Kropmark Design

Premier design for Colorado Springs businesses

The nuts and bolts of web design

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The nuts and bolts of web design by Kropmark.

Do you know what you are getting when you purchase a web design? Business owners often pay too much for too little, receive a poorly crafted website from a developer rather than a designer, or are pushed into using a restrictive proprietary website system that is hard to work with. Don’t focus on price at the expense of quality, and make sure to compare several different designers before making a decision. Ask designers to line list what they do and explain why they do it.

At Kropmark Design, we try to make it easy for you to understand what we are going to do when building your website. Although we offer several different web and online marketing services, we have organized our web design services into three main packages. The best package for you will depend on your business goals, which is why we recommend an in-person meeting during which you can ask questions and allows us explain our offerings in greater depth.

Web design packages

For those who need a quick, simple and inexpensive web design we offer a basic website package. The design for this website will be based on a pre-existing template with no customization and we will not perform any search engine optimization. This package is best for businesses on a tight budget and includes the following services:

  • Installation of one content management system website (WordPress, Joomla or Drupal)
  • Setup of website navigation and structure for five total web pages
  • Logo implemented into the header (logo must be supplied by the client)
  • Population of website with text and graphics
  • Assistance with domain name registration and choice of web hosting
  • Setup of one business email account
  • One hour of training in the operation and management of your website

For businesses who want a custom-designed website with on-site search engine optimization included, we offer a standard web design package. Kropmark Design will customize the look of your website to match your company logo and overall brand, we will perform keyword research and competitor research for your business, and we will perform basic search engine optimization for your website. This package includes all of the services in the basic package plus the following services:

  • Design for three preliminary web design concepts
  • One revision to the selected website design concept
  • Competitor research and color theory research
  • Customization of HTML and CSS code
  • Testing in multiple browsers (PC and Mac)
  • Addition of Google Analytics
  • XML sitemap submitted to Google
  • Website registered with major search engines
  • Keyword research for your business genre
  • On-site search engine keyword optimization

For businesses that want to take maximum advantage of the online opportunities available to them, we recommend our enhanced web design package. Kropmark Design will help you set up and design your social media accounts, we will train you in their operation, and we will register you with five different online reputation websites to increase the accessibility of your business to online customers and the visibility of your website to search engines. This package includes all the services from the basic and standard packages, plus the following services:

  • Facebook account activation and design
  • Twitter account activation and design
  • One hour of social media account training
  • Online reputation check of your business
  • Account setup with Google+ Local, Yelp and any three other customer feedback sites

Website requirements not included in any of these packages are priced a la carte, and can include such things as photo galleries (priced by the number of photos), setup of online advertising (banner or sidebar ads), e-commerce applications and shopping cart setup. Kropmark Design also offers many other services such as copywriting of web content, Flash animation and link building-based search engine optimization.

Maintenance agreements are available for the following services:

  • Website updates and backups
  • Online coupon offers and regular online news releases
  • Professional blogging with SEO keywords
  • Regular posts to Facebook or Twitter based on your marketing strategy
  • Management of your Google AdWords or Facebook advertising campaigns
  • Email marketing (e-blast) campaign setup and management
  • Online reputation monitoring
  • Link building through registration with online directories

What makes Kropmark Design different?

Kropmark Design differs from other web design companies in that we use well-supported content management system websites with open source code, rather than proprietary systems. What this means to you is that you will own your website outright, rather than rent it. If at any time you decide you don’t like your web hosting, you can move your website anywhere else that you like. If at any time you don’t want to use Kropmark Design as your webmaster, you can use any number of other designers to help you. Your website will be that universally supported.

Many web designers want to control your website. Their proprietary content management systems force you to go back to them for changes, so that over time you pay more for your website. Kropmark Design leaves the control in your hands and allows you to choose the level of service and on-going support you require.

Our goal is to empower other small businesses to manage their website for themselves, and your new web design by Kropmark will allow this. Never before has website management been so accessible to the average businessperson. Making changes to your website is simple and does not require an intermediary. Because of this, Kropmark Design believes that our websites provide more value and bang for your buck than any other website provider. Try us and see the difference!

