Oklahoma Web Design Company iLab New Media » business image

Why should I pay for custom design when there are cheaper alternatives?

Andy Ward — Tue, 04 May 2010 15:21:47 +0000

A custom designed website is not for everyone. A person would want a custom designed website for the same reasons you might buy an expensive suit for business meetings or for the same reasons you might work hard to make your office clean and presentable, because you want to present a professional, successful business image.

Template based websites always tend to look like templates and are often rough around the edges. For a small business just starting out, or when marketing budgets are extremely tight or nonexistent, one of these free or low cost websites is probably the best solution.

For the growing business looking to make a good impression on potential customers, a custom designed website is among the best, and certainly among the cheapest, marketing investments you can make.

A really great web design must…

Andy Ward — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:21:33 +0000

Creating a great web design is a balancing act between many varied and sometime contradictory elements. A website needs to please different groups of people and accomplish several functions at the same time. It combines left-brain, logical thinking and right-brain, artistic thinking. The average user or even owners of websites have little knowledge of what all goes into a truly great website, therefore I have compiled a list of the different things a website must accomplish to be considered great.

Look good – This goes without saying and is the part you probably already knew. A good looking website portrays a positive image for the business it represents.
Work on a wide variety of the most popular browsers and operating systems – Every web browser will render a page slightly different, there are also mobile phones, video game consoles and other odd platforms to think about.
Be easy to navigate – the end user must find the site easy to get around in and not confusing or they will go to the competition.
Achieve it’s goals – Whatever the site was intended to do, be that getting potential clients to call or producing online sales, the site needs to be designed to naturally interest visitors and funnel them towards that goal.
Play nice with search engines – Almost any site will benefit by better search engine ranking. So another thing the website must do is make it easy for the search engine spiders to index the content of that site.
Be easily maintainable – At some point every site will need updates, a well put together site will be created with updates in mind using includes, comments in the code and clean, easily readable HTML.
Load quickly – Obviously, yet it is often not made a priority in web design.

There are many other things a website needs to do, but these are the big ones in my opinion. These are the items that separate the men from the boys in web development, the lowest bidder is most likely not going to nail these points. Likewise a person trained in traditional graphic design will not have all the skills necessary to create a great website, it takes someone who understands the intricacy of website design, someone who understands things like:

graphic design
cross-browser and cross-platform website compatibility
information architecture and web usability principles
search engine optimization techniques
W3C HTML standards
server side scripting languages
image optimization

A really great website has to look good, work across all browsers and platforms, be easy to navigate, achieve it’s goals, be fully indexable by search engines, be easy to maintain and load quickly, among other things. Creating a website that can do all these things requires a wide variety of skills that you won’t find at every business offering web design services.

Why Your Business Needs a Website

Andy Ward — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 04:46:32 +0000

A web site is one of those things that a business often puts off until the last, and then only after pondering whether they would rather have a web site or a second fax machine. Yet some of these same companies will spend the price of a website on marketing every month, all the while doing without the most powerful marketing tool they could have, a web site. I’m here to tell you that a truly profitable and successful website is within your grasp. Does your business need a website? Any business can profit from a well thought out, professional website, some types of businesses more than others, but all can profit from a good website.

Set your skepticism aside for a moment as we lay out 10 reasons your company needs a website.

It will promote your business 24 hours a day.
It present a professional business image.
It allows you to quickly and inexpensively communicate with customers and business prospects.
It can provide 24/7 customer service and support.
It will allow your business to reach out to customers around the world.
It will help build your brand.
It can provide product information to interested ones anywhere, anytime.
It can sell product or services for you while you’re asleep, or playing golf or whatever.
It will save you time and money; no printing and mailing out information, instead direct them to your website, fewer phone calls for orders or trivial information when these things are available on your website.
It will give you and edge on your competition.

These are just the basics though, the possibilities are endless, what could your business do with online collaboration, event management or online data management applications? Think about showcasing your best work on your website, or having an email newsletter to keep customers and prospects informed on your latest sales and services offered. Does your business need a website? Well, does your business need more customers, does your business need happier customers, does your business need to save money on marketing materials and mailings?