1. Choose a Website Designer with Experience Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) – Always retain the services of a web designer with experience with CSS. Why? Because as the web community and your website grows, style sheets will allow you and whomever you use to run your website the ease and flexibility to update, make changes, and expand your site quickly. Style sheets control the look and feel of your entire website, and it’s only one file located on your server. So for example, if the font on all your pages is referenced by a style sheet, and you use that same font on every page of your 20 page website, all your designer has to do is change the one CSS file and the entire site’s font changes, versus going through and changing each of the 20 pages.
2. Look For a Web Designer with Design Experience – It may seem like common sense, but in the web design industry there is a big difference between those who know HTML code and build websites and those who know how to design elegant, effective websites AND how to code them in HTML. There are a lot of self-proclaimed web designers who convince potential clients of their knowledge in HTML, which to the average consumer sounds like just what they need, someone know knows HTML. But if there isn’t a firm foundation on the basic principles behind user interfaces, marketing design, and graphic design then the probability of them delivering a good-looking website is low.
3. Search Engine Optimization Experience – Ask a potential web designer to provide examples of websites they have created that show up high in popular search engines like Google® and Yahoo®. Be sure that they use vague search terms and not the specific company name or name of the person they created the website for. If it’s an accounting service in Tucson, type in “Tucson Accounting Service” and see if the website comes up. If it’s a pain management doctor’s office in Phoenix, type in “Phoenix Pain Management Doctor”.
The number of web users who find what they’re looking for through search engines is growing, and you will want a web designer who can get you to the front of that line. 90% of our clients have top 10 or top 20 search engine rankings.
(A quick side note: search engine optimization is a specialized field, and not every web designer will have experience in the field. This alone is not a reason to forego using their services. Many companies hire FX Studios just to enhance the search engine optimization of their sites).
4. Choose a Website Designer With A Reliable Record – Website design is not a licensed field. Anyone who reads HTML for Dummies over a weekend can turn around and proclaim themselves a web designer on Monday. When selecting a web designer look for someone that’s been around a little while. They don’t have to have a 10 year track record, but if they can show that they’ve been in web design for at least the past two years it’s an indication that they’ll be around in the future when you need to make a change or additions to your website. FX Studios has been providing quality website design service in Tucson and Phoenix Arizona for over 4 years.
5. Experience Using Popular Web Design Software – Once your site is complete there is no telling what cards life will deal you and your designer. You may move your business, or your web designer may move his/her business or drop off the face of the earth. But if they designed your website using standard software like Adobe’s Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop or Fireworks, it will be much easier for you to take their work and hand it off to the next developer.
Try to avoid web designers who use Frontpage or another software. I try not to be too dogmatic when it comes to web design, as everyone has their preference on how to create and design, but this is one area when it’s vital that the developer know the standard tools of his/her industry.
(A quick side note: knowing software is a big key to efficient web design, mostly because these software packages do in minutes what hand-coding in notepad took in hours; but there is no substitute for knowing how to hand code. So even though knowing the software is key to getting your website up fast and keeping your costs down, make sure that your developer has a firm grasp of how HTML code works for those times when software falls short – and it does happen.)
If you have questions about a website project or just want to know more about our Tucson web design service please don’t hesitate to contact us at (520) 225-0123 or toll free at 1-877-388-3281. We provide web design services in Tucson, Phoenix, Casa Grande, Las Vegas, and San Diego. |
