Hiring a Professional Web Designer

Many new companies believe that the key to making sales is developing a website. However, web site design is not just a matter of throwing together a website with a lot of pretty graphics. It involves careful understanding of web site graphics, plus an eye toward search engine optimization.What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search engine optimization is a field in internet marketing that includes developing web sites, including content, to increase web traffic and search engine page ranking. Search engine optimization, also referred to as SEO, can be a very involved process and a good professional web designer should have a thorough knowledge of SEO before they begin to attempt to design your web page.

Search engine optimization includes designing easy to use and understand web pages, creating clear content that includes popular keywords and keyword phrases, developing backlinks that will drive traffic to your site and internet advertising that will also increase traffic to your website.

Web Site Design

Far from the early days of the internet, contemporary internet surfers are usually fairly savvy about web site layout and design. Gone are the days when surfers are impressed with lots of fancy fonts and flash animation that has little to do with the content. Instead, web page visitors are looking for web site design that is easy to understand and is easy to navigate. On the home page, they want to have content that tells them what the site is about and the products available.

Google has what is called a “heat map,” which is a very good tool for understanding page layout and the placement of content, menus and even affiliate advertising. Generally, speaking, menus should be located at either the top of the web page or on either side. Also, you should include a site map, which shows all of the page pages available to a visitor. The site map is also used by web crawlers or spiders to index your page for ranking.

Fonts on your web page should be easy to read and not overly fancy. Remember that visitors are looking at your web page on a screen, not a piece of paper. Depending on the resolution of their screen, fancy fonts can appear fuzzy and unattractive.

Also, your web designer should have an understanding of colors and how they apply to web design. Color not only sets the tone for how your page is perceived, but also how easy it is for a reader to understand the type as it is places on the site. For example, think about the impression a bright pink page with white text has as compared to a light brown page with black text – each makes an impression, regardless of what kind of business the page is about.

Summary

When choosing a professional web design consultant, make sure that they have experience and a good understanding of search engine optimization and web page design for SEO purposes. Your web page can make the difference between a successful and thriving website and one that languishes away with low page rankings and few visitors.