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Is a Human Web Developer Better Than a DIY Generator?

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Is your business in need of a website, but you don’t want to pay a ton of money for someone to help you build it? Do you think you can develop your own website that can help leverage your business successfully? You could try to build one yourself using an online DIY generator or you could hire a human web developer. Just remember, there are criteria that you need to look at when searching for either a web developer or generator.

  • Ease and Convenience of Use – The learning curve of the website creation and the technical knowledge associated in maintaining the visibility of your website tracks up sharply the more attractive and functional you want your website to be. It is easy to make a simple website, but it takes time, training, and experience to create an amazing website that will wow your customers. You should also think about how easy and convenient it is to update the site in the future. With a custom web backend, created by a web developer, you can easily manipulate content and add new information to your visitors.

  • Customization – Not all website generators can offer you the specific website customization you want. Many website generators use the same design over and over. Using a human web developer is one way to assure that you are different from all the other websites, even if you are offering the same products and services. Using a human web developer also allows for the specific customization of the site that you want.

  • Portability – How simple it is for you to hire a professional web developer that can offer some custom changes in your website? Do you want to choose another platform right after noticing your website not working out? You need to choose a website developer or generator that offers you with a portable website. Many website generators allow you to port your website out to other generators, but it might be difficult to export your site to your own hosting. Using a web developer who uses the latest coding standards, as well as open-source platforms, will ensure that another developer can work on the site later down the road.

  • Cost – While customization and value features are evident, a website developer might be more expensive than a DIY website generator. Looking into the fine print, you may see that many website generators charge monthly for their services. Over time, you may be paying more for that outdated and overused website template than you would with a custom website designed and developed by a human web developer.

These are just some of the common issues that you need to look into when selecting how you want your website built. This will help you to decide whether you want to hire a professional web developer rather than choosing do-it-yourself web generators.

Some of the other factors on why you should choose a human web developer over a DIY site generator:

  • Saves Time, Money and Effort

If you will carry out the website development all by yourself, then you might spending all your time, money and effort on it, but you might still be dissatisfied with the design of your website. With a web developer, you are assured that your website design will be done by a professional. All you have to do is to just sit back, relax and wait. They will be the ones responsible in creating and designing your website depending on your demand. This may save you a lot of time, money and effort since you will no longer need to spend all your time on web development and design.

  • User-Friendly Systems

Making edits and changing designs on your website is still difficult on do-it-yourself web generators, in spite of their touted “ease-of-use.” If you want to change some colors, fonts and images, web developers will just apply some of the necessary changes in just a simple click. At Design Web, we try to build user-friendly custom backends as well in order to allow for users to make changes and post content on their own. This is something you may not find on DIY website generators.

  • In House Support and Features

Web developers can offer in-person training, as well as quick support in the event of an emergency. Try calling up one of the DIY websites for help when your site goes down. You might be on hold for a while. Having a person to go to, with a personal phone number or email, is definitely the way to go if you need ongoing support.

  • Unique and Highly Visible Website

If you want something that is extremely different from all other websites found in the web, then you will need the service of a web developer. DIY Generators only offer templates of sites that may be identical to yours. You will definitely need a human web developer when you want something that is more complex than what DIY web generators can offer.

  • Solid Knowledge and Skills About the Internet

If you find email, Facebook or other social media accounts confusing or hard to manage, then turning to do-it-yourself web generators is simply not the best option for you. Switching to professional web developers for their basic skills and knowledge regarding the internet will help you learn more about the process as well. You will be able to ask a human web developer questions about their expertise and learn more about how web sites are built and managed. Human web developers can also work directly with you to make sure that your website is search engine optimized so your website will be visible on search engines. This is important for business owners who want to market their products and services on Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

Professional Web Developers Can Offer More

Business owners should not rely on the traditional way of marketing and advertising. With more and more people using the internet to research businesses, you want to make sure that you establish a foothold with a custom website. You might be missing some of the most profitable leads for your business by not having a website.

Despite of the fact that do-it-yourself web generators are cheap and simple, professional web developers still have a big edge over them. So, if you want your website to become more visible and more appealing to all, then don’t hesitate contacting a professional web developer, like the guys at Design Web! We can help make sure you have the best design, best development, and best SEO, and that your site stands out from your competitors.

