The Pros and Cons of DIY Website vs. Professionally Developed

Is it time for you to build a new website or update the existing site? There are two options available for you:

- DIY (Do it yourself) website

- Hire a Professional

With advent of advanced,user friendly tools that help one build their own websites, many are looking forward to try their hands at website building. However, it is still a decision that’s worth weighing sensibly.

Listed below are considerations that can help you make a decision:

Available Options

Some of the website builders such as Wix, Squarespace, and Weebly offer the easiest and least expensive paths for creating a web presence. Overall, website builders are less powerful when compared to an efficient and dynamic system such as WordPress. These are popular and admired for ease of use. Visual page editors on website builders help users edit elements in no time. However, they lack flexibility. Hence, these are best used for building smaller sites. Hosting and registration is available with website builders. So configuration is not a problem. These are available at less than $10 on a monthly basis.

WordPress is a powerful content management system. Unlike other website builders that allow you to drag and drop, WordPress lets you choose a “theme” from several thousand available.  A WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface will help you add and edit content. Users need to employ an occasional bit of code for editing a theme or plugin in WordPress. This makes it a great option for those who aren’t comfortable with HTML. Although free, WordPress will require you to find a web host for $5/ month and pay $10 to $20 annually for a domain registration.

The WordPress site can be handed over to professionals. Although expensive, the option promises excellent opportunity for business owners.

Understand your Requirements

It is very important to know about the kind of website that best suits your business. The simplest form of website is a brochure site. It is a layout that showcases your business activities. It aims at supplying credible web presence to a company and basic information to prospective customers using images, text, and a video. However, if you are handling financial transactions, an e-commerce site is a must have. This is a little complex and offers the facilities to add, remove, or edit products and services.

A website is nothing less than the business itself for a business owner. It requires being integrated with advanced web applications such as online fax services, project management tools, or price comparison engines. These are best developed and integrated by a professional website developer.

Level of Skill

For a programmer who wishes to build a website from scratch, the sky’s the limit. If you are not, then there are a huge number of options available for nearly every skill level. Website builders are easier to use tools. No coding is required to build a website. Using website builder is easier for PowerPoint users.

WordPress demands a higher comfort level. It requires web hosting and HTML. The platform is flexible and customizable. Choosing a website builder should depend on your skill level.

Consider Budget

This is certainly important. Depending on whether you wish to build your own website or hire a professional developer, a brochure website may cost you anywhere from around $50 to over $5,000. Professional developers usually charge a minimum of $5,000 to build a nicely structured, mobile-friendly website.

For an e-commerce site, you need to spend a little more. These are complex designs and require an expert hand. If you opt for a website builder package including quality e-commerce features, expect to pay around $300 per year. A professional will cost you $7,500.

Assess Your Options

If you are a business owner belonging to any of the following categories, hiring a professional PSD to WordPress conversion service is a must:

- Your business relies on custom apps

- You expect to generate 100% of business from the website

- No idea about website builders

Hiring an expert will help a lot under these conditions.

In case, you expect to generate less than 20% of their business from their website and are quite comfortable with basic programs such as PowerPoint, DIY is a good option.

Do you fall anywhere in between? Well, you have a huge number of options to choose from. WordPress platform is one of the best choices which provide excellent cost savings.

Things to Look in When Hiring Web Development Services

Hiring the best web development services is important ensure instant and long lasting success of a business. Unfortunately, with a huge number of website services available these days, it is quite confusing for business owners to choose any one. Hence, there is a set of certain criteria that you can consider hiring the best web development services.

Here is what you need to consider when hiring a web development service:

Technical Knowledge

It is crucial that the company you choose has a team of experts holding technical skills and expertise. Here, you need to know what the team is good at. Speak to the team members and know the technical knowledge the members process. These should be apt for developing the best site.

Price

Price is certainly one of the most crucial things to consider. Under or over paying can be dangerous for a web development project. So make sure you set a budget for yourself and discuss about it with your web development experts. It is possible that the costs are very reasonable at time while on the other, they are too high. This depends on the techniques used. Do not compromise on quality for money. If a specific company is charging too high, make sure you know the reason behind it. Know if the cost also involves charges for maintenance of the website and efforts towards keeping it running. All of these things should be discussed with the company beforehand.

Special Features

It is important to find out if the service you have chosen is capable of adding in certain scripts or programs running on the site. The company should also be capable of adding custom shopping cart.

Reviews

The website development service you choose should have great reviews. So make sure you check out with previous clients and their reviews on the services offered. These reviews are available online. You simply need to make a research on the same.

