The Good Web Design Blog

Web Design News and Information. Latest web design trends. How to avoid the amateur have a go web designers and sales driven web design agencies.

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There are a Number of Different Options Available For Web Design, Which is Best For You?

Web design is a very lucrative industry with almost every company or business no mater how big or how small requiring a web presence.

What is required from a company website depends on the business with some businesses simply needing a website to display company information, basically a digital business card, others use their website as an online brochure to showcase their products and services - note the term brochure website - then there are the eCommerce websites or online stores where businesses use their website as a digital store to sell goods either as well as their high store or instead of, then there are the online businesses where the website itself offers a service that is chargeable.

When people are planning a website they also need to choose who will develop this website for them or whether they are in fact going to have a go themselves and this is where many companies have failed or ended up with a poor website simple by not researching their web designer or choosing software ill equipped to produce the desired results.

 Online Drag and Drop Website Builders

For people who simply want a web presence and have a very limited budget, online site builders such as WIX and Weebly can be the answer and as professional web designers we understand that these people are not our clients so we have nothing against these systems, however some people use these systems believing that they can build a great, professional looking website with loads of cool features that will dominate the search engines.

The truth is that systems such as WIX and Weebly  are very limited in what they can do and many people start with a free package,  because this is how WIX for example promotes themselves, 'get a website for free with WIX ' then when they realise the Free package is very basic and has third party ads they upgrade and upgrade trying to make the website work the way they want it work and end up getting billed £15 - £20 a month, forever, for a website that is very basic and your clients think you have done for free, which isn't a great first impression... Another problem with WIX is that they are simply not built to do well on the search engines, now recently Wix claim to have made their sites more search engine but I'm afraid the jury is still out and their are still 1000's of posts online from people asking 'Why wont my WIX site rank' or 'How do I get my WIX site to rank on Google'

In summary online drag and drop website builders such as WIX or Weebly are OK for a veru simple web presence, something to print on your business cards or to use on your email signature so clients can visit your website but if you want unique features and want your website to get found on Google then drag and drop builders are not for you.

 Open Source Content Management Systems

Open Source Content Management Systems such as Wordpress, Joomla, Concrete etc are called this because the source code is open source meaning anyone can download it, view it, tweak it and anyone can contribute to it. The most popular open source content management system around is Wordpress, its popular because it's free to install has lots of free add-ons and is quick and easy to learn.

Wordpress started its life as a blogging platform but lots of people now use it as a basic website and don't even use the blog part of it.

Wordpress is a great DIY tool, and if you don't want to pay for a web developer and know your way around a computer , the internet and consider yourself a little tech savvy then this is the route for you, however, it does have its drawbacks, it is very code heavy, it needs to be because of the way it's designed, but this makes it notoriously slow and the mistake people make is installing add-on after add-on to enhance its features and many Wordpress users have ended up with unusable sites that take a full minute ( an eternity in internet time) to load.

Another issue with open source content management systems is hacking.  Hacker simple love them and Wordpress sites are the most hacked websites in the world due to the open source code that any hacker can download, read and find vulnerabilities and then there is the whole add-on system which sounds great on paper but allows a hacker to hide malware and virus's in innocent looking add-ons that are then offered to users for free.

Ever week their is new patch released or a new warning about a dodgy add-on so if you are willing to monitor your site 24/7 install patches and upgrades as soon as they are released then Wordpress and other open source content management systems can save you a fortune, I wouldn't recommend open source for large corporate sites, the risk is just too high, for a personal blog or a small business the risks are nominal but do your research before installing.

 Bespoke Web Design

Bespoke Web Design is a term that is often misused, usually by the novice 'have a go' weekend web designers using the drag and drop software or the open source content management systems mentioned above. These amateur web designers dupe their clients into using there services either intentionally or due to ignorance of the industry that they claim to be a part of, by using the term bespoke design and making clients believe that they are in fact professional web designers and not someone taking money off people and using free readily available tools that their client could simply use or download themselves.

Bespoke web designers do not use drag and drop software or open source content management systems, bespoke web designers are professional coders who are able to build websites from scratch from the ground up using unique, bespoke code which is safer and more streamlined.

With Bespoke web design you get the site and the features that you want rather than a having to settle for what is available as a tool or as an add-on.

Medium to large companies will generally use a bespoke web designer to design and developer their company website so that they can not only portray a more professional image to their clients but to make sure that their website and database is secure and not a target for hackers.

However, there are lots of smaller companies choosing bespoke designers too so that they can outshine their competitors and have a quick, modern website. With a relatively small website the cost of using a bespoke designer is not as much as you might think and the benefits are greater that the savings made by opting to do it yourself.

In summary, when deciding to build a new website for your business you have three options and what option you choose will depend of your business, your budget and what you want from a website.

On a final note I feel that I must issue a warning to people and companies who do decide to pay a professional web designer rather that going it alone. Make sure that they are in fact a professional designer and not just someone using freely available drag and drop software or an open source content management system and passing it off as professional, bespoke web design.

These people used to be easy to spot; we called them the weekend web designers because they would have a full time job, usually low skilled, and build websites for extra cash at the weekends. These people always used free software, drag and drop builders or open source content management systems, think about it? If they where any good and code write bespoke code they would be doing it as a career.

