Website Design

When it comes to designing your website, you really need to take a professional approach. While you can certainly use a prebuilt website or a service like Wix.com to build your own site, most people can tell when they visit a site that it wasn’t professionally developed or not much effort was put into the design. There is just something about the design that stands out. Let’s face it, your website is most likely the first impression someone gets of your business.

Professional web designers have the skills, the training, and the knowledge to make your website look great in a lot of different ways. Web designs can vary across the board but it’s something that you need to take seriously when it pertains to your livelihood.

A Design Customized to You

A website designer will take your ideas and turn them into an awesome site that pulls customers in. Anyone who uses the internet looking for someone in your industry will be greeted by your website. You want something that is going to attract new clients and draw them in.

Creating a website that is welcoming to people is not just about looking great on the surface. It’s about having something that is easy to navigate, and it looks amazing in the process. It’s really about making a statement for your brand and your company in a way that other people will definitely see.

Your customized website is just one important aspect of your marketing strategy. Without a decent website, you will most likely, no you will lose customers.

Here’s the thing about a professionally designed website. It looks great and it functions great. It’s an attraction factor but it also is all about functionality for anyone who visits your website. If your website looks and feels professional, it will immediately give the potential client the feeling your business is professional.

Professional design will take your brand colors and put together an artful creation that has thought and meaning behind it. When it comes together, it’s meant to be the perfect fit for your business and for your customers.

The intention is to give you some added visibility throughout Nassau County and Suffolk County and hopefully in turn boost your business as well.

What Exactly is Website Design?

When you think about website design, you probably just picture the elements that you see when you visit a website. Some colors here, some graphics there, and you have a website, right? The truth is that there is far more to web design than just what makes it look pretty.

Website design goes much farther than just the surface. Yes, the end result is a website that looks really great, but website design also encompasses much more than that. You would be surprised at just what goes into making the website look and function great.

Consider things like what type of text to use. What colors represent the brand and will look nice? How should the content be set up on your site? What images and types of images? Where should we add graphics? What about making things interactive? How will potential customers contact you? Is the ability to contact you simple and not difficult to find? Is pertinent information displayed on every page, such as business hours, address, phone number?

There is a lot to be considered here and a lot of skill that goes into bringing all of it together. The skill includes having the eye for graphic design but also having the ability to code and put all the elements together to create something visibly appealing while also being highly functional at the same time. This is called user experience and you do not want to overlook this aspect of your design.

Why Is Website Design So Important?

If you’re still questioning the importance of website design for a New York business, let’s break it down a little bit more. It is almost impossible to operate a successful business without an online presence. When you consider what customers want in a website, they are looking for some key things. If you don’t offer those, you could lose the customers.

• Prior work examples
• A clear message of what your business offers from the website
• Clear contact information
• Feedback from real customers
• Security
• Easy to use site with easy to find information
• Call to Actions
• Sales and deals
• FAQ
• Easy to find details about what to expect

It seems simple, right? But there are a lot of working parts and pieces that get you here. Not to mention that your website is not just a home page. It’s most likely going to be multiple pages put together selling yourself as a potential solution for a customer’s problem.

You might have a home page that welcomes customers and maybe has some basic details and calls to action. From there, you’re going to have other pages that talk about your products or services and then pages with contact information, about us details, and whatever else you feel is appropriate for your industry.

Your website should be designed with the intent of providing a customer with all of their answers in an easy-to-find manner. A professional website designer will have a knack for that.

Think of it as creating your identity and then providing the customer with everything they need to both understand and appreciate that identity. The overarching goal is to build trust with potential customers, grow your customer base, and hopefully increase your revenues in the process.

Without a website that attracts people, you are missing out on a massive opportunity. Your website should be treated as an employee. Your website is a 24/7 salesperson that can bring in business at all hours of the day; even when you’re sleeping. If your website is designed correctly and provides the correct information it will also reduce unwanted calls from potential clients just looking for information freeing up your employees to concentrate on customers further along the sales process

It’s not just about being present online. While that is certainly important, there is so much more to it. You can have an online presence that is unattractive and hard to navigate and that will probably actually hurt you more than helping you.

You need to have a suitable online presence.

Professional Website Design Helps Your Business

There are some business owners out there who are savvy and know their way around building websites. That’s awesome! However, there are far more business owners that know very little about designing a website throughout the New York City and Long Island areas.

A quote from Andrea Whitmer on this topic says “If your website doesn’t lead to more business, it’s not the web that doesn’t work. It’s your website”. I think that is pretty straightforward that your website should be designed to bring you business and if for some reason that isn’t happening, we need to evaluate how to improve it.

Every business and business owner is different. What you might need for your roofing business or plumbing business would be very different from what an attorney or a doctor needs for their business.

