Which hex codes should our business and use?

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Especially when a business is just starting, there is often not a set of brand-guidelines in place, sometimes this can mean that the web developers, that are working for your company, will need to spend more time making sure that you obtain a design that you would like, that’s because, the web developers, when writing the code, such as the CSS and the HTML, well, they need to know which fonts to use, which colour font, what colours to use in the various parts of the design, such as the header, the footer, what the background colour of the drop-down-menu should be etc, etc.

So what a set of brand guidelines can often do is help the web designers, they will know which font to use, such as sets say Arial, or Calibri Light for instance, they will often have a company logo to use, and know which hex codes to use, but often the web designers will not have a set of brand guidelines to work from, they therefore need to know which hex codes the business wants to use, so to help speed up the entire web design process, its sometimes a good idea to think of what colours you want to use, and where.

 

This article has therefore been written, so that you can think about which hex codes to use, and where you will often need hex codes to pass to the PHP web developer for example.

 

 

What does my web developer mean when they mention “hex codes”?

 

 

Well, you know when your redecorating your living room, often you will know the colour you want, but there’s absolutely no point in driving to say a local DIY store, and saying something like “well, I want a shade of blue, not too light, not too dark, that’s isn’t going to work in a million years, its more than likely that your going to go home, open the pot, and think, they got the colour totally wrong, you may even be rather mad about it.

 

So, with that said, this is exactly the same when it comes to visiting your Cardiff website designers, once you sit down with them, and they’ve made you a cup-of-tea, they may ask, well, what colour do you want the header, what colour do you want the footer, what hex codes should be used on the fonts?

 

And you look rather confused, as you have not thought much about it, so you say to your PHP web developers, well, how do I choose, and they may show you a graph of colours, and when you click on the colour, it gives you a hex code, then when they are writing the code, the PHP or the CSS, they can use the hex codes, when writing that pages code, so all this means is, instead of saying, well, I want the homepage to have grey and red, you can exactly state the colour red, the colour grey you want, then this can be coded into what is known as the code, or source code which is written by a web developer to build your website.

 

What does CSS mean?

 

 

When having your website built, whether it be by a web designer in Cardiff, or perhaps your business is in another city, and you’ve hired a local web developer there, what’s important is that you articulate how you want your website to be built as clearly as possible, that’s because for every feature, let’s say a “contact us” form, that’s to be in a box, surrounded by a bright colour, let’s say orange, that’s got to be written into the code, that’s to say, to make different colours appear, for example, a navy blue header, then a navy blue footer, and a navy blue menu, that code needs to be written, and CSS is the code that’s often used, so in order for your web developer, whether they are building a Joomla website, or let’s say they are building a WordPress CMS for your company, often the Cardiff web designers will need to know where to change the colours, and which hex codes to use.

 

 

Why its sometimes a good idea for a company to have a set of brand guidelines ready before the website is built?

 

Let’s say your starting a business, you about to start let’s say a coffee shop near Cardiff Bay, and you need a website built, so you hire a local web developer, what they often need is quite a lot of information from you, to start building the site, so for example, they may ask:

 

·       Have you registered a domain name?

·       Have you got a set of brand guidelines?

·       Has your business written the text?

·       Do you have a set of hex codes?

 

So, if your business has this information ready, then this can often help the web designers.

 

Why sometimes ever paper sketches can help your web developer

 

So, lets say that your about to start a company, let’s say, the business is a solicitors practice, it can help the web designers, to even get a rough sketch of how you want the site to look, this can help the web designers to write code for what are called “wire-frames” our wire frames, we refer to as drafts, and what we can do is show drafts the website, as our WordPress web developers build the site, so that our clients, get idea of how the site is coming together.

 

Hex codes allow your businesses marketing to be consistent

 

So, let’s say that you run a local take-away, you make very tasty Greek food, simply delicious, you deliver in Cardiff Bay, you also deliver in Roath Cardiff, Llanishen, Cyncoed, Rumney Cardiff, so your take-away business, well it covers a very large area.

