Choosing a web designer or web development company is a crucial decision, and you must be careful when choosing a company to handle the responsibilities involved with building and developing your website. Each and every day I hear horror stories about how someone hired a designer, they could not handle what they needed them to do and so they disappeared. Now that person or company needs to spend the money all over again… they THOUGHT they got a good deal and had no idea what was involved with developing a stable, reliable, custom designed website that would have everything they wanted.Below are some important things to consider when selecting a website designer or company for your project.

What Types Of Web Professionals Are There?

Website Designer - helps you to determine the page layout, graphics, text location and colors of your site, as well as the navigation and how pages will cross-link to one another. He may also do the actual computer programming and graphic art work for the site, or may hire out that work to a programming specialist. A Website Designer is the project manager for your site design.

Website Programmer - takes the design from the Designer and creates the code to make the site run. She is also responsible for all the technical stuff that happens behind-the-scenes to make sure the site works properly for your visitors.

Graphic Designer - creates the graphics for the site, including page layout, colors, etc. Think of this person as the “visual artist” for your site.

Internet Marketing Consultant - helps you to determine how your website fits into your overall marketing strategy, and how to get more traffic and sales from your website.

Web Marketing Specialist - Performs Search Engine optimization, posting, tracking and analysis, social networking marketing, creating Blogs and link building campaigns just for starters.A Work Of Art, Inc. has the experience and expertise to provide all of these services plus much more.A Note on CopywritingYou may find a designer who can also help you with the text for your website but don’t count on it. Be prepared to write the text yourself, or hire a professional copywriter. Copywriters charge per page, sometimes up to $500 a page ($5,000 for a 10-page website.) A Work Of art, Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, assists client with copywriting. Consider a hybrid solution: get advice about simple website copywriting principles from an internet marketing consultant, then you write the text. Have the consultant edit the text to make sure that it works on the web.

Who Is A Good Designer And How Much Do They Charge?Much of your choice of designers depends on whether you want to work locally with someone, or whether you are willing to work remotely with them over the phone. Here are some things to think and ask about when hiring a website designer:

Pay attention to how much they ask you about YOUR BUSINESS. They should want to get to know you and your business intimately. How else can they design a site that reflects you and your business, unless they spend time to get to know you?

Look at sites they’ve designed to see if you like their style. Is there a certain feel to ALL their sites, or are they flexible in their designs?Ask them if they did the actual graphic and layout design of the site, or if they just did the programming.

Do they have a structured planning process that leads you through the design phase, and if will they document all the discussions and decisions? If they have a Website Planning Guide that you’ll work through together, that’s really helpful.

Ask them what they know about internet marketing and search engine optimization. Be sure that they’re creating a site for you that meets your larger marketing and business goals. (A pretty site is no good to you unless it generates revenue and prospects.Ask the designer for their fees and what is the estimated cost for the site you want. They may not be able to give you a good estimate until you discuss content and features of the site. Expect to pay between $60 - $125 an hour, depending on their skill and their location. A qualitywebsite with good graphic design and layout will cost around $2,500 - $3,500 for a 10-page site. If you add a blog, newsletter, shopping cart, autoresponders, email address setup, SEO, membership site, or logo design (or if you have more than 10 pages), expect the price to be higherAsk them how they bill you. Will they invoice you monthly, or when certain milestones are reached? Do you have to make deposits?

Pay attention to whether they’ll try to stick within your budget, or whether they keep suggesting new add-ons that increase to the cost of your site. Remember, designers aren’t responsible for your budget — you areTalk to some of their current and recent clients, to see how smooth the process was. You want someone who has good project management skills AND good communication skills. They have to listen to you, not just give adviceAsk them whether they will maintain your site after the initial design, and how much they’ll charge for that. Some designers want to create new sites but don’t want to maintain them. Someone like a virtual assistant (VA) may be able to maintain your site for a lower hourly fee, as long as the VA is skilled in website programming. The more bells and whistles and complicated programming in your site, the less likely that an average VA will be able to maintain it for you.If you’re going to maintain the site yourself, ask them if they’ll design your site so that it is easily maintained by a business owner. We recommend Adobe Contribute for basic maintenance tasks to all our website design clients, as it’s easy-to-use and if you make a mistake, you can “roll back” the website to a previous (good) version.Make sure you own your domain name, even if the website designer registered it for you.

