Web Design Advice for Businesses

Phoenix web design professional, Jim Carr, offers some great tips on creating functional web designs to help your business make a profit.

Make It Fast

One of the most important aspects of any website is speed. There are three elements that affect the speed of a website. The first is speed and bandwidth of the web server. For most static websites, this is usually not an issue. Dynamic websites, those with elements created on the fly such as with DotNetNuke, use a lot more CPU cycles than static sites. Sometimes throwing more hardware at the problem will help.

The second element is the speed of the computer of the person viewing your website. There's nothing you can do about this directly. However, you do need to keep it in mind when designing your site. If you make the site complicated and/or with an large number of graphic elements, the site will be incredibly slow for some people.

Of course, if your site is an interactive one that requires a fast machine, then you may not have much choice. On those sites you should be making an extra profit per visitor to make up for the number of visitors you will lose while the site is loading or performing slowly. Remember, people with slow computers spend money, too!

Use CSS

There is no doubt whatsoever that CSS offers more flexibility when it comes to designing websites. What's even more important is that the proper use of CSS allows you to create a website that is easily changed down the road. Every website changes. Every single one. Use a technology that allows you make those changes quickly and easily.

Think of it this way. The old way of designing, which relied extensively on tables and in-line formatting, was like using nails and rivets to secure irregularly shaped elements together. When you needed to take things apart and rearrange them, it was a nightmare. You ended up breaking things. CSS is like using nuts and bolds with industry standard parts. Taking things apart and making changes is as easy as loosening a nut. In the end it saves you lots of time and money.

Use a Content Management System

A contentent management system (CMS) allows the end user to make minor updates once a website is deployed by the web designer and programmer. Rather than pay for every minor change (hours, names, a sentence here and there), pay a little bit extra to have a CMS installed on your site. DotNetNuke is a widely supported CMS with an easy to use interface.

Looking for a web designer? Check out Jim Carr for the best website design services in Phoenix, Arizona.