Platforms

The web development company you choose should prefer working with user friendly platforms. The idea is to understand how to use the website the moment it is set up. In case, you are unable to do so, the site is useless to you and your clients. So make sure your business website is built on a user friendly platform and is very easy to use.

Hidden Costs

Most people are not aware about the hidden costs a web development service has. They may quote you a price initially, but not stick to it. This is due to the additional charges (hidden) that gets accrued over time. Hence, it is important that you make sure the team offers you clear details on the price charged. Ask them about any other charges clearly and let them give it to you in written as a contract.

Taking into account the above listed points will help choose the best of web development services. 

Author Bio : Jitesh Manaktala – Owner of Smanik Design is Top Website Designing & Web Development in Delhi.

SEO Services – Is your SEO Company Right for You?

There are a lot of businesses who have actually hired an SEO company and relied on their efficiency blindly. Although this is not a crime, you need to make sure the company you trust is worth it. In fact, most business owners fail to make out whether the SEO services they have chosen is actually helping them or hurting their business promotion efforts. Many struggling online startups had spent thousands of dollars in a hope to skyrocket in search engine rankings only to realize they’ve been scammed.

It is better to avoid any such thing happen to you. If you do not want to waste your money or ruin your website, it is important to take certain crucial things into consideration.

Here are some signs that your SEO Agency is not doing it the right way:

Nothing to Show You

A reputed and skilled SEO agency should have something to show you. This is not about the results or ranking rate moving up. Here, the agency you wish to hire must show you SEO practices they follow. Although 1-4 months (initial phase of a contract) may be too early to judge the effects. The idea is that the agency must be using your money wisely. As a customer, you hold a right to enquire deliverables. A good SEO agency should offer the following in its first few months of the contract:

• SEO audit of your website
• Thorough link profile analysis of your website
• Content optimization for your site
• Well written articles with direct links to your website. These need to be published on various other sites too.

No Enquiry

Ideally, an SEO company should ask your suggestions. Since you are the website owner, the agency should ask you for a list of preferred keywords, past work or audits, penalties in the past, access to your social accounts, access to your CMS through an editor or admin, access to Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools etc. In case, the company doesn't ask for anything, they are simply not doing their work right. In fact, they might be simply adding linkbacks from their spammy site network.

No Suggestions for Improvements

Your SEO services should give you some tips or instruct you to do certain important things. If they don't do so, there's something fishy or they are into some suspicious activities. Did you know most bad SEO companies will simply divert a set of linkbacks to your website. Actually, they are hoping that these malicious efforts will provide you with high results. They are least bothered about how their client will react or issues they will face. On the other hand, the best SEO agencies will consider long term partnership with you. Success with SEO comes when you work with the agency. This means they will give recommendations and tips.

Don't Share Techniques

Is your SEO company hesitant to share techniques with you? Do they give alarming responses such as “we’re not allowed to disclose our practices” or “we do a lot of things and the list is too long to explain”. In case, the company says, “Not sure, will get back to you on this”, start looking for another company. Remember that best SEO involves white hat practices. These promise proven results. And if your company is into these practices, they should also be able to explain them to you. In case, they can't, you are going to invest your hard earned money in a scam.

Manual Penalty

Remember that manual penalty is immensely harmful for your website. This comes your way through a GWT notification. Sometimes, website owners also receive an email message. In case, you receive a manual penalty after starting SEO (within a month or two), get an alert. Be careful and find out the reason your website was penalized. Also speak to your SEO company about it.

The Rankings Drop

Rankings for your website may drop for a number of reasons. It is wise to keep close tabs on your rankings. In case, you observe a steady decline in the rankings, the SEO agency, you had chosen might be doing things that is leading your site to get penalized algorithmically. You need to find out what the agency is doing. If it sounds, looks, feels, or smells suspicious, get them get them to stop.

SEO Experts – Tips to Hire the Best SEO Experts

It is crucial that you hire the best SEO expert for your business. Search engine optimization services can actually make or break your chances to connect with potential clients. In choosing these services with great care will certainly help you.

 Listed below are some of the tried and tested techniques for locating a reputed and experienced SEO professional:

The Jargon and Techniques You must understand all jargons and techniques related to SEO. This will help you distinguish between genuine experts and frauds. So make sure you learn some basic SEO strategies and jargon. This will help you know precisely what questions to ask them and what to expect from them.

Your Needs and Expectations Take note of what precisely you wish to get out of your SEO project. For instance, if you increase your website rankings on various major search engines, wish to get focused traffic to your website or get better conversion rates, you need to make sure your expert is capable of providing you with these facilities. There are a number of roles and aspects played by a search engine optimization professional. Some of the common ones include PPC campaigns, effective use of keywords, and various back linking strategies. The expert you hire must be adept at all associated skills, especially areas that promises your online company sure shot fame and success.

