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Whenever
I step onto an elevator or get on an airplane, I always
hope that it was not built by the lowest bidder. I'd like
to think that in the case of public safety, quality counts.
Everyone in business understands the importance of saving
money, but you need to be very careful which corners you
choose to cut. Creating a web site for your company is no
different. While no one gets physically injured if a site
crashes, or if it is designed poorly, there still can be
irreversible damage done to the business that owns a web
site of poor quality.
When
I surf the Internet I often encounter web sites that should
have been created with more care. When pages load too slowly
or the server is down too often, people will just go somewhere
else - there are a lot of choices out there. Speaking of
choices, how do you expect people find you on the Internet?
A poorly designed and marketed web site will not be indexed
by most search engines and directories and in essence will
be invisible to virtually everyone who tries to find it.
As
with airplane construction, the lowest bid is not always
the safest. Will everyone who goes to your web site be able
to see it? Many people who create web sites today use programs
to create pages that only work on a certain browser, usually
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 4 or 5. The reason for this
is that they are generally created using a Microsoft program
called FrontPage. While FrontPage is an excellent web page
editor, many of the features are Microsoft exclusive and
don't work on Netscape and some other browsers. And visitors
that use different size monitors or screen resolutions will
view your web site a little differently. Macintosh and AOL
users also see things differently and frequently encounter
compatibility problems with some sites.
So
when accepting bids on your company web site, take into
account how long the company/designers have been in the
business of creating web sites. Ask to see samples of their
work currently on the Internet, and ask for references.
Find out what their policy is on updates, maintenance and
search engine submission. Are any of their web sites listed
on Yahoo?
Also
when choosing a web-design company, ask if they create custom
graphics. Is there any extra charge for creating custom
graphics? Besides the legal implications of using graphics
you find for "free" on the Internet, ask yourself if you
want to have the same graphics on your web site that many
other web sites have. And while we're on the topic of graphics,
all graphics for the Internet must be optimized for fast
loading times. When evaluating prospective designers, always
check out how long it takes for the graphics (and the pages
in general) to load.
Also
consider the amount of time it will take to develop your
site. Ask how long they expect it will take. An average
site should take about 30 days or less. A more complicated
site can take 90 days or more. Your designer should post
your site to a test area where you can see it develop and
offer your input while your site is under construction.
There is one important thing to remember though: The work
can't begin until you supply your designer with all the
text, graphics, pictures, logos and other related files.
I have had clients whom I told their site would be ready
in 30 days (after I had all the information), and 25 days
later they give me the information and files I need and
then expect the site to be completed five days later!
There
is no standard rate for web designers. Prices can range
from $30 to $200 an hour for design and then there are graphic
and other programming fees on top of that (things like e-commerce,
Java, CGI, ASP, SQL and other kinds of interactive programming
added to the web site). Basically the old rule applies that
if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
If
someone says he or she will create an entire web site for
$300, I would be very cautious. I have had many clients
come to me after they've already spent $300-1,500 for something
totally useless. Shop around, don't go with the first web
designer you meet, and don't always go for the lowest bid.
No one likes to see an airplane - or a web site - crash.
Billy
Zack is a web site designer, consultant, writer and the
owner of GO Webdesign (http://www.gowebdesign.com).
Contact him at [email protected] for more information
or to subscribe to his free weekly online newsletter.
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