After your site is complete, you could take over site maintenance, however, code may be sensitive to changes when not handled by the creator. When your website is created using a CMS (Content Management System) such as WordPress, adding, editing, and deleting content is easier. Visual themes that affect the appearance of your website may be more sensitive to edits not made by the original programmer, as different programmers have different ways of developing code. Some designs created by development companies may also be subject to copyright. A CMS will usually have a simple visual editor that is user-friendly. This editor is great for creating pages, blog posts, and other post types. There is also the option of hiring a design company to maintain your site, which will help prevent fatal errors in the code.
A CMS helping you edit information will help you streamline your content creation process, as you do not necessarily need to know HTML programming to create new pages or blog posts. With raw HTML, it is essential to know all the necessary code and processes for a web browser to read pages you create; lack of this knowledge may cause errors when attempting to make changes without the assistance of the company that developed the design, the difference in programming methods from individual programmers may also cause communication issues when adding new code to existing content.
While you may think there is no reason to have a website for your business simply because it is small, many things can come from a website for your business. For example, restaurants can use their websites to display menus and offer online ordering, enabling them to attract tourists who are searching for dining options in unfamiliar areas. This way, visitors can easily see available choices and learn about the restaurant’s offerings. For businesses that offer services, a website will allow you to showcase previous work for potential clients as a form of quality assurance. This can generate leads when paired with a contact form.
Having a website is a powerful tool for any business. You generate leads, showcase your work, and create blog posts to inform customers about details of your field. Creating content on your site, such as blog posts or videos, can engage with potential customers and build relationships over time. Your website is the final destination for any content you create elsewhere. Social media, online advertising, and marketing plans all lead to your website as the face of your brand. Having a single place to merge and branch off to your other content. Social media links on your site can add to your follower count, but linking your site on your social media can cause an influx of leads.
While running your brand exclusively from social media and an email address is possible, a website will help consolidate your clientele into an easy-to-navigate location. There is also the advantage of owning the content on your website; on social media such as Facebook and Twitter, your posts can be considered the property of the social media sites, which means your posts can be taken down and are subject to terms and conditions, leaving you subjectable to censorship. The content you post on a website you own is entirely your own.
To get your site to the front page of Google, you need to master SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Keywords and Phrases are vital to the success of your site in gaining traffic; pages dedicated to Local areas that you serve will also help people find your business. According to SEO.co, it takes anywhere from three to six months before your site will begin to reach the front page of google
Keywords are words search engines look for based on the search query input by users. Using these keywords in your page title or description will help your page appear in search results more often.
Creating pages for cities where you provide service is a great way to boost traffic for small businesses; by putting the city and state in your page title, search engines will suggest your page to local business searches. Using these pages to give examples of services you have completed in the areas will help build reliability for your brand.
When budget allows, paying for your result to appear at the top of the list may be a good idea. This is especially helpful for new websites. Paying for your site to appear at the top of the search results through Google Ads services. There is a consideration in comparing the cost to results based on your budget.
Google search results have a pattern that is typically followed. At the top of the search result will be Paid ADs. Next will be local map listings alongside a visual map with pinpoints for the listed businesses. Finally, regular results are ordered by what best matches keywords.
ADA, or The Americans with Disabilities Act, was initially instituted in 1990 to decrease discrimination based on different abilities. The ADA’s relation to the internet has a convoluted history since 2008. While it is not directly stated whether the internet falls under the ADA, it is often left to the courts to determine its application.
Title III of the ADA requires that every owner, lessor, or operator of a “place of public accommodation” provide equal access to users who meet ADA standards for disability. This includes individuals with vision or hearing issues.
To ensure compliance, making your site compatible with screen readers and having transcripts of important audio/video is essential.
Screen readers require proper Header nesting and order, and alternate text added to images. It is advised to avoid using images for large amounts of text. These rules also apply to PDFs and other documents on your site.
Including proper subtitles or transcripts for audio recordings and videos is also wise. For example, if you record and publicly release footage of executive meetings, you should have someone transcribe the conversations as they occur, similar to a court reporter.