You have got to enjoy talking and working with them? Do you LIKE the designer? Do you believe they’ll act ethically? Do you enjoy speaking with them? Do they stay focused to the task at hand, or do they ramble and waste your time? Do you feel you “click” with their personality and values? Do they offer you invaluable insight and advice about your site design?Tell each prospective website designer what your deadline is and ask if they can meet it. If you don’t have a specific deadline, brainstorm with the designer to create a good working deadline that you can both meet, especially if you will be doing the job of writing the website text.

Your website is crucial to the success of your business. By doing extensive interviewing of potential website designers, you’re more likely to pick one that can do the work you want, is willing to really listen to you, can create a site that reflects you and your business, and keeps within your budget and timeframe.

Eleven SEO Mistakes

The 11 Deadly Sins of Search Engine Optimization

(Common mistakes and misconceptions about search optimization and marketing)

There is so much misinformation floating through the internet regarding search engine marketing and optimization that it’s important to shed some light on a few common errors and misconceptions. The following list highlights some of the most critical issues involved in determining the success or failure of a web site’s search engine optimization and marketing strategies.

1. Lack of “Search Friendly” Content.

Every week I review web sites with no real search engine indexable content. Web pages composed mostly of graphics, flash and other bells and whistle are commonly over-looked by the search engines. Search engines determine what content is of value per web page based on the text used on that page. A truly optimized site should contain at least 200 words of keyword-dense text. There is some debate among experts on exactly how many words should be used, but generally 200 words will suffice. As a point of reference this paragraph contains about 200 words. It is equally important for text content to contain keywords that match the page titles. For example, a site selling peanut butter owned by a company called “ACME Foods” might have a title of “Acme Foods, Inc. Wholesale Food Products”. We have to consider how many people are likely to search for the term “Acme Foods, Inc. Wholesale Food Products” it is much more likely that people will search for the term “peanut butter”. Knowing this, we can say with confidence that it would be a wiser choice to title a page, “Peanut Butter, ACME Foods” and the page content should reflect this same keyword strategy.

2. Insufficient Link Popularity.

Search engines make every attempt to qualify the results which are displayed in search results. One of the ways that they do this is by tracking the number and quality of the incoming links to a web site. A site with a large number of incoming links from quality sites is given a higher ranking in search results. This is an important consideration that is sometimes over-looked by those attempting to market web sites. Services that promise to link your site to thousands of other sites are far from productive; in fact they can sometimes do more harm than good. Most search engines these days consider services like this to be spam, so called “link farming” and often give sites with these types of links a low ranking or drop them all-together from the search results. Incoming links to a site that compliment it and are relevant to the site contents are golden and can greatly boost a site’s ranking. Google’s page ranking system is a good example. A site with a page rank of 1 if given a link from a site with a page rank of 8 can see its page rank boost to 4! Link popularity is one of the most time consuming and difficult aspects of search engine optimization. It’s no wonder that many of the search engines give so much importance to this web site measurement.

3. Lack of Keyword Research And Updates

So, you have a web site. Do you know what pages in your web site are generating the most interest? Do you know what terms people are searching for that result in them finding your site? Probably not. Let’s use the peanut butter analogy again. You own a web site that sells peanut butter. You spend some money on paid search advertising, logically; you assume that the key phrase “peanut butter” is a prime candidate to target. What happens? usually one of two things, one, the term peanut butter is such a popular search term that thirty million other web sites are competing for the same key phrase. Two, the term peanut butter is so unpopular that it’s unlikely that it’s searched for more than once in this lifetime. Proper keyword research can solve these problems. Let’s say for the sake of argument that keyword research is performed and that it is determined that a significant number of people are searching for “organic peanut butter”. It just so happens that our peanut butter company manufactures a whole line of organic, all natural peanut butter. We have discovered a niche. The right amount of people searching for the specific product that we want to sell. It’s the perfect match. So, what must be done to capitalize on our findings? First we optimize our web pages for our target keyword, we change the title, and the content so that they include the term “organic peanut butter”, then we scrap all of the paid search advertising that wasn’t working and focus on targeting our “organic peanut butter” market. The point is, successful search engine marketing relies on constant research and updates the internet is fluid and evolving. What works today might not work tomorrow, we have to be able to identify strengths and weaknesses in our internet marketing campaigns and must be prepared to research, update and adapt.