These weekend web designers' usually targeted friends or small business who either knew exactly what they where getting or didn't know any better, however in recent years we have seen a new type of web design agency enter the market, large, professional looking web design agencies with fancy offices, large sales teams - you may have heard the term telesales web design - yet using the same free tools as the amateur weekend web designers, these type of companies should be avoided at all costs.

We hope this little article helps you choose which path you should go down when deciding to build a new website.

Article re-posted with kind permission on Key Designs... 

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How to Avoid Amateur Web Designers and Sales Driven Web Design Companies

When the internet was very young back in the early 2000's before the launch of all the DIY website builders such as Wordpress, Joomla and prior to the launch of the online "build your own website" sites such as WIX, Weebly there where just a handfull full of genuine web design companies around, why? because web design was a  skill and without drag and drop software or pre-built themes that simply got filled in web developers had to know HTML and be able to write it from scratch, unfortunately because of this fees where higher and only the largest companies had an online presence.

Fast forward to 2017 and every small town never mind large city, has 100's of self proclaimed expert web designers touting for business, prices are at an all time low compared to the early days of the internet and even one man band businesses have a company website, but is this a good thing?

Whilst it's a good thing for the consumer that web design prices have come down considerably and there's now a larger selection of web designers to choose from there is also a greater chance of falling foul to a rogue company or simply choosing a bad independent web designer.

The success of the DIY website builders such as Wordpress, Joomla and sites such as WIX, Weebly now means that anyone can offer web design services regardless of their skill level, web designers no longer need to learn how to code to tap into a lucrative market they simply need to choose a piece of software or choose an online site builder and learn to use it much in the same way as an office worker learns to use Word or Excel so that they can be better at their job. Of course this isn't professional web design and no one would knowingly pay one of these "have a go" web designers to put together a website that they could put together themselves using the same piece of software or website? Would they?

The truth is that these amateur designers prey upon people's lack of knowledge of the web design industry and most people don't even realise they have been taken for a ride until it's too late and some people only find out after their site has launched when someone they know with a little more knowledge of the industry informs them.

Now this behaviour isn't limited to small agencies or independent web designers, in fact there are more large companies operating like this than small companies and independents, you know the companies I'm talking about, the large telesales driven web design companies that cold call every small business in the phone book, the one's constantly looking for new telesales staff after their current staff develop a conscience, these are not web designers they are teams of salesmen and your website - that you almost certainly paid over the odds for - will be thrown together by an office junior using drag and drop software or be outsourced offshore for a pittance and what you typically get is a poorly put together website that performs appallingly in the search results.

So how do you avoid getting taken for a ride by one of these dodgy web design companies?

1. Avoid cold calling companies. If you want a new website then you should go looking for a decent web design company yourself. Salesmen are merely there to close the deal as quickly as possible, usually with "today only" offers and deals, what they don't want you doing is going away and doing a little research on them. A rule of thumb is to avoid anyone that cold calls you.

2. Check out online feedback and reviews. As a rule I'd say ignore reviews on their own website - these are easy to fake - Instead go to Google or some other some independent source where reviewers are checked out and confirmed genuine people... Most companies no matter how good they are may have the odd disgruntled client, however if a majority of reviews are negative then it's a good idea to avoid this company.

3. Check the quality and professionalism of their company website. These people are web designers - or claim to be - so their own web site should be aesthetically pleasing, quick to load and be mobile responsive - adapt to the screen size of any device - If you see any errors, faults or the website just looks bad and dated then avoid.

Another thing you should check that is not always apparent on initial viewing is whether they have in fact built their own website - This sounds crazy I know but there are so called web design agencies out their using software or site builders for their company website - these people are meant to be professional web designers yet they haven't even built their own website so are you going to trust them to build yours?

This is a little harder to check out but on most browsers CTRL+U will show the sites source code, look for tell tail software/site builder markers in URL's, things like "wpcontent", "Wix" etc...

4. Check out their portfolio. A web design company or independent web designer should have an up to date portfolio of work for you to view - including links to genuine websites, not just pictures of websites - A portfolio can tell you a lot about a company or a designer, do all their sites look the same, just in different colours? Then this is what you'll get as it's probably a template they have.

Do the sites in their portfolio look old or dated? Do some have dead links? This tells you that its not their full time job and any work they get from web design is extra cash for holiday's etc, avoid these individuals as your website will probably be outdated when it launches, web design changes all the time, trends change, compliance changes, Google guidelines change, so a web designer must be current and up to date, web design cannot be a part time or side job.

If you can't find their portfolio, two things could have happened, they don't want to showcase their work, meaning it's bad and they know it's bad - this is common with telesales driven companies as they are only interested in you signing up, once they have your money and the salesman has his/her commission they'll churn of any old rubbish. Or, they do have a portfolio but their website and menu structure is so poorly put together it's almost impossible to find.. ..Either way avoid these companies.

