There are as many “For Business” amateur web designers as there are professional ones. This article will help you weed them out in no time. First and foremost a professional web designer provides the following services to their client:

• Completely builds the site with organized content in a contemporary design layout that’s user friendly.
• Implements up-to-date Search Engine Optimization techniques.
• Provides full site maintenance for client.
• Updates the site on a regular basis.
• Redesigns the site every 8 to 12 months with new content and layout.
• Provides hosting services or finds a reliable hosting company for client.
• Continually researches client’s type of business for online compatibility with offline business practices.
• Keeps client abreast of innovative online business solutions that best fits their type of business for continued success online.

What an amateur web designer offers their client:

• Often designs a site similar to other sites in the same business category, prefers to place important content all over the page in an unorganized layout that’s not user-friendly or may provide clients with online web building tools to do it themselves.
• Implements out-dated Search Engine Optimization techniques.
• Provides little maintenance or trains client on how to update content themselves. Often referred to as the “CUT AND PASTE TUTORIAL” service.
• Does not provide their regular clients any redesign services . . . they seem to have no conception as to why a site once built, needs new content and layout for “repeat visitor” convenience.
• Mostly provides hosting and or web design services that includes paid training services in advertising and promotion of web site.

There is also a distinct difference in how a professional web designer advertises their business as compared to an amateur. A professional designer …

• Always lists services available stating that they are a partnership-with-client orientated business.
• Does not use scare tactics in their ads such as: “Did you know that there are limited options available for getting your business online!” or “Some other web designer may take your site down for no reason” or “Your web designer may be hurting your online success!”
• Has a company name that does not rely on metaphors from outside the web design business such as “Your Website Doctor” or “Your Website Co-Pilot” to try to gain your confidence.
• Does not need to offer discounts on services or provide special offers.

One sure thing about a professional web designer is that they get the right type of client that needs and wants their services. Amateurs will take anyone. To be perfectly blunt … professional web designers have no competition. There’s not even the slightest competition with online companies that offer web building tools or web site generators. Why? One look at at a site built by a non-skilled individual using such tools will convince you.

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When deciding on a web design it is important to know your competition. What do you like about there site? What could be done better? Are there certain aspects of the site that would appeal visually? Are there certain aspects of a competitor’s site that have helped in organic SEO/SEM? Are there certain aspects/offers on a competitor’s site that may draw people in? I think these are all important factors to keep in mind when visiting the competition in the pre-web design phase. However, this article is going to focus on another aspect: Namely, is there repetition in style amongst your competition? If you where starting a business to rival NetFlix & Blockbuster movie rentals online, you would immediately become aware that the two look very much identical except for the color scheme. In a similar respect, you may even find two websites using the exact same design in the same industry. Then you may find the exact same web design on a web design template site! This situation is the low point of template web design buying. If you decide to use a template (and I will argue that sometimes this is the way to go) you MUST KNOW YOUR COMPETITION!

If nothing else, template web design can spark ideas. There are many template sites out there like BoxedArt.com and TemplateMonster.com, and even a variety of free ones, with decent web site designs. When browsing through these sites it can be very helpful for sparking the idea in your head of what you may want your web design project to be like. Adversely, many of the templates found are also very generic to a certain point. There tends to be an overwhelmingly corporate feel to a high percentage of templates on the market. Not all web designs call for a corporate look but just simply need to look professional to gain credibility. Take aspects that work from different designs and merge them with the current identity you are looking for. Don’t get carried away with this process though, if you take away a little from each one you may get a very disorienting look and feel to the site as each design may vary. Likewise, when I say take it is important to emphasize that I am not talking about stealing. These template designers have spent time and expect return, however if you find a font you like and match something as simple as this to a similar font that would fit in with your design then use the idea. Don’t directly take images or color layouts. This browsing of templates for ideas is very much like browsing your competitor’s websites for ideas and scoping the market.

If you are looking at purchasing a template make sure to follow these guidelines:

1. Know that your competitors are not using this template. If you are a national chain, you will probably not be reading this as you may very well have your own unique design team. For everyone else, how far does your competition boundary spread? If you own a local hot dog stand, you may only have a handful of competitors in your area that are branding themselves. Buying a template that can be purchased by the public even after you purchase it may be ok in this instance if the hot dog template is a great design. In this case it would be a perfect fit for a low priced design that may be high quality. If however you may run into multi-state or national competition for your product then you may opt against the generic template as a foundation to your design.