The WGAG 2.1 standards (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) are guidelines that are followed by many major sites. Created by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), these guidelines help most people understand what is recommended to make the site most accessible to users on the internet.
The design process can vary in length based on the complexity of the design and how much content the site will have at launch. Different steps take different amounts of time, as well
Overall, the process takes approximately 6 to 7 months.
Some of the significant factors that will change the time required to complete the design process are the number of pages, the complexity of the design, and the amount of other clients the website design company has. If a large company with many clients is working on your website, it may take longer, as emergency repairs may draw attention away from your site. If you have many pages on your website, it will take longer to fill out all of the information into pages. The complexity of your design may increase the time spent developing it when you have many custom design items.
One of the most influential factors affecting creation time is the involvement of customer representatives. When a customer representative interacts on behalf of your company, it can lead to longer wait times for design changes due to additional layers of approval. The term ‘cut out the middleman’ is often used in this context to suggest bypassing such intermediaries to speed up the process.
Website design costs vary based on several factors. These include who creates the site, hosting services, and design complexity. One thing to remember is that programming is a complex process, and if a price sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
When creating a website, the cost of labor is the greatest expense. If you were to create a site yourself, the total cost could be $100-$3,000 or more. A simple custom design from a development firm can range from $5,000 to $30,000. Larger and more complex sites from professional firms can cost over $40,000.
You will need your website to live on a server somewhere. If you have a private server with high-traffic capacity, it will cost significantly less. There are also hosting companies such as Linode; a dedicated server for your site can cost as low as $36 per month. The more storage you require, the more you will have to pay. There is also the option of hosting the site yourself. Hosting your website on your own server can save you a great deal of money, but it will also come with the pitfall of being a tedious process with many steps.
The more complicated and detailed your design is, the more expensive it will be to create, as more hours will be spent refining the design.
Some E-commerce services, such as those offered by Shopify, may have additional costs. Checkout systems, order placement, label creation, and fulfillment are all added costs to consider when your website is being created. Many of these services may have free versions with premium versions that allow for fewer limitations.
While a sleek website design feels like it should last forever, everything becomes obsolete eventually. While there is no hard rule for how often you should redesign a website, it is suggested that you redesign it every 2-4 years. This depends on your budget and if your design depends on popular themes that will lose relevance more quickly than others.
Eventually, your design may become outdated or clunky as systems such as HTML and PHP versions update. Some features may also look old as new design trends emerge. Older designs may not be responsive to new technology. Mobile phones, for example, were not accounted for on websites designed before their existence.
When creating your website, it’s possible that the initial goal was to have something simple that works. After that, you may want to make a better visual design rather than focusing solely on function.
For your website design, you must provide content for your brand’s pages, photos, videos, and logos. While it is possible for some of this to be created for you, such as hiring writers for content creation, a personal touch helps the website become yours.
Your website will need content to display. This will usually be information about your brand, and any services or products you offer. You will usually write this. Blog posts can also be a great way to inform potential customers about your brand. These blog posts can be written by you or hired writers using other outsourcing methods.
While media is not a requirement, long walls of text will often lower engagement. Photos and videos help grab the attention of visitors to your site. Using stock photos or your own photos will help your site flow more smoothly.
As with most companies, the most memorable thing is their logo. Your logo as a focal point on your website will help customers recognize your brand. This logo can also act as a “home button” to take visitors back to the front page of your website.
We want your design to encompass your brand, and to do that; we ask you to provide a guide to what makes you stand out from the rest. Be it something as simple as your company colors or a graphic you use for everything important. Your site should be as unique as your business.
Your business’s website will become a major lead generator and a place to document past services you’ve performed. There are certain features such as contact forms, mailing lists, and CTAs (Call To Action)
The simplest way to gain leads for your business is to have a contact form on your site. Visitors who are looking to hire your services can contact you with the intent of scheduling a follow-up meeting with a representative.
Mailing lists can be created for potential clientele to subscribe to newsletters that announce sales, in-person demonstrations, and changes in business opportunities. Using analytic systems for your newsletters will also allow you a chance to change your appeal method.