5. Always ask for a detailed proposal.. No web design company or independent web designer should be charging for quotations, proposals or meetings, any which attempt to, stay clear of, this is not a ridiculous notion as I've heard of it happening... Also, a proposal should be detailed and explain exactly how your website will function, this is another dig at sales driven web design companies - these really are the worst - where a salesman will promise you an all singing all dancing website to get you to sign on the dotted line then you end up with a basic website with limited functionality that's not even worth a fraction of what you paid, but without a detailed proposal saying what you where supposed to be getting there isn't a lot you can do about it.

I hope these points stop a few people getting taking for a ride by unscrupulous, dodgy web design companies and independent have a go designers.

What do you look for when choosing a web design company

https://polldaddy.com/poll/9815793/

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How Your Business Can Use Social Media Effectively

Regardless of what many self proclaimed social media experts tell you. Social media marketing is anything but quick and straightforward and it really takes time and effort to promote your business correctly on social platforms. 

Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram etc are all totally free platforms, no sign up costs and no monthly fees which make them an ideal tool for small and medium sized businesses hoping to reduce their marketing costs whilst trying to expand and engage with their audience and customer base online.

But the idea that social media engagement is easy, quick and will instantly bring in new business is completely false because for a majority of online businesses social media is more of a relationship building tool, a precursor to gaining those future clients and sales.  

We have worked with many companies over the years, helping them to increase their social media presence and most of the companies we have worked with really embraced what social media was actually all about and ended up gaining a healthy online following and increased engagement of their tweets and posts which lead to a good relationship between the company and potential clients eventually helping their business gain clients or increase sales.

We have also had a couple of bad experiences too where the client, no matter how many times it was explained to them, wrongly believed they where paying for either leads or search engine optimisation and expected a mass of new business or sales direct from their social media accounts within the first month of social media marketing.

"Social media is not all about simply posting an advert and then spamming as many people as possible with it, you need to build relationships online before you 'introduce' people to your services or products" says Carolyn Dowling, Head of Social Media Marketing at Key Designs. She suggests starting out by looking for people who have an interest in your business topic, even loosely. "Read, comment on, and share their posts or tweets, if appropriate." Connecting and developing relationships with influencers and experts in your field of business will help you down the road. "When you approach them later, they’ll be more likely to recognize your business name or brand."

So, if you think that you can start to use social media to promote your business or products and immediately reap the benefits, think again! Marketing through social media takes time and dedication and even when you have built up a relationship with your followers the sales or client leads rarely come direct from your social media accounts, think of Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram etc as a small yet important part of your overall business structure and marketing campaign.

Find out more about our Social Media Marketing Services

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What does Google Optimised or Google Ready Really Mean?

So you have your new website live, it looks great, it has all your offers and services listed on it, your prices are very competitive and you're certain that now you are an online company you're going to make it big, but months go by, no phone calls or emails, you search Google for your keywords, you don't show up, you search for your keywords along with your local area and yet your are nowhere to be seen! Your developer told you that your website was Google Optimised so why aren't you showing up?

Google Optimised or Google Ready is a marketing term thrown around by many web design agencies to promote their web design but like a lot of marketing slogans nowadays it no longer carries any merit.

Why does this term no longer mean anything?

It's not really that it no longer means anything; in fact a Google Optimised website is what every business wants and needs to compete online, the problem is that the amateur web designers and telesales marketing companies are also using this term despite the fact that their template websites don't even come close to being Google optimised.

To understand properly, you need to understand that there are different types of web designers and web design agencies, after all the industry is totally unregulated meaning that anyone with a computer and some cheap software can offer a web design service nowadays.

Firstly you have the 'have a go' weekend web designers, these are people who will have a job in an unrelated industry yet offer 'cheap' web design for extra income. What you need to understand about this type of web designer is that if they where a good or even just a competent web designer then they would work in the web design industry wouldn't they, and not as a shelf stacker in the local supermarket.

These weekend web designers will usually come armed with cheap or free web design software and put together very basic websites that will not be optimised for Google at all yet will use terms like 'Google Optimised' or 'Google Ready' without having the faintest idea of what it means, and what the customer is left with is a very poor website that has very little chance of a good organic ranking.

Secondly you have the telesales web design agencies which on the surface appear to be legitimate web developers. The problem with these sales driven agencies is that they always work on numbers and their salesmen will tell you anything you want to hear so that you'll sign on the dotted line and once you have you'll typically get a template of software created website which again will not be Google Optimised. The biggest problem I have with agencies is the fact that unlike the weekend web designers they are not cheap yet you get the same standard of work.

So how to you get a Google Optimised or Google website.

Like any industry, if you want the best then you need to go to a professional, you need a developer or company that is experienced in all the web technologies, writes code and doesn't simply use software, someone who keeps up to date with all the latest design trends and follows Google's updates and news.

A salesman in a telesales driven web design agency will sound like he knows everything there is to know about web design, but think about this? Why isn't he a web designer then?

A rule of thumb is that you should always speak to a developer and never a salesman as a salesman is just there to close the deal and earn commission. If you're looking for web design then go and look for web designers, don't wait until the next salesman gives you a call with his amazing deals. Do your own research, look at their portfolio, check for reviews on third party websites etc.

So a Google Optimised will rank high on Google then?

This is a misconception. Having a Google optimised website does not mean you will rank high on Google especially for a competitive niche, but it's a start. Having an optimised website with all the correct code, meta data etc means that your are not starting from scratch when you do decide to spend some money and/or time on some additional marketing.