Recommendations You must ask everyone for recommendations, especially those who are in the business. Take advantage of all major social networking sites you are connected to. Get connected online and enquire them for references of skilled SEO experts they have worked with. Once you spread the word on websites, various forums and online blogs, it is time to ask for introductions to SEO expert professionals active on these platforms.

Ask Questions One of the best ways to reach out to an expert is to ask detailed and searching questions. Prepare a list of questions and once you get most of them answered in a satisfying way, make a decision on hiring.

Get Real References Make sure you know that the SEO professional you wish to hire is speaking the truth. Strictly avoid taking their claims, references, claims and other information offered as gospel. It is wise to check out the authenticity, experience, expertise and past projects prior to actually hiring. You must speak to other individuals for testimonials and references.

Website Review It is a good idea to let your probable SEO expert review your present website. A technical review of your website by this professional will let you have an idea of how much he knows, the experience and expertise, he holds and whether or not he is capable of making rewarding changes to your website.

Negative Techniques Does he use negative SEO techniques? If your probable SEO professional uses negative techniques for SEO, it can attract penalties from Google.

Some Places to Find an SEO Expert Online Events – You can participate in various online promotional events. Here, you can actually chat with reputed agencies that interest you.

Locate Companies – Look for companies that collaborate through webinars. You may see if they are looking for changing things under the guidance of an experienced SEO professional.

Like Minded Individuals - Locate like-minded individuals holding years of experience in the industry. Make sure these professionals know the art of preparing a strategy to attract more eyeballs online.

Mobile Website Designing – Staying Ahead of Competition

The present age is that of smartphones and tablets. You must have noticed most manufacturers focussing on introducing the newest of gadgets in the market. Today, more than hundreds of smartphones are available on the market in varied prices. Additionally, multiple ecosystems have also emerged, such as Bada, Windows Phone, and Android. The market is loaded with Symbian, Apple iOS, RIM's Blackberry OS, Apple's iPad, Samsung's Galaxy series, Amazon's Kindle tablets and Windows 8 based tablets.

With the growing number of choices and the prices going down, mobile smartphones and tablets are going to takeover the World Wide Web. Since the mobile and tablet users are increasing and preferring to access the internet through smartphones, it is important to make your website mobile friendly. This means your website should appear well on different platforms, mobile devices as browsers.

Mobile optimization of your website will boost sales for your business and generate more traffic. Here's how you can stay ahead of competition with mobile website designing:

Simple Design

Apart from being attractive, your mobile friendly website should have a simple design that can be navigated easily. Remember that mobile screens are small and the entire space available needs to be used to deliver maximum impact. So assign a very simple style for mobile websites. Also keep your pages small.

High Resolution Images

Avoid pixilation by using very high resolution images. This will facilitate viewing on iPhone (640 pixels). 50 percent resolution is apt for working on all other devices. Limit use of graphics and images. This allows for easier and faster navigation for mobile website users.

Finger Clicking Made Easy

The Finger may be tougher for navigation as compared to a mouse pointer. So make this process easier for your visitors.

No Pop Out Windows

Strictly avoid pop out windows for your website. Navigation between multiple tabs and browser windows is necessary, but can become very tough to handle on mobile. This may result in slower load times. In case, you require to open a new browser window, alert your user to let them get the idea of how to navigate back to the original page.

Website Icons

You must get the right default icon. Also add appropriate meta tags to define these icons well. It is important to make your website as appealing and user friendly as possible. This will increase the chances of getting access by your target market.

The Full Website

Since you have worked really hard on designing your mobile website, you would certainly wish people to see it and even fall for it. Hence, make double sure you include links to different pages to allow users  to return to the full version of your website.

Excellent Design

Besides being attractive, your website needs to be efficient. The best option is to use CSS3. This makes for a brilliant choice for designing mobile site. It works towards avoiding hassles of making a patchwork of varied image slices, gradients, etc. Browsers generally accept HTML 5 doc type. This also means that it will efficiently display HTML4 elements combined with added features of HTML5.

Offline Viewing Experience

You must focus on creating a cache manifest file. This guarantees browser caches all requisite files for an offline session. The process enhances the number of return visitors to your business website.

Choice of Domain

Make sure you use a mobile domain that clearly indicates a mobile friendly experience. Some of the best ones to avoid include .Edu, .Ccom, .Org etc. These are best suited for desktop browsing.

Test Run the Website

You must test run your mobile website on different devices. This is crucial to know how well your business site fares with mobile users and your prospective clients.

