Graphic Design

The look of a website says a lot about who you are and what your intentions are. Style communicates, and if you are serious about accomplishing your goal, it can be a very important consideration. Some clients start with a vision that is unique and personal; or they are really aware of style and may choose from sophisticated, up to date, unique, flashy, sleek, refined, gothic. Others have a general sense of the type of site they want, usually industry specific. Some sites are driven by content and function, and design will be secondary to functionality. (See web developing for more on function.)

Web Developing

Clients are now aware of more sophisticated content modules that have add functionality to the site, such as calendars, shopping carts, date time stamps, forms, bulletin boards, classifieds, guestbooks, banner rotations, news posting, site searching, surveys and voting, gallery displays, and user management. A web developer must stay abreast of all the programs being written (or be able to write or adapt code) in order to meet the higher level needs of clients.

Web Publishing

Publishing to the web starts with obaining a domain name and a hosting account. The prices for this have come down considerably, and it is possible to start out for about $30 or less for the first three months. The hosting account should provide easy access so you can easily check your billing and payments, communicate with someone if there are problems, and get help when you need it. Your web designer can handle some of these details but you should be as informed as possible to prevent misunderstandings and problems. At the very least you should know the user name and password for both your hosting account and "ftp" publishing. You should also know how to look at your domain name registration information.

Web Marketing

Your web designer is thinking about how to optimize your page for search engines even in the design stage. The elements search engines look for are titles, meta tag key words and description, and content on the page that contains the key words. Also, your designer should be asking you about your connectivity potential--do you have lots of friends or business associates who will link to your site?