CTAs (Call To Action) are buttons, graphics, or links that encourage visitors to actively contact you to do business with you. CTAs will usually lead to pages known as Landing Pages. As the name would imply, these pages are where your visitors will “land” after clicking on a CTA.
Having your phone number on your site with the directive of calling or texting whenever available gives potential clients flexibility in contacting you. It is still recommended that there are clearly listed calling times and a listed time zone, as the internet is available to all time zones, and your site will be visible 24/7
A live chat feature is a back-and-forth messaging system on your page, and it is usually operated by representatives who work for your company. It is important that your available hours be posted transparently so as not to cause visitors to become upset at the lack of response simply because your business has closed for the day
While live representatives are unavailable around the clock, having a chat bot as a digital representative can generate leads regardless of the time. Chat bots often act as an interactive form that visitors can fill out by responding to questions asked by your chat bot. Certain bots are also able to answer common questions with automated responses created by the owner of the website.
There are a great deal of factors in what images you are permitted to use on your site. To avoid issues, you should only use images you have the right to use. Public Domain, Stock Photos, and photos you own are acceptable. Stock photo sources such as BigStock have guidelines on how you are allowed to use their images. It is also essential to cite the sources for all public domain images as well. Copyright law is complex and requires great attention to detail to avoid violations.
Using Public Domain or “no copyright” images may have no copyright protection for multiple reasons.
Some images may never have had a copyright to begin with. This is frequently enacted by CC0 (Creative Commons Zero), which gives creators the option to waive copyright and Database Protection. CC0 can be considered as the “no rights reserved” alternative to the Creative Commons License.
Stock photos are photos that artists license out to anyone willing to pay the license fee. You can use it in any way approved by the licensing agreement. One advantage of using stock photos is the variety available. An important thing to note is that some photos have stipulations certain photos are used for “editorial use only” in these instances, you can use the photo for a publication like a newsletter or a blog, but you can’t use the photo for an ad or a home page.
Using your own photos means no concern for copyright as you own your photos. Having your own content also adds to the originality of your website.
Using images without license permissions can result in copyright infringement, resulting in fines that could result in penalties as high as $150,000 should the case go to court. The guilty party can be expected to pay all court and attorney fees, and the content containing the infringing images may also be seized.
When considering a redesign of an existing website compared to starting from scratch, you must consider what steps are already completed in the existing design. For an existing site you are trying to redesign, less content needs to be created, as your domain is already hosted on a server.
When redesigning an existing website, you can use your existing content as a framework for new content or even directly copy what is already created. Creating a new site also requires creating new content from nothing. It is recommended that you read through some of your existing content on your homepage and landing pages to make sure the language is up-to-date and refined.
If your website is already live and public, you already have your domain and hosting set up. New websites will require the purchase of a domain name and the setup of a hosting server.
SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization. In simple terms, it is the art of optimizing your pages to appear in search results for engines such as Google and Bing. SEO uses keywords and other identifiers to help increase your search engine rankings based on how search engines read your site to identify information relevant to search queries inputted by people browsing the internet.
In Google, the search results are usually ordered with paid advertisements at the top, followed by results produced via SEO, commonly referred to as “organic search results.” SEO is often used to increase the ranking of results in the order of these organic results. SEO is the content, keywords, on-page optimization, and semantic markup used to actively improve the ranking of pages in search engine results.
Search engines use several pieces of information to determine the results most relevant to the query given. These include page titles, keywords, content, links, and page structure. Page titles and content containing words and phrases related to the search query gain a higher rank than unrelated searches. Search engines also read page content to ensure relevance to the search engine’s query. Links to a page on other sites help gain authority (known as “PageRank” in Google) in the eyes of search engines. These links being located on pages already considered reputable add to this rank as well. Page structure factors are based on the quality of the HTML code included in the page’s structure; this will affect how well a search engine can read a page in search of keywords or phrases. Optimization focuses on improving these factors to increase rank in search engine results.