If your website has been professionally designed and coded then there is good chance that you will be able to do your own marketing and get good results and if you decide to use a marketing company then the company isn't going to insist that you need a new 'optimised' website, which I've seen happen many times meaning your need to pay again for another website.

Originally published on  http://www.keydesigns.co.uk/

Key Designs are a professional web design and marketing company based in Leigh, Gtr Manchester and have been providing affordable bespoke web design and a full range of internet marketing solutions since 1999.

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Does the speed of your website matter much?

We have become a very impatient society and many internet users will only wait a matter of seconds before leaving your website and going elsewhere to find what they are looking for which makes the speed of a website more important than it has ever been.

Back in the early days of the internet it was common to wait for a website to load, people where using slow dial up modems and the internet was very, very  slow but as speeds increased over the years and broadband was introduced load times became quicker and developers decided to build more complex, code heavy website utilising large images, stream video etc.

Nowadays we expect a website to load instantly and when it doesn't people assume its offline so click away which is a big no no if you use your company website to sell products of services.

You want google to love your website

Google loves a quick website and while its not a major ranking factor it is one, so you are not just trying to keep your clients happy.. The internet is vast, and there's no telling how often Google will crawl your web site so you want them to get as much as they can the first time around.

So how do I check the speed of my website?

A good resource is tools.pingdom.com which allows you to enter the URL of your website and check load times, it's free to use and gives you advice on how you can speed up your website.

You website should load within 2 to 3 seconds to be considered quick load so if your seeing results upwards of this then you may have a problem and need to go back to your web designer to get it fixed.

It's my opinion that all web designers or design agencies should be checking the speed of your website before it's launched, after all your have paid them for a service which should include this important step. Unfortunately there are a growing number of amateur designers and design agencies around who are basically just installing free web builders or pre build template without having enough knowledge of the field they are working in.

Open source software and web builders

Open source software and web builders are notoriously slow with many taking between 4 and 10 seconds to fully load, which in website terms is a lifetime. If you mention slow loading speeds to your designer the usually answer is "well I didn't write it" which says it all really.

Popular DIY platforms will offer add-ons known as plugins that falsely claim to speed up the platform which is like adding more cargo to an overloaded truck with the intention of making is go faster.

In summary, the speed of you website is almost as important as its content so when launching a new site make sure that speed tests are done and that you're happy with the speed before finalising with the designer.

Author : Paul Dowling ( Key Designs)

Key Designs have been designing bespoke websites for businesses in Leigh and the surrounding areas since 1999. During this time we have built up a solid reputation in the area and are also proud to work with a number of local charities.

http://www.keydesigns.co.uk

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Excellent Advice for People Looking to Hire an Internet  Marketing Company

Found this gem of an article on a web design and marketing blog, its very well written and you an tell it’s written by someone in the industry. It’s a great read for anyone looking to hire an internet marketing company.

DO MINIMUM TERM CONTRACTS HAVE A PLACE IN INTERNET MARKETING AND SEO

We have all heard of minimum term contracts, they date back to the seventies when most working class people rented expensive appliances such as televisions, VCR's, Washing machines and this trend continues into the present day with mobile phone contracts, internet and TV packages and the like.

For these services it's a must, the mobile phone store needs to make certain that you cover the cost of the handset that they have provided you with before you leave and go elsewhere and the internet service provider has also provided you with equipment such as receivers, routers, dishes etc and in some cases even laid new cables to your home. For these types of services I fully understand why minimum term contracts are needed but are they really needed in the internet marketing industry?

ARE MINIMUM TERM CONTRACTS NEEDED IN THE INTERNET MARKETING INDUSTRY?

Internet marketing services have been around almost as long as web design has, unfortunately it's an industry with no regulation, seriously, anyone can set up as an internet marketer with little or no outlay and little experience, and that's where the problem lies.

For many years internet marketing services such as organic SEO, paid search (PPC) and onsite optimisation went hand in hand with web design and after your designers had built and launched your website they then offered additional services to make sure the site was actually visible on the internet and did well on the search engines.

As the years went by and the internet grew it became clear that web design companies where in fact making more money from internet marketing services than they made from the initial design and development of the website. As the internet became more popular and more companies launched websites, each company wanted to be page one for their niche or services and many people tried their hand at internet marketing.

SALES DRIVEN INTERNET MARKETING COMPANIES

It was around 2006 when people realised that internet marketing was a very lucrative industry with literally hundreds of companies willing to throw massive amounts of money into getting their website to dominate the search results, so the stand alone internet marketing companies where born.

Savvy salesmen rented cheap office space and hired telesales staff to ring 100's of local businesses a day, promising to rocket the business to the top of the search engines, there was one problem through, these salesmen where not web designers or coders and most of them had no internet related background at all, they where simply salesmen, selling a service full of promises, promises that they simply couldn't deliver on, so the minimum term marketing contract was created.

Sales driven marketing companies simply work on numbers, ask anyone working in sales for one of these companies One whistle blower we spoke to told us he was regularly threatened with the sack for not hitting targets.

