Even if you're a seasoned web professional, you should know what web builder software can offer private individuals and small businesses. Designers regularly waste time fielding inquiries from small-time website owners who don't realize the time, effort, and therefore cost involved in making a website from scratch. Or your brain may be picked endlessly by a would-be developer. Recommending a good web builder program is a great way to help this group--you can even monetize these non-prospects by reselling web builder software or referring it as an affiliate.
The 3 Web Design Options
DIY (design it yourself), usually using software such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage.
Pay someone else to design it.
Use a "website builder" that includes everything you need and builds the website based on a setup wizard that asks questions about your website goals.
Most people just stumble into one of these three options without really comparing. In fact, if someone is even considering whether to try to do it themselves, hire a pro, or use a website builder program, it's extremely likely they really do need to start with a website builder program. After all, with the small investment required by web builder software, you can easily decide to go the DIY or professional design route later. But the money and time spent on professional services or DIY cannot be un-spent.
If you don't have the web design skills that would lead you to make your own website without questioning, or the budget to hire a designer just as easily, your time, money and other resources are probably better spent on other aspects of your website--such as promoting it, planning it, or getting content for it.
Website Options Comparison: Cost
: Cost of software (Dreamweaver, the most popular, runs about $300) + many hours of your life--what is your time worth?
Web Designer: $500-$5000
Website Builder: $100-200 (if a software package); $15-40/month (if a subscription service)
Time
DIY: Depending on your skill level, a week to a few months.
Web Designer: A few weeks till completion (but little time on your part).
Website Builder: Five minutes to an hour (depending on how much you want to play with the options).
Graphic Design: Most people who build their own websites use graphic design templates, or at least ready-made graphics. But there's still the problem of how to bring the elements of the design together into an attractive whole.
Web Designer: If you want to be taken seriously, a graphic designer will go a long way. Still, many people manage to sabotage the designer's work with too many demands. Also, some designers are really programmers rather than graphic designers, and will use templates anyway. In the end, though, the biggest drawback is cost: graphic designers can do it better, but can you afford them?
Website Builder: The advantage of a website builder over DIY templates is that the builder will save you the time of coding the website to stitch all the parts together.
A website means a dynamic marketing plan. To court success a website must be promoted well and deliver all that it promises. To get on the fast track to success one needs to: * Create a website that is dynamic and distinctive. The website name should match the domain name. Bad or broken links must not exist. JavaScript errors must be eliminated. The company’s profile should be clear, concise, and complete. Secure ordering must be in place if required. And, visible links to the company’s business plan, privacy policy, return policy, and guarantee should be present. * Employ a design with user in mind. Never use heavy images, 10-12Kb per image will ensure that pages are not slow. Use graphics that enhance content. Avoid images that change color or blink. Use standard layouts that are reader friendly, the page should breathe and font size must be comfortable. Use a few fonts: serif for headlines and sans serif for text. Limit the number of advertisements, banners, and links on a page. Be sure to test your website using multiple browsers. * Select a directory with vision. Read all the submission requirements and guidelines more than once. Choose a category with thought and planning (browse the directory, look for listings of competitors, and related sites). Review your website from an editor’s point of view. Ensure that the title and summary are appropriate and relevant to the content of the web site. List the strengths of your site realistically; be sure to add value to your site, *Increase traffic by submitting the site to web directories. Choose to submit to major ones as well as minor ones, even a few relevant niche sites will boost your popularity and traffic. * Link your site to others. Search engines give higher positions to sites linked from others. Link the website to major sites as well as minor ones. Contact high traffic sites and request a mention or link. This will boost your engine placement and direct traffic from the pages that are linked. * Optimize the PageRank of your website by choosing inbound external links with care. Link up to relevant sites and not at random, quality is the criteria to consider not PageRank. List the website in an open directory and Yahoo as this will provide an artificial enhancement of PageRank. Never place external links on pages that are in turn linked to other sites. External links should be offered on pages with low PageRank containing many links to pages on your site. Construct your navigational structure such that important pages are linked to many other internal pages that do not require a high rank. These extra links will add rank to the major pages. * Create a site map and link every page to it. These invite spiders sent out by search engines which then index every page on the site. Adopt an easy-to-use navigational structure. Check for errors regularly. Include a site search tool. Be search engine friendly and avoid frames, flash, or code that will trip up a spider or engine. It is not submitting to a directory that ensures success but taking care of the nitty gritty.
Both Sushil Kumar & Paul Wilson are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Sushil Kumar has sinced written about articles on various topics from Personal Desktop, Skin Care and Home Based Business. Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips and hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and insights pertaining to web design, do please browse for more information at our websites.. Sushil Kumar's top article generates over 27100 views. to your Favourites.
Paul Wilson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Internet Marketing, Interview Questions and Hotels and Hostels. Paul Wilson is a freelance writer for www.1888Directory.com , the premier website directory provides human edited categorized website listings including business websites, news websites, gaming websites, shopping websites, travel websites and more. He al. Paul Wilson's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.