Custom websites are among the most important PR instruments used in modern business. Recognizing the value in effective custom web design brings better awareness and professionalism to your organization, using your website and the internet to its full potential.

Your custom website design team needs to create professional, custom websites that impress your visitors, build brand recognition, and sell products and services. Being closely-knit with the design team, in collaboration with you, using a proven strategy to ensure that the final design matches your specific needs and expectations. Custom web design is just that, custom to your needs. Whether you are selling products online or services to your clientele, your website should reflect that. The internet is a vast and readily used tool, don’t disappoint your visitors, get a custom web site that is designed for you specifically.

The first step to finding the right firm is by discussing your business and its objectives. After you sign your contract, the development of your custom website will begin. At this time, it would be a great idea to supply your designers with information for your website (i.e. copy, pictures, products, contact information, etc.). The development of your custom website should begin smoothly from here.

Custom web design for you and your company is highly important. Websites are an investment, invest wisely in custom web design for better results.

A. Website Design Solutions for Your Small Business
The website design for your small business can be the life or death of your company. Since design is subjective, anyone can instantly be turned off by the design of a website. Nothing says "small time" faster than an outdated and unloved website, but there are solutions for small businesses that don't require large budgets to throw at the website design and development.

Large Design Agencies
If you go to a large design or advertising agency to have your website designed and developed, chances are you are going to pay the salaries of the 50-100 people that work there. Larger design firms usually have a decent amount of talent behind their walls and there tends to be more checks and balances than the smaller firms; ie...designer presents to the art director who then gets the design approved by the creative director.

Small Design Agencies
Smaller firms can usually produce good designs in a timely manner with a decent amount of client interaction, but this option is going to be hit or miss. If a firm only has one or two designers, then you're basically stuck with whatever they can do. The only way to preview the style of these smaller firms is to review their portfolios and see if their work is up to your standards.

Your Best Design Option
The best chance for a small business to end up with a stellar design is to go with a freelancer or a one or two man show. The only problem is how to pick your designer. Many designers, such as myself, who can recommend website design and development services, have worked for larger firms and have a great deal of design experience both in corporate America and neighborhood design.

It is easy for a large firm to get away with charging these prices because they are well established. The trick for the small business owner is to find a designer that is in between fame and rent. The nice thing about a freelance designer is that his or her name is riding on the project as well. A freelancer lives and dies by their design work - just like your small business - and they will do whatever it takes to creates a stellar design that makes client happy.

B. Do Your Homework While In Design Business
The Internet has opened up a promising new potential for numerous small - and large-scale web businesses serving to various work needs around the globe. This web design or development businesses span a number of areas ranging from content creation, link building, and website design to high-end programming and site maintenance. However, it's more difficult to run a web design business online than build a good website. Like all business moves, online businesses also involve a few steps, planning and strategies for better delivery.

To give you an idea, your web design business needs to be framed under these heads:
Finance: pricing your time/work, accounting for it, invoicing, billing, etc.
Legal: contracts, copyright issues, Internet laws, trademarks, etc.
Logistics: office space, computers, relevant software, books and guides, etc.
Documentation and testing: creating proposals, payment terms and conditions, tracking the number of modifications, checking technical issues, load times, browser compatibility, etc.
Create a client questionnaire first. Mention the site specifications in the proposal; and you may also win trust by attaching a story-board to it. Remember, a written contract outlining the lawful scope of work ensures full payment and better client loyalty.

Have a pricing policy for your business, based on the number of pages, amount of time required, number of tools and technologies involved, etc. Include charges (if any) for the kind of modification you’re doing on a running project.

Whether you’re a novice to the Internet-based business world or a technology expert, it’s important to understand what is needed to take your business online. This article is designed to educate business owners on how to navigate the online process and assess an accurate value to Web design services.

Website Design
Before you begin your search for the right design firm, first consider your budget. If a designer claims they can build you a fully functional site for a couple hundred dollars, you can accurately presume that your site will likely be built around a template created by a fill-in-the-blank software application. If that fits your budget, fine—but don’t expect anything original, polished or fail-safe, because such mass-produced sites litter the Web and are typically rife with problems, including deadly slow load times, text bleeding into images, sloppy alignment, dead links and frustrating error messages.

• Next take a good hard look at the company’s portfolio, both its premium designs and its lower-priced examples. If the sites in your price range look amateurish, cookie-cutter, bland or in any way unprofessional, so will your business.

• Test the company’s own Website for design, content and ease of navigation. If theirs looks slick and works well, it suggests they have the resources to create quality work.

• Find out how long the company and/or its staff have been in business. Is the firm fly-by-night, or does its workforce boast experts who have been in the business for years?

