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If you are a budding website designer there is a lot to consider if you're about to create a website. Nowadays, with the rise of search engines, web browsers and social media, the creation of a website extends far beyond the design and appearance of the site.
When creating a new website there will be an array of expectations from the client that are seen as the responsibility of the website designer. Issues such as the Google ranking of the new site, the amount of hits and traffic the website obtains, the bounce rate on the site and the appearance of the site across various web browsers and screen resolutions. All of these may be treated as the responsibility of the website designer.
When creating a website, the first mistake a web designer can make is assuming the job will be finished once the design is completed and the content of the site is fully uploaded. A good website designer will test their site in a number of different browsers to see if it displays correctly. Issues with the site's formatting can arise when accessed from older browsers such as Internet Explorer 5, 6 or 7, or older versions of Safari of Mozilla Firefox. Each of these browsers work differently in the way that they interpret and display the websites coding.
The HTML and CSS of a website can remain unchanged but it will display completely differently depending on the web browser that is being used to access it.
A common mistake of any website designer is not fully testing their final website design in the commonly used browsers to ensure that there are no display issues. A good tip is to have each browser installed on the test computer to ensure that the site can be tested throughout the design process. Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, Safari and Mozilla Firefox are the most popular browsers and are well worth downloading and using to test sites being built.
Once the design has been tested and is confirmed and approved by the customer, another common mistake that can often cause a website designer issues is the lack of consideration for their site being accessed from a smart phone. Ever since the iPhone exploded on the scene there has been an exponential rise in the popularity of browsing the internet on portable media.
This brings with it a whole new set of headaches for the website designer. Different screen resolutions can mean different display problems for a website. Issues with the lack of support of flash player on Apple iPhone and iPod devices can mean that the newly created website might not even display at all. By making the client aware of these issues and with the website designer being vigilant in this area, a lot of time can be saved and headaches prevented.
It is recommended to check with the client if access from portable media will be a requirement for their site. By adding a script to the header of the website that checks the device and browser that is accessing the site, the correct code can be referred to and displayed correctly.
Another mistake that is common for any website designer is assuming that the client knows the difference between a designer and a search engine optimisation company.
There have been many times when a website designer has had to tackle the questions of why their newly created site isn't showing on Google yet. A good website designer will be well aware of the basic techniques that can be implemented in the website's design to ensure that it is optimised for search engines. However, not all web design companies offer SEO and ongoing internet marketing campaigns should be handled by experts in this field.
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