The function of a telesales worker in one of these marketing companies is to sign up as many people as possible and sign them up to a 6 or 12 month contract which guarantees a regular income for the marketing company, and regular commission for the telesales worker for at least 6 or 12 months. These companies know that none of their customers will continue after the contract ends but that's not the business model, as one person leaves two more are signed up.

SO WILL ANYTHING ACTUALLY GET DONE?

In most cases, yes, especially in the first month or so, so as not to raise any suspicions.. They will do or ask you to do minor website changes and they'll get some cheap offshore link building done, which does nothing to help your site, it's simply visual evidence that they are doing the work, otherwise you could actually get out of the contract if you could prove that they had done nothing.

After the first month or so there will be very little done, you may get software created reports and you will always be on the cusp of success and search engine domination if you ever question why you are not climbing or getting more business.

WHAT ABOUT GENUINE INTERNET MARKETING COMPANIES?

Of course there are many genuine internet marketing companies around, most don't use telesales as they get their work from word of month and a genuine internet marketing company will never sign you up for a minimum term contract as you will see your search engine results improve month by month so you'll be happy to continue to pay.

You will usually find that genuine internet marketing companies are less expensive too as they do not need to pay telesales staff or outsource any of the work.

So if you're thinking about organic SEO or other internet marketing services make sure that you avoid these sales driven internet marketing companies otherwise you may find yourself stuck in a contract and your website stuck in the lower part of the search results.

Author : Paul Dowling (Key Designs)

This article was first published on the http://www.keydesigns.co.uk 

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So what actually is bespoke web design?

Bespoke is a term that is used in a lot of different industries and for the most part businesses, tradesmen and clientele are aware and understand its meaning, when to use the term and when not to use the term. The English Dictionary lists 'Bespoke' as an adjective meaning 'Made for a particular use, customer or user'. There are skilled carpenters making bespoke furniture, professional designers making bespoke one off dresses, software engineers writing bespoke pieces of software etc, etc, but when it comes to web site design and development the term is often misused.

So why is the term misused so often in the web design and development industry?

One of the main reasons is simple ignorance or lack of knowledge and understanding of the industry that you are in, this happens because web design is one of those easy to set up businesses that requires no skill, no premises and little understanding of the industry as a whole, people will come across some cheap or free drag and drop website building software or online tool and then pass themselves off as a web designer, which happens more often than people think, just search any town or city for web designers and you'll get pages of results all boasting to be professional web designers.

The term bespoke comes into play because these amateur designers see the term on other websites and copy it onto their own without understanding what it actually means.

So what actually is bespoke web design?

Bespoke web design is a website that has been coded and put together by a professional coder to suite the clients exact specifications, a bespoke website can be a simple brochure website, an eCommerce website or a fully manageable website with its own bespoke CMS (Content Management System).

A professional bespoke coder has greater control over the websites look and functionality, can build in exclusive tools and features and deliver more streamlined code for faster loading and better optimisation.

A bespoke coder does not use pre-written software or scripts, drag and drop website builders or open source content management systems such as Wordpress and Joomla, these are DIY tools for building your own website, they are also tools used by amateur weekend web designer and some sales driven web design agencies.

So bespoke web design must be more expensive, right?

Unfortunately, because it has become easy to get into, web design has become an industry full of unskilled amateurs and rogues looking to take your money. In the early days of the internet  if you where looking to have a website built and had limited funds you went down the DIY route, downloaded a FREE website builder such as Wordpress and put together your own website, of course, during this time period paying a professional, bespoke web developer was a lot more expensive, nowadays its hard to tell what you are getting especially with the misuse of the word 'bespoke' either purposely or unintentionally , and many companies have fallen foul of web design agencies and individuals charging high prices for DIY installs.

If you are looking for professional bespoke web design you must ask the right questions, are you bespoke developers, do you write  your own code, are you just going to install Wordpress or similar?

Regrettably, even asking these questions doesn't mean that you will get a bespoke developer. Agencies often use salesmen who with tell you exactly what you want to here whether it's true or not and most amateur designers are totally oblivious as to what bespoke actually means.

People or companies looking for web design in Leigh, Greater Manchester can relax, because Key Designs have over 17 years experience in the web design and development industry, never use drag and drop software or open source content management systems such as Wordpress and are actually competitively priced.

http://www.keydesigns.co.uk/

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The Advantages of Local Web Design in Leigh

Design ought to be aesthetically pleasant. The plan of the site must be with the capacity of promoting and popularising the company among the masses in addition to the ever growing online marketplaces. So what it is that you're waiting for, don't hesitate to reach the greatest one for complete solutions for website design. Your site design needs to be interactive.

Design should not say ,''Look at me'' Web design is really the ability of planning and creating a site. It's actually a field where you get what you pay for. Your net design may keep your customers pulled. It really is the combination of various factors. It really isn't crucial that you should develop an net layout that looks like the net design of your opponent.

When you make a site you hope you'll get some attention from your customers. Your site provides all the essential information a client has to know about doing it. Dependent on the requirements of a specific business, websites are created by choosing characteristics which make sense and eliminating those which are not appreciated by the target audience of a particular company. If a well constructed site is not observable in the various Search Engines, there's not point of experiencing a site then. Affordable websites are bountiful these days and there are lots of web design businesses and web hosting companies offering sitebuilders that let you to assemble a web site in a somewhat brief period of time.

