Clearwater Web Design: Welcome
to the Wild West
Shopping for web
design in Clearwater,
or anywhere for that matter, is
sort of like buying gold from miners
in the wild west - if you don't
know what foolsgold looks like,
you could be in trouble. There is
no test to pass to call yourself
a web designer, and an individual
who doesn't have a lot of experience
might think he's a great one. In
other words, the miner might not
know what foolsgold is either.
So, how do you tell if you are
getting quality web design
in Clearwater? The fact
is that you won't know without learning
some things about web design, which
is the subject of another article.
This article is how to quickly make
sure you are dealing with the real
deal when you look for web design
in Clearwater, without having to
know a lot about the subject.
Clearwater Web Design Shopping
Principle 1
The first thing you can do is to
ask what steps are taken to ensure
the web site looks correct in different
browsers. While most people view
websites in Internet Explorer, many
visitors will be using Mozilla FireFox
or Safari. If you ask: "What
steps do you take to ensure that
the website looks good in different
browsers?" and the answer is
anything short of "We test
the finished web site in Internet
Explorer 6 and 7, Mozilla Firefox,
and Safari," this could be
a real red flag. Most amateur web
design in Clearwater is
only tested in one browser.
Clearwater Web Design Shopping
Principle 2
The second thing you can do is to
say this: "Explain to me in
laymen's terms what you will do
to make my site rank well in the
search engines." As you know,
if someone really understands something,
they can explain it in simple terms.
If the person claims they are going
to use "proprietary techniques"
that they can't reveal the nature
of, you might want to walk away.
There is nothing extraordinarily
proprietary about search engine
optimization, since any designer
can look at a web site and see what
has been done to it. In short, you
should walk away from this answer
with a good understanding of what
will be done. Some people will say
that the search engine optimization
is not included - again, I would
walk away. A comprehensive search
engine marketing plan should cost
money, but a basic search engine
optimization should be standard
for every site. When shopping for
Clearwater
web design, you can
always contact us for straight talk
on Internet marketing.
Clearwater Web Design Shopping
Principle 3
Ask about hosting. Ask what is included
in the cost. The average maintenance
burden for a web
design in Clearwater
is probably between 4 and 6 hours
per year. So, when someone wants
to sell you a maintenance plan that
includes 10 hours or 20 hours or
more per year (and charge a hefty
monthly fee for it) you would be
correct to be skeptical. Making
a simple text change to a site,
like changing the phone number,
might take less than 15 minutes.
Adding an entire page of content
can often be done in an hour or
less. When you first create a web
site, you may believe that you are
going to continuously update it,
but experience has shown us that
very rarely does anyone have time.
Besides, you don't want your web
design in Clearwater to be a burden
to you - it should help your business
and mostly take care of itself!
Ask if you can change your hosting
plan at any time, add or remove
maintenance at any time. Ask what
portion of the hosting fee is for
the maintenance on the site and
what portion is strictly for keeping
the site live and hosting the email
accounts.
In conclusion, I hope these principles
help you shop for a quality web
design in Clearwater. In addition
to these, of course its good to
rely on referrals from friends and
to look at the other sites the company
has done. One final thought is to
ask the company if the site in their
portfolio that you like is comparable
to what you will be getting. Some
designs cost much more than others,
so it is good to clarify this point.
Good luck!
