Web design Sunshine Coast
From our research, the people reading our newsletter fall into 3 categories. Those that need web design on the Sunshine Coast. Those looking at a redesign. Those that are trying to decide about web design Sunshine Coast.
This article covers all 3. Whether you're building a Sunshine Coast website or redesigning a website, the investment in a designer can be fairly significant. It's at this point that some business owners decide to cut costs and have a university student design their site. Sometimes this works ok until something breaks (with technology, it's never a question of IF it will break, only WHEN) and your student is out of touch because she just started her first year and doesn't have the time. What are you going to do?
To run an online business, your website is your key to success. People arrive on your doorstep (site) like they might in a retail establishment, and decide within 5 seconds if they're going to stay and look around or if they're going to leave. More on website homepage. It pays to invest some money in your web design, as your website is the first stop on the like, know and trust journey that prospects experience with you. You need to be perceived as legitimate, as a "real" business, and as the solution to the problems that ail your prospective clients. If you're not able to design your own site, an experienced website designer can help finesse this relationship with your visitors.
How can you determine if your designer will create a site that you like and is useful? On the Sunshine Coast I've heard many stories over the years about the experiences that business owners have had regarding web design: the creation and maintenance of their websites. Here are some questions that you should have answered before hiring a web designer:
Web Site Ownership
First and foremost, you should ask if you own the final version of your site and the graphic source files. We've discovered that some web designers do not work on a work-for-hire basis. Instead, they maintain the copyright to the design of your site, so if you don't want to use that same company for site updates and maintenance, for example, they will not release any source files to another designer. Consequently, you will have to pay to have your site redesigned all over again. At the very least you should obtain a license to use the files in perpetuity and be able to make revisions to them in the future. This same rule applies to any special fonts or special applications developed for the site.
A second key issue in site ownership is ownership of your domain name. If your site design includes purchasing the domain name for your site, be sure that your domain's purchase is credited to you. NOTE: The purchase of a .com.au requires at least a business registration or ABN. More on web design brand.
Many times the web design company registers your domain name and lists themselves as the contact, or actually purchases the domain and is considered the owner. At that point it becomes almost impossible to get your username and password for the account should you need to make any changes to your domain registration or to even prove ownership. More on the rules of domain name registration.
Web site maintenance and hosting
Secondly, determine if you will be locked into a maintenance contract or hosting contract with the designer. Are they using any special software or application that will tie you to a particular type of hosting service? This may not be problematic for you initially, but ensure that you've got the flexibility to change your mind in case the design company is sold, for example, and dramatically increases their prices. Once the site is up, can you buy a program, like Adobe Contribute, for example, and do simple site updates yourself or must you use their company for any updates? At 12website.com - web design sunshine coast we provide the choices to suit you. More on web design Sunshine Coast Standards.
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