Web Design in Leigh can include many pages. Before the practice of selecting an internet design company, it's worthwhile to bear in mind that in the event the website hasn't been satisfactorily designed, it can result in losses in the sector of resources, your impeccable standing and it might also hamper the relationship which you've to your would-be clients The Strategy Before hiring someone you've got to make sure you know only what you would like to do with your site as an expert design site make sure the advertising campaign or branding attempt is successful, a marketer ought to get a site professionally designed.

 While hiring a design company be certain they have a great deal of experience in designing websites much like yours. Thus, when you apply a Web Design Firm make sure you're aware of all critical guidelines. In instances like this, the internet design businesses take the notions from the consumers and convert them into presentable rough consequences of the ideas. There are many web design firms which can assist your small business reach thousands of consumers in only one click.

 Web increase suppliers can play a substantial part in raising the success and gain prospects of the company. A specialist web designing firm would recognize how you can interact with the consumers in the right manner. Lots of the net design companies simply need to have a site design that could merely make their product a superstar, but you must think beyond merely those red carpet dreams. A Miami Web Design business will offer your web site with a straightforward and easy means to use search interface.

Top Rank are a full service professional web design and internet marketing company based in Leigh, Greater Manchester, we serve the whole of the North West and beyond and have been in the industry since 1999

http://www.toprankservices.co.uk/

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Why you need a Content Management System for your website

With 2017 just around the corner I'm amazed to still see websites without a CMS (Content Management System) and I'm not talking about old sites that pre-date this sort of feature, unbelievably there are a number of amateur web design companies in Leigh still churning out static, unmanageable websites for clients.

For most of these amateur web design companies it’s simply down to a lack of knowledge, for others its a deliberate attempt to get an ongoing income out of you...

If you don't know what a Content Management System is; it's a secure area of your website that you, the site owner can log into and make amendments, more advanced CMS's allow the site owner to even add galleries and new pages.

With Google algorithms changing like fashion it is important to keep on top of your websites content, what works one month may be frowned upon the next month, its also a good idea to constantly tweak your content for a better Google ranking. Without a CMS you're stuck with the website in its original format and forced to return to the web design for any updates you may need, incurring additional charges

So why would a web design company omit this feature?

There are a number of reasons that a web design company would knowingly omit this feature one reason is that they want continuing payments from you, each time you want something changed they'll invoice you for the work, these are usually "the to good to be true" web design companies offering cut price websites, in the end your end up payment more, these same companies usually charge extortionate web hosting fees too.

I've even know some amateur web design companies supply their client with a Wordpress site (more on Wordpress later) a web building tool with a built in CMS and still not supply logins.

Another common reason for a company failing to supply you with a CMS if that they are not web designers at all they are simply an I.T. company using downloaded drag and drop software to build websites so don't have the skill to code you a CMS.

So do you need Wordpress if you want a manageable website?

Of course not, I hear this time and time again, clients come to us wanting a bespoke site to replace their Wordpress site and when we ask them why they choose Worpress they are either not aware that their previous designer just installed them FREE website software or they want to be able to update their site themselves and where told they had to have Wordpress.

Wordpress is a popular FREE website building tool and whilst great for personal websites and blogs the package simply isn't suitable for a professional, business websites and no professional web designer company should force you to have Wordpress simply because it has a built in CMS. A professional web designer can easily build you a custom CMS for your website that's easier to use and more streamlined.

A CMS is important and in 2017 rumour has it that Googles next big overhaul will focus of fresh, updated content and if you have a website that you can't update and tweak on a regular basis you're going to be left behind by your competitors.

Key Designs are a Leigh Web Design Company with over 17 years experience in bespoke web design and development

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Lies You've Been Told About Leigh Web Design

In reference to deciding on a design for the site it really is typically best to keep it all quite easy and clean. Web design has developed enormously over the last several years, and programmers are always searching for new methods to make websites more user-friendly. Whether you're looking for low cost internet design, or do-it-yourself selections, the net design Manchester services has something to provide you with

All About Web Design

In case you're working with those who are conscious of what they're doing then you are able to rest easy knowing your web design will be done to your precise specifications. Every internet design is unique. Wonderful web design is essential if you are likely to entice visitors to your net presence and keep them engaged. Look around the internet and detect the top sites online, they're all use very straightforward web design with a lot of white space. If you're searching for outstanding net layouts united with SEO, now's the time to find an web design Manchester, UK Company who services your region

There are heaps of internet designers out there. Most reputable net designers know not to pick out an internet host just as they are definitely the most popular or since they furnish the cheapest internet hosting. When picking a web designer to come up with your internet site, which are going to be your storefront to the Earth, ask yourself a couple questions.

 The Definitive Strategy for Web Design

Keep in mind all you have to create is a very easy and a easy to use site with valuable info A specialist site participates people. Because of this, lots of sites all have exactly the same content describing their merchandise. If your site does not receive kept with the most updated internet prerequisites, you might experience losing of your site Your site functions as the on-line interface between your customer and your company on the web. It's essential for a site which features RWD in order to adapt for the scripting skills, together with the resolution needs of every mobile device utilized for getting it.