Mobile website Design is a certainly a new concept. The designing and building basics can be challenging for an inexperienced website developer. You need to approach a company that will help you get the best responsive website integrated with the latest features. The idea is to give an amazing browsing experience to your clients.

Author Bio : Jitesh Manaktala – Owner of Smanikdesign.com is a Responsive Web Designing Company in Delhi.

Zencart Design & Development – An Overview

Zen Cart is an open source e-commerce solution. It is based on:

- MySQL Database
- PHP programming language

A detailed and simplified overview about the e-commerce solution is available on its home page. It ensures a very long and beneficial list of features. The entire system is designed keeping in mind the demands of store owners and professional web developers. It does not compromise on power or usability.

Zencart is capable of providing you with all that you require for maintaining a professional and dynamic shopping cart website. These websites can also handle unlimited number of products sold by your business. A store owner can also manage the following efficiently through administration region:

Unlimited products
Pricing
Shipping
Newsletters
Sales
A lot more

You don't require setting up the shopping cart. This is available as already established function in Zen Cart. It is also fully equipped and ready to receive payments from all major credit card and different popular payment gateway services.

One of the best things about Zen Cart is that it can be used by anyone with basic computer skills. There's no need to acquire the best of technical knowledge for the same. One can easily manage their own shopping cart on e-commerce websites. Zen Cart is always ready to be used.

Installation of Zen Cart is automated. The user friendly administration area is easy to handle. As a business owner, all you require to get started is a merchant account. Using Zen Cart will help you have an online store that does not look like many others operating on the World Wide Web.  It will enjoy an edge over other websites. With Zen Cart, you can make sure that your website looks absolutely professional and customized as per your specific needs and demands of business.

Zen Cart also offers support services as third party companies. It is a kind of basic self-help support forum. Users can also access documentation on the web site. It is possible to customize shopping cart with professional assistance.

Author Bio : I am Jitesh Manaktala as a Web Developer & Working with Smanik Design is a Website Designing Company in Delhi.

Online Reputation Management

A good reputation works as the lifeline of a business. Negative reputation can break and destroy your business forever. Hence, it is crucial to safeguard good name of your business. This helps reinforcing credibility of a company. Online reputation management will do that for you. This amazing marketing strategy comes equipped with many distinct benefits.

The Much-Needed First Impression

One of the major benefits of online reputation management is that it allows accessibility of information available on the World Wide Web. This information is related to your business. Here, special care is taken that the information offered is 100% accurate and positive. Hence, if someone types the name of your company into Google search bar, results that appear creates a powerful positive impact on potential and existing clients. The clients will be able to see availability of communication and positive testimonials on various social media websites. Your deep involvement online is a proof of best in class and dedicated customer service.

The Best Story is Told

Online Reputation Management guarantees proper spreading of your business message at the right time, right place and in the right way. So you can rest assured about spreading intended message related to a specific service, product, brand, profile and business. Online reputation management facilitates narration and promotion of the best story online sans any obstacles. All of your prospects will be met with amazing positive, great news stories.

No Negative and Irrelevant Listings

Online reputation management services will eliminate all negative listings from top rankings. It also removes irrelevant content to ensure free space for better and positive listings. This also means that your online business space will be surrounded with positive and more productive keywords.

Cost-Effective

Yes, it is true that online reputation management costs less when compared to expenses related to harm produced to online reputation. This means that the fees incurred for management of your online business profile or brand is significantly lower as compared to costs associated with a repairing harm, negative impact on customers, lack of trust by existing and potential clients, loss in sales, stress suffered due to the harm.

Digital Word-of-Mouth

Just as positive word-of-mouth works for a brick-and-mortar business, digital word-of-mouth works as a lifeline for virtual business. With more and more people preferring to shop online, it has become important to keep the face of business free from all kinds of taints and disruptions. Any kind of negative listing can be devastating for a company. Online reputation management ensures a positive digital word-of-mouth. The experts working for managing your business reputation online will monitor the buzz and keep you informed what your clients speak of you. Any negative buzz will be taken care of immediately.

Perfect Control over Google Rankings

As an online business owner, you know how important Google rankings is. As a part of online reputation management services, you will be provided with top 10 keywords associated with your brand, business, services, product, or profiles. The search behaviour of clients online explains that the top 10 search engine results remain the most viewed. When conducting a search online, users are bombarded with these listings. The presence of negative listing can harm the results and your online reputation. A professional ORM campaign undertaken by a reputed company can help you take full control over Top 10 rankings of Google.

This post is particularly written for Online Reputation Management. For more info visit here www.smanikdesign.com/online-reputation-management-services/