4. Designing First, Optimizing Later

I have seen this mistake repeated hundreds of times. Even experienced web designers fail to consider the results of design decisions on search optimization until it’s too late. What is the point of spending thousands of dollars for a well “designed” web site if nobody ever sees it? Consult a search engine specialist early in the design process. Even if your web site marketing strategy relies heavily on paid search advertising a consultation with a professional optimization expert may expose flaws in your site’s layout. Points in the flow of information that tend to cause users to lose interest or become confused may become apparent, better to address these issues early on.

5. Relying Too Heavily On Paid Search Advertising

This is a mistake made by Fortune 500 companies and small businesses alike. The fact is that most businesses, small and large aren’t getting it right.

The rationale is that since search advertising can be purchased it isn’t necessary to focus on search optimization techniques. On the surface this might make some sense, you can buy certain keyword phrases that people are searching for, so why bother optimizing your site for the search engines? For a company with a huge internet advertising budget this means spending huge amounts of money to drive traffic to their sites, when, if their site had been properly optimized from the beginning, these costs might be half as much for the same amount of viewers. For many smaller businesses trying to compete in the internet marketplace simply becomes overwhelming. While paid search advertising is a highly effective means of targeting an audience, organic search optimization greatly increases the chances of success for any web site. Make sure that the site you are advertising is one that people can find easily without the assistance of a paid search campaign.

6. Not Supporting the Conversion Process

A few weeks ago my wife decided that she wanted to buy some Australian made baby clothes that we can’t find here in the states. So being the internet savvy father to be, I decided to have a look on the internet for the particular brand she was interested in. I surf to a search engine and type in the brand name. A few seconds later I’m greeted with a list of web sites that supposedly have what I’m looking for. I click on the first site in the list. I find myself at the site of a clothing importer based out of California. There are links to several categories of clothing, none of which seem to have anything to do with babies, eventually after a lot of searching I find a link on the children’s clothing page for infant garments. The infant garments page has a few images of clothing but not the brand I’m looking for. I look to see if there is way to search for clothing by brand name. There isn’t. I look to see if there is a list somewhere on the site of brand names carried by this distributor. There isn’t. I look to see if there is a toll free number to call. There isn’t. The internet optimization part of my brain is boiling by this point, so to add insult to injury I go back to the children’s garments section of the site. I click on a link to purchase a bright green jacket. I’m confronted with a page that is requiring me to fill in a bunch of personal details. Ok, so I fill in the details and click submit. Now I find myself back at the bright green jacket page. Apparently now I’m qualified to purchase something. I click the “check out” button. The web page goes blank. I know that this is the result of bad programming. I know what’s going to happen next. “Error 404 page not found”. Has this type of thing happened to you? If you have ever tried to purchase something on the internet, I’m sure it has. This is an illustration of a web site that is well ranked in the search engines but has not taken the time to create a site that is designed for its users. I was forced to hunt through the web site to try and find what I was looking for. The flow of information was counter-intuitive. There was no online support. All-in-all the whole site was a joke. I would be surprised to learn that the site in question made any sales at all, ever. There were several points in this online experience that I felt like giving up. In the industry this is known as ”abandonment”, This is a critical point in what is known as the “conversion process”, the act of turning web site viewers into online purchasers. This is an issue that should never be underestimated. In fact it is the number one factor that determines a web site’s success or failure. A web site with a million dollar marketing budget and millions of visitors will not succeed unless it serves to understand its user’s needs and anticipate its viewer’s questions.

7. Graphics Used For Text Links.

Web designers often use graphics to represent a link in a web site. There are many reasons for this choice. Unfortunately for web designers, the major internet browsers display web pages in different ways. Since fonts display differently on individual computers and in different browsers, it is a much simpler proposition for designers to create graphic links than it is to attempt to create cross-browser text links. The downside to this work-around is that search engines have no idea if a graphic link relates to a specific web page or a link to download the latest Britney Spears MP3. For search engines to understand what a link is truly representing, they need to find words in plain, good old fashioned text. If a web site must use graphics for navigation it is important to include a set of plain text links somewhere on the web page, usually at the bottom of the page.