Your Small Business Needs a Website NOW!

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Think of the last time you had to look for a business name or phone number. Did you peruse through the phone book and magically know which category to use for your search? Most likely, you visited Google, entered your city’s name and what you were looking for to find what you needed. What if the kind of business you were looking for did not have a website, but rather a Google+ page or a vague entry in some online directory? Would you contact that business, or would you look for a business that had a nice, clean website that provided all the information you wanted instantly and from the comfort of your home or office? Like it or not, that is the reality of being in the 21st century; customers simply search online to find business information and their offerings. This means that small businesses without websites are left out.

A website can be one of the most important things you can do for your small business. An online presence can be the most cost-effective, yet powerful manner to reach more customers and increase profits. If you are a small business without a website, you simply can’t do business in the modern age without an online web presence.

Increased Credibility

A business without a website, no matter how professional their physical location may look, will feel cheap, untrustworthy and seemingly appear stuck in a bygone era. If your business can’t invest the money into web development, then don’t expect customers to frequent it. The unavailability of a website doesn’t only put into question a business’ spending priorities, but it also raises major concerns about the effectiveness and innovation of management.

Furthermore, a business’ web design should correspond with the costs of products and/or services offered. Websites are normally a customer’s introduction into the small business. A shabby, outdated 1999 law firm website won’t get as many new customers as one with a vibrant and modern looking website. Having a professional looking, high quality website is vital for any small business seeking to make a good and lasting first impression.

Cheap Advertising

Every business, whether large or small, needs to advertise. Even local businesses that sell their products to local customers need an online strategy that balance with paper-based marketing campaigns. Just imagine being able to distribute flyers with unlimited space for pictures and text, that is what your website should be. Comparing the cost of a professionally developed website to traditional print advertising, you are reaching a much larger market share for a smaller cost.

Let us look at a practical example of tires in a local auto repair business. If that business doesn’t have a website, it would rely on word-of-mouth advertising, as well as pricey coupon campaigns for discounted tires. Potential customers would wonder what the business offers exactly – does it only replace tires? Does it do oil changes? And will work be under warranty? Having a website will allow the business to list the products and services it offers, including pictures and prices.

Get More Customers

A website can also make advertising through word-of-mouth extremely easy. Without the presence of the web and social media, telling friends about your business can be difficult. Today, websites encourage users to tell others about visits reminders and pop-ups to “like” their brand or “share” a link. The amount of potential online referrals and social media shares is just too much to pass up for any small business looking to gain an edge over competition.

Many small businesses believe that a simple Facebook page is enough for an online presence. While such a fan page may have essential information, like operating hours and directions, it is a clumsy method to communicate with customers. Not only are there many people without Facebook accounts, excluding potential customers, a Facebook page just doesn’t have any distinguishing features. If a child care center’s only online presence is on Facebook, it would just be another day care lost in a sea of Facebook pages. By having a modern child care center website, they will be able to bring in new clients from other market segments.

Be Convenient, and Beat the Competition

Having a website when none of your competition does is a good way of increasing your customer base. Just imagine 40 years ago when you were the only print business in the area with a phone number. The other print companies will focus on printing and coming up with better products at lower prices. Now, if you were the only business that people could call for more information; any customer who’s faced an inconvenience will be forced to call and come to you.

The same thing applies in today’s modern world, but this time with the internet, and not the phone. Forcing customers to get in touch with you through means that inconvenience them is a sure-fire recipe of losing them. Having a publicly listed email address and quick replies is essential. Many people want to be able to see answers to their questions, which you can provide on your detailed, up-to-date website. While many small business owners will believe that they don’t have the time for web design, web development or web management, not creating time for one will be detrimental to your business objectives and you might as well not have the business at all.

All Day, Every Day

While many brick and mortar businesses have opening and closing hours, as well as a traditional work schedule, with a website, customers will be able to view your product offerings any time of the day and at their own schedules. If you have an online store, people can buy your products anytime of the day, from any part of the world.

