“A good-looking website that has been hand-coded and built to the latest web-standards with usability in mind will reap dividends and could mean the different between success and failure for your online adventure.”

The above is a quote from my blog post entitled “Choosing a Website Designer – Ten Tips” that I posted a couple of days ago. Today, I am going to give an explanation as to why websites should be hand-coded.

To the untrained eye, they will not know whether their website has been hand-coded or whether it was a template website or made in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) software. So what’s the fuss you might ask. The fuss is that Search Engines (like Google, Yahoo, etc) don’t care what your website looks like. They don’t care about the fancy use of colour or the stunning photos you have on your website. They care about the “construction” of the website, how the website was built. After all, if a search engine doesn’t “rate” your website then nobody will be able to find it.

Hand-coded websites are suited to companies that want a top quality website and value their investment in a professional image. Hand coding does not rely on pre-built templates or WYSIWYG software, so the website designer/developer has ultimate control over the code that structures the website. The layout of the website is constructed with CSS and HTML rather than tables, which allows for a much more flexible design.

Website design updates and changes are quick and easy in CSS layouts because design attributes are shared across pages and controlled from style sheets. Also, pages are much more search engine friendly because there is no extraneous HTML code for the search engine spider to sort through in front of the web page content. This increases the chances of having your website ranking highly for your targeted keywords on the search engines.

Reduced HTML mark-up also provides much faster download times for all users, but especially those that are using dial-up internet connections or mobile devices to browse the Internet.

Hand-coded websites also provide improved accessibility for people using assistive technologies to browse the internet by adding elements such as link titles and “alt” attributes to images. The reduced mark-up also makes navigating much easier for this group of users.

If you need a website developed and are sourcing quotes, ask each website designer if they hand-code the websites they make. This brings another dimension to when you are comparing quotes.

For example, just say you have two quotes from two different website designers and you have been quoted £500 by both of the website designers. Now imagine that one says they hand-code websites and the other says they use WYSIWYG software. Well, when you think about the benefits of hand-coded websites over template and WYSIWYG software made websites, you will realise that the quote for £500 from the website designer who does hand-code websites is a lot better VALUE. You get a lot more bang for your buck both now and in the future.

I touched briefly on a previous post of mine called “Choosing a Website Designer – Ten Tips” that websites should pass some basic website checks known as “W3C validation”. What was the reason again I hear you asking. Well, in a nutshell it helps you create a rich accessible website that substantially limits the amount of people who may not be viewing your website as you intended in their Internet browser.

Anyway, I am now going to give you some statistics on Web Standards. So, here they are:

Opera’s MAMA project found that just 4.13 percent of 3 million websites passed W3C validation.

That sounds bad right? Well, according to the statistics it is a big improvement over the 2001 Parnas study:

The 2001 Parnas study reported that 0.71 percent of websites passed W3C validation.

And the last statistic is:

The 2006 Sarsoo study reported that 2.56 percent of websites passed W3C validation.

At least we are going in the right direction I guess.

Do you have a website that doesn’t validate to W3C standards? Contact us today and be a trendsetter!

You’ve heard of the saying “too many cooks spoil the broth”. Well this is the same for website design as well.

I know from experience when I have been making a website for clients that sometimes they have too many people involved in the decision-making process of a website and this can have negative effects.

For example, it invariably leads to delays in launching the website as well as general confusion over who is doing what job and when it is too be done by, and who it is to be given too when it is done, etc etc.

Overall, the focus and direction of a website development can be lost and before you know it frustration sets in and you start thinking that the website will be never be live!

My advice to avoid having “too many cooks” is as follows:

• Before you contact your chosen website company set ONE person from the company as the person who will be the point of contact and will go back-and-forth with the website developer.
• Use the chosen person to gather any opinions/information needed from around the office and write the feedback in a structured manner so it is easy to communicate to the website designer.
• If you have some differences of opinion in what to put on the website from people around the office simply ask your website designer for their opinion. The website designer will have experience of what works and what doesn’t work on websites and they will ultimately be the best person to help you decide.

Think about it, wouldn’t you rather have quality over quantity every time?