Relevant content on your site and how you attract clients to your site will take a completely different approach here. Professional web design is meant to pinpoint what your business or the industry needs and then build the site around that. The site is still used to tout your services or your products, but it pushes a little bit deeper than just saying “we’re a plumbing company”.

Your homepage is at the forefront of your business. People should be able to find the basic details there and have a clear navigation area if they have more questions to answer. It’s only minimally about branding but mostly about making everything clear to the customers.

Why Hire a Web Designer?

A website designer might not always be the best solution for everyone. However, there are many instances when a professional website designer can make a drastic difference. Here are some reasons that hiring a web designer might help your site stand out.

It’s Personal

When you hire a website designer, they don’t just walk through some basic design wizard that knows nothing about you. We take the time to get to know you and get to know your business. There is nothing generic about the approach.

Once we get a feel for your goals and what you are looking for, we build your website from scratch. We use our graphic design skills and our knowledge of the online industry to put together something suitable for your business and your goals.

Your site becomes something personal and wholly tailored to you. Professional design means having a website that resonates with your goals and attracts customers.

Spend Your Time Elsewhere

If you have little to no experience with building a website, you will most likely end up spending hours frustrated as you go through a basic program or online builder that leaves your website feeling generic. Not only will it have no personal touch, but it probably won’t look very professional either.

In the end, you’ve wasted a ton of hours that you could have spent focusing on your clients and you probably won’t be happy with the results.

Even if you use a builder or program to help you build your own site, this probably is going to take some significant time. Even those tools require a bit of basic knowledge about websites and design. They are made to be user-friendly, but they only go so far.

Not as Pricey as You Think

I know what you’re thinking. You are calculating in your head what it costs to use a professional web designer. That always seems to be the downside. Can the budget really handle it?

Now let’s break down the cost. Yes, you will pay a fee to a professional website designer. There is no denying that. But consider the value of the cost. You get a customized, professional site that will hopefully lead to further success with your business. Typically a website design should last you a minimum of five years if not ten. As your business expands to other services or products you can add to it keeping the website fresh. If during this time you decide to rebrand and change the look of your business then your website should change with it. But most local businesses only need to design their website once and make edits to it as time goes on.

Now consider costs like these that require extra fees on any website builder.

• Shopping cart
• Online payments
• Premium design elements
• The fonts you really like
• The graphics you really want
• Specific “add-ons” that you need

All these things cost a little extra. That little extra fee here and there really adds up in the end. So, are you really spending more money to hire a professional web designer? Consider the difference in the result you get.

Web Hosting

When business owners decide to build their own website, they forget one aspect of it. How will you host the website so it can be found online? Website builders like Wix.com or Squarespace.com include hosting. But you’re sharing that hosting with thousands of other business owners like yourself. These hosting services are very limited in what they offer and having a fast-loading website is crucial.

Web hosting is a service that allows you to host your website. It allows you to have a custom-built website that you can maintain to your liking. You rely on the hosting provider to have a stable server to support the hosting, so you are ultimately paying for the website space. Think of it as the land and your website is the building. Monthly hosting fees and domain renewal fees would be your “property taxes”. But once the building is built, you do not pay for anything else regarding the building except maintenance.

You get your own domain name, which we can help you do, and build a website on our hosting that is unique to you. Our server is our own and only our clients are on it. Our server’s specs, for the price, dwarf any service out there. Plus you get the customer service of dealing with me and not some random operator.

Companies like Wix, WordPress, and Squarespace are do-it-yourself website design and hosting services in one, so it’s a similar approach. However, you are limited in your design capabilities and hosting options.

It’s important to look for some specific features and details before you settle on a web hosting service as well. Here are some things that you want to be sure you will have available to you.

• Security
• Speed
• Scalability
• Dependability

These four things will ultimately make or break the quality of your website. Our website hosting is a dependable solution that will be secure for both you and your clients (we offer SSL certificates free to all our hosting clients). The site will be quick as well. As far as scalability, you just want to know that you have the option to grow when the time comes for you to do so.

Web Hosting Types

As we mentioned, there are several types of web hosting services. These are the most common.

• Shared Hosting
• Cloud Hosting
• VPS Hosting
• Dedicated Hosting

There are some other types out there, but these make up the majority of hosting solutions. Each type of hosting solution works a little differently. We offer dedicated hosting on our own server. Trying to purchase dedicated hosting from a larger company is typically much more expensive than using us direct.

Why Choose MattPPC?

All my clients are provided with a free proposal before any work begins. I believe integrity is one of the most important elements of this business. To get started, simply request a proposal, and then let’s look at the options I can provide.

Your business is important to me. My entire approach will be focused on treating your business like my own. My work is truly my own. I don’t outsource any part of the process, which means you get all of me and the quality that I stand behind with every single web design project.

Get started today and let’s see how I can help your business.