Professional Web Design is Essential for Small Business

The Importance of a Professional and Creative Web Design

No matter what business you are in or what your courses, a professional web design can bring the spirit of your movement to life for your visitors. When your visitors see exactly what you want them to see, the chances of converting them into a sale will greatly improve. If you want a website that is guaranteed to impress your visitors and make them feel welcome, then a professional web design is the only choice.

 

A professionally done web design is meant to draw visitors in and retain their interest. The goal of all talented designers, is to make sure that when a visitor visits your site, the information that you want to convey is most prominent and easily accessible. This way, your potential customer leads are better converted into proper sales.

The best professional web designers will be fully committed to ensuring their clients exceptional craftsmanship and responsive customer service. If you want a web design that is guaranteed to impress your customers, you must work with professionals who think like salespeople but live as artists. Web design is an art that some designers take very seriously, so when they take on any design large or small, they will approach it with the same determination.

 

Finding Talent that is Affordable is Possible!

There are many examples of talented designers, but they tend to be the most expensive choices. So how can small business owners with a limited budget find such designers, that they can afford? The problem is it takes time to find talented teams or individuals and the screening process can be trying. However, sometimes you luck out and find a truly talented company that will handle all of your online marketing needs.

 

Why limit your Search Area? In the age of the Internet?

People often search locally for web designers, but there really is no good reason other than vanity. Some people simply must be held by the hand in person or must be made to feel important, especially when spending money. But unless you are spending thousands on a complex design that may take weeks or even months, you really have to lower your expectation of being served like royalty. Also don't forget, websites reside on the Internet, which is worldwide! It really makes common sense to employ based on skill and not location.

 

A small business web design is not something that needs to be terribly expensive and it does not need a four hour face to face meeting with a local company. You will have a better chance at finding a talented and affordable web designer if you do not limit your search to local areas only. It is best if you look all over the country, sometimes even all over the world.

 

While sometimes it is easy to find good talent locally, such as in the big cities which have highly competitive markets. Like when looking for New York web designers, or designers in other major places of commerce. It is still best to look all over to find the most talent at the most affordable rates!

Responsive Web Design is Important to Business

The number of people using mobile phones and other gadgets to access the Internet is rapidly increasing. When you have a Smartphone, you can easily browse any website for as long as you have wifi connection or 3G.

The problem with the current online trend is that many websites cannot accommodate online users who are using mobile phones and other devices. A website that was designed and created for desktops, might encounter problems and errors when viewed with smaller screens.

As such, you need to ensure that you have a website that functions well both in desktop and mobile gadgets. If you are just starting to create your own website, you should look for a web designer who is well versed with creating "responsive" websites. This feature makes it possible for your website to display nicely no matter the size of the screen.

 

With responsive web design, it doesn't matter whether you want to accommodate mobile users who are using an Android, iOS, Windows, Bada, etc. You will not have any problem with the look and the compatibility between your website and the device. That is why you hire a professional web designer, to ensure that your site will run properly in all major browsers and devices.

Once you have a website that can be easily accessed, even by a person who is using a mobile phone, you won't have to worry about missing any potential visitors. In turn, this allows you to gain more online exposure and sales!

White Hat SEO and Why it Works

People often become confused when it comes to search engines and how website optimization works. Not too many people truly understand the value of Search Engine Optimization. Some who understand it at least a little bit, tend to believe that it is just all about on-page optimization and then the search engines naturally find the website and rank it based on their on page writing. While others believe that sending a massive amount of "quick and easy" link types will get the page to rank. This is what's known as "Black Hat SEO" and it is a popular method of backlinking to websites in order to rank them.

The problem with Black Hat SEO, is that it is a gamble and can negate any efforts done to rank higher in the search engines. Sometimes websites that use Black Hat SEO are de-indexed (in other words; taken completely out of the search index results!), making it impossible to get any exposure from search traffic. The gamble is fast becoming stacked more and more in favor of the search engine companies. Long gone are the days where just on-page SEO and a few blog comments or forum signatures could rank a page in the number one search engine spot.

