Web Design FAQ
Who should design my web site?
Once you determine how much you can afford to spend on a web site, shop around for a professional full-service web design firm that is within your price range. Be realistic in your expectations and make sure the web design firm you select is a comfortable fit for you and your employees. Companies that provide a full range of Internet-related services are preferable to firms that only provide web design.
Who is my target audience?
The customers to whom you want to sell your products is your target audience. All businesses have to advertise in some form or fashion and your web site is an advertisement of your core business. Since targeted advertising is usually more successful, help your web design firm determine your target audience. The design of your web site must capture the interest of your target audience in order to be an effective medium for marketing your products or services.
How can I generate traffic to my web site?
New businesses tend to rely on search engine traffic to drive sales while existing businesses already have a customer base they can use to generate traffic. Because search engines need text to read in order to catalog a web site, web design with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind is critical when promoting your web site with search engines. Web sites packed with graphics usually do not rank as high as plain text web sites with search engines. Newsletters, email (be careful not to spam), eBay auctions, banners, link exchanges, and standard forms of advertising are also excellent ways to generate traffic for your web site.
Should my web site be designed for high-speed broadband access or for low-speed dial-up access?
Though many homes today have access to broadband cable and DSL services, even more homes still use slow dial-up services to access the Internet. Another point to consider is that the fastest growing method of accessing the Internet is with a digital telephone using WAP, which is even slower than dial-up. There's no better way to lose first-time customers than slow response times from graphic intensive web sites. Make sure your site is designed to accommodate the broadest range of access by potential customers.
Who should I get to host my web site?
Your web design firm should be able to outline hosting options for you based on pricing, performance, and reliability. The hosting service you select should provide you with a control panel to manage your web site and should guarantee at least 99.9% uptime. Also ensure your hosting service provides adequate bandwidth to accommodate future growth.