• Will they customize your site? A good company can use your current marketing materials, including your business logo, color scheme, literature and graphics to create a site that brands your business perfectly. If you have no such branding material, do they have the talent to create if for you?

• Does the company have sufficient staff to work with you directly? If you’re not satisfied with their work, will the company return to the drawing board until you are satisfied? Do they offer a no-strings money-back guarantee if they can’t please you?

The Supporting Services
In order to take your business online, let’s forget about “bells and whistles” for now and get down to the essentials needed to establish your company on the World Wide Web.

Domain Name – A domain name is your online address (URL), and the right domain name is crucial in enabling your current and prospective customers to find you. That’s why it’s vital to select a memorable, easy-to-spell domain name. Try using your business name if it’s unavailable; if not, try forming a name based on words that describe what you do or otherwise associate with your business. Untaken domain names can run from about $2-30 or more—however if the URL you want is considered a “premium domain name,” which is typically a name in high demand due to its simplicity, memorability and widespread market appeal such as homes.com, cars.com, food.com, etc., expect to pay a premium price. Web Hosting – Web hosting is the service of providing server space to Website customers so they can keep their sites up and running. The server space size required varies from site to site—if yours is large with lots of pages, graphics, traffic and/or shopping options, you will require more space than a 1-3 page brochure site.

No matter what your site’s size or ambitions, one important caveat when choosing a Web hosting provider is to make sure that it provides 99% uptime—companies with long or frequent downtimes mean your site is also down during that period, possibly costing you credibility, customers and sales. Solid companies will post it on their Websites or have a representative who can give you an exact percentage. All reputable companies have their stats available, and no company is up 100% of the time, no matter what they say.

A host offering 99% uptime allows your Website to stay up and running virtually 24/7, assuring your customers that your Internet doorway is always ready for business.

Website Content
The content of your Website is a combination of all the information and graphics on your site, most notably the text. If you feel inspired to write your own content, that’s great. All content should be proofread by an expert in grammar and punctuation before it’s published—otherwise your business will look as if it cuts corners and lacks quality. After all, if you don’t care enough to make sure your Website is professional, why would anyone trust your company to be?

Website Marketing
The first step is to figure out your action plan for overcoming the obstacles to your business growth, such as: How will your site get discovered by prospective customers? 1. Get your site listed in the top search engines – Internet surfers typically use the most popular search engines, like Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc. to find what they want using keywords specific to a service or product. 2. Place online advertising in relevant places. If you have the funds, you can pay search engines like Google to place your company at the top of certain keyword lists, so that a random search for say, “running shoes” places your site up top and in bold print. Less expensive options include placing banner or text link ads on the Web pages of companies whose products or services compliment your own. Also, don’t forget to put your URL (Website address) on everything, from your business cards to stationary to the company car, anywhere it will be seen.
If you’re not a writer, hire a professional to write this content for you. Take advantage of people’s love of sending forwards to generate some free publicity for your company.

Maintenance
For example, you might find a Web design service that touts its low prices, but always inquire what that low price includes. Ask up front if your design company offers everything you might need, such as search engine submission, hosting services, marketing consultation services, ad campaign creation, copywriting services, tech support and other elements your company may require to launch your online business. One company may give you a break on your Website design, then charge you a whopping $50 a month for hosting. Does their bargain-priced Website include any other services, like customization, graphics, branding elements or Flash animation if you want them? Will they allow updates to your site when you need them?

A. Build a Website for Your Business in 7 Easy Steps
You are obviously reading this article for a reason, you need a website for your business. In my personal opinion, every small business, large corporation, non-profit organization should have their own website online.

Why doesn't every business nationwide have a website?

1) Layout & Design
Now that you have a feel for what your competitors are up to on their websites, you can start to get together ideas for the layout and design of your website.

2) Find a Professional Website Designer
I would prefer to stay local, but like myself, I have clients nationwide that desire my website design services.

3) Request a Price Quote Estimate
Just like me, many other website designers (atleast the professional ones) will have some way to request a total cost estimate for your website project. This is normally a free service in the form of a web form that will ask you for basic information about your project such as number of pages, timeline, budget, design specifics, etc.

4) Decide on a Website Designer
Once you have received responses back from website designers look over all of them (there may be a lot depending on your area) and choose a designer that gives you the fairest price and expresses and understanding in the result you are going for. Like I said, I suggest staying local and requesting a face-to-face interview. Typical small business websites should only take 5 to 7 business days max from design to publish and should range in cost from $250.00 to $2,000.00 based on specific needs, turn around time, features and other factors.

