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Create Websites from Photoshop Documents using HTML and CSS
produce Wordpress Pages in a turn around of 5-10 Days
produce a Magneto Site in 3-4 Days
Quality bug free sites
Well, My response to this email was to thank them for the offer, however I too am a Designer and code from the ground up using W3C Standard compliant, Responsive Design code. This actually lead to them offering up the propopsal of them doing Search Engine Optimization for My project.
Again, I thanked them for the offer, but declined. These two messages got Me to thinking about reasons as to why having a local Designer can actially be a beneft for a Company's Website Design Project.
Firstly, There is time zone issues. For a North American company, having a Design firm in india means that you are looking at w time difference of anywhere from 8 to 12 hours. This means that if you want to conference with your Designer, you better bank on being awake at the wee hours of the morning.
Next, Firms like the one which contacted Me, advertise on the benefit that they are cheaper and you wont be paying taxes. Factoring in the time zones and the use of templates, sure your site IS cheaper but ask yourself the following
-Is the inconvience of time zones worth is?
-Do you have an expense that you can declare as a business expense?
-Have you taken into account the fact that the 5% GST in Canada paid on the project can be deducted from the GST your company pays?
Next, lets look at the options of having a Photoshop document turned into a Website. This is actually something known as "Slicing", which is a technique that has boxes drawn around elements of the image and with the tap of a Menu command generates HTML code.
This technique is actually taught in Web Design course, but highly discouraged due to the fact that the code Photoshop generates is not W3C valid. This will be be explained a bit later in this posting as We look at SEO reasons.
A Photoshop generated Website also means that your site is image heavy and loads slower.
Next. lets look at the use of "Template Design". Your business is unique, you have your own logos, colors and business personality that you want to showcase to your potential clients. A template design tends to result in your Company's website looking exactaly like any of the number of competitors' Websites which you are attempting to stand out above.
And now lets get to Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. SEO is considered this magical art that when applied to a Website gets it onto Page one of Google Results. The facts when it comes to SEO is that there is a lot of factors Google weighs in the ranking of your Site. Over 200 Factors actually with some of the most important ones being
-Standard Compliant Code (This is where the Photoshop Generated Code factors in the first time)
- Textual content of the site (Google's spiders can not index text inside a image file, your Photoshop code just struck again here)
- Having Social Media Presence (Facebook , Goggle Plus, Youtube, Linked in all score you credibility)
- Mobile Ready Design
- HTTPS certified
- Quality, Organic backlinks (You can lose ranking by buying links)
- Age of your Website Domain (A one year old site with a short term owner registry wont rank anywhere near as high as a 10 year old site with registry for the next 10 years of ownership)
Overall, in the Financial aspect of Website creation, yes there are services who can offer you up cheap design fees and quick turn around, but ask yourself if in the long run what do you end up losing out on with yournsite by going cheap?