Leigh Web Design businesses should correctly scrutinize the site condition, area, tastes, target customers, nature of site and region before designing any site Your net design provider should use the ability of Social Media Marketing. A veteran web design firm is going to have great portfolio of internet sites which they have created for different customers.

Vital Pieces of Web Design

After the firm wants a particular component or part of gear, it may even seek out assistance from possible providers in setting the ideal specifications. An web design business will be inclined to work better if they're competent to receive more comprehensive comprehension of you as an individual and understand what it is you're attempting to accomplish online. Therefore when you discover a good company even supposing it is away from the state do not be afraid to go opt for it. Many web site businesses offer you limited service and thus make certain the internet design company whom you outsource the work produces complete solution for many of your prerequisites.

Top Rank are a full service professional web design agency based in Leigh, Gtr Manchester, we serve the whole of the North West and beyond and have been operating in Leigh since 1999.

http://www.toprankservices.co.uk/

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Making your web design more appealing to visitors

In the event the layout is successful, you're now prepared to add distinct features like modules. Website design has arrived a ways in recent decades. By taking a program, you are going to learn about web design and the way to write Hypertext Markup Language, also referred to as HTML. It's important to keep the net Design or HTML light.

To lower the time it requires for your internet page to load, you'll need to delete these added codes. When you've completed this, you've created your very first web page! It is only an web page free of content in it where it's easy to put your own images and content working with the front page.

Using Stylish Web Design

There is an assortment of sorts of design based on the aim of the site Moreover, there are different designs based on their page layouts. You may even create unique layouts for just the same text. If your plan is to earn a distinguishing design for your business you must forget using the templates for your net development and must visit the course of custom internet development.

The Ultimate Web Design Trick

All you have to be conscious of is you want to host your website on it. If you only chance to have a web site designed by other folks, you should learn HTML as a way to edit the context of your web site without the should depend on another person within this easy but routine upgrading task. You also ought to know whether the website has to be contemporary, old fashioned or fantastic. It's easy and you may monetize the web site almost instantly. The excellent thing is there are so many sites online that can be a fantastic aid for you to receive astonishing suggestions for your design.

You may create a web site in a brief time period if you select to use this assortment of template. A website, yet attractively designed, can't exist without code. Although your site and products are copyrighted when you create them, it'll be challenging to enforce your rights should youn't really register your copyright. If you merely wish to keep an extremely simple small business site that straightforwardly delineates your services and products this completely free site building computer software online are the ideal.

The Tried and True Method for Web Design in Step by Step Detail

Anyone who would like to can build a web site with the assistance of this software, and generally in a reasonably rapid timeframe. In case you are likely to eventually design a site, you'll naturally desire a domain name and web hosting. A web site is believed to be part of the most vital tools in advertisements nowadays. Upon getting started you'll recognize how beneficial it's in order to code your own site and manage basic HTML jobs by yourself without needing to hire somebody else to do it. You can now start assembling your own site Assembling your own internet dating website is a fantastic means to earn another income online.

Key Designs are a Leigh Web Design company with over 16 years experience working with both large and small companies we have worked with clients for all over the region including Leigh,  Wigan, Bolton,  Bury,  Tyldesley, Liverpool and Manchester

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Why Fake Likes and Followers Are Not Such a Great Idea

Over the years we have worked with hundreds of companies from all over the country helping them to get noticed on social media, mainly Facebook and twitter, the goal of social media is to promote your business to potential customers and if done correctly can bring in new business and increase visitors to your website.

There is however a growing trend of adding 'fake' followers and likes to your profiles to make you and your business appear more popular than it is, but does this benefit you at all?

Well, not only doesn't it benefit you but as these fake likes and followers are very easy to spot it can make your company look extremely dodgy and untrustworthy, as if you are trying to trick your customers.

We see many laughable twitter accounts where small local companies have more followers than the number of total residents of the town or city that they are based in, this is running joke in the internet marketing world and a small, local window company in East London even made it onto the TV show "Dave Gorman modern life is goodish" when they had more followers than British Gas. There's a quite new web design company is Leigh who's twitter account boasts 11k followers, yet the account is 2 months and they have made 8 tweets, guys, it just looks silly!

If you launch a new business or new online business then advertise the fact that you are a new business and be proud of this, don't add thousands of fake follows and fake likes to your Twitter and Facebook profiles to appear that you are not so new, why be ashamed of being new?

Now we have been operating in Leigh for over 16 years have a few hundred genuine twitter followers and a few hundred Facebook fans, we don't expect 1000's we are local and when you consider the population of Leigh then deduct the children, the elderly and the general public not interested one bit in web design you'll find that our numbers are what you would expect for a company like ours who is active on social media, in fact they are very good.

This practice also gives a false representation of how successful your online marketing efforts are and you never really know how successful your business actually is, so simply be honest.

 Need help with social media? call our team on 01942 316688 of visit http://www.keydesigns.co.uk

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Should I be charged extra for  responsive web design?

This is a question I see raised many times during consultations where a client has already spoken to some amateur web design agencies before our own meeting takes place and have been told that having a responsive website is going to cost them extra!

