Hiring a big expensive company to design and build your website, you would think it would be safe to assume you are going to receive a great product for the exorbitant price. Wrong! That is NOT always the case!

The Basics of Web Design

There are a few basics of web design you should expect to receive when hiring someone else to design and build your website:

  • Have an eye-catching landing page.
  • The layout and design of the website make sense and is easy to navigate.
  • The appropriate menus and links to main pages are provided.
  • Offer a comfortable browsing environment.
  • Design up-to-date pages (keeping up with current tools, tech and designs).
  • Generate exciting page titles (why would a visitor bother to scroll down a site that doesn't have an exciting title?).
  • Provide a balanced text and images ratio.
  • Design pages with a way to seamlessly collect email addresses.
  • Provide a way for visitors to add comments and favorites if applicable.
  • Make sure your homepage stays within easy reach of your visitors.
  • Include a basic FAQ and contact information.
  • Showcase a familiar URL.
  • Well-designed and placed Call To Action functions.

What You Expect Vs. What You Get

When we think of a website design and its quality, we imagine it looking professional, easy to navigate, easy to understand and 100% matching the look of the business/brand. Web design and its development are very different from other design services, however. It is very easy to create a website without giving the proper amount of attention to how the website and its design can complement and enhance a business's appearance and increase its client acquisition rate.

All too often we see some get contented with a site that has a decent landing page, an okay interface, and you're left with a website that is “good enough” and thinking “at least I have one”. Some also seem to tend to be impressed by the shiny irrelevant cookie-cutter template features that some companies use to make you feel good about what you're receiving for all the money you spent, instead of designing and building your website from the beginning with your business, brand, needs and expectations at the forefront of their efforts. The term “turnover rate” isn't even in our vocabulary. We always put in the proper time and effort.

Web designers small and large do not typically focus on things like that, but instead look at your website as a house that needs to be built, almost like a construction project. And while the nice “under construction” graphics look great to show you have a website coming soon, it doesn’t work as a mentality when building such an important asset for your business. We don’t just build websites at White Hat Web Solutions, we create valuable business assets that not only improve your business’s brand awareness/reputation but also help you grow and reach the goals you have set for your business. We know you take pride in your business and we take pride in the intrinsic value we provide to you through our services.

How to Choose a Web Design Company

Your website needs to reflect your business and brand, period. No matter the business you are in, from the start your website should be built from the ground up with your brand and needs in mind. At White Hat Web Solutions, from the very first keystroke, we build your website with your specific SEO (search engine optimization) needs in mind. So as we build your website, we are literally from the start coding into your website your ability to show up and rank higher over the competition, as a free of charge, inclusive service for our web design clients.

When you work with us you don’t have to worry about having to also buy this, this and that service. We are transparent and DON’T penny-pinch. Our basic services are always well-rounded and formulated to give you the most bang for your buck. While we always offer bigger options and packages, we try to include as many basic needs in every individual service that we can.

Customer service is everything in ANY industry. Including online services. The person in charge of your website should also understand how important every business is to the person running it and also be mindful of how stressful it can be as a business owner. Again, you are choosing to hire this person or company and spend your hard-earned money with them. We not only take pride in the work we produce but also the experience you have while you are working with us as well. Always offering the best possible solutions with the greatest attitude, to even what may seem like the most unsolvable, trickiest problems ever.

No matter what business you're in or what the website design looks like, it should always be mobile responsive. With the number of average regular mobile users drastically growing statistically year by year, your business’s website must look great on any screen that it is viewed on. With an overwhelming number of devices on the consumer market today, it is crucial now more than ever, when a potential client/customer tries to view your website, it looks and acts how it is supposed to no matter the device being used to view it on.

Make sure they are a reputable company/person. Check for social media pages, personal pages, websites, portfolios, work completed, reviews, etc. Not having one or more of these things shouldn't be a deal-breaker. As long as you can find them elsewhere, if they are just starting are they legitimate and can they deliver what you need? The more the better but you also have to be safe and if it doesn't feel right, don’t do it!

The look and feel of your website should be indistinguishable from your brand and business. When someone visits your website, they should instantly recognize the look and feel as being one with your brand with or without logos present. Your website is your online “brick and mortar” location. You don’t want them virtually walking into your store only to have it be a complete mess and look nothing like what they were expecting. There is a lot of basic psychology at play in web design and marketing. We can help you navigate the waters and get you safely to dry land!

Conclusion

Finding and choosing the right people to build your website might not be as easy as responding to the first listing that pops up, will they be able to deliver a great-looking product? Will your product be responsive and function properly? When designing the layout, did they think about the information flow to visitors to keep their attention and entice them to purchase your product/services? Do they offer a guarantee? And one of the most important, do they actually care about you, your business and the dreams you hope to accomplish through your business ventures? Money should only be a reward for doing what you love, not the main driving motivator in our opinion.

Any area of the online services industry can be a messy, oversaturated free-for-all. White Hat Web Solutions offers services and solutions to help with any of your online needs. With a positive attitude and genuine care for your project, we treat every single project that lands in front of us as if it were our own business and livelihood.

The reality is, what you would expect to get and what you actually get from a big expensive company is not as cut and dry as you would like to think. You and your business are more than an invoice and an addition to an earnings report. As with anything, the effort and the quality of the job/work you do has a direct impact on the outcomes you receive in return. White Hat Web Solutions is always a