Web Design
We build intelligent, sophisticated, modern websites.
Right now you are probably looking for the best web designer at the fairest price. Right? How does one compare the differences between web designers and what does each one have to offer? There are many differences between each designer. Lets distinguish one primary difference between us and all others right now: We offer much more than just basic web design. This is because we own our own successful businesses online for many years and know exactly what it takes to be successful. So instead of just getting a one dimensional web designer with no real world experience, you are getting a designer with real world business and expert marketing experience. We understand what it will take for your website to succeed because we have lots of experience, and perform a great deal of our own in house research.
Traditional web designers build a website (like a boat) and then throw it into the water (marketplace). Then they see what happens (if it will sink or swim). If you pay lots more for several services later, they can then help you adjust to the marketplace. We think this is completely backwards, just wrong, and will cost you the most money. This method can cost you quadruple and wastes many months/years. We do research before your website is built to completely analyze your marketplace, and then build this into your website so it’s only done once and built right! In a nutshell we also apply marketing to your site before it’s even built so that your website is built on a strong foundation the first time. We think this is intelligent design.
While we do marketing and research and build it into your website, you still need to harvest the proper traffic to your site. This requires additional outside marketing as always. The difference is your website will likely be in the best place to convert these visitors that do come. Your site will already have the proper message, look, layout, keywords, and SEO (search engine optimization) built into it. Once you turn on the traffic, the site will be in the proper position to convert as much of this traffic as possible. Anything else is backwards and inefficient. Once again intelligent design.
Why our Web Design Philosophy is Different:
Why settle for less when you can have it all? We are different than most other designers in so many ways. We not only build great looking websites, but we will also build your website properly so that visitors will buy your goods or services. Right now you might be thinking: I want a great looking website. Having a great looking website is only the very first step to having a successful online presence. There are so many other factors that need to be considered. If you are only thinking about having a great design you are missing the most important factors needed to convert more visitors into business. Having a nice looking website is great but it will do nothing for you unless it’s all inclusive.
Regardless of your business, a successful website consists of a combination of factors:
- Web Design and layout.
- Steady high quality traffic (volume and quality).
- Website text or message.
- Having the best conversion ratio possible.
These factors are not only for websites that sell products, but also offer services, and informational websites as well. Whether you are a hospital, restaurant, attorney, mechanic, own a small shop, baker, or an type of business that is trying to harvest new business then this is what you need in order to be successful online. Building a website and getting a link in the yellow pages is not going to cut it anymore, your competitors are online and you need to compete with them just like you do in the real world.
Traditional Method:
- Have website designed.
- Pay for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and have your website rewritten.
- Pay for direct marketing.
- Redesign your website again to change layout and message, in hopes of increasing your conversion ratio. This can continue for a long time.
- Hope what you have done is good enough.
Our Method:
- Website design plus: Keyword and market research before we build your site, SEO optimization built in based upon this smart keyword research, website text optimized for best conversion ratio possible, give you a unique selling position in comparison to your competitors, know it is good enough.
- Pay for direct marketing to turn on traffic.
At the time of design most designers just build the website. The reason why we build research and implement SEO into the foundation of the website the first time is because we know it has to be done. Why design a website to have it redesigned over and over again for each step in order to succeed? This is wasteful, and can be done with just a little extra work the first time. Instead of selling you for services that should be completed during the initial build, we build them directly into the site which gives you a complete website with great foundation from the start. This saves you a lot of money and at least 2 paid steps down the road. All you need to do is turn on the traffic with a little additional outside marketing and your site is already optimized to harvest as much new business as possible!
Design Differences:
So what about web design itself? We also have many differences here as well.
Customer Service: Please do not think that all webmasters have great or even good customer service. We constantly hear stories from clients regarding poor customer service with their previous webmaster. Over and over again we hear how their webmasters ignore them once the site it built. The foundation of our business at Dayton Web Design is quality and customer service. If you call us two years after your website is finished, we will call or email you back promptly. And yes we are busy as well, but we don’t ignore our customers ever. Not even after the job is finished. We will do everything in our power to give you the website you desire, and will go out of our way for you during the design phase to mention improvements. Even if this recommendation costs us more time on your project.