Bottom Line

It is unfortunate knowing that even today, many small businesses still don’t have websites. Statistics estimate that 46 percent of the 28 million small businesses in the U.S. still do not have websites. Get an edge over competition by getting the services of a qualified and experienced web design service in Louisville, like Design Web. We can provide a web site for your business for less than $1000 and in less than a week. Contact us today for a quote!

Boost Your Local Marketing With Yelp, Google+ Local and Foursquare

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

With the advent of social media, we have seen a drastic transformation in the way businesses operate. Small and medium businesses need to keep their eyes peeled for changing trends and should be able to adapt and cash in on the newest and best techniques. A strong virtual presence is essential for any business to taste success. From building an attractive and functional website, to fortifying bonds with customers through social media marketing, many techniques can be adopted to further sales and business. Yelp, Google+, Foursquare, and similar sites are fantastic for small businesses to attract new, local customers while sustaining relationships with the existing ones. Here are few pointers on utilizing these sites for your advantage.

Stamp Your Presence

The primary focus is for you to stamp your virtual presence. Google+ is pretty much mandatory for its 250 million odd users. It serves as a great platform to showcase your business. From creating an alluring about us page and posting videos, photographs and links of your products and business achievements to adding content that is SEO friendly to show up on Google searches, a lot can be accomplished with your Google+ profile page.

Similarly Foursquare is a great avenue to attract local customers. A simple listing on its site with relevant business profile and product or service descriptions, contact details and web links along with product pictures and value additions that make your business unique can serve to attract not only local customers but also guests and visitors from other locations.

Ensure Your Audience Hears Your Yelp!

Yelp is a great platform to obtain customer feedback. Check for existing feedback from present customers. If you already have entries on your profile, you can work with social media mentors to continue and improve your online marketing strategy. If there are minimal or no entries, it is time to rethink your strategy. You can have a company, like Design Web, manage your social media profiles for you if all this is too much. If you intend to use Yelp, then ensure that your target audience is on board. If so, claim your profile and add requisite information and profile details to enhance customer interaction.

Connecting And Monitoring

Google+ is a great way to bond with your customers and launch special events and promotional campaigns directly. This will not only ensure their active participation but will also help you gather your impact and popularity among the public.

Yelp reviews will certainly help you monitor the progress and success of your products and campaigns. Positive reviews can be factored in to direct resources to specific areas while negative reviews will help you change track before it is too late.

Watch Competition

To succeed in business, you need to know what your competitors are up to at all times. The best way to gather accurate information is to constantly monitor their activities in these sites while changing your strategies to race ahead of them.

Providing back links to drive site traffic, optimizing your content for SEO, updating content to reflect trends, and responding to positive and negative comments with care and sincerity is sure to give your business an extra boost. The team at Design Web in Louisville, with our multi-dimensional approach to web design and media profile development, is equipped to give our business just that!

3 Awful Web Design Choices To Avoid

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Right now, millions upon millions of websites are being published online. They are all being put up by people that think that they have a good grasp of internet engineering in one way or another. Whether it’s the DIY crowd or starting web development students trying to put together a portfolio piece for their first major design undertaking, the web publishes millions of sites every hour. Within the many sites, you’ll find that people still use 3 terrible design choices and they don’t realize that it’s going to cause a great deal of pain for the end user to navigate their page. The following are just a few of the crimes that designers commit, and you should avoid.

Auto play Video/Audio

This is a standard on a lot of sites, and it not only gets annoying, it can ruin someone’s day at work. Many times people are trying to find information, and they have their speakers on. If you auto play a video you will not only force the loading time on a page to increase, but you will shock a person trying to get information from your page. Auto playing videos is not only annoying, it serves no immediate reason.

Mystery Meat Navigation

The navigation of a site has to be overt. You cannot hide it, don’t think you’re doing anything new or artistic. Have a distinct hierarchy of where to go on your website, or you will have a revolt on your hands. Mystery meat navigation may not be something new, but it’s every so important to the structure of your website. It’s this basic mistake that is made all the time, and it’s annoying.