 

And up until now you haven’t had a website built, but now you want a WordPress website, but you want it to match the colour of the companies delivery cars, that’s because you’ve had your delivery cars “wrapped” so they are say a bright colour lime green, so now, that exact hex code, that’s used to design the wrapping for the car, that should be passed to the WordPress web developers, so that lime-green colour, that’s used to wrap the car, that can match the website, so when someone see’s the car, say on Newport Road, Cardiff, when they visit your take-away’s website, the lime-green colour matches exactly, this is why hex codes, and retaining the hex codes is important as often web designers needs them, your PR company might need them, even your stationery supplier, if you have say customised company mugs for instance, or let’s say company pens, often the printing business will also need the lime-green hex codes.

 

Think about what colours you want the footer, header and the main pages navigation.

 

Whichever web designer you hire in Cardiff, whether it’s a freelancer, or a large agency with say 60 web developers, what you should think about is, where do you want the hex codes to be used, so for example, let’s say you run a construction business, your located in Wales, and you have a “static HTML” website, its dated, so you hire a local web developer to build a WordPress website, you want the CMS to incorporate colours used across your companies’ diggers, lorries and vans.

 

So, what you should have, is let’s say you have a unique colour of bright yellow that your construction company in Wales uses, you should pass that yellow colour, via a hex code, to the web designers, then tell them exactly where its to be used, so for example, to have a thick header and footer and for that to use that colour yellow.

 

Does your web design agency offer approval at different stages of the websites design?

 

Is the text easy to use?

 

Why sometimes the simpler the better

 

Think about how you want the mobile version of your website to look, which colours should be used

 

Do the colours in your company logo match with the web design?

 

Why not pick out the colours you like from other websites?

 

 

 

Let’s say that you are about to start a new business, so you have hired staff, you found a business premises in Cardiff Bay and you now wish to hire a web designer.

 

Yet one of the first questions that your web developer or your web designer ask your business is which hex codes are you going to use.

 

Now as a business owner, hear in Cardiff you might not know what hex codes to use, you might not know what hex codes mean?

 

Well, quite simply put a business will want the same colour scheme used throughout the website, perhaps the colour scheme is then incorporated into the company logo, and then sometimes the same colours a new say on the businesses business cards.

 

Now, to ensure that the colour scheme is consistent your going to need hex codes, for example if you want an exact shade of pink used, and you are going to need a hex code.

 

This hex code is then passed your web developer, your web developer can then use the hex code to design your new company website.

 

For example our Cardiff web developers and also our web designers will use the hex code to design say a WordPress website, so when you want your WordPress website to have a certain colour for the footer and header, our web developers can use the hex code make sure that we use the right colour the header and the footer of your website.

 

Web design

 

We are web designers within Cardiff, if you are unsure how you would like your new company website to look, then our web design agency can offer your company ideas.

 

For example, you might not know how you would like the homepage to look, for example you might not know which colours to use, whether you want a slider, or how the main menu should look.

 

Our web design agency can offer you many different ideas, we can also offer you ideas of which colours you might want to use.

 

 

 

Company branding

 

Before your web designers start to build a new website, you might want to pay a marketing agency to come up with a set of brand guidelines.

 

The brand guidelines can stipulate which colours to use, also they can design a company logo and it can also for example say which font to use.

 

This can obviously accelerate the whole web design process, because the brand guidelines can be passed to the web developer, and then the web developer will know exactly which font to use, which colours to use, and which company logo to use.

 

Hex codes

 

If you haven’t got a clue about which colours to use, then we can offer you some ideas.

 

 

 

Homepage

 

you can meet with our web designers, and they can offer ideas for how you may want the homepage to be design. For example our web developers can suggest how you may want the main menu to work, also whether you want a slider on the homepage, how wants the layout of the homepage to look.