Choosing a Website Designer should be a decision taken with care. Here I have written some advice for people who are trying to choose a Website Designer for the first time. The ten tips below are not in any particular order.

1. Experience

You will need a website designer that is experienced and knowledgeable in the field of website design. For example, ask them if they can “hand-code” and ask them how many years experience they have. Having said this, however many years experience they have won’t count for much if they have been developing inadequate websites all that time or sticking to website techniques they feel safe in.

2. Web Standards

Web standards are important. Web standards refer to guidelines set out by the World Wide Web consortium (W3C). These standards ensure websites looks and feel consistent across a broad range of computers and Internet browser’s regardless of any possible user disability. Your website designer NEEDS to know about web standards. Ask them if they make websites that conform to W3C standards. Better yet, you can check yourself by going to http://validator.w3.org/ and checking a couple of websites from the website designers portfolio. A couple of errors shown by the validation is excusable but more than a handful is not.

3. You get what you pay for

Website design is no exception to the saying “you get what you pay for”. A good-looking website that has been hand-coded and built to the latest web-standards with usability in mind will reap dividends and could mean the different between success and failure for your online adventure.

4. Don’t expect to see a website designers costs on their website

When you find a website designers own website that you like, don’t expect to see details of their costs on their website. There is no hidden agenda in this it makes good business sense. The reason I personally don’t display my prices is simply because I don’t want my competitors knowing how much I charge and I don’t believe in a one-price fits all model. Each client is different with individual needs so we don’t set a rigid pricing structure. We judge each website proposal as an ‘individual’ and as such quote a ‘custom’ price. Anyway, website designers offer a free quote so it wil cost you nothing to find out their prices.

5. Don’t expect to see website designers on the high street

Website design is a profession that can be done almost anywhere. Unlike car mechanics for example, Website design doesn’t require big heavy machinery for example so therefore, website designers are not restricted as to locations where they can trade. from That is why many website designers work from home offices. The main advantage of choosing a website designer that works from home is that this often means that there prices are cheaper as they are not having to finance an office. Don’t be afraid to ask them if you can visit them at their home many website designers won’t mind they will likely be more friendly and approachable.

6. Choose a website designer that you like

When choosing a website designer, it is important to choose a website designer that you like. A website shouldn’t be considered “complete” once it has initially been built. For a website to be successful it will need to be updated and maintained on a regular basis with free content to keep visitors coming back to it. That is why you need to choose a website designer that you like as ideally you will be working together in a sense for a long time.

7. Look at a website designers portfolio

Take the time to look around a website designers portfolio of previous work. This is a good indication of the type of clients they have had and also the experience they have in websites. Also, make sure their websites do not look too similar to each other. If they do look similar then this is an indication that the website designer is using a website “template” system and you don’t want that. You want a unique design and development built just for you, started from scratch. Not somebody else’s website that has been re-jigged and had the colours altered to suit you.

8. Website designer creativity

You need to decide how much you want the website designer to be involved in the creative process of your website. You may think you know what the best way to handle your website is but a qualified and experienced website designer will always be able to give you insightful opinions on it. You want a website designer that has creative flair but they need to be able to bring your ideas for the website to fruition.

9. Free quote

Every website designer should provide you with a free quote when you provide them with a website proposal (detailed information of your requirements). Don’t be put-off if they don’t respond to you right away. They are probably crafting a proposal for you and paying attention to the costing they will charge. Anyway, you want a website designer that is busy don’t you? If a website designer is not busy then that should set alarm bells ringing. Also, only choose a website designer who quotes for the whole job rather than an hourly rate. A website designer should be happy to do this. From your perspective, this gives you piece of mind as you know when the job is completed the costs won’t have gone spiraling out of control.

10. Suggestions from the website designer

A good website designer will almost all of the time be more knowledgeable than you about the Internet and how websites work. Therefore, when you give a website proposal to a prospective website designer, a keen website designer who truly wants your custom will endeavor to get back to you with techniques or additions that can be made to your proposed website to improve it and they will explain the reasons why these additions/modifications will benefit your website.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,

Nick