8. Use of Frames.

Search engines have a hard time indexing sites that are created in frames. Framed sites use several html files to display one page. Search engines are often confused by the frames method of creating web sites, usually only indexing the first html file within the framPages that aren’t indexed will never show up in search engine results. Also, many people that use the internet regularly for research and purchases, so called “power users”, tend to avoid sites built with frames, especially those sites which require the user to scroll content in separate frames. Simply put, frames are bad.

9. Splash Pages.

Entry pages that instruct the user to “Enter”, usually decorated with a large graphic or a flash animation. The index page of a web site is the one that search engines read first. More often than not the only readable content on this type of page is a link that says, “skip intro” Splash pages lack indexable content, usually contain no links and often contain a “redirect” to the real home page. Search engines do not like redirects, they want the real thing. Avoid splash pages unless you aren’t serious about being found by search engines.

10. Submitting To 10,000 Search Engines

I sometimes have a difficult time believing that these services are still making money, more importantly that people still think that they work. The fact is that a handful of search engines account for about 90% of all the web traffic generated and the rest comes from people typing in a web site’s URL indirectly into their browser’s address bar. The amount of viewers generated from these Mega-Search Submittal services is so negligible that it’s hardly worth consideration. Don’t waste your time or your money.

11. Not Clearly Defining Action Points

Another mistake that is repeated quite is often is the failure to clearly define what the objectives of a web site are. What are the main goals of a site? Who will the primary audience be? What actions are desired of the site’s visitors? If these questions aren’t answered prior to designing a site they will reflect a poor user experience in the final result. Action points or calls to action are a terminology handed down from the traditional marketing world. They serve to define a desired action and are often supported by persuasive sales copy. Though the basic concepts are the same as traditional marketing, calls to action can take many different forms on the internet. Often they appear as links or as part of a shopping cart. The nature of a web site determines its type of action point. The most important thing to consider is that without them, viewers have little or no idea what the purpose of your site is. Imagine an infomercial running a half hour long advertisement on television, yet the commentator says nothing during the whole ad, just stands there holding a cardboard box, you are left trying to guess what’s inside, the advertisement offers no explanations or means of contacting the company involved. Pointless isn’t it? This is exactly what a web site without clearly defined points of action accomplishes; nothing. It’s an exercise in futility.

Source - Jeff Palmer / seoarticles.net

TEXT AND SEOby, A Work Of Art SEO TeamCreating text for the pages on your website is important for communicating to your page viewers and your market. A more important task is recreating all that text as optimized for the search engines. In doing so, the SEO team’s Creative Writer will take all the SEO research and data and infuse it into the website’s original text so that it marries well and blends right into the language.There are many steps beyond that which must be taken to refine the SEO Ready text. An example would be shifting the emphasis of a sentence or changing the usage of a key word to reflect another meaning. Many of us call it story telling while guiding the robots through the story. A page with many keywords and phrases dumped into lots of text is not SEO ready. A well expressed and creative SEO CW is so valuable to the process of getting a web page or web site ranked high, and the Text SEO Ready. You must have well constructed text that relates well to the subject on the various web pages with an underlying understanding of the SEO goal and how to maintain it’s importance.Now that you have SEO Ready Text throughout your website, you need to integrate the links, tags and other elements that support the text and do it consistently throughout the website. It can be tempting to implement Alt tags without regard to usage in their relationship with the text. So consistency is important throughout the optimization. An over emphasis on the wrong formula and you can hurt your results.The temperment best suited for the taskis logical, diplomatic and thorough. Common sense comes to mind as well. I have seen many professionals have such a chaotic recipe for correctly optimizing text and that failure can severely delay the trend of improved search results. Thanks for you interest! A Work Of Art, Inc. a Fort Lauderdale Web Design company is here to provide our 20+ years expertise whaen you are ready!

A Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific search engines.As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO companies like our Florida based marketing firm consider what people search for.

Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords or key phrases and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines to your website’s information. The acronym “SEO” can also refer to “search engine optimizers,” a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients.Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign or web service. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site, SEO tactics may be incorporated into website development and design. The term “search engine friendly” may be used to describe web site designs, menus, content management systems and shopping carts that are easy to optimize.

There may be different levels of SEO depending on the your objectives, budget or geographic saturation. Warning - Be careful of companies who discuss variations of what is know in the trade as Black hat SEO or Spamdexing. These methods depend on link farms and keyword stuffing that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices. Many web design companies and SEO companies out-think themselves and get away from the basics with the idea they can manipulate the search engines into ranking their web pages higher than they warrant. Many times this backfires costing the client’s website permanent damage with regard to future rankings in the major seach engines.

A Work Of Art, Inc., (awoa.com) based in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs, Florida along with many other webmasters and content providers began optimizing sites for search engines in the mid-1990s, as the first search engines were cataloging the early Web. Initially, all a webmaster needed to do was submit a page, or URL, to the various engines which would send a spider to “crawl” that page, extract links to other pages from it, and return information found on the page to be indexed.

The process involves a search engine spider downloading a page and storing it on the search engine’s own server, where a second program, known as an indexer, extracts various information about the web page, such as the words it contains and where these are located, as well as any weight for specific words, as well as any and all links the page contains, which are then placed into a scheduler for crawling at a later date. Early versions of search algorithms relied on webmaster-provided information such as the keyword meta tag, or index files in engine. Meta tags provide a guide to each page’s content. But using meta data to index pages was found to be less than reliable because the webmaster’s choice of keywords in the meta tag could potentially be an inaccurate representation of the site’s actual content. Inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent data in meta tags could and did cause pages to rank for irrelevant searches.

Web content providers also manipulated a number of attributes within the HTML source of a page in an attempt to rank well in search engines.By relying so much on factors exclusively within a webmaster’s control, early search engines suffered from abuse and ranking manipulation. To provide better results to their users, search engines had to adapt to ensure their results pages showed the most relevant search results, rather than unrelated pages stuffed with numerous keywords by unscrupulous webmasters.

Since the success and popularity of a search engine is determined by its ability to produce the most relevant results to any given search, allowing those results to be false would turn users to find other search sources. Search engines responded by developing more complex ranking algorithms, taking into account additional factors that were more difficult for webmasters to manipulate.

Google headquarters Page and Brin founded Google in 1998. Google attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design. Off-page factors (such as PageRank and hyperlink analysis) were considered as well as on-page factors (such as keyword frequency, meta tags, headings, links and site structure) to enable Google to avoid the kind of manipulation seen in search engines that only considered on-page factors for their rankings. Although PageRank was more difficult to game, webmasters had already developed link building tools and schemes to influence the Inktomi search engine, and these methods proved similarly applicable to gaming PageRank. Many sites focused on exchanging, buying, and selling links, often on a massive scale. Some of these schemes, or link farms, involved the creation of thousands of sites for the sole purpose of link spamming.

In recent years major search engines have begun to rely more heavily on off-web factors such as the age, sex, location, and search history of people conducting searches in order to further refine results.By 2007, search engines had incorporated a wide range of undisclosed factors in their ranking algorithms to reduce the impact of link manipulation. Google says it ranks sites using more than 200 different signals. The three leading search engines, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Live Search, do not disclose the algorithms they use to rank pages.

Getting indexed - The leading search engines, Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, use crawlers to find pages for their algorithmic search results. Pages that are linked from other search engine indexed pages do not need to be submitted because they are found automatically. Some search engines, notably Yahoo!, operate a paid submission service that guarantee crawling for either a set fee or cost per click. Such programs usually guarantee inclusion in the database, but do not guarantee specific ranking within the search results. Yahoo’s paid inclusion program has drawn criticism from advertisers and competitors.

Two major directories, the Yahoo Directory and the Open Directory Project both require manual submission and human editorial review. Google offers Google Webmaster Tools, for which an XML Sitemap feed can be created and submitted for free to ensure that all pages are found, especially pages that aren’t discoverable by automatically following links.Search engine crawlers may look at a number of different factors when crawling a site. Not every page is indexed by the search engines. Distance of pages from the root directory of a site may also be a factor in whether or not pages get crawled.

