Website Design Tips

Most companies today need to be able to quickly design and modify their website layout.  They need to add web pages and update content themselves, to reduce cost.  They need search engine optimization, so search engines can find their products.  On the back end of the website they need to track products, inventory, shipping, visitors, orders, and usage statistics.  On the front end they need a dynamic content system capable of producing nice layouts, quickly.    They need most problems already solved.  That is where we come in.

Inherited Content

Commercial Grade Content Management System allows you to quickly build content.  Through the use of "inheritance" this content can easily grow or be modified as the site structure progresses.  Everything from dynamic content to CSS can be inherited, saving you tons of time and development.

Flexible Design

We realize no system can foresee all of our client's needs.  That is why we even allow the easy development of "custom blocks" which we can quickly develop and drop into layouts as needed.  It's quick, easy and modular enough to make support and development economical.

Advanced Development & Support

We develop custom catalogs, estimators, applications and on-line forms for dozens of companies. 

Its about Solutions

Call for a free quote or to better understand our services.

It takes four things to get a website.

1. A Domain - Every few years you must purchase the domain which people can type in to get to your website.  ThatCompany.com is a good example.
2. A Design Package - Your website is the face of your company or organization to the world.  It is important that it reflects well on you.  Templated website tend to look poor for two reasons: 1)  The person building the website often does not have the experience to avoid common mistakes  2)  The technology available to most designers is rather poor, client-oriented technology.  We use Server Side Scripting for Dynamic Content!
3. A Hosting Package - You website could be the best in the world, but without a server constantly shelling out web pages and content no one would see a thing.  Many low quality hosting solutions are out there, but they all have drawbacks, including: poor support, difficult interfaces, limited Server Side Scripting and "shared" insecure settings.  Expensive Hosting Packages are also out there, which become easily over-priced.  We try to price our hosting as economically as possible without sacrificing reliability or security.
4. Search Engine Optimization - It is important to make sure that your website will be seen by as many people as possible.  If major search engines don't see it, it's as good as not there.

Anyone can design a website, right?  With design packages like DreamWeaver and FrontPage out there it certainly seems like you ought to be able to design your own site.  However, the reality is that website design has become a highly specialized field, incorporating: graphic arts, programming, security and search engine optimization. 

Good design tips include:

• Contrast - make sure your website has proper contrast
• Call to Action - make sure visitors have a way of becoming clients
• Keywords - decide before you begin and stuff them EVERYWHERE!
• Learn Good SEO - take the time to learn the special SEO tricks which professionals use to compete
• Hire a Professional - websites have become as specialized as any other field.

What to avoid:

• Distracting content - bright colors and movement which do not get your point across or make the sale. 
• Losing Focus - make sure you never get in the way of making the sale. 
• Having "friends" build your company website - ultimately you end up looking unprofessional and losing control of your website

Website design has become a specialized art including the need to know:

• HTML - hyper text markup language which splits content from formatting - brilliant!
• Photoshop - or a similar graphics program
• CSS - styling should always be split into another layer called Cascade Style Sheets.  Very complex but flexible!
• Javascript - used to do programming in the browser it can make just about anything happen.  This will be replaced eventually by new HTML specs.
• Server Side Scripting - PHP or ASP is extremely powerful and necessary for any website using a database. 
• Security - an extremely in-depth knowledge is necessary these days.

Websites have become an unavoidable part of every business.  They are extremely complex and inter-disciplinary.  Study for years or simply hire a professional, but make sure you can edit your website yourself.  It will save you money in the long run.

Interactive Websites use databases to store and display content.  This breakthrough allows for interaction on a scale never before seen on the Internet.  Websites designed for easy manipulation of their content use a "content management system" to do this. 

Commercial Grade Website Design uses special technology to allow it to create fun, interactive content.  This same system allows you to even build content yourself and add pages as you please.  Websites designed by us are always custom designed and never templates.

Like "Video Killed the Radio Star" the Internet is replacing radio, television, billboards, newspaper and phone directory ads. 

Websites can directly bring in business.

Websites can leverage your advertisements by giving an alternative "call to action" which converts an ad which people ignore into a customer on the other end of your phone or standing in your store.

Back in the '90s websites were simple HTML pages jumbled together to loosely represent something people called "a website." Any high school student could use Dreamweaver or FrontPage and construction something on par with the rest of the websites out there.  These "static" web pages were very simple.  Google viewed such websites with a relatively innocent eye and believed the keywords and description you gave your web pages. How times have change! 

Websites Today

Today websites are dynamic and fun!  They are on-line brochures which are easier to update than printed material.  Websites can be e-commerce portals, stream-lining order processing and reducing waste.   Websites allow visitors to see who and what you are without ever talking to you or taking a step into your office or building.  Because of this, it is critical that your website is as polished and up-to-date as possible.  Your website is the face of your business on-line. The more you put into it the better you look.

Expectations

The public has high expectations of websites.  Technology has advanced radically in even the past few years.  With high-speed Internet connections, graphical content is more important than ever.  Visitors expect easy communication with other visitors on your site (though blogs and feedback forms) Websites even provide on-line calendars, message boards, and even alpaca searches!

Even with millions of other websites out there, good websites can place you squarely on the first page of Google.  This opens you to a new world of clients and keeps you one step in front of the competition.

How To Compete with Other Websites

Gone are the days when website could be a simple template, modified here and there to meet your needs.  Professionally customized websites are the only way to compete for the coveted top spots on Google! 

But isn't that expensive?  Commercial Grade Website Design has the technological answer!  Our websites are built on exclusive technology, allowing us to build website quicker and more search engine optimized than most other systems out there. 

We process over $1.5 million in on-line orders annually, with an additional $50 million in estimates and quotes. We are well established - having built hundreds of professionally designed websites. We own our own building, servers and equipment, having served businesses and organizations in our native Howland, Ohio for almost a decade. Ask to see websites appearing on the first page of Google™!