Tips and Tricks for Building a Website from a Web Designer
Heather DeVine, Senior Designer at Gliffen, shares some important tips and tricks from web designers when considering to build a website for your business either on your own or hiring a professional. She suggests starting with asking yourself 3 questions…who are you, what is your business and why do you need a website? Not only will this help you determine the course of your business’ website, but it will also help you organize what needs to be displayed on the site.
>> Review the Building a Website handout for some guidance
She provides a few tips on creating your own website. For instance, remember to resize all your images for web use and be sure to create “alt tags” for each of them. Don’t be afraid to be descriptive of what permalinks you use on your site, this will also allow you to be more specific on what’s on the page but will help when searching for the content you put out there. Use the right headers (h1, h2, h3, etc) to organize your website the most effective way possible. These tips will insure good SEO (search engine optimization) and increase flow to your site. Also look into possible resources or classes on html and css so you can understand basic coding.
Heather gives some good tips and tricks for selecting and hiring a professional. Do some research on available website designers, both locally and nationally. Consider cost and understand the expenses like domain registration, hosting as well as any on-going costs. It’s also important to think about personalities and design style when selecting a pro. You might also want to ask yourself whether you want to be in charge of the website or if you would like the Web Designer to do the upkeep. She can’t stress enough how important it is when you do hire a professional is to have access to all accounts associated with the build of the site, you never know when you’ll need it down the road.
There are always pros and cons for creating a website yourself. While you may save money and learn some new skills, you may also be sacrificing the look and functionality of your website as well as risking looking like several of your competitors. So ask yourself the who, what and why you need a site and let the journey begin!
>> See Tips & Tricks for Building a Website from a Web Designer [PDF]
See above presentation given at Women’s Roundtable in Jackson, Wyoming. Contact Heather DeVine and the rest of the Gliffen team to discuss your business and see how we may help you put the right foot forward with your website.