Website Design - Website Designers

"The best website designer and greatest website design

                   …..does not ensure success.....
                       ......or guarantee you a financial return."

" ....... more than 80% of website designers in New Zealand have little or no knowledge of designing a website with the structure needed to ensure great performance in the Search Engines!"

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The First Thing you need to understand about Web Designers

    ..... is that the website designer is not an online marketing specialist, and an Internet Marketing specialist is not necessarily a great website Designer!

Both are specialists in their own right.

The best website designer will have the appropriate technical, graphical and artistic skills and expertise to create a visually exiciting and appealling website.

However the website is nothing more than a marketing tool, and while appearance and visual appeal is very important, it is essential that the content and structure of the site enables it to attract visitors from the Search Engines, and then then convert them into paying business.

After all, you can have the best looking paintbrush in the world, but if that brush is built of poor quality materials that fail to cover and spread the paint evenly across the surface you are painting, it not provide a maximum level of performance!

What Constitutes a Great Website Design - your check list...

If you are planning a new website or simply an upgrade from an existing site, we have provided you with a Checklist of issues and design guidelines that we consider as being essential include:

• Plan for the future.
  
  
• Ensure that you include the web designer, the online marketing specialist and the person who will be responsible for daily site management of the finished site, in the planning phases.
  
  
• Ensure that you prepare an online marketing plan before you commence the design of the site. There will be design requirements that will be effected by issues outlined in your online marketing plan. And its much cheaper for you to allow for them now rather than as an add-on afterwards.
  
  
• A good web designer does not need to be expensive.
  
  
• Ensure that your website design, content and structure are designed and built from the customers perspective. Engage someone other than this design team to help on site testing. Too often sites are designed by owners and designers that "think" it is designed from the customers perspective and it isn't.
  
  
• Ensure that coding language, indexing structure and scripts that are used in the design of the site, encourage and assist the search engine spiders - not inhibit and prevent them.
  
  
• Ensure that whatever it is your customer is looking for that will create revenue for you, is no more than one or a maximum of two clicks away from your front page.
  
  
• If you are a retailer, do not waste your time building a website that is simply a catalogue of your products - your site must be fully e-commerce enabled so that your potential customers can buy online. In other words, expecting people to fill in order forms online and fax them to you or ring up to place their orders will simply not work - and will cost you money.The internet is maturing and your potential customers expect more.
  
  
• DO NOT use animated front pages that use products flike Flash, Shockwave or Java scripts - they prevent access by search engine spiders - also these pages simply bore the average visitor because it's not why they have come do your website - and it's a complete fallacy that they promote corporate image or branding.
  
  
• Ensure that every page on your website is able to contain it's own uniquely crafted Title, Description and Keyword meta-tags. And if your webdesigner suggest this cannot be done - get a new web designer because it will cost you money otherwise.
  
  
• Do not rely on banners and graphics to convery your message to customers - use text. Text can be read by the Search Engine spiders, banners and graphics cannot.
  
  
• Do not to use Java Scripts or similar within your navigation system. The Search Engine spiders cannot read or follow them to other pages and you will loose Search Engine profile if you overlook this.
  
  
• Ensure you have include an easily found Contact Page with all your contact details and remember 0800 numbers cannot be used when calling from overseas. Customers have more confidence in those they can contact and speak to.
  
  
• Ensure you include a Sitemap page that is linked to your front page - it helps customers, and it makes sure that every page on your site can be easily located and crawled by the Search Engine spiders.
  
  
• Include a dedicated Link page or Link Marketing structure. Linking with other websites is one of the single most important factors in achieving good Search Engine rankings. And do not be tempted to take part in Linking networks, particularly those where you are required to pay to join. You risk being banned on the Search Engines if you do.
  
  
• Think about including a Press Release page - very useful additional content for the Search Engines as well as your Press Release marketing strategy.
  
  
• Other pages you should include within your website are; a Privacy Policy page which ensures that your customers will be happy to provide their personal information to you, safe in the knowledge that you will not be proving their details to other Third Parties. And if you are an online retailer, a Security page where a description of the security offered by your online payment system is described. If you want paying customers you need to provide with the comfort of security.
  
  
• Plan your site to encourage repeat useage by your potential and exisiting customers - if you don't your competitors will.
  
  
• Do not install visitor counters on your website page - they look cheap and it only tells your customers how few visitors come to your site.
  
  
• Give carefull thought to colour schemes and do not overly use extravagant colours like Red.
  
  
• If possible have your page content written by a specialist - and have them work with who ever is responsible for your Search Engine rankings - page text that supports your key words and search phrases is ESSENTIAL.
  
  
• DO NOT bring in and involve the traditional marketing and advertising agencies in either the planning or design of your website unless they have a demonstratable expertise and proven track record in online marketing. While they are undoutably very good in the field of off-line marketing and the traditional media channels, the vast majority are completely ill-equipped to advise about online marketing. A simple test is to try and find their own websites on the Search Engines without searching on their company name - and the results will speak for itself.
  
  
• ....and REMEMBER .....expensive is not necessarily the best!

  ...... Yes there is a lot to consider, and you should remember that your website is an investment that needs to provide you with a return on your investment.

So if you do not have the time to plan and implement your website and Internet strategy yourself, then give some serious consideration to engaging consultants to plan and overseee this for you. They in turn will safeguard your position by ensuring that you are not committed to expensive alternatives and options that you really do not need to achieve your objective.

Do we provide Website Design services?

                   .... No, we make no attempt to present or offer ourselves as website designers, but because we do employ them for an increasing number of our clients, we are adequately placed to make recommedations to a variety of professional and cost-effective alternatives, if you so desire. So contact us now!