Gary wrote this in
Design & Development
on 15-Sep-2010
- 11/11/11 at 11.11.11
- Google+ “It’s already good for rankings”
- Whoo hooo, Pebble Mailer editor just got a facelift...
- How wide should E-news and EDM's really be?
- Get more from your mobile traffic
- Beautiful one day - Promoted the next
- Why Trip Advisor is getting a bad review
- Your Website's New Year's Resolutions
- Why Permission Marketing Is the Future of Online Advertising
- The Queensland Floods and the power of Social Marketing
From the Blog
11/11/11 at 11.11.11
amazing to have all one's in date and time, we stopped for a second. More
From the Blog
Google+ “It’s already good for rankings”
Google+ hasn’t even been around 6 months yet, and it’s considered a major player in the social media realm. It regularly draws comparisons to both Facebook and Twitter. But, Google+ does have one thing going for it that currently Facebook and Twitter doesn’t: it’s good for rankings… in Google. Imagine that. More
From the Blog
Whoo hooo, Pebble Mailer editor just got a facelift...
Many new features have been added to the the Pebble Mailer system by our awesome partners in Sydney. As online email marketing becomes a part of our daily lives, this now makes things even easier for us all. Read on for more info and to watch the video. More
From the Blog
How wide should E-news and EDM's really be?
You’ve probably noticed that the majority of email newsletters you receive these days are designed with a fixed width as opposed to a fluid layout. More
From the Blog
Get more from your mobile traffic
With more and more users accessing the web from mobile devices, can you be sure you are capitalising on this new traffic source? More
From the Blog
Beautiful one day - Promoted the next
Tourism Queensland promotion blitz steps up its game. More
From the Blog
Why Trip Advisor is getting a bad review
TripAdvisor.com is the foremost travel advisory website pushing transparency on to the hotel industry. But as TripAdvisor’s 2011 Dirtiest Hotels are announced, it leads us to ask, "Are the reviews really as good as we think?" More
From the Blog
Your Website's New Year's Resolutions
We're all now well into the swing of things for 2011. So why not think about your New Year's resolutions for your business? Here's 5 things you can do for 2011 to improve your online performance. More
From the Blog
Why Permission Marketing Is the Future of Online Advertising
The concept of “Permission Marketing” isn’t new; in fact, Seth Godin’s 1999 book about “turning strangers into friends and friends into customers” seems remarkably prescient in today’s age of “Friending,” “Liking,” and “Following.” More
From the Blog
The Queensland Floods and the power of Social Marketing
See how social marketing has made the Queensland Floods one of the most accessed news item world wide. More
Pixel Perfect
Have you ever agreed to a website design only to see the final product is nothing like what you expected? Getting a good design is the key element in conveying your business message. However, if the website does not work then that message will never be delivered.
Find out from Pebble Design how Good Design works best with Good Functionality.
Choosing a Good Designer
Looking at your potential web designer's portfolio is a quick way to access their design skills. One key point to look for is whether all their designs look the same. A lot of website designers will use pre-built templates to make it faster for them to build a website. However, they don't always pass on the savings and this doesn't always necessarily work for all businesses.
Look for variety and look for points of difference.
Every website should have a point of difference, which is what sets you apart from your competitors. A web designer that only has "one look" might not have the creative skills to accurately sell your product and might push towards their designs rather than create a design that suits your business.
Choosing your functionaltiy
Aside from a design, there needs to be a level of functionality that delivers and dissects your information. These can be things such as subscribe forms, blogs, e-commerce modules and a variety of different displays of the same sort of information, such as your latest news.
See whether your provider's portfolio outlines what functionality the website delivers and look at how it works. Having a play around with websites allows you to see what is capable and give you an idea of what you could have on your site.
The transition from Design Concept to Website Delivery
This is always difficult to measure. Most of the time you'll need to actually go through the process and learn as you go. Speaking to people is the best way to avoid this problem. Make an email enquiry to the designer's porfolio and ask for their feedback. You'll quickly get an idea of how they measure up.
A lot of online businesses can get swayed by the sales pitch that delivers everything, but receive a website that delivers nothing but an empty wallet.
We take pride in our work and our design team work very closely with our development team to ensure the website matches the initial design down to the last pixel.
What you should be getting before you agree to a website build
SEO Report
This is a list of Keywords or Keyphrases that will be incorporated into the website. This is essential if you want to rank in the major Search Engines such as Google. To optimise the site after it has been built can be expensive and can actually negatively impact on your current search rankings if done incorrectly.
Sitemap
A sitemap outlines what pages will be included in the website and what functionality it will deliver. This will also outline the cost of what your site will be. The more pages in the site generally means a bigger budget.
Wireframe
A wireframe outlines where things will go and how the site will be laid out. This will identify what parts of the site are important (such as Calls to Action) and will place them into the most valuable real estate of the brower's web space. A poorly laid out site regardless of the design will not help in increasing revenue.
Proof, Concept or Initial Design
This is the final stage that builds on all the previous deliverables. It will be a representation of how your site will look. You need to be completely satisfied with your concept because your designer will come back to this if you want to make changes. And author's changes can be expensive.
Quote
The quote should accurately reflect the work that will be completed on the basis of all of the above. Make sure you look out for the cost of what the author's changes or project amendments are. Any changes you make to the agreed deliverables are in most cases chargable. Be aware of a cheap quote! A lot of unscrupulous designers will hook you in with a cheap quote and then charge through the roof for additional features and modifications. This is where they make their money because once you're locked into a website build there is very little way out.
A good website designer will only start work once all the other planing elements are agreed upon beforehand. This protects both the design team and you as a customer.
Never pay the whole quote upfront before you see anything. You should pay some sort of retainer to start work and then progress charges on each deliverable of the website. Your final payment should be when the website is live.
I've only got an invoice?
Some website companies may charge everything upfront before they even begin a new project. Shop elsewhere. Seriously.
