Why Hire a Website Designer

Why shouldn't you just purchase a cheapy software package and do your site yourself? Usually website DIY people neither understand the medium, how to adequately apply the software to best exploit it, or have the time to invest to find all this out. Whereas a Web designer is any individual who, through research, personal experience, time, effort, and perseverance have gained (or are actively gaining) an understanding of what is appropriate for the different styles of web sites that make up the world wide web. They are current on the world wide web consortium and the changing web standards. They know how different laws impact websites. They also know the differences between popular web browsers and how that impacts a site. And they don't buy into the latest fade "oh cool" because "cool" is soemtimes detrimental to getting good rankings in the search engines.

1. American's with Disabilites Act.

All website owners are required to make “reasonable adjustments” to ensure that it is reasonably easy for disabled people to make use of their website.

The guidelines within the W3C Website Accessibility Initiative (WAI) are widely accepted as the starting point for assessing accessibility.

Is a "do-it-yourselfer" going to know about this law and the applicable guidelines??? There are even some professional website designer that aren't familiar with what this means.

2. WC3 standards (XHTML road to XML).

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C's mission is:

To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.

W3C Develops Web Standards and Guidelines
W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines. Since 1994, W3C has published more than ninety such standards, called W3C Recommendations. This impacts what the latest browsers will incorporate and how website design and coding will have to adapt.

And so website designers/developers have seen a shift from simple HTML to XHTML + CSS which is a step towards XML (that is considerably more programer oriented). As a DIYer, do you know what you need to be building into your website for the future?

3. Dangers of Flash and "Cool".

Often DIY website builders want to look "cutting edge" and have a cool or awesome something-or-other they have seen somewhere on the web. What you may get away with on MySpace doesn't mean it is good design for your business page. The use of Flash technology is an example. The design may be beautiful, but the results in search engines can be horrible. What does it matter if few people actually visit your page. Your flash page hides your actual HTML code where search engines can't crawl the page. So, your homepage and main content pages may never get listed with some search engines. Some search engines are attempting to tackle this problem, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

Professional Website Designers should know that too much flash is detrimental. Sadly, I have met website designers that develop the entire site in strictly Flash, which means it is truly a miracle to get seen by the search engines. I am careful to provide flash only in areas that will keep you "search engine friendly". Also, that pesky American's with Disabilites Act and Web Accesibility issues make Flash an item you must know when to use and when not to use.

It is the designer's job to know what is appropriate for your audience and still present a professional image. Too often DIY webpage builders get carried away (multiple text colors, varying backgrounds and styles across pages, too much large bold type etc.) Being a Website Designer means, to me, that I attempt to utilize good graphic/art design as well as the technical side.

4. What is good design and functional

There are some basic or even standard designs that you may recognize as widely used. That is because they are good design and functional. New isn't always improved. I have seen some "package deals" were you get a website in 15 mintues by answering a few questions. The designs are different, even innovative until I look at the code behind it - since it is all template driven you don't see any code at all. Which means the search engines don't see the code either to index you for a search! And the same is true for "frames", search engines can't index them.

As a DIYer, are you aware of the millions, if not billions, in market research to indentify what are the most effective colors, what area of a page does a visitor notice most etc? What is the difference between a pretty nifty javascript menu and a DHTML menu? Besides the code, DHMTL is easier for search engines to "spider" to index your content.

In other words, it is a Website Designer's job to be aware of all these items and attempt to keep current on the many, many issues surrounding the deceptively simple act of putting a webpage or website together.

So, contact me now to get started on your page!!!