WITH WEB DESIGNERS YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

10 Things To Do Before Employing A New Web Designer

As a small business web designer, I have a vested interest in providing quality of service and product to my clients. Referrals account for 90 percent of my business and, as much as we’d like to thing the Internet is a big place, the world is a small one and word gets out.

When I first speak to a potential client, I offer some advice, including a piece that might sound counterproductive. I tell them to speak to at least two more designers. When they ask why I tell them “because when you come back to me, I need you to know you’ve made the right decision”. Perhaps a little self-assured, but you’d be surprised. Here are some of the things I discuss with prospects.

1. SCOPE

What does that “website” include? For example, will it include the design and set up? Will it include the pages that you feel you’ll need or does the price reflect “x number” of pages? When I develop a website, my final price is based on how much work the project will take, not the number of pages. If I’m going to prove a working solution to my client, then why would I say “yes, I can do this but you can only have three pages”?

2. INVOLVEMENT

How involved in the design process are you going to be? Are you expected to pick a design from a collection (template), provide content and that’s it? Many of the lower cost web designers fall into this category, and that’s okay, if you don’t mind working within the confines of a template, or run the risk of looking like others. Just be sure that if there’s something special you need on your site, that it can be included in the template you’re picking.

3. PORTFOLIO

Do you like the designers other sites? It should never be just about finding any old designer and settling. Look at his/her other work.

4. REFERENCES

I am forever amazed that I have to bring this up. You probably wouldn’t hire someone to work in your company without doing a background check, so why hire a web designer without talking to at least one or two previous clients?

5. INTERACTION

How do you feel? If you’re feeling “rushed” or “boxed in”, pressured or worse, being made to feel stupid, is this the person you really want to work with? When the site is built and you need some changes, are you going to get a sigh and an attitude?

6. WHO?

Are you talking to a sales person or the designer? In my case I’m both so you’re dealing with pretty much everyone who you’re going to be involved with, but it does matter. Not to be negative towards sales people, but don’t you want to speak to the designer / programmer so they can “get” what you’re trying to say?

When the site is built and running, is that it? In my case, I always hope that the site is the start of a relationship with a client. Call me a romantic, but if a client has trusted me enough to invest in a good quality product, I intend to be there when they need me.

7. EXTRAS

Other things to ask about are stock photography. This can and does add up. Will you be providing artwork and photographs or will the designer? If he/she does, is that an additional cost? In my case, it is. My cost is simply passed on to the client, I don’t mark it up, but I explain that stock art and photography isn’t free. This can be a tough one, especially if the client wishes to provide their own…home made…the best looking website in the world can be shot to pieces with bad photographs…Conversely, What is NOT included in the price? For example, number of design drafts, or helping you set up a hosting account, integrating your email…the list can go on and on.

8. WARRANTY

Does the site come with a warranty? Yes, I said “warranty”. When any website goes live, no matter how much testing has been done, there is bound to be something that doesn’t work as expected, a combination of clicks that weren’t planned for. Will your designer fix any bugs after “go live” or are these extra?

9. SEO (search engine optimization).

Is this included or extra? It’s one thing to build a site, it’s another to ensure the search engines know about it, and that it’s built properly. I never ever guaranteed “top” placement in Google or any other search engine, but I certainly build and optimize my sites to move up the rankings in an organic and logical way.

10. MARKETING

I design websites for small business for a reason. I see a website as part of a marketing strategy. Part of my role is to help my clients, many of whom are not technical, understand that a website is not a solution unto itself. It is part of a marketing strategy. It’s a tool that needs to be understood and integrated in a marketing plan. This is something I help clients understand and work on. Whether that means helping with social media, blogs, seo or whatever, I see my success as tied into theirs.

Of course my websites aren’t $199. They’re not templates. I don’t outsource to a cheap “production line” company. I do all my own work. It’s always custom. It’s always hands on and it’s always me. Sure, that means it costs a little more, but then again, perhaps you get what you pay for.

A CHEAP HOME MAKEOVER, SPRING CLEANING, CALL IT WHAT YOU WILL, YOUR WEBSITE MIGHT NEED IT

Especially in the current economic climate not everyone can afford to dramatically update their website every year or two. This is true especially for those of us who are self-employed or small business owners. Several of my most recent clients have been very honest. "We just don’t have the money to do what we’d like," said one," what can you do to help?"