2. Make sure the template is only the foundation to your web design building. This may mean that you use the overall structure of the design, but change all the graphics to make the design more personalized. Often times this also means that you will change the color scheme to fit with your current identity or logo. Also, maybe only a portion of the template should be used. Does it have a great looking header or search box, but the rest of the site is left to be desired?

3. Always make sure to follow the guidelines of the company your purchase your web design template from. This is important as certain amount of “redesign” of the template is most likely expected in the user agreement.

Templates certainly are not for everyone, however when small business owners are just trying to get there feet wet online, a template may be the best choice. They are typically professional looking, well thought out (in many industry themes), require less knowledge to build from than a web design from scratch and most certainly more affordable than starting a web design from scratch.

As a side note: There are many web template sites out there that also sell limited download web design templates for a little more money. These are templates that once purchased a few or one time are taken from the template library and now longer available for purchase. These can keep branding in house and save time and money if the design is what you are looking for.

Todd Levi has been designing websites for 5 years and is currently owns http://LeviSolutions.com which is a Fort Collins based Web Design Company serving the Colorado area.

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As a webmaster, you want to keep your visitors content so they’ll come back again. Below you will find ten common mistakes made by webmasters that may deter people from returning.

1) Poor Color Choice

There’s one important thing to keep in mind when designing your web site, and that is always keep it simple. More is not necessarily better. Your web site should contain no more than three colors. Also remember that your body text should be a contrasting color from your background. There’s nothing worse than trying to read yellow text on a pink background. It may look cool to you, but cause your visitors to go cross-eyed.

2) Confusing Navigation

If your visitors cannot find their way around your web site, they’ll leave…plain and simple. Your navigation should be logical and consistent on every page. Studies have also shown that web surfers prefer the standard left or right side navigation over other layouts.

3) Inconsistent Font Face and Size

Just like your navigation, you’ll want your font style and size to be consistent. If your home page text is in Arial font, size 10, make sure the rest of your pages adhere to the same font style and size. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and you may need to use a smaller font for disclaimers, terms and conditions, etc. However, in most cases, you should use the same style on every page.

4) Long Paragraphs

This is a common mistake made by many webmasters.

To make your web pages easy to read, remember to break up your paragraphs often and use subtitles. Most people will skim when trying to find what they’re looking for so when your paragraphs are small and separated by logical headings, it will make it much easier on your visitor’s eyes.

5) Misplaced or Lack of Contact Info

Don’t make people search for contact information…especially if you’re selling goods and services. Always have your contact information visible on every page of your web site. Hidden contact information looks fishy and makes people leery of doing business with you.

6) Long Page Loads

If your web site does not fully load within 10 seconds, your HTML files are too large. Check your graphics. Are you using too many? Do they need to be resized? Make sure your multi-color graphics (photos) are saved in JPEG format and use GIF files for solid colors and poster art. Also remember to use table height and width tags in your HTML code because your text will load before the images. Animated graphics also slow the page loading time tremendously.

7) No Meta Tag Info

Meta tags are HTML code invisible to the human eye but read by many of the search engines. While these don’t have as much of an impact as they used to, many search engines still rely on this information when displaying your site in the search results.

Use of Frames

Frames can become somewhat of a burden. Many search engines do not list pages with frames, they don’t allow visitors to bookmark certain pages, and they can cause printing problems.

9) Scrolling Text

The marquee tag is a cool feature, but many overuse it. Although the idea of scrolling text may seem appealing, remember that not everyone will find this idea entertaining. If you do decide to use it, make sure you clearly evaluate whether or not it is adding value or enhancing your page. There are some instances where this feature works, but there are many where it doesn’t. Use it very sparingly.

If you have a sentence or two that you feel is very important to your readers, don’t make them wait eons for the message to scroll across your screen — just use plain text and save the scrolling text for the less significant messages or perhaps sub-titles.

10) Wrong Resolution

The average web surfer surfs with their PC screen set to an 800 x 600 resolution. If you create your web pages to fit a 1024 x 768 resolution or higher, keep in mind many people will have to scroll left and right to see your entire page. I don’t know about you, but I find that quite annoying.

If you want your web page to be displayed correctly in all resolutions, create your web pages with tables and use percentages to define your table widths instead of actual pixel values. For example, if the table width is set to 100% instead of “800″ then it will take up 100% of the screen no matter what the PC resolution is set to.

About The Author

Lisa Irby is the author of 2 Create a Web Site — a site that encourages you to plan accordingly and GET THE FACTS before diving into the web site creation process.

http://www.2CreateAWebSite.com

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