Website design

Where do you start?  Do you sketch your thoughts out on paper? Or do you try to do it an a computer?  Do you have a logo? Do you put the web page on the left of the screen? Do you have the page in the center of the screen? or Do you stretch it out?

So many questions to be answered! We get asked them all…

We always start with pen and paper, it is the oldest and best way to get the ideas you have out of your head. There is no use having loads of brilliant ideas flying around in your head, get them on paper and you will be able to see what you have missed. The most important thing is that you must have a clear purpose for your web design.

Once you have dumped your brain on paper in a sort of wish list you can then start to sketch a crude layout (you don’t have to be a designer to draw boxes) at this point, all you need to do is mark out simple layout – no Picasso attempts yet.

A basic web design has 3 fundamentals:

• The HEADER – the bar at the top with your logo, navigation and telephone number.
• The CONTENT container – the middle of the page with the main content and images in.
• The  FOOTER – at the bottom of the page.

So, you now have a wish list, a basic box layout with header, content and footer containers sketched out. You now have to add the wish list items to your sketch, make sure you leave enough room for them all and DON’T clutter the design – keep it fresh, clean and easy to navigate. Make sure that you get all of the important information included at the top of the page – (above the fold). Another important factor in web design is the message, the header message – Try not to use “Welcome to our website” You need to get your message across quickly and effectively.

The current standard for websites is to deliver the information in the center of the page, not on the left of the screen. Websites are no longer built to stretch with the page. We use a 960 width grid system that ensures that all websites fit within the smallest of screens with the weirdest resolutions set.

Some good things to remember are:

• Do not use too many different fonts
• Do not use Time New Roman as the font
• Do not use too many colours
• Keep your navigation simple

See some of our other blog posts to give you further ideas on web design.

Search Engine Optimisation is with out a doubt a difficult art to master. The BIG question is where do you begin?

Do you try and tackle it yourself? Ok, the logical thing to do is start by researching the subject,  and the obvious place to look is the internet, right?  So you do a search: “Search engine optimisation” So you get a Wikipedia result for number 1, this tells you what SEO means, this is a start! After that you get 1000′s of results for companies offering Seo Services – useless to you if you are going to try it yourself!

Second search “search engine optimisation basics” yields a vast array of results. GREAT! You spend hours going through the results, after your eyes become square and you scratch your head a bit you realise that they are all telling you different things?? This begins to get annoying!

Right, by now you are losing interest, then a brain storm!! “YouTube” – A quick search for search engine optimisation brings some interesting results! From some guy rapping to more people trying to sell you more services.

After all this you will be thinking one of 3 things, 1: What the hell do half of these things mean? 2: That is great but how the hell do I apply all this to my website? 3: I will get someone else to do it for me.

So, if you are thinking something similar to number 3 then you look on the internet for a search engine optimisation company. Any of the first page results will give you the service that you want, as long as you have a massive budget you will be fine. Probably up to £1000 per month for the top 3 on first page results. Lets face it you are never going to go on to the second page of the search results to use a company that cant even get on the first page for their subject.

After half a day wasted you are non the wiser, if not more confused.

The long or the short of it is that to achieve great results it takes months and months of structured on and off page optimisation to get where you need to be. Statistics from Yahoo say that 70% of users will only click on the top 3 results of any search.

If you are adamant that you are going to go it alone then here is a fantastic starting point: Google Guide To Search Engine Optimisation

We will be offering tips on website search engine optimisation over the next few weeks. Please keep re-visiting our blog for more tips and tricks.

Part 3 of the 10 Website Top Tips is a very important one!

Does your website work on all platforms and all devices? You would be amazed, if you have not tested your website to make sure that it works on Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari ( All Apple MAC’s and Iphones use Safari) Firefox, Blackberry, ipad and iphones then you might get a shock.

In my last 5 years in web design Preston I have seen and heard some real howlers. There is nothing worse than a website that looks silly in another browser.

Here are some stats on how many people use other forms of device or browser to view web pages.

Internet Explorer
27.5 %
Firefox
43.5%
Google Chrome
22.4%
Safari
3.8%
Opera
2.2%