Doylestown Designs - News Blog

Phone Book vs. a Web Site

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:38:47 +0000

Earlier this week I met with a client about building a web site to serve as a hub for people to find local contractors for residential work. It was very interesting, because one of the contractors who will be included in the web site’s directory attended the meeting and we discussed advertising in the Yellow Pages.

The contractor currently has a web site and said he gets over three times the call volume from the internet than one of his friends, who is also a contractor providing the same services. His friend does not have a website and is currently paying almost $40,000 a year for a full page ad in the Yellow Pages! The contractor also informed me that the Yellow Pages rotates their advertisements on a yearly basis, so over time your results tend to get worse. Someone mentioned how a fair number of people throw out newer versions of the phone book when they recieve them since they feel they don’t need it if they already have one. At this point during the meeting I asked the client to get out their phonebook to see how recent it was; its was from 2002!

It has been known for some time that the Yellow Pages is on its way out as an effective way to promote a company since more people use the internet at work, at home or on their phones to find businesses, but this was a clear example of just how poor of an option it really is.

Web Designer???

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:48:19 +0000

We have been busy with a lot of projects lately and its been a while since I have posted anything. Today I had a conversation that I have had I have had many times before and no matter how many times it comes up, it always manages to get me fired up.

“Web Designers” these days seem to be everywhere you turn. Many of them have very nice looking, elaborate websites, but how many of them are what I would call a true “Web Designer”. Web design to me isn’t just creating a site that looks nice and has form, but one that also has function.

With a lot of todays tools and 3rd party solutions creating a clean and nice looking site isn’t as difficult as it used to be. Some tools even provide sites that have a lot of functionality, but what really gets me is when I look at the code behind the scenes. I hate to even mention another design firm on our site, but take Kathleen States, for example (http://www.kathleenstates.com/). Yeah her site looks nice and has some “cool” functionality, but its missing meta-tags.

For those of you who don’t know what meta-tags are, they are the basic elements many search engines use to rank and file your site and determine how your page shows up in their search results. Meta-tags in conjunction with many other “trade secrets” help increase the relevancy of a web site and have a great impact on how successful a web site will be. How can someone who claims to build web sites for a living not know this? How can you charge someone to build a site that people may never see? What’s the benefit of having a nice looking site if nobody every finds it?

It just frustrates me when people buy a few tools and build a few sites and then claim to be a web designer. It frustrates me even more that business people get duped by these supposed “Web Designers” all the time and often spend good money for what I would consider to be an unacceptable product. This is why I refer to myself as a Web Consultant and NOT a “Web Designer”.

There is a lot more to building a successful website than most people realize, so be careful when choosing a company or individual to do your site and take the time to do some research. A decent portfolio is only part of what you should consider…

What good is a website if nobody can find it?

admin — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:54:11 +0000

I ran into a friend of mine recently and found out that he hired a local designer to build a website for his wife’s privately owned company. I asked to see what they built for him and I have to say I was appalled. It was clearly built by someone who considered themself a web designer, but the site was “amateurish” at best.

This is a pet peave of mine. There are many people that can build a basic website, some of which turn out some really nice designs, however, what good is it if nobody can find it?

With tools such as FrontPage and GoLive it doesn’t take much for a novice designer to launch a site and lay claim to being a web designer or developer, but there is much more to building a successful site than looks. Does the site have functionality or interactivity? Is the user interface intuitive and easy to navigate? Does the site provide the information people are looking for? Does it display the same or is it compatible with Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari and other browsers? How quickly does the site load on a dialup internet connection? These are all things that need to be considered and only a seasoned designer will be able to meet all of these objectives, but the most important question of all is - can anybody find my website?

I have seen people pay a decent sum of money for a site that looks nice, but other than that is lacks in one or more of the objectives previously mentioned. What I find really disturbing though is how many so-called web designers don’t include the basic tags needed to rank high on search engines. Any decent designer knows that title tags, along with keyword and description meta-tags are crucial to a web site’s success. The designers at our company also know many other tips and tricks to increase your ranking with search engines and are experienced with online marketing campaigns, such as Google AdWords. We also do a lot of analysis and metrics gathering to track our customers’ web traffic over time.

Before you hire a web designer find out what services they are going to provide. If its only a website, email and a few other basic options, you might want to find out what if any other services they provide and shop around a bit. What you will find is that our prices are competitive with many of the smaller design firms in the Philadelphia metropolitan area and local suburbs, but our level of service and quality are on par with much larger companies…give us a call today or contact us online for a free quote…what do you have to lose.

Cheers!

Jeff of the Doylestown Designs Team

Univest Site Redesign

admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 02:55:56 +0000

Last year Doylestown Designs was chosen to redesign the Univest Direct website for Univest Corporation of Pennsylvania. Headquartered in Souderton, Pa., Univest Corporation is a respected local bank that has been servicing Bucks, Chester, Montgomery and Lehigh counties for over 130 years.

Thanks to the professional and clean look of our redesign, the number of customers that opened online accounts with Univest has increased since it was re-launched and has put Univest Direct on the map. They have even drawn comparisons to ING Direct. Check it out at http://www.univestdirect.com/.

Since our partnership went over so well last year, we were recently invited to redesign the main site. Check back here for updates in a few weeks…

Cheers!

The Doylestown Designs Team

Why Hire a Web Designer?

admin — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:21:57 +0000

Time is money, but understanding the web is just as important as having a website that looks good…
Doylestown Designs can save you time by creating your site and getting it setup online. We build all of our sites from scratch providing you with the originality you desire and the individuality your business deserves.

Design is a creative function that is shared with the ideas of all of our clients’ team players and is reflected in the sites we produce. Experience and knowledge is what the average person lacks in building a web site and what Doylestown Designs can provide so you do not have to waste time with trial and error design — Such as learning software, HTML, CSS, imaging software such as PhotoShop or various other web software, which can cost hundreds of dollars per license.

A full service Web Designer is also a Professional Web Developer, as each job wears many hats — Web Design, Development, Programming, Graphic Artist, Management, Maintenance or Updating, Marketing, search engine optimization and many other services.

Building a web page that displays properly on every browser and on every computer and mobile device is important, but is often lacking without the proper expertise. A Web Designer’s experience puts this theory to the test. What features can should you rely on and what features should you limit when building a web page? Doylestown Designs can recommend answers to many common web page quesitons and issues that may result. A simple graphic designer can offer you a web page that looks great, but good looks will only get you so far…especially if nobody can find you on Google.

Are you ready to start?

Let Doylestown Designs help you get ready by guiding you through each step of the website design process. When you need assistance contact us for our web design, consultation, and customization services.

Cheers!!

The Doylestown Designs Team

Welcome to our new site design!!

admin — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 02:43:06 +0000

Doylestown Designs has launched a new site. The puprose of the redesign, which was way over due, was not only to provide a more professional look and increase the number of clients, but to also provide better support to our existing clients.

At the top of every page there is a “Client Support” link that our customers can use to log issues, request support, request updates or just say hello. This feature will allow us to provide better support 24 hours a day 7 days a week and interact without a phone call (of course you can always call if you prefer).

Take a look around the new site and check out some of the services we have provided for other clients…I think you’ll like what you see.

Cheers!

The Doylestown Designs Team