Web Services Offered
Services offered for web design in New York and nationwide
Web design is a wide-spanning, broad area of technology that engages many different fields of expertise in order to produce a professional product - your website, your face to the world! Due to the vast selection of companies that offer web design and internet services, you as a client have lots of options...but where to start and how to decide which companies are serious or not are the real questions. Here are some of the most important aspects of web design to consider for your decision:
Consulting
...probably the most important aspect of developing a website. A good company will take your wishes and needs into consideration and be able to present you with options to fulfill those needs. Companies with set packages may not be flexible or alter a design or structure to suit your needs.
Graphic Design
The best way to determine if a web design company has an eye for design that suits your style is based on their online portfolio. And good web design company will have screenshots of their clients and best work in order to show off what they can do and what they have in fact realized for other clients. Make sure to see if the color palettes and overall page structures appeal to you and your personal taste. Take note of your initial impress of the examples - are the sites: friendly? inviting? funny? professional? messy? out-of date? overdone? boring?? A good design should make you want to click further!
Content
Unless you are a photographer or visual artist, you will have written content on your website other than just pictures. It's important to think about what your message is and what you would like to achieve with your website. This message needs to come across clearly and capture your internet audience. A web design company can help with this as well! Some companies offer copywriting, where they come up with texts on topics that you desire, or will edit and expand upon texts that you provide. Be sure to determine ahead of time if you are in need of this type of service.
Programming
A good design with great content is completely useless if the website doesn't work the way it should! Users still need to be able to easily find and get to the information they are looking for. A clear link structure is important and should be self-evident, so any user (especially your target group) can figure out how it works and how to maneuver around it. In addition, many types of web technology can be implemented to give your website that competitive edge. Decide what you want on your website that maybe only certain web design companies can offer, such as a calendar, log-in features, web shop, photo gallery, contact forms, etc.
Hosting
Many web design companies in New York and nationwide offer hosting from their own servers. Be sure to find out what the price is for that and compare to hosting packages from companies that host websites exclusively online! While using their hosting is easier, finding a hosting company yourself may be cheaper and suit your needs more. Be sure get enough bandwidth if you will have videos on your website, for example.
Search Engine Optimization
A beautiful, well-structured website won't help you much if potential customers can't find you! Contract a company that provides quality search engine optimization, or SEO. Don't know if a company is good or not? Do your own search in Google or Yahoo, for example, "search engine optimization new york" shows you which companies have achieved top rankings for their own companies in their field of specialty (here SEO for NYC)! SEO is how you get found, so be sure to think about for what exactly you want to be found, which keywords are important to your business, and if you want to be found locally or nationally - for example: "cafe in New York"? "online discount clothing"? "hardware store in Manhattan"? "web design new york"? "boat repair ny"?
Social Media
Social media has been hyped a lot lately, but it is also important in developing and maintaining contact to your customers. Social media can also help your customers to find you by increasing your internet presence. Some web design companies or SEO agencies will not only set up but also manage social media for your company. Take the time to consider if you have the resources to maintain a Facebook or Twitter page yourself, or if you need help with content.
Now decide...
As to making an informed decision, remember that web design is an internet-exclusive industry, so if a company's own internet presence is not impressive, forget it! A company's portfolio, be it rankings for or prestige of SEO clients, or design presentations of web projects, is an important indicator upon which to base your decision, so take a look around. A good web design company in New York recognizes how competitive the business is and will present the important information and features they can offer on their website in a clear manner.