Web Site Design How Design Fits Into Building A Good Web Site Tip! Content is still one of, if not the most important variables in good web site design. Today's savvy surfer doesn't want content presented in book form; they want short paragraphs with lots of white space, not long textual columns in a type font that forces anyone over 30 (perish the thought there are people on the web over 30) to put on their glasses and squint at the screen. What is a good web design? How does hiring a professional web designer help? These are questions I have been asked on numerous occasions. The best way to answer these questions is to explain why you need a good web designer. To build a professional web site you require a professional design. A professional designer, whether they are from web design company, firm, agency or freelance, needs to be able to display a portfolio of their work. This portfolio should inspire you, allowing you to see what your web site can be. While building the web design, your chosen designer should: Understand the business you are in. The web designer should understand the business you are in so that they can tailor the design toward your business. This can be accomplished by meeting several times with the designer to talk about your requirements and help them to understand your business Build an initial design using a graphic tool. The web designer should build the initial design in a tool like Photoshop. This will allow you to view the design and make any desired changes. Revise the design. The web designer should be able to work with you through several versions of the design to get it just the way you want it. Once you are happy with the design, the next step is implementation. If you have chosen a web design company, firm or agency, they will have on staff people that can implement your chosen design. If you have hired a freelance web designer, you can always hire a freelance web developer. A professional web developer should be able to take a well developed web design, and turn it into a professional web site. After following this simple plan you should have a professional web site, without the headaches of building a site without a design. Tip! Research highly targeted keywords - do this even before you begin designing otherwise you may have to go back and clean up some of your web site design. Use the keyword research tool, Wordtracker (wordtracker. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nicholas Edwards is co-founder of http://web-design.articles-reports.com/. The site is dedicated to building better web design through understanding. For more articles on web design go to http://web-design.articles-reports.com/.