Web Designers Melbourne - How do I create a website?

Melbourne is full of website designers and web developers - I am one of them so I should know!

What kinds of web designers are there?

Choosing a web designer to create your website can be a daunting task because it's hard to compare one designers capabilities against another.

• Some web designers only design the look of your website and these people are called Graphic Designers.
• Other web designers only code and build websites - these people are called 'Web Developers'.
• Thirdly there are those web designers that can design websites and code. I myself can both design and code websites which saves my clients a lot money only having to use one person to achieve the same results.

Choosing a Web Designer

When it comes to choosing a web designer you should really use a professional if you are serious about your business. Using your brother in law to create a site for you is cheaper but your site might actually look like your brother in law created it too - not cool.

Take a look at your chosen web designers portfolio. Do you like the designs he or she has done for other people. You want your website to look unique to your business. That said people do expect to find information in the usual places such as menus at the top, the telephone number top right etc...

Read through the web designers testimonials and see what past clients have written. You could even call their past clients to get a reference.

Finally trust your gut instinct - do you like your web designer and do they listen to what you have to say. Good communication is vital when it comes to web design so that your requests can be interpreted correctly into the design you wish for your website.

Your visitors first impression of your website needs to be:

• This business looks professional
• The navigation works and I can find what i am looking for
• I feel I can trust this business and want to work with them.

What does your website need to do?

Before building a website it's always worth asking yourself why you want a website. What are the objectives of having a site? Brand awareness, to give information or sell products and services online. Which ever one you choose, each website needs to have a goal or an objective. This is known as the funnel which pushes the user towards some kind of action. At the end of the funnel there might be a 'Contact Page' prompting people to call you.

How much do websites cost?

This is a question I am always asked and it's difficult to answer because each site usually has different requirements which means different levels of development time. In order to give my clients a reasonable idea for website design cost, I charge $1299 which has upto 15 pages, basic functionality and includes hosting for the first year.

In order to give a more detailed quote you would really need to give a detailed description as to what you need your site to do and get 3-5 separate web design quotes. What you shoud look for is not the cheapest quote but the best value for money in terms of design, functionality and customer service.

Why are Content Managed Websites better than Static websites?

Not many people have a static website any more because they are notoriously difficult to maintain as your site grows. The hardest part is ensuring the menus are updated across all of the pages in the site.

Content Managed System (CMS) websites don't store information on pages. Information is stored in a database which is displayed as a styled page depending on what you wish to show when a person clicks a link on your site. The other main advantage is that design is separated from content which means updating the look and feel of your site is much quicker through a linked style sheet.

We create websites using the Joomla CMS because there are so many extensions we can utilise from galleries to ecommerce.

What every web design should include

Below is a quick break down as to what every web design should include:

• Good web design
• Easy to use interface and navigation
• Primary navigation above the fold so people will see it
• Repeat navigation in the footer - a good idea if a visitor scrolls to the bottom of the page.
• Well written content. I can't emphasise this enough - you're reading this aren't you :)
• A well written About Us page. People want to know about your history, why you do what you do, how long have you been doing it for etc. Don't scrimp on the writing. Visitors are already on your page so give them the information they're looking for.
• Contact information. I advise people to give there real business address and not PO Box address. This is because people want to know you are a real business. Anyway, what have you got to hide?
• Search bar - make it easy for people to find content on your site.
• Sitemap. A sitemap is a simple non-styled menu list of all of the pages on your site - a kind of index.
• Sign up and Subscribe. Get people to sign up to receive special information or content. Once you have their details you can continue marketing to them with offers and more importantly - information. Become an expert in your field and people will want to know what you have to say.
• Search Engine Optimisation. Optimise your website content and images so that search engines can index your content correctly.
• Add Google Analytics to your site so that you can track where visitors are coming from and the keywords they used to find your web pages.

If you would like more information regarding web design please visit our web design quote page or contact us page.