White hat versus black hat - SEO techniques can be classified into two broad categories: techniques that search engines recommend as part of good design, and those techniques of which search engines do not approve. The search engines attempt to minimize the effect of the latter, among them spamdexing. Some industry commentators have classified these methods, and the practitioners who employ them, as either white hat SEO, or black hat SEO. White hats tend to produce results that last a long time, whereas black hats anticipate that their sites may eventually be banned either temporarily or permanently once the search engines discover what they are doing. An SEO technique is considered white hat if it conforms to the search engines’ guidelines and involves no deception. As the search engine guidelines are not written as a series of rules or commandments, this is an important distinction to note.

White hat SEO is not just about following guidelines, but is about ensuring that the content a search engine indexes and subsequently ranks is the same content a user will see. White hat advice is generally summed up as creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to the spiders, rather than attempting to trick the algorithm from its intended purpose. White hat SEO is in many ways similar to web development that promotes accessibility, although the two are not identical.

Black hat SEO attempts to improve rankings in ways that are disapproved of by the search engines, or involve deception. One black hat technique uses text that is hidden, either as text colored similar to the background, in an invisible div, or positioned off screen. Another method gives a different page depending on whether the page is being requested by a human visitor or a search engine, a technique known as cloaking.Search engines may penalize sites they discover using black hat methods, either by reducing their rankings or eliminating their listings from their databases altogether.

Marketing strategies considered - Eye tracking studies have shown that searchers scan a search results page from top to bottom and left to right (for left to right languages), looking for a relevant result. Placement at or near the top of the rankings therefore increases the number of searchers who will visit a site. However, more search engine referrals does not guarantee more sales. SEO is not necessarily an appropriate strategy for every website, and other Internet marketing strategies can be much more effective, depending on the site operator’s goals.

A successful Internet marketing campaign may drive organic traffic to web pages, but it also may involve the use of paid advertising on search engines and other pages, building high quality web pages to engage and persuade, addressing technical issues that may keep search engines from crawling and indexing those sites, setting up analytics programs to enable site owners to measure their successes, and improving a site’s conversion rate. In addition, paid search results or “Pay Per Click” campaigns are certianly not the way to go for many business types for various reasons such as low profit margins, and low sales volume combined with popular key word associations.

SEO may generate a substantial return on investment.
However -search engines are not paid for organic search traffic, their algorithms change, and there are no guarantees of positioning, continued placement, referrals or revenue growth based on search results alone. Due to this lack of guarantees and certainty, a business that relies heavily on search engine traffic can suffer major losses if the search engines stop sending visitors. It is considered wise business practice for website operators to liberate themselves from dependence on search engine traffic.A top-ranked SEO blog Seomoz.org has reported, “Some search marketers, in a twist of irony, receive a small share of their traffic from search engines.” Instead, some of their main sources of traffic are links from popular websites within a company’s industry type. These can include free listings, articles, banners and other sources within a website that generate incoming traffic.- David Nagle - Creative Director, A Work Of Art, Inc. - AWOA.COM

Business owners looking for a web design company often make the mistake of choosing a designer with emphasis on price and often overlook the company’s or individual’s

1) design talent
2) advertising and marketing knowledge
3) how long they have been in business.

A website is much more than just a place to visit online. A company website is a marketing tool, a location to advertise, a powerful way to persuade visitors interested in your products or services to make contact and ultimately choose your company among the thousands of competitors vying for their business. And, it should serve as such in the most effective way possible. When you choose a company to develop your site, the following important factors should be considered and possibly weigh heavily on your decision making process. If you follow these important guidelines you will have a powerful online presence that not only is attractive, unique and appealing but will have the effectiveness to grow your company and make you money.