First off this is nonsense, responsive design is industry standard and it has been since April 2015 so a web designer or web design agency shouldn't be even offering to build you a non responsive website in the first place, secondly, they should not be charging you more as all websites built after 2014 should be responsive and work on a range of devices otherwise you are missing out on a massive potion of the market.

Statistics show that over 59% of initial searches are carried out via mobile devices and this is set to rise even higher in 2016 so having a non-compliant website will definitely lose you business making having a responsive website is no longer an option it's now a necessity and we have been using responsive code for well over two years in all our web design projects even budget sites so in 2016 there really is no excuse.

For some agencies and designers its simply and excuse to hike up the price for many it is simple a lack of understanding of responsive code especially the amateur design agencies who are only able to use templates or drag and drop designer software, for these types of companies it's a way to put you off so that they can continue to use their outdated website building software.

Another thing that you should be aware of is the fact that web design is a totally unregulated industry which attracts lots of rogues and amateurs who not only churn our sub standard template websites created by open source drag and drop software but also misuse words such as responsive and bespoke cause because they have heard them being use by other to sell a higher quality service.

A professional web design company will build you a responsive website as standard and over the coming year many won't even make a big deal about it...

Key Designs have been operating in the Leigh and Wigan area for over 15 years and during this time have completed 100's of websites, large and small and boast 100% client satisfaction. So if you're looking for Web Design Leigh or Web Design Wigan, Key Designs are your perfect local partner.

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Finding a Skilled Web Designer and Avoiding the Have a Go Amateurs

It is a little known fact is that the web design industry is not regulated in any way by the Government, or any official regulatory body.  Unfortunately this means that anyone can simply set themselves up as a web designer or launch their own web design company, which is exactly what happens every day.

Regrettably it is the customer who ultimately suffers after paying way over the odds for a poorly designed website that does nothing to help the business succeed online; in fact a poor website can have the opposite effect and make a decent and well established business look very amateurish.

It is not just web design, there are a number of business models that do not require skill, training or regulation but in recent years it has been the web design industry which has been targeted the most by rogue companies and unskilled individuals, this is due to the fact that a web design business is very easy to set up, requires no premises, very little outlay and can be up and runner very, very quickly.  

There are different ways that the unskilled web design businesses can be set up.

First off there is the 'have a go' individual, who tries his or her luck by downloading a selection of web building software, or worse still, uses online drag and drop web building tools like Wix and Weebly and starts to tout themselves a a web designer. These types on people will usually work full time in a unrelated industry and will be happy with getting the odd project to pay for holidays or other luxuries, for the most part their service will be very cheap but we are seeing more and more of these have a go amateurs charging a premium rate, sometimes in line with what a professional designer would charge making them difficult to spot.

There are many skilled, freelance designers working from home or out of small offices, this is because a good freelancer does not need to be tried down to a web design agency,  skilled 'coders' as they are referred to in the industry are rarer than people think and a skilled coder is never short of work whether its their own work or work passed on by an agency. This does however does make the have a go amateur harder to spot, but following these guidelines should help.

Are they contactable during the week, during business hours (9am till 5pm)? If not they are probably at work in an unrelated industry, avoid... Is their own website well designed and bespoke? No professional web design should be using an online drag and drop web builders such as WIX, Weebly etc or FREE open source content management system such as Wordpress, Joomla, Concrete etc. Check their website footer for tell tail "built by...."  links, type CTRL+U and view the code, look for tell tail META DATA or tell tail folders referencing Wordpress, Joomla etc

Apart from the one man 'have a go' amateurs their are also lots of unqualified agencies who on the surface appear to be very professional, these unskilled web design agencies dupe 1000's of people every year into paying for high price web design that turns out to have been put together using poorly designed templates, drag and drop software or FREE content management systems.  Unfortunately to a novice these type of agencies are hard to spot but following these guidelines should help.

Where you cold called? Amateur, unskilled agencies are run by sales teams with quotas to hit who simply cold call 1000'sof businesses a week and try to get them to hand over credit/debit card or bank details using their high pressure sales tactics. You should never sign up or make any initial payments for web design without seeing a full design proposal, any professional designer or design agency will offer free quotations and proposals.

Also, you should be discussing your web design requirement with a web designer, not a salesman. High pressure sales are used to force you to sign up before you do any research into the company as any research into these dodgy agencies usually turns up lot of bad reviews and feedback that they just don't want you to see.

I'd say avoid any company that cold calls you, or advertises for Telesales staff, but it you are considering using a cold calling sales driven company, fully research them, visit their website and view their portfolio, are their websites professional? Are they bespoke? Do they all have a unique design or do they all look very similar? Are there any tell tail signs that their sites have been put together by drag and drop web builders or open source content management systems?  Search Google for reviews; never trust written reviews from a company website as they are very easy to fake.

With web design leigh being unregulated it can be difficult to make sure that you are using someone who is skilled and up to the task, even if your website ends up looking quite professional, is it responsive? (a modern requirement ensuring web sites work across multiple devices and platforms) is the code Google complaint? It's no good having a nice looking website if it can't be found on Google.

Finding a professional, skilled web designer can be a minefield, Key Designs have been operating in the Leigh and Wigan area for over 15 years and during this time have completed 100's of websites, large and small and boast 100% client satisfaction