A collection of interconnected web pages is known as a website and the process of creating web pages incorporating visual design elements such as graphics, images, and text is known as Website design. A website can have a single or multiple web pages and since the mid of 2010, websites have become responsive in structure that not only supports desktop browsers but also tablets and mobile devices. While the terms web design and web development are often used interchangeably, web design is technically a part of web development process. Web design deals with the visual aspects of a web application which is known as the front-end and has nothing to do with programming, coding or databases. Website design cost varies according to the type of website a person or a business owner needs.
Web design uses tools & technologies such as HTML, CSS, Photoshop, Javascript, jQuery etc.
What does a Web Designer do?
A person that designs and creates visual, graphic and front-end components of a web page is known as a web designer. In a nutshell, a web designer creates visual elements of a website which we see on the front-end or in a browser. A web designer mainly works with tools & technologies such as HTML, CSS, Javascript, jQuery, Photoshop etc. A web designer is not be confused with a web developer. Today, there are several website builder tools such as squarespace and weebly on the market that help individuals to create a website with sophisticated drag and drop tools. You can even add ecommerce functionality to a website using automated website builders.
Types of Websites & Website Design
There are mainly two types of websites:
Static Websites
Static websites are those that do not run on databases and pages are not generated dynamically when requested by a browser. In a static website a unique file is stored for every page and the same content is sent to the browser without any changes. Usually, this content is created once at the time of website design and to be updated manually by working on the HTML, CSS scripts. The main advantage of a static website design is that they are simpler to host as they do not require database server or a web server to execute server-side scripts as in the case of dynamic scripts. For static website a web host or a hosting provider does not need to install web servers or databases servers on the hardware. Another advantage is they need less server side resources and are not exposed to external security threats or loopholes.
Dynamic Websites
Dynamic Websites run on a database and a web server to dynamically serve pages when a request is sent by a browser. Most common Dynamic website example is a WordPress website. These websites use server-side code to generate web pages but the actual output is in HTML format and not the actual code. Most widely used scripting language to develop dynamic websites is PHP and MySQL database. However, other technologies such as Python, Ruby on Rails, Node JS, have also picked up in recent years due to the security loopholes in PHP. These days dynamic websites are created using a Content Management System such as WordPress or Joomla or Drupal and these solutions also offer a WYSIWYG editors. WordPress dashboard offers everything you need to a build a new website but you need knowledge of PHP, MySQL and Javascript. It also offers plugins to extend the functionality of your new website.
How to Do a Law Firm Website Design?
Dynamic websites have a unique advantage, you can design websites that are interactive, mobile friendly and users can signup, download and upload files on a server. However, this leaves dynamic websites equally vulnerable to security threats and loopholes that need to be addressed when working with a dynamic website. Your web host or a hosting provider has to take extra steps to secure the web servers when hosting dynamic websites.
What are the main Components of a Website Design?
A website is made up of many components such as web pages, logo, icons, graphics, HTML, CSS, server-side code, database etc. But before you build a website, you need to book a domain name. For every new website you need to a new domain name.
One of the main aspect of a good website design is navigation, always keep your navigation menu clean and simple for users to navigate through the pages of your website.
Here’s a list of elements that make up a good website design and elements that work in the back-end ensuring that your website is accessible to the users such as web hosting.
- Homepage – A homepage is one of the main elements of a website as it can create that first impression or break your image. Design a homepage which is clean, beautiful and displays essential information about your business clearly and in an elegant manner.
- Responsive Layout – According to a research report by Statista, by 2020 the number of mobile phone search users would reach 221 million compared to 207.6 million in 2018. These numbers clearly suggest that your website design needs to be responsive, so that people can easily access it on their mobile phones and navigate through the pages easily.
- About Us page – Design this page to incorporate a few images of your office, shop or store. Provide a short description about your business, work and experience and include your professional profile if it’s a personal website.