Why mass linking is worthless today

It seemed that just a few years ago you could get away with throwing all kinds of automated backlinks at a page and get it ranked high in the search engines. Well that may have been so, but no longer does this quantity over quality black hat methodology work. While there may still be hundreds of mass linking tricks and automated tools being sold, they are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

 

Even if some of these shady methods still work in one way or another, they simply cannot keep a website on top for long. More and more people are realizing the need for quality backlinking methods and practices, and even the tools of the SEO industry are changing to reflect this fact. It may not be a bad idea to use an automated program to create a large number of accounts, but to use an automated tool to post spun garbage content is just counterproductive these days.

 

The search engines like fresh and unique writing

As search engine technology gets more and more sophisticated and intelligent, the need to produce quality content for your backlinking campaign is increasing. The modern search technology can detect and flag content that is poorly written or copied from somewhere else. And that technology is getting better by the day. What that means, is that the need for quality niche relevant content linking to your website gets greater as the technology advances.

 

Web designers, SEO experts and even the average business owners are beginning to recognize the need for quality and informative written content across their networks and on their own websites. People are beginning to understand the logic of search engine placement. If a website is really dedicated to something, it deserves to be seen by people who are searching for that thing. It just makes sense, but that does not make the task of Search Engine Optimization any easier.

 

 

Why White Hat SEO works so well

The reason that White Hat SEO is so successful, is because it is all about quality writing and proper linking strategy. It is quite clear that it is just a matter of doing the right thing, giving search engines and people what they want. When you create a supporting property such as a web 2.0 blog, a Squidoo lens or an industry targeted article, it must be something worth reading, (like this blog!). If the written content is not informative or entertaining or if it has no real value to readers, it will also pose no value as a backlink. However, if the writing is well done and helpful to the readers, any links within it will be quite helpful in pushing your target website up in the search ranks!

 

Quality written content wins the race

No matter what industry you are in, you want to be the leading company within it. in order to do that, you must create quality and brand trust. The same is true of your website and internet brand image. If poorly written, useless content points to your website, what does that say about your company? You absolutely must have trust these days in business! With technology giving everyone the means to easily research and learn, you need to keep a clean brand reputation. Utilizing quality White Hat SEO Services, to rank your website will benefit both your ranking and your brand image.

Time is Money Friend!

Have you ever heard the phrase "time is money"? Well it is a very true statement obviously, but how does it apply to services? Web design services, in particular.

Web Design Costs

When you are looking to have a website developed for your business, you have a specific idea in mind. You have ideas about the look, what it will showcase, what you want to say about your product and your company. You should also have a pretty good idea of how you want it to operate and what features it should have.

Generally, most small business owners simply want an attractive place to showcase their products or services, their facilities and their staff. They want a place to put their contact information, pictures, videos, location and maybe even the directions to their location. The "About Us" page is another must have.

Then you have to be able to log in and easily change things about your site by yourself. That requires a well made Content Management System (CMS), which acts like a simple word processor (like Microsoft Word). This allows you to edit the writing, picture and video content of your website, without harming the visual appearance or formatting of the website.

So What about the cost?!
By now you are probably already thinking that all of that stuff above is going to amount to some serious cash! However, that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, all of the essentials to an attractive and functional website for small business should cost, is about 3 to 4 hundred dollars depending on number of graphical revisions and quality.

Now that may sound pretty cheap and it is, but that is for the absolute minimum website design and implementation possible. More premium graphics and functionality will start at a higher cost, even at the base price.

The Different levels of Web Design

Believe it or not, there are a few different levels of professional web design. The starter level is that which uses widely available open source Content Management Systems along with custom graphics work to deliver a unique website for a rock bottom low price. The next level up is to use those same systems but with edited extension code, it saves time on mid level features. Then the highest level of web design, which is fully custom coded from the ground up systems and feature sets.

The three different levels also have their own price ranges that depend on graphical complexity and time spent on developing their unique features. Now, this may all seem pretty daunting to a novice, but it is how real developers come to price quotes for their customers. It is only complicated to the developer, the customer need only explain exactly what they desire and await a quote on the work!