Now granted, I’m in the web design business, so there may be more that I can do than our clients, and we do. In the aforementioned case, I did some cleaning up of the page content, streamlined tags and titles, did some SEO, and using some spit, polish and elbow grease gave the site a refresh without a rebuild.

In some cases, I don’t even actually get hired. If I can give a couple of ideas away for free and send the client on their merry way, so much the better.

Anyway, that awfully long-winded introduction leads me to today’s topic: things you can do yourself or have done relatively inexpensively to get or keep your site in good shape…or at least up-to-date.

1. Update the main page content. If you don’t have a lot of time to keep your page updated, at least change the front / main page article. Depending on what business you’re in, it should be current, addressing current concerns or industry developments.




2. Check every page. Do all the internal links work. Does the "about me" link on the menu take you to a working "about me" page? Check the spelling on every page. Better yet, have someone help you. Sometimes we suffer from the "wood through the trees" problem and don’t see simple typos or grammatical errors.




3. Verify and test your contact information. Has your email address or phone number changed? It has? Did you change it on your site? If you have forms on your site that people can fill out and send to you (or somewhere else), test them.




4. Check your links. Do you link to other sites from yours? Have you checked those links recently? Websites come and go. They also change. I’ve seen a previous domain name that someone no longer used assigned to an adult-themed site. That’s great for the new site, but imagine if someone was linking to it…and not expecting that.




5. Check your feeds. Do you have a news feed on your site? Do you have IDX? Anything that brings external data to your site is subject to the same problems as links. Sites come and go. Check all the incoming feeds.




6. Is your site in the main search engines? You can read my ongoing series SEO 101 for more information (here’s a link), but your site should probably be showing up in the "big three" search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN (Bing). How can you tell? Visit each of the sites and type in site:www.jdeltd.com (substituting your domain name for mine). Read the results. Does that look like yours? If not, update your titles and tags.




7. Get some fresh photos. Stock photography is inexpensive (sometimes free) and can make a world of difference. The worst-looking site can be given an "extreme makeover" with some nice photos. Conversely, bad photos can ruin a good site.
   




8. Get some honest feedback. Ask some friends or colleagues for feedback. It may not all be good, but if it’s honest, you can see which of it you can afford to fix now and what needs to be done later. Websites are all about perception.




9. Get that date current! You know the date at the bottom of each page (often with the copyright notice)? Nothing says "not worth visiting" than a site with a date of pre-2009. The information may be more recent, but people do notice that date. Anything pre-2009, in my opinion, makes the site look old.




10. Resolve to repeat 1 through 9 at lease once a month…

Some of this is perhaps a little obvious, but I think it’s rather essential. There’s nothing here that has to cost a lot in terms of time or money, and it’s certainly a worthwhile investment.

When you’ve done your updates, write a quick press release and send it to one of the many free press release companies. Not comfortable writing? Have someone do it for you. A press release doesn’t have to be an editorial, just a paragraph telling people "DAVE’S HOME PAGE MAKEOVER COMPLETE", along with some links to your site. Send some emails out announcing the update, perhaps even some postcards.

Your website is your online store front, accessible by millions. It’s open 24x7x365. It may not be the coolest, trendiest store front in the world, but it’s well-maintained, clean, friendly…and yours.

SEO 101 : IS IT RIGHT? (part 2)

In my last post in this series (TAGS’n'STUFF), I talked about three of the most import parts of a web page: the title, description, and page link. By going to Google’s home page and typing in site:www.[your site name].com (or whatever), you can see what Google has in it’s database relating to your site.

One of the interesting things to do is check each page on your site against Google’s index. So, if you have a page on your site called www.[your site name].com/realestate.html, and the purpose of that page is to show off your real estate stuff, then what you see in Google should relate.

To get the exact address of a page on your site, simply visit your home page and navigate to the page in question. Then copy the entire link in the address bar as your search term (putting site: in front of it).

You may be surprised at what you see.

There are many "template" type sites that allow you to build your own web pages. Many of these allow you to put your own titles and "meta tags" in them. They don’t always tell you what these should be, or even what they are. We’ll go into "meta tags" in the near future, but the "description" of the page, limited to 150 characters, is one of these. These are so important to search engine placement and yet they’re so often overlooked.

Allow me to illustrate.

I have a (pretend) page on my site called "widgets". On this page, I’m advertising my widget products. My website is in Google because when I typed in site:www.jdemarketing.com it told me so. But I’m curious to see how my widgets page is doing. So I’m going to type in site:www.jdemarketing.com/widgets.html, which is the address of my widgets page.