- Services/Products Page – Mention all the services clearly that you offer and if you have any minimum fee or charges, do mention it as well. Customers love to do business with companies that are transparent about pricing. If you have any products, incorporate the images appropriately and make sure that images are clear and high resolution.
- Contact Us Page – This is the page where you will display your contact information such as Location, Phone and email. Make sure that your location/address, phone and email are correct. Recheck them before you make the website live.
- Call to Action – Users often want to contact a business after landing on a useful website and for that you need to display a Phone, email, link to a contact form or a Call button on every page of your website or in the header of the website. Users expect quick and easy way to contact a business and that’s why ‘Call-to-Action’ is extremely important.
- Link Pages internally – Link all the related pages of a website with each other as it creates relevancy for search engines and makes your content easy to discover by the search bots.
- Social Media Links – Link your website to all the major social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Linkedin. Insert the links of your social profiles at the bottom of your web pages to help people share your content among their group.
- Pay attention to Loading speed – Users often leave a website which takes time to load or navigating from one page to another takes more than 2 seconds. Optimize your HTML, CSS, javascript, images and graphics to speed up your website. A faster loading website also ranks higher in search results.
- Reliable and a Fast web hosting – Always purchase a website hosting plan which is reliable, fast and offers prompt support. A good web hosting offers latest web server scripts, better security and a fast database server to enable fast caching and delivery of your website’s content to the users. You even get a one click install feature in order to install various scripts on the server when you want to make a website and some are very useful for your website design. Also you can create multiple subdomains to host different types of files and content.
How much does a Website Design Cost?
How Much Does a website design or building a business website cost? There’s no definitive answer to this question because website design purpose varies according to the industry, needs and complexity in design. But to give you a cost breakup of website design you can expect anywhere between $100 – $300 for a simple website but there are monthly subscription plans as well that you can opt for and cost of website design will be $15 to $29 per month. This does not include cost of a domain name. A common domain name costs between $10 – $30 annually. Many web hosting providers such as bluehost offer free domain when you purchase a specific hosting plan. Some ecommerce platforms such as shopify that enable users to create online store for selling products online also offer a free domain.
If your requirements are large and you need a highly custom-built website then you need to speak with a web developer and cost could go upto $2000 – $5000 or more. For a simple website design all you need to do is pass on the basic information about your business to a web designer, search for domain names and book a good domain name and web hosting service and your website will be ready within few days.
What is the average cost for website design?
On an average, a new website design for small business, which includes graphics, layouts, pages and content could cost anywhere between $100 – $300, while a complicated website could cost over $500. Not all websites are same and therefore each website design is different from the other. A small business can get a website for as low as $100.
How much does a website design from Godaddy cost?
Godaddy is among the largest web hosting companies in the world. Apart from web hosting, it also offers domain registration and DIY website builders. To start your web design journey you can schedule a 30-minute get-started phone consultation with a GoDaddy expert for around $50.00. Most companies that provide DIY website builders offer tiered pricing plans – from free to around $300 per year. A DIY website builder is a software that allows anyone to create a website without writing any code. It offers a drag and drop interface that allows creating web pages without any technical knowledge.
How much does a Wix website cost?
Wix is an online website builder tool that allows creating websites without writing any code through its drag and drop interface. It’s one of the most popular online website builder tool. Wix is ad-free and includes a domain name for 1 year. Wix Unlimited costs $17 per month and is ideal for larger sites (3000+ monthly visits). Wix VIP at $39 per month adds priority support. The cheapest ecommerce plan is Business Basic at $23 per month.
How much does a WordPress website cost?
Depending on your requirements, your cost to start a WordPress website can range from $100 to $300 to $1000, to even as high as $5000 or more. It’s important to know what type of website you are building, and what you’ll need for it because that will directly affect your cost.
How long it takes to build a WordPress website?
Time required to build an entirely custom WordPress website: Few days to weeks depending on the complexity of the website and the website design agency you are working with. One simple WordPress website could take approximately 4 days.
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