The bottom line
So what does this all mean to me as a customer? It means that when you know what you want and can articulate that to developers, and when you find talented web developers, you will enjoy the most affordable quotes possible. The bottom line is that knowledge is power, you can use this knowledge to get better prices on all of your website needs!

Web Design With Consideration for Search Engine Traffic

When people think of web design the first thing that they think of is a brand logo and graphics. The next thing they think of is functioning and how the end user interacts with the website in question. Rarely do people understand things such as hosting and domain names, let alone the consideration of keywords and SEO. People take for granted that just having a website will be enough exposure itself. But where is the exposure?

Think of the Internet as a series of streets for a moment. How vast would that area be if each was a storefront? Imagine your own website, off somewhere in some dark alley, how will patrons get to it? That real world example is the same logic put into having a website with absolutely no regard for ranking in search engines.

The Importance of Keywords to Online Commerce

As a business owner, before even thinking of creating a website, you need to be thinking about Key Words! When you have a website designed it is not only about "looks and function", it is the time to think about on-page content and the keywords that you want to target. It is not rocket science, it is simple customer relations. Who is my market and what are they searching?

If your website is about the color red, will you write content about the color blue? Will you target colors other than red? Why would you do that? So the same mentality must apply to creating a web presence for your business that targets your market properly! You need to go after keywords that your potential customers are typing into the search engines. More importantly the keywords need to be targeted to sell. For example: "emergency car repair" or "fast extermination service". This is what people who are eager to buy will be typing. Can you think of anything like that for your business?

Beginnings of Market Research

Keyword research begins with understanding your market better. No matter how much you know about your current market, if you aren't already successful online, you need to know more. The only way to do that is to do some hardcore online market research for your particular industry. Now, if you don't understand how to do market research for the business you are in, let me happily be the first to tell you (or at least the loudest!), that you don't belong in that business! In fact I would wager that you don't belong in ANY business, with an attitude like that!

The bottom line is simple, you need to understand your market and your clientele in order to be successful in any business. So before starting down the road of Internet marketing, please make sure to do your market research! Build your website and its content around the keywords that you want to target, those are the people who are looking for your service or product! Don't neglect them by being out of their sight, or your business will never take off.

 

Putting Market and Keyword Research to use in Web Design

So by now you are probably worried about just how much work this all sounds like and how complicated it is.

Well, you have a choice:

• You can either shy away from Internet marketing altogether and miss out on the extra exposure and sales.
• Or you can study your own industry, market and niche, and learn what you need to know to succeed.
• Or lastly, you can hire professionals in the first place who can guide you through all of this, before designing and launching your website!

For anyone with half a brain, the choice is quite simple. Hire the right web developers who not only build good looking websites, but who know the importance of keyword research and SEO. Developers who understand that research of the market and keywords, should always come before the actual web design! Considering search engine traffic as a major foundation of your website design, is the first step in a successful online marketing campaign!

Welcome to the Professional Web Design New York Blog!

Welcome to Professional Web Design New York! This blog is intended to be a place to express our experiences with designing websites for local New York businesses. While we have built websites for people around the world, we always love taking on a client who owns a local business. Whether it is the garment industry, contracting, photography, an art gallery, or even a local pub. We absolutely love working with local businesses here in NYC and New York state!

Speaking of upstate NY, there are some amazing local farms and eatery's all over the place. We just recently had the pleasure of working with a quaint little bed and breakfast, to improve their exposure to the world as a great place to visit when touring New York. We began by creating them a website that was absolutely as warm and inviting as their own place, and with proper on-page SEO we targeted tourists to the state with the content and keywords used.

When it comes to our clients, we have a dire need to see them succeed. When we can add a beautiful website to our portfolio, or a sincere testimonial to our references, we have made it one step closer to being as successful as we want to be. And if we can do that by helping you get to where you need to be, both as a business and an online presence, it makes our reward that much better.

We hope to see much more work with New York Businesses in the future and wish you all great success in the coming years!