If you have any questions about the nuts and bolts of web design, give Kropmark Design a call at (719) 465-4599 or email us at info@kropmark.com. Unlike many of our competitors, our initial consultations are free and we love getting to know more about you and your business.

Image courtesy of Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Gain CONTROL of your website – Ask the RIGHT questions before hiring a web designer

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Control your website by asking the right questions beforehand.

I have been researching “Top Questions to ask before Hiring a Website Designer” on Google.  The results I have found are typical of ones that you would ask for any profession: What is the Price, the Timeframe, your Experience, Referrals, and your Availability? Some of the things I came across are web design specific, such as: Do you have a Portfolio, do you know the appropriate Programming Languages (HTML, CSS, PHP, etc), and do you understand Site Security?  These are all great questions to ask, but it seems like there is one incredibly important question that is being overlooked.

This question is:

“Will I own my website, hosting and url and will I be able to make changes to the website on my own?”

What this VERY important questions asks is, “WHO HAS CONTROL?” Do you, the business owner, have ownership of your website, or does the website designer have this power (and do you trust them with it)?

The reason all these questions came about for me is because of a networking one-on-one I had this week. The colleague I was speaking with was meeting me for the first time, and he wanted to ascertain if I was a legitimate website designer or not. So he asked me whether I buy the domain names for clients or if I let them buy it themselves. My reply is that I usually have the clients buy their domain on their own, and only make recommendations of what url to purchase (so that it is SEO friendly) and how and where to obtain their own hosting.

This was a positive answer in the opinion of my colleague, because he has encountered crooked website designers who purchased the domain name and hosting for their clients only to abuse and extort their clients later. As soon as the domain name was up for renewal, these website designers would increase their prices to exorbitant levels. Apparently, they view their clients as sources of income rather than human beings.

As you know, there are people who make an entire profession of domain name reselling. Similar to a ticket scalper at a sporting event, these people buy “in-demand” domain names anticipating that a business might be willing to purchase them at inflated prices later. However, for a website design professional to engage in this type of activity is a clear conflict of interest.

It comes down to a basic question of ethics: Are clients only an avenue from which to gain money (self serving), or are they people who deserve your respect (serving others)?

It also frustrates me that some website designers force their clients to use proprietary programs for their websites. These custom-coded systems severely restrict the access that business owners have to their website, forcing them to pay the designer for any changes that need to be made. But why would a website designer force a client into a content management system that is accessible only to the designer, especially when there are so many reliable, universally supported open-source systems available to use? It may be argued that the custom content management system is more efficient for the designer because he knows the program so well. I would argue that this prioritizes convenience for the designer rather than prioritizing the goals of the client.

A good web designer hands you the keys when the project is done.At Kropmark Design, we operate our business with integrity and look out for the interests of our clients. We will not purchase your domain name or hosting for you, unless you specifically request this. Although we do make web hosting recommendations and are affiliates of some hosting programs, we do not force our clients into any of these choices and are happy to work with any legitimate hosting company. And most important, we do not force our clients to use a proprietary website system that only we can edit. We only use well-supported content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla. These systems allow you, the business owner, to make most changes to the website yourself without the need to pay us another penny.  And if you decide to work with another website designer for future website modifications, these systems will allow that (although we would be sad to lose you as a customer).

In other words, we give YOU, the business owner, CONTROL. We know that if you are smart enough to run your own business, then you are also smart enough to manage your own website.  Once your website is completed, we will train you in how to manage your own online changes and will give you full administrator access to every aspect of your website.  We hand over the keys to your website when the job is complete, and any website designer who does something less than this is suspect.

Don’t forget to ask the right questions of your website designer. Make sure that you can own and manage your website yourself and don’t feel forced into any situation where you feel you lack control or are getting a lower value product from your website designer.

Images courtesy of Pixomar and Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Kropmark Design
based in Colorado Springs, CO
Phone: 719-465-4599

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