Great Care: We don’t cut corners to move your site out of the way for the next client. If something is not right we will stop and fix the issue regardless of our time frame. We find that we normally put 2-5 times more work into each website, than many other webmasters. This is due to the care in each and every step. Our primary goal is to be proud of your website in knowing that it’s done right. This is a major difference between us and others. Webmasters get paid for their time so why should they care if they didn’t go the extra mile, for a feature you would never know existed? We will.
Keyword Research: Before we ever touch a website we will look at your market place to see exactly how people are looking to find your products and or services daily/monthly. Then we can formulate a plan based upon multiple keyword combinations that will be used for all your long term marketing endeavors. We build a large keyword list and analyze several angles, traffic, and keyword combinations. This research takes several days and we include this so that your website can be in front of the proper traffic. Our competitors would never include this and even if they did, they would never spend the time we do to make sure it is right. In most cases, this only gets done right if you pay for a marketing company with experience. Doesn’t it make sense to know which keywords your site should use before you build the site? We think so.
Competitor Analysis: Before we build your website we do competitor analysis. Instead of quickly picking your top keyword with the most traffic, we also analyze the marketplace to look at the top competition for each keyword. We will look at your competitors and see what and how they are offering their business, and what type of traffic they are harvesting being in the top spots. We can then use this information to help you formulate a USP (unique selling position). If/when you do rank next to your competitors your USP will be well thought out, in order to harvest the bulk of the business. This research also takes days and we include this in our design package as well. No-one does this research unless they are an experienced marketing firm, and even then it does not get done until after your site is built. In which case it needs to be redesigned and reworded again. This gets very expensive. Given our experience we know exactly what to look for up front.
Custom Built Websites: We custom build most of our websites. We may take an existing template break it down and re-design it, so it will still be very unique and better coded. Many webmasters buy or use mass produced free templates that look just like other websites.
Our experience tells us template companies bang these out quickly and in many cases do not test properly. So if your local webmaster does not offer custom work and does not thoroughly test, there could coding and layout issues that were not properly addressed. Many modern webmasters know very little website coding if any, as WordPress is a point and click operation for the most part. If you get one of these many webmasters who cannot hard code their ability to make the template look unique suffers. Notice how many websites all look the same anymore? This is a direct result of using common ready-made templates and lack of experience and creativity by emerging inexperienced designers. It’s possible using a ready made template can shave a little time off your project, but only if the proper template is selected to begin with and the designer has the proper skills to then modify it enough to make it look truly unique.
Cross Browser and Device Compliance: We constantly test during design. This is to make sure your website looks as consistent as possible in multiple devices, screen resolutions and browsers. Since there are so many combinations, we use a list and prioritize the most common ones so the most people get the same looking website regardless of differences. Second we mostly use fluid templates meaning your website will shrink or expand to fit the device. This ensures that people with cell phones and tablets, see your website in the same great light as well as someone at home, viewing your site on their desktop or on their television screen. Make no mistake this testing takes time to do right, and we always spend the time for each and every site to make sure it’s the best it can be.
Modern Coding Standards: While this may not seem like a big deal to you, we use the most modern coding standards. PHP, HML5, CSS3, JQuery, Javascript, CGI, UNIX, and MySQL to name a few. This matters because it gives your site a much longer life before the coding becomes outdated, but more importantly shows properly in different browsers and devices.
Appropriate CMS: Every site we design is placed into a specific CMS (Content Management System) that is properly suited and therefore ideal for your particular application. This CMS area allows you to make small changes to your website without the need of calling your webmaster. Most web designers use only one CMS system for all applications because it is all they know. This forces your website to conform to the wrong CMS which limits your functionality.
Value: We know that other firms with our experience charge close to triple our fees. We always go the extra mile and include many services that eat up much of our time.
We will give you a flat quote up front so you know the total cost before we start work. There is no doubt in our mind that we work harder and longer hours to make sure your site is the best it could be. Typically our prices are a fraction of the price of other local designers, never mind professional designers with our experience. With Dayton Web Design, you get more bang for your buck.
Please take a little time and browse our website. As you can see we are much different than other design companies. If you want your site built properly the first time, and you want great value then we are the best choice. We have more overall experience, we put more thought into each project, and we custom build websites better than our competitors. Why? Because we don’t just build websites. We build intelligent, sophisticated, modern websites that showcase your goods and services in the best possible light, and have high conversion ratios.