1. Choosing a Web Design: 7 Reasons
To Engage a Web Designer
http://seonetasia.com

2. 7 Reasons To Engage
a Web Designer
Jacky recently shows me his DIY web design and asks why
it is not attracting any traffic. A quick look and I uncover a
few things.
His website content is all text, the contact forms do not
work, the fonts default set-up were small and hard to read.
It included a flash intro that takes ages to load, which is
unnecessary.
Putting search engine optimization aside, what things do
you look for when doing your web design?
Let me share with you 7 points that you should consider:

3. 1. Web Design Usability:
To ensure the best user experience, you must consider
website usability. Check that there's no broken links, missing
web pages, unnecessary animation, images that take ages
to load because of the file size, fonts that are hard to read.
You would want to have a professional looking website - one
that is clean, easy to navigate, and clearly presented.
The advantage of engaging a web designer is the
consideration of such factors in the build and design phase.
You want a website that is optimize and attract. User
attention-spans are short and creating the first impression
within the first minute of their website visit is crucial.

4. 2. Web Design Features:
To ensure that all your needs are covered, you need to tell your
web designers what features you need.
Do you need opt-in forms, photo gallery, payment processing,
membership subscription, or customized contact forms? All
these will add value to your site and these may not be covered
in the standard design.
Check with your web designer and you may have to pay for
add-ons. If you are planning on doing your own website
updating, request for an admin interface that allows you to do
simple updating.

5. 3. Website content
You may have heard that content is king in the Internet world.
Content may be in the form of articles, videos, pod cast, or
slide presentations. Are you doing your website content? Else
you may outsource that to a web design or SEO company.
You want content that is relevant to your users and rate well
in terms of search engine optimization. What keyword phrases
would your customers type into Google-search if they were to
find your business offering?
Write your articles and include such keyword phrases in your
content. Many people find writing articles a challenge so the
best option is to outsource or engage a content writer.

6. 4. Company Information:
It is important that you have one available, else register your company. Give
full info to your web designer - company address, email addresses,
telephone/fax numbers, and operating hours.
Such info will be used when submitting your site to web/business directories
and Google map listing. This will help to build up the credibility of your
business with searchers as well as the major search engines.

7. 5. Web Design Theme and Templates:
I love open-source web design theme like Wordpress,Joomla, Magento.
Wordpress has a big user-based, with great development support. There are
thousands of plug-ins that can be employed to optimized the website. The
learning curve is shorter and it's a great recommendation for business owners
who want to do self-update of website after launch.
But take the time to source for the right theme that will support the design
requirement. There are thousands of themes available to cater to all needs. The
last thing a web designer want is to complete a web design with all content and
later realize that it does not meet the client's taste.

8. 6. Web Design Cross Browsers
Compatibility:
It is important that your web design theme works in the more recent version of
all the major browsers - Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. This is to
ensure you provide a good user experience for those who viewed your sites.
Your web designer should cover that during the test phase. Some open source
themes do not support the older browsers in terms of the flash or photo gallery
features. That is to be expected, as there is development cost consideration to
scope that in, and may not be viable just to cover the smaller group of users.

9. 7. Mock-Up design:
Most web designers will start off the project by doing a mock up design. Else
request for one - It will save you and the web designer much time. This allows
you to approve the web design without the designer going into too many
details like coding or add-ons.
Typical Mock up should cover the home page layout, navigation presentation,
and other features you requested like opt-in page, member sign-up, and
testimonial snippets. For eCommerce, it may include a page to show the
product page layout and gallery feature.

10. In Summary
Do not make the same mistakes Jacky made when creating
your next website. Cover the 7 points above, and you would
have a web design that is usable and optimized.
If you don't have the time to learn and do it yourself,
engage someone who knows, else hire a web designer from
a web design company.
Interested to know more about web design services?
Check out our website for more info .
http://seonetasia.com

11. About SEOnet Asia
SEOnet Asia is a Singapore-based SEO and Web Design
Company . Their SEO services include search engine
optimization, Google Adwords, and Google places optimization.
Other services include Fanpage creation and Social media
marketing. SEOnet Asia also do open source web design,
including eCommerce.
The Principal consultant is Henry Sim.
http://seonetasia.com