Lay Off Flash and Shockwave

There’s nothing wrong with FLV files, but if you post a lot on one page, and then force a browser to work with Shockwave as well, you’ll find that your website will become a scourge for those that are surfing the net. You also run the risk of alienating mobile clients who are unable to view Flash or Shockwave on their devices.
These awful web design choices are just a few starting points. There is a lot of other infractions that you will want to avoid, especially when it comes to putting up a personal, business or affiliate marketing site. The above are egregious errors in the world of web development and design and if you want to get more attention through SEO and other marketing means, you’ll need to remember not to do the above.

Is Custom Web Design Dying? – The End of Professional Web Design

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

There was a time when people had to build their own website, or at least hire someone to craft a good site. However, pundits are saying that the customized web design approach is going the way of the buffalo. Is this in fact true? Is web development and design a thing of the past? There is certainly a lot of evidence to point towards that. Could be that the evolution of HTML, CSS, and other things are starting to be so simple that no one needs professional grade help? Or is it that consumers have no idea what they want, until they see it in action? Emulation is starting to take over in some instances, and while that may seem unethical, designers are bending to consumers that are going to pay, and as you may know, standing your ground may not pay the bills.

The Most Important Factors of Design For Websites Today

If you look at what consumers want, and the desire of web users, in terms of important web design choices, you’ll find that a majority will want a site that works. If it works, even if it’s a minimalist design, they’ll want that over a nice looking, attractive and cutting edge digital experience. This is a complete shift from Flash-heavy web design, and splash pages that hit the web in a few years past. Function over fashion is what you should adhere to as a designer. Thinking more like a UX designer instead of a graphic designer will help benefit your client’s web experience. If a site works, if information is garnered with ease, and sales are made, then what’s the point of flashy design work? That’s the kind of questions developers are struggling with right now.

The Saturation of Themes

Don’t give up on custom HTML and CSS designs just yet. You will find that with the over saturation of themes, templates and more, you will want to edit things yourself. The theme “game” is getting a lot of web designers and developers paid to work on a variety of things moving forward. Theme designers push out so much code in a mass-marketed, conveyer belt style that you will not be able to compete with on a technical side.

Learning to edit, modify, and build a template within a CMS like WordPress, Drupal or Django. That’s where knowing HTML, PHP, Javascript, and CSS comes in handy. You may not build a site from notepad up, but you will definitely be editing code over and over again to get it just right.

The Evolution of WYSIWYG Framework

In the past, you needed to get programs like Dreamweaver to build sites. Today, you just need to set up a free account at one of the many dot-coms that are reselling simple hosting plans on the backbone of WYSIWYG editing solutions. That means that you will be able to edit, build, and even use images on a fast paced solution.

The problem here is that things are closed off, limited, and don’t have much in the term of customizations.

Is Custom Design Dead?

The answer is no. While some will decry the death of programming, design, and more, you’ll find that if you learn CSS, HTML, PHP, and figure out how to customize templates, you will always find work. People may like templates, just like purchasing cars of the same color, but customization is still something that they’ll want, and it is beneficial on many levels. It’s not enough to be tech savvy nowadays; learning code, and editing by hand will come in handy more often than not. If you aren’t ready to learn code, and don’t want to use the same-old, cookie-cutter template solution, then contact us at Design Web and we can create a fantastic site for you.

Mobile-First vs. Desktop-First

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Over the years, websites have become even more important to the success of a business. Even the most expensive, high reaching newspaper ad could never hope to bring you this number of leads. It makes sense that the internet is quickly becoming one of the most powerful and popular places to advertise your business. However, web design itself is a vicious beast. For business owners, it sounds like a foreign language and is hugely confusing to try and understand during the process of actually buying a website. For a web designer, getting the right design and style is absolutely imperative to completing the job properly.

A question which is regularly being asked these days by web designers is whether the client would like to have the website designed mobile first, or desktop-first. Business owners might not see the importance of this, but this is a MASSIVE part of the design process.

Responsive websites became a huge thing a few years ago and to combat the change in the way people viewed the internet as whole, responsive sites were introduced. Rather than have a dumbed-down mobile site and a complex desktop site that does not work with mobile devices efficiently, designers started to create websites that can automatically edit their width and height, so they show up efficiently on desktop or mobile devices.

But what is the best order to create the websites in? Can there be any problems from doing it the other way around?
Mobile-First

Mobile first design is fairly simple – you start the process by creating the mobile version first. Unlike normal mobile sites, no information or detail is being omitted from the design. It’s much easier for a business to take the mobile site and make sure it translates properly.

