If you're searching/shopping for a good web designer,
we can't stress enough the importance of examining the web design company's
portfolio of clients as well as it's own website. This will say it all.
Look for diversity in the designs and whether the designer can effectively
reflect what the company or business is all about. A web design company
that shows a significant # of websites created for a given industry
may or may not not be the company you want to hire for a # of different
reasons. Reasons to hire that company might be the experience the company
has in having created the type of website you want which could turn
out to be cost effective for you or they have some intimate knowledge
of working the search engines for a particular industry. On the downside,
your site could end up looking like and functioning the same as one
of your competitors or your search engine results could be exactly the
same as one of your competitors. It's a tough call, but diversity is
probably a good thing to look for even in a given industry.
These days, web designers are a dime a dozen. Mainly, because the threshold
to deployment of a website or webpage can be so low. Heck, all you need
is a computer and a connection to the internet, right? However, professional
designers are not a dime a dozen, and the threshold to deployment of
a successful website can be very high. You should be prepared to pay
the price of a professional if you want to have a professional looking
and functioning website. Do you hire an auto mechanic to put a crown
on your tooth? Me thinks not.
We encourage everyone to buy a web suite of products, like Macromedia's
StudioMX or Adobe's Golive products, and not only learn them yourself,
but the techologies these WYSIWIG editors actually generate, i.e. html,
javascript, asp, etc.. Perhaps, after a few hours, days, or weeks, you'll
be happier to pay a professional or professional(s) who know(s) how
it all works and fits together.
Putting up a web page is easy. Building a custom, sticky, slick, sweet,
professional user-friendly website.....is.....well.....it just
takes time.