1) Design capability: The first factor to consider is the creative ability and talent of the designer. Cookie cutter templates are easy to acquire and most average “designers” use them as a foundation for a company’s web page design. This is because they are usually technical people with no design talent or they are using the most basic and inexpensive web applications to build your site. In this scenario you will end up with web pages that look unimaginative and dull. You’ve seen them! They are everywhere! Lots of simple text, simple format, square pictures dropped into the page without proper design or creativity. Smart companies hire an experienced designer with unique creative talent that will “custom design” your web page from scratch using high end design applications before they are coded or scripted. This allows you, the client, virtually unlimited freedom to express your ideas, themes, and branding in your site. It also sets your pages apart from anything else your visitors will see in your competitor’s web pages. The result is - a) a unique looking website that potential customers will remember b) Unlimited visual an technical capabilities throughout the website c) More effective branding, advertising and marketing throughout the web pages.

2) Marketing and advertising Experience: The development of a website should take into consideration the market demographic your company is speaking to. The personal, political and cultural profile, age group, and environmental considerations among others will be a determining factor on how a knowledgeable web developer will design and write the content of your website. The psychological implications intertwined within a website can produce a subliminal or conscious thought process that coerce decision making. If you do not relate to the person you are trying to influence it can be an uphill battle from the minute they arrive at your home page. many website owners wonder why they get many hits but few page views and even less action on their contact forms. A good website design company will have the ability not only to market and advertise your website but to incorporate effective marketing and advertising techniques within your website.

3) Experience and Longevity: How long has your web design firm been in business? A week? A few months? A couple years? I can tell you that the number one conversation I have each and every day with prospective clients is this - caller: ” I hired a web design company a many months ago. They haven’t finished my website, they are many problems with it and now I can’t get in touch with them. They took a deposit and now I have no website and I am out thousands of dollars.” Well, I feel for these business owners. This is a major problem in the web design industry. It is too easy for one to go purchase an inexpensive web application like “Microsoft Front Page”, spend a couple months learning the software and turn around and hold themselves out as a web designer. This represents a majority of the web designers out there. There are many experienced firms out there, but many more who fit the previous description.

One question needs to be asked up front - “How long have you been in business?” Five years should be the minimum requirement. The next question - “Can I have references of those you have done business with longer than 3 years, and can I contact them?” That will give you a good determination of the company’s reliability.

Check the company’s prior work online and look for the inbound link on the customer’s website to the designer’s website. Another easy test is - when you call the web design company do you get a knowledgeable person right away? Will they give you good advice? Will they answer all your questions in a friendly and patient manner? If you answer is no to any of these questions it may be time to move on to a company you are more comfortable with. Like any thriving industry with a high demand, the website design and development industry has inexperienced individuals jumping onto the bandwagon left and right and it’s up to you to be cautious when selecting one to which you are about to lay down thousands of dollars to.The cost of designing a website can vary from company to company. The last red flag to watch out for is the offer to design a website for a few hundred dollars, or $75 or less a page. You will not get a properly developed commercial website for less than $200 per page. Bargain hunters often end up like the caller I described above. In the end, they pay twice - they pay for the low cost website, and then they pay for the properly designed website and the total amount is about 130% more than what it would have cost if they had hired a competent company in the beginning.- David Nagle / Creative Director, A Work Of Art, Inc.

The advantage A Work Of Art, Inc. a Florida Based company, brings to business owners nationwide is a full service web development company and Advertising / Marketing Agency with twenty five years experience all under one roof.Web design clients also utilize our print design services, and businesses that hire us for national Advertising campaigns enjoy the fact that we fully develop their web based needs such as database work, blogs, social media, search engine optimization, custom web design, pay-per-click campaigns, e-commerce and more.Our clients save time and money because we have a handle on their entire marketing and development effort. It’s quite an advantage when you can rely on just one company that can cross platform all of the aspects of your marketing, advertising, production and development with different media and tie them all together into one cohesive campaign and message.Our experience and leadership in advertising, design and marketing has been doing this for over twenty five years. We have won numerous national and local awards for design, advertising and marketing effectiveness.It’s important to have a consistent message and uniform look in your television, print, and web based branding and advertising and be able to quickly adapt and produce without impeding factors such as communication conflicts or transferring of data which is the result of too many different vendors or agents assigned to a variety of separate responsibilities.Time and money are also a factor. When you have one competent and talented company in charge of your complete advertising and marketing effort there is no waste of time, energy or overlapping of resources which dramatically allows you to put more of your budget to better use. - David Nagle / Creative Director, A Work Of Art, Inc.