites.

Will it be expensive? That depends on the features and functions of your website. For any web design firm that is worth their weight, you can expect to pay a minimum of $5k for a basic business website. Prices range from there on up. The bottom line is, when you want results that are both refreshingly enticing to your site visitor and exactly what you envisioned for your company’s website only a proven professional design firm can get you there.

Talk to a Web Stragist at Digital Peabody, a leading Denver and Chicago web design firm, to learn more about the cost of web design and development.  You can call 303.468.5707 for the Denver office or 312.933-3430 to reach the Chicago office. If you prefer to send an e-mail, click here.

Posted in Website Development, Website Tips, Web Design
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How to Make a Good Website - The Key Ingredients

September 17th, 2007

• Intuitive Navigation
• Fast Loading Pages
• Attractive Colors
• Smart Page Layout
• Browser Compatibility
• SEO Friendly

Intuitive Navigation

When you run into the store to buy a gallon of milk, you want to find the dairy section immediately, right? The same thing applies when a visitor comes to your website. They want to find information or products quickly. By using intuitive navigation, site visitor will be able to find important information with ease. It is always a good practice to place your main links at the top of the page as well as the bottom. Sometimes it is more convenient for your users to click on a link at the bottom of your page than to scroll to the top of the page.

Another important part of the navigation is the menu design. Use drop down menus. With drop down menus your visitors can easily see where they may navigate in the web site.

Slow Loading Pages

Internet time is warped. Seconds seem like minutes. Nobody, not even the most patient person in the world, wants to wait for a page to load. You literally have a few seconds to for your page to load or your visitor will click on to the next site.

High resolution graphics and rich interactive media are the typical culprits for slow loading web pages. When you work with a good web designer, like Digital Peabody just as an example, graphics are handled in a special way so that you can achieve fast loading pages.

Appealing Color Scheme

This is an important and underrated element in web design. This is feel good time. This is time to add a little extra sugar to make it sweet. You want your visitors to enjoy and savor the website - not to strain their eyes. A professional web designer knows how to use contrasting and complimentary colors just right.

Steer clear from dark backgrounds or bright ones like red, yellow or green which can draw attention away from the key messages. In addition, do not use dark text on a dark background. That’s like burning the chocolate chip cookies. Above all, make sure your text is easy to read and is more prominent than the background.

Page Layout

Be consistent. Create a model in which carries throughout the site. If, for example, you use a two-column layout, then every page should have a two-column layout. The top and bottom navigation should always be in the same location. Have the important information located in the section that is most easy to find. Most of us are trained to view a web page starting with the top right corner and then going down toward the lower left on a diagonal. Layout your key points with this in mind.

Cross Browser Optimization

Just because your website looks perfect in Internet Explorer does not mean it will look the same in other browsers like Firefox or Safari. Each browser and version of that browser will handle HTML Tags differently. A web programmer or developer who is at the top of their game will know the tricks of the trade to make your website compatible across all commonly used browsers.

Take Advantage of SEO

You wouldn’t think of having jelly without peanut butter. So, why would you have a website and not optimize it? At the very least, you should add a title to your website, META tags, ALT tags, relevant content, title tags on links and other SEO practices. Internet marketing is its own beast to tackle.

Internet marketing takes a lot of time and dedication, but making sure your website is SEO friendly is the first step to attract targeted visitors to your website.

WRITTEN BY:

Lauren Engel: President of www.digitalpeabody.com. Lauren is widely acknowledged as a leading Website Strategist in Denver and Chicago.

Posted in Tips, Search Engine Optimization, Web Design
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