Make sure your Website Designer offers the following:
Free Quote Request
Is capable of custom website designs
Previews of the work
Design revisions/changes to previews
Satisfaction Guarantee/Money Back Guarantee
Transfer of full ownership once work is completed
Provides a professional invoice for work completed
Offers multiple file delivery options, CD-ROM, uploading to server or zipped file attachment

5) Working With Your Website Designer
Feel free to be open and express your design needs and requirements. Remember, this is your website and you have hired the designer to do the work for you. This is similar to ordering business cards, you will need to tell the designer specifics like layout, page/category names, the goal your website is trying to accomplish and what info you would like on the site. Being specific will help get the design idea across to the designer which will allow him to be more productive and efficient in the design process. In turn, resulting in a more accurate design with a fast turn around.

6) Previewing the Designer's Work
During the website design process, you will be interested to see how far along the designer has come. I call these previews which are emailed to the client for approval of the work. The client can review and refine my work. Once the website design meets the client's requirements and the designer gets final approval, we can move on to the next step which is finalizing the entire website and publishing.

7) Finalizing and Publishing
Finally, once you have given the designer the final approval he/she will create the entire website. It is very time consuming for designers to create entire websites and this avoids investing time and money incase the client backs out. Be prepared with the text (also called copy) and information, prices, descriptions, paragraphs, etc. that you want to display on your website. Some web designers will charge extra to create copy for you, but you can save a lot if you write it out in a Word document or email and send it to the designer. Once the site is complete, the designer may require payment before uploading or sending you the files he/she created. Make sure you get an Invoice for your records and request a hard copy back up if the designer is uploading the files for you.

B. The Plastic Web of Ecommerce Website Design
Ecommerce website design embraces the idea of the Internet storefront. Cash, checks, credit cards, and debit cards are all viable means to handle paying for services, goods or other. When it comes to ecommerce website design, this is an issue that acquires paramount importance.

The importance is highlighted when you acknowledge there are no cash registers or night deposit-drops on an ecommerce website design. Many ecommerce website designs do not limit their payment acceptance to just credit or debit cards, but also feature a way that customers can pay by check or money order. So what goes into the ecommerce website design to increase the functionality of accepting payments over the Internet? A merchant account can be a tough call because unless a company possesses a proven financial track record along with a solid financial backing, chances are the merchant account could be expensive. The official websites are packed with information for developers setting up their ecommerce website design. The drawbacks to independent acquirers are the fees and exclusions that the seller will have to cover. The age of the plastic web means that setting up an ecommerce website design has never been simpler. In order to make the best decisions during this phase of the ecommerce website design, check the fees associated with the merchant account or acquirer. For example, make a chart that compares the fees for application, setup, statement, discount rate, transaction and monthly minimums.

By breaking down these fees, the selection of merchant account will become easier. The determination of fees will also impact the way business is billed, including raising certain prices to absorb the cost of how payment is received. For standard ecommerce website design where the site boasts its own shopping cart and shipping calculator, the fee breakdowns would be rolled into the posted prices. The research will prepare the developer of the ecommerce website design model that incorporates a pricing model.

• Identify Products/Services

• Set Prices

• Determine Shipping Vendor

• Establish Shipping Prices

• Research Merchant Accounts

• Obtain Merchant Accounts

• Give All Data to the Designer

The internet is full of web design companies pleading for your business. Not sure which company to select? By following these simple steps, you'll be able to select the perfect designer for your business.
1. The search for a web designer. Most people turn to search engines on the internet for their search.

2. The designer's portfolio. Once you stumble on a website that catches your interest, look for samples of their work. Freelancer or business, anyone who claims to be a web designer has design portfolio.
Are there designs clean and crisp?
Does the overall design have a professional appearance?
How Is their language, grammar and spelling usage?

3. Check references. If you think the designer can do a good job for you, check their references. You'll find contact information for past clients in the designer's portfolio. They can give you their real life experience with the design company.

4. Selecting a web designer. If your comfortable with the references and like the examples in the portfolio contact the design company to discuss the requirements of your project. By corresponding with the designer via email of telephone, you'll learn a lot about how responsive and flexible they are. Keep in mind that not every web design company has the capabilities to do what you need.

5. Getting pricing for your website. Request web design quotes from your favorite companies.

6. Partnership. Engaging with a web design company should be a partnership. We hope These steps will help you on your quest to find the perfect web design company.

A. That Don't Impress Me Much: Even Pretty Web Sites Have Abandonment Issues
There is a certain similarity between human relationship breakups and web site abandonment:
The good news is that making a good first impression with your web site visitors is much easier than preparing for a blind date. For starters, you can be surfing in your pajamas, no makeup or with "bed-head" and the web site won't laugh its head off at you.

