What Is Web Site Design?
Web Site Design is, by definition, the accumulated web pages compiled into an ordered systematic presentation of digital media under a singular Uniform Resource Locatar…hold on, does that make sense to anybody? I know what that means and it doesn’t make any sense to me. So let’s throw the “definitions” out the window and talk about the important aspects of web site design.
Humans, Spiders and Bears, Oh My!
Your web site design should function well for both humans and spiders. Wait a minute, spiders? Spiders can’t use the internet, what is this guy talking about? I hate spiders!
Spiders, or bots, are small programs the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) send out to collect data for them. The spiders find your site via a link from another website (many websites ideally), come to your site and index the content of your site. The content of your site most important to the spiders are the page title, your URL (domain name), the meta description (don’t ask, this is why you hire a professional to build your website while you do what you do), any links on your pages (and the pages those links point at) and the on-page content, the words, the pictures (or at least the alt text of the pictures) and lastly the footer.
Now this is encroaching more into search engine optimization territory than design concepts, but it’s important to point out that while some people think of design as something pleasing to the eye, proper web site design encompasses both visual attractiveness and the behind the scenes functionality that the spiders will love to crawl again and again, thusly pushing your site up the rankings in the search engine result pages (SERPS).
The third factor, oft overlooked, of web design is usability. How easy is it to get around for your human visitors? Can they find their way back to any page they’ve previously visited on your site from the current page? Are there clearly marked navigational menus and sub-menus? Make your site easy to use and people will use it. Make it difficult and they’re gone, unlikely to ever return.
So How Much Does A Web Site Cost?
The big question: What’s it going to cost me? Well, what do you want your site to do? Do you need a single page virtual “business card” site so that you can point your customers at your internet presence? Do you need an easily updated content management system with potentially hundreds of pages? How about ecommerce? Want to sell your products online?
There are unlimited options with a website, from small and simple to huge and complex, and pricing will follow accordingly. There is no “out of the box” number I can throw at it but I’ll attempt to give some options and price ranges below:
- One Page Brochure Style Site $149
- 3 page Mini Site $299
- 5+ Page Feature Site $200-$300 per page
- E-Commerce Site $5K +
Now obviously, these aren’t hard and fast quotes, just an idea of price ranges for some different options. There’s a good chance that your web site project will fall in between and/or overlap some of these options. No two web sites are the same and buttonholing you into some pre-formulated system without discovering what it is you need your site to do would be doing both of us a disservice. Give us a call at 800-971-9915 today or send us an email and let’s sit down and figure out what you need!