Huh?

As you can see (above) in the "title" area, all Google has is "Welcome" and in the description it says "put your description here". The link is correct, because I can see the link points to my widget page.

What’s happened here is that although Google has found and indexed this particular page on my site, the fact that I don’t have any meaningful title or description makes it about as useless as a screen door on a submarine. Now, there might be some content on the page that helps people find it, but without a good title and description, my odds on being found have been greatly reduced. After all, who is going to search on "welcome" to find "widgets"?

My "phoenix small business marketing products" page, on the other hand (site:www.jdemarketing.com/marketingproducts.aspx) shows up nicely (see below). In the "title" area I have "phoenix small business marketing products and services". In the "description" tag I have "phoenix arizona small business marketing products and services | marketing materials | marketing training | marketing plans". The link points to the right page.

Now, in theory, when I type "phoenix small business marketing products" into Google, my page should appear. In this case it does, near the top.

Having relevant search terms in your title and description doesn’t guarantee you a page 1 listing on Google overnight, or on any other search engine for that matter, but it certainly helps you get listed and stay listed. Another thing to point out is how relevant my particular search term is. Yes, it’s five words long, but there is little doubt about what someone wants when they enter "phoenix small business marketing products".

So, to conclude

Relevant words in the title and description help search engines understand what your page is about. It also helps web surfers find what they’re looking for. While, in my case, I could have used "small business marketing products", I’m trying to keep my terms as narrow as I can because I’ll have more chance of getting the people I want. While I’d love a marketing client in New York, they’re more likely to look for " new york small business marketing products"…

Relevance is also important when it comes to moving up the ranks. If I were to use "Phoenix Accounting Services" as my description and title, but my page content were about marketing, I’m going to upset people who found my site and thought they were finding a CPA. It doesn’t help your marketing cause to be dishonest.

Finally, use something that makes sense to people and machines. Don’t "stuff" the title and description with single words.

So, check your titles and descriptions. If they look right, put those search terms into Google, Yahoo and Bing (MSN) and see where you rank. If you’ve just changed them, expect a couple of weeks to go by before any changes are noted; sometimes longer.

Check to ensure that the page content reflects what’s in the titles and descriptions.

Next we’ll look at other tools and techniques to help you get the most out of your own SEO.

SEO 101 : TAGS ‘n’ STUFF (part 1)

I’ve always argued that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is part art, part science and part black magic. Certainly, the “black magic” part applies at times, especially when it comes to Google who keep their algorithms close to their chests.

Yet there are some basic things you, as a website owner, can do to help yourself get in and stay in the search engines.

What’s that? You’re already in the search engines? Cool!

Are you sure?

It doesn’t hurt to check. Don’t assume that just because you’ve got a site that any of the search engines know about it. A quick test is to go to Google’s home page (www.Google.com) and type in:

site:www.[your site name].com (or whatever).

So, in my case, I’d type:

site:www.JDELtd.com

The results will show you how Google “sees” your site. The results can sometimes be quite surprising, especially if it comes back “not found”…

The results of this search tell you a couple of the things about how your site is viewed by Google. For example, several of the results that come back when I put in my search include “Phoenix Web Design Company” in the title. This is good. I am a web designer and want to be relevant when it comes to web design related searches. Looking at your results, what shows? Is it relevant?

The text above the line (the link) is what is called a “Title” tag. When you’re on a website, the title tag is what displays at the top of the page. This is also used by Google (and others) to help web surfers find useful sites. The title tag is generally limited to 60 characters and should be relevant. Google has become very efficient at weeding out titles and content that aren’t relevant to what the site is trying to say.

The text under the line is what is called the “Description” tag. This is 150 characters long. You may have heard the term “meta tags”. Well, the description is one of these. In 150 characters, the description should expand on the title tag, and provide a little more information about the page in question. Again, like the title, it should relate to the content.

Are you with me so far…?

If what you see in the title or description results returned by Google are just your company name, or something less relevant, then you might want to consider changing them. This is where the “part art” comes in. You don’t want to “stuff” search terms into your title and description. That can be just as damaging as not having anything. The title and description must be relevant, but also should be useful because these two items are used, in conjunction with a page’s content, by the search engines to index your site.

Depending on your web master or hosting company, you should be able to tweak these, just be sure to understand how to do it properly.

The third part of the text is the link to the apge that the title and description is talking about.

Of course, in the interests of shameless self-promotion, you could contact me

In part 2, I’ll go into more detail about relevant page content.