For good web design, you should have a good idea ahead of time about who will be knocking on your web site door. Speaking on behalf of web sites only, not as a relationships counselor, one of the biggest turn offs web site visitors have is dishonesty. For example, any job search in Google will inevitably bring back employment sites, as well as work from home sites. Here's how one web site promoted itself:

"Earn up to $300/hr. Hot jobs. Apply in seconds." Really? I can earn that kind of money without any experience? When I arrived at the homepage, I discovered several images weren't loading. It did mention the product name itself, repeatedly. (Probably for the sake of search engines, not you.)

Nowhere on the homepage did it say why this company could pay that much money to anyone, regardless of their background, work history, age or location. Where does this money come from?

I finally located where to apply way down at the bottom of the page. Credibility? I never entered the rest of the site because their claim was the same one made by thousands of other web sites just like it on the Internet.

If you've read studies on the pros and cons of long content vs. short, then you know that long pages aren't so terribly awful. If you can manage to engage your visitor, they'll hang in there with you. Shania Twain walked through a blazing hot desert in her music video for "That Don't Impress Me Much", tossing aside all kinds of things that didn't impress her. My son wanted a certain popular kids book series on history. The search engine quickly took me to the publisher of the series. When I arrived at the publisher's web site, I was happy to find the following elements within the first few seconds of arriving:

1. Attractive, colorful web design

2. The web site name, and a reference to the book series I searched for. Therefore, I knew I was in the correct site.

3. A "Featured Book" was front and center, in clear view.

4. There were three types of navigation, indicating a large web site. The top was auxiliary stuff, such as "things to do on our site". The left side navigation was designed for first-time visitors and browsers who are "just looking". Sections for Parents, Teachers, Kids and Writers indicated they intended on meeting the needs of many different types of consumers. Every link described in descriptive terms destinations like "Discussion Guides" or "Mother/Daughter Book Club", rather than simply "Discussion" or "Clubs".

The central navigation filled the main body of the web site and was broken into sections. This is how I learned the book series had several categories. They briefly describe, with well-chosen words that provoke interest, each category and a drop down menu allows the visitor to scan and click directly to the corresponding section inside the web site.

5. I knew I could purchase from this site because of the "Shop" button at the top of the page. It wasn't a tiny shopping cart icon, which some kids and non-computer savvy folks may have missed.

No pricing information, sale items or discounted items were on the homepage.
Curious about pricing, I clicked from the central navigation scheme on a book title that sounded like one my son might like. Incredibly, when I clicked on the Featured Book link back on the homepage, I met another conversion dead end. This web site had convinced me their products and company were credible, but they forgot to show me how or where to make a purchase.

I had a choice of clicking around the site looking for prices, or leaving and ordering elsewhere. Armed with all the information they provided me, I could easily find the book at Amazon. You're totally co-dependent on the needs, whims, wishes, desires, dreams, financial status, location, age, gender, and personality of the person who clicks into your web site.
Your web design mission is to meet needs, answer questions, and point the way to productive activity such as purchases or registration.

B. Choosing The Right Web Design Company For Your Website
Choosing the right web design company to create your website presence is like finding a good plumber or electrician. Some charge an obscene amount yet don’t get the job done properly, some charge a lot and do the job great.

Things to look out for when choosing a design company:
Does this company’s website look clean, professional? A good web designer / developer is someone who is not afraid of telling you what is good and what is bad for your website, if when you contact your chosen website design company and they don’t dispute anything that you have asked for or don’t offer constructive and helpful advice on what would be better, more suited to your business and they don’t discuss with you the pro’s and con’s of this, then chances are they are just another design company who is after dishing websites out one after the other with absolutely no concern what so ever of them wanting to push your business forward, driving it out to your customers and creating your business identity.

The pitfalls of using the wrong web design company
• Designed correctly, promoting your company’s image and identity
• Coded properly using CSS and standards compliancy (W3 Standards)
• Loads fast, is hosted on a high speed backbone.
• If your selling products, sell in context to the page its contained within
• Don’t overwhelm your visitors with banners, advisements etc
• Ensure it’s designed without any frames, and the layout is done through CSS and not tables

Most of the above things you will most likely not understand, but don’t worry, just asking these questions is the biggest step towards getting the right website created for you, picking the right company, forming a relationship with your designer to meet your business needs and not asking these questions is the biggest pitiful that most businesses make.

Ask Questions
Ask these questions, if your designer / developer stutter’s or seems confused with these questions or you don’t feel confident when discussing this with him/her, then find another web design company that understands why the above is so important to the success of your business. Good luck in finding the right web design company, and I hope this article has been helpful!