The flipside is that only 25% of users are only checking the web via mobile. This number is growing, so keeping the mobile crowd in mind can help your website gain attention while people are out and about. If you have a business that also has physical location, a mobile website is definitely needed.

However, starting with the mobile version means that sometimes you need to omit features you would liked to have had. For example, flash videos can be a big no-no for websites on mobile devices at the moment as lots of devices struggle to load them outside of direct platforms like YouTube. When you start with a mobile-first design, you are more progressive. You will add small increments as you go, which can stop your website from becoming overwhelming to the user.
Desktop First

Desktop first websites have been the standard for many years. A desktop based site will usually have more features and additions than a mobile website. The temptation is there to go crazy and add lots of features to the overall design and finish. Once your desktop site has all its bells and whistles, how do you then turn that into a mobile version?

A site with too much going on will be hard to translate into a mobile site and if the mobile version is dumbed down, it can make it look like an afterthought rather than an equal share. This is quite a common perception of less feature heavy mobile websites. Whereas with a mobile first design, you may find yourself adding more as you go, a desktop first design can have you chasing your own tail, removing things to make the site optimal for both desktop and mobile.
So What Are You Saying?

Aside from our back and forth arguments, it’s certainly easier to come from a mobile-first range. This gives you the chance to build something cool, efficient and minimalist. You can stop information overload or looking too eager very easily with this type of design ideal. It’s definitely easier to build a minimalistic, but cool view and then add more to it as you go than create something with ten layers of information, but no scalable strategy for the future. At Design Web we can build your site with mobile-first design and make it look nice on all devices.

The CSS Position Element

Author: Sean H. Website Facebook Instagram LinkedIn

Learning a programing language, especially one created for website design, can be a real challenge. There are many small, but important, things to keep track of, as well as counterintuitive laws that have to be mastered.

One problem that many people run into when learning to code CSS styles, is the difference between absolute CSS positioning, fixed CSS positioning and relative CSS positioning. This can be particularly difficult for those just learning web design or development, with little prior coding experience. Below is a guide to help you figure out the difference between absolute, fixed, and relative, as well as their implications in web design.

Absolute Position

Of the two, the absolute CSS position element is normally easy to understand. Absolute tells the browser that whatever comes next in positioning should be placed in a particular position on the page. This removes it from the normal flow of the document. This will not interfere with other elements of the webpage positioning.

By writing the command, you guarantee that it will always display in a certain position on the site, regardless of what happens with the rest of the web page. This has a number of functions in web page design, and can lead to creative and unique design ideas.

Normally, absolute coding has four directional positioning elements tied to it; left, right, bottom, and top. When putting in the distance from the edges, remember that it is an offset.

Relative Position

Like absolute position, relative position also uses the four directional positioning elements, top, bottom, left, and right, but it uses them in a different way. The primary difference is that relative position is based not on the browser view port, but is rather in the normal flow. This means that it will be located within the normal flow of whatever document you are working in, just offset from the boundaries of containing element. This keeps everything within the normal flow of the document. As a result, relative position is perfect for web development that wants to keep everything centralized but spaced appropriately.

A Mix of Both

By knowing the difference between relative and absolute positioning within CSS Styles, you gain added technical knowledge in how to properly align and space various elements in a webpage. You can use relative and absolute positioning together. When an absolutely positioned element is nested within a relatively positioned element, the child element will be positioned within that parent element. When taking a look at other people’s websites, take a note at the various elements involved, and see if you can figure out if the relative or absolute positioning is used. Finally, the best thing you can do is to play around with the formatting options, and learn through experience what the difference looks like when practically applied.

Fixed Position

Unlike absolute and relative positioning, fixed positioning is based upon your browser window. If you set an element to a fixed position, it will stay in that position, even when you scroll. Some examples of this fixed positioning are sticky headers that follow you down the page or a sidebar that stays on the side of your browser as you scroll.

There are many other types of CSS position attributes, but these tend to be the most widely used. If you are still having trouble wrapping your head around using these elements, give us a call or write an email and Design Web will help out with any of your web development or web design needs.