The Secret To Outsourcing Web Design
“I need a web site.” How many times have we heard those words?
We try to explain – you need more than a web site, you need an online strategy. It includes a web site, probably a blog, a mail list, SEM/PPC/Local marketing strategy and more. Web design is just a small part of it.
However, if you are going to outsource your web design, it pays to know the difference between a web designer, print designer, graphics designer and online marketing firm.
A true web designer concentrates on many things:
- Clean code (e.g. layout using CSS instead of tables)
- Browser compatibility
- User interface (easy navigation, most important content where the viewers eyes go first, set the viewer on a predetermined path)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Landing page design – which can be different from overall site design
Depending on their ability in graphics, they should at least be able to tell you the header goes here, a picture goes here, and leave it up to a graphics designer to fill in the blanks.
We constantly tell our clients that you don’t need a web design that wins awards, you need a web design that converts traffic.
Understand that a good web designer needs to work with you on your goals and marketing strategy – they can’t just run off and come back with your new web site in a week or two.
They need to know your target market – is it young, old, rich, poor, male, female? Older visitors may need larger fonts, or at least the proper html coding to give them the option to increase font size themselves. Males and females generally should have completely different color schemes. The list goes on and on.
You, as a small business owner, have to have the knowledge of what exactly it is you are trying to achieve. The outsourced web designer has have the knowledge on how to achieve it.
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