Many features can be added to your website to make it stand out above the rest. A “Hero” banner image at the top of your page featuring important information is a good way to grab the attention of your visitors. If your website is intended to generate business leads, you may wish to consider a feed of testimonials and reviews. You can also add a showcase of the services you provide.
Banner Images at the top of your pages can create a high-quality header for the content being viewed. Adding smaller images within content, such as blog posts, can help viewers visualize certain concepts.
Testimonials help potential clientele become aware of opinions from previous customers regarding services or products you offer. This will help you be seen as a reputable and trustworthy company.
Creating a showcase of your products is a great way to feature the most popular items in your online store. You could also use showcase feeds to present completed services for previous customers as proof of your work’s quality.
Videos are bright and eye-catching focal points for your website. The movement of a video pulls a visitor’s attention to your website. If you want your main point to come across in a way that is easy to digest, videos are a great way to do so.
When reading a blog, CTAs are a great way to draw a reader’s attention. CTAs are usually graphics in line with the text, placed between paragraphs. You can use a CTA to lead readers to more content focused on the same subject, or you can help inform readers of mailing lists, contact forms, or FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions).
Privacy laws such as GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, PCI DSS, and POPIA outline requirements for data collection and privacy protections on the internet.
GDPR laws require you to inform users of all cookies that are required and optional, as well as give them the option to opt in or out of non-essential cookies. Ensure you have a comprehensive privacy policy for your site.
Laws such as the ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) outline information about what is required to have your website accessible to individuals with vision or hearing issues. For example, a large image containing text cannot be read by screen reading programs used by those with vision impairments. Therefore, it is better to use text instead or add “ALT text” or alternative text, which is used to describe an image’s purpose.
Many digital customer data privacy laws regulate the e-commerce industry. It is essential to ensure the security of customer data, especially important information such as payment methods. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements to ensure that all companies process, store, or transmit credit card information in a secure environment.
Copyright Law uses three factors: the site’s appearance, the site’s raw code, and the site’s content. Be sure you own Digital Rights to all your images.
Spam laws are dictated by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, which the Federal Trade Commission enforces.
Many websites have legal disclaimers waiving them of liability in case of site misuse.
The website design process is often iterative, and the specific steps may vary based on the project’s size, scope, and the needs of the client or organization. Effective communication and collaboration among designers, developers, content creators, and clients are crucial to creating a successful website.
The first step in creating a website is to determine the purpose of the site. Your purpose must be defined as whether to sell a product, advertise a service, or inform the public. This is one of the most important steps, as it helps shape the way your site is designed.
After deciding what needs to be on the website, the content must be created. In the case of redesigning an existing website, this step is already completed; however, updating content to include more modern terminology is recommended.
Once the content is created, you must decide how it will look. Consulting with a designer will result in mockups that can be used as a frame of reference. Design planning includes everything from what font you use and colors to standout features to pull the attention of visitors
Once a design is created, content must be formatted to match the new design. This usually includes streamlining writing and updating headers. This makes sure your content will fit cleanly in your design from a visual standpoint.
The content is on the website at this step, and a design is prepared. Any code necessary to make content conform to the design is implemented. This is one of the longest steps to complete, as attention to detail is key to your success.
After all the design and coding is complete, the site is tested for functionality and quality. The process will return to the Development step if there are any major issues. If the site is functional and meets design criteria, the process continues with optimization.
The final step before launching the site is optimizing search engine information. This includes adding keywords to your page’s description for search engines such as Google to find pages from your site more easily. It will also make your site appear higher on the results list.
Once all checks are completed and optimization is in place, the site will be ready to launch. The site will become live and public for people to discover through search engines or direct links to your social media.
After launch, keeping up-to-date information will be a priority, as well as fixing errors that occur after updates are made. Plugins that help add functionality to your site may have occasional updates that require attention. These updates may occasionally cause errors with other site features.
The final step in the web design process is to market your website so the clientele knows of its existence. Making a social media post announcing the launch of your site, adding your site to business cards, and adding your site to your business’ Google Maps listing will all help your site gain traction.
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