 

Therefore many businesses meet with our web designers so that they can design the homepage.

 

When you meet with our web designers, they can suggest which hex codes to use.

 

Company logo

 

we can also design a company logo for your business, so for example if you are looking for a company in Cardiff that can design a WordPress website, which can offer organic SCO, and which can design a company logo then why not call our web designers?

 

Web developers

 

Our web developers will need to know which hex codes to use.

 

Mobile version of your website

 

If you want us to design a mobile version of your company website, we will need to know which hex codes to use.

 

For example which hex codes we should use for the main menu, the homepage, the header and the footer and also for example on your company logo.

 

Header and footer

 

We will need to know which hex codes to use for the header and the footer of your website.

 

Main menu

 

You will want your “main menu” to be very easy to use. For your main menu to be easy to use, we will need to know which hex codes to use for the font, and also for the main menu.

 

 

 

Consistent

 

It’s important that your company branding is always consistent, for example, you don’t want to use one colour for your company logo on your website, and then the company logo colour might look completely different on your business cards.

 

So, this is why companies need to have “brand guidelines”, the brand guidelines will stipulate which hex codes to use, and this will make sure that your branding is consistent .

 

 

 

Be different

 

You might wish to use a bold colour scheme, for example you might want to use a right and why different colour on your homepage.

 

For example, you might want use a bright colour purple, it is therefore important that you use that hex code then for your business cards, and your logos as well, this is why you should hire a marketing agency which can write brand guidelines for your business

 

How our Cardiff web developers, and designers can help your business:

 

If you need a new website built in Cardiff, then we can build a website for your company.

 

We can build e-commerce, and also brochure websites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why it’s important to have your brand-guidelines already created before you have your website designed

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You want a brilliant new website for your company, you know the domain name you want, you have a rough idea in mind of how you want the site to look, so that you can tell your web developer how you want the homepage to look, where you want the main slider, how the main navigation should work, what the mobile version of the site should look like, you’ve been planning on how you want your new website to look for weeks and weeks.

So, now’s the time to pick up the phone, and call around as many Cardiff web designers as possible, and get quotes, right?
Well, hold your horses, have you thought about brand guidelines, and you may now be scratching your head, and thinking what are brand guidelines?

Well, brand guidelines are simply a set of guidelines which can stipulate fonts to be used, logo design which colours to use, where the colours should be used, where different fonts should be used, so the brand guidelines allow consistency to occur, consistency across marketing, for example so that the website colour matches with the exact colour used on company cars, and the company’s van, and the company’s shop-front for example.

 

So, what exactly are brand guidelines?

Well, sometimes a business will go to a branding company, a company that specialises in creating a brand for your company, or rebranding your business.

So, let’s say you run a business, let’s say your based in Cardiff Bay, and your business has been successful, yet you think the brand needs modernising, its to be recreated, it needs to have a different look to help improve your businesses marketing, we’ll all well and good, so you hire an agency, they create a set of brand guidelines, and then this states the following for example:
• A logo to be used on the mobile version of the website
• A logo that’s larger for the main company website and for use on say vans, cars the shop-front
• A set of hex codes for fonts
• A list of fonts to use

So, the brand guidelines state which fonts, which colours, which hex codes to use.

And why would a web developer need these?

A web developer will need to write the code, which is sometimes called the “CSS”, this will detail for example, what colour the footer should be, what colour the main menu should be, what colour the font should be.

Also the web developer here in Cardiff in Wales will need the logo to apply to the mobile version of the website, the logo to add to the main website. The WordPress web developer will also need to know what font to use, so for example, when the web designer is writing the code, and designing the homepage, the about us page, the main service pages, they will need to know which font to use, what size the font should be, what colour the font should be? Also size the font should be on the mobile version of the site.

So, what are hex codes?

Hex codes are simply colour codes, so for example, when you meet with your web design agency, one of the first questions might be, have you got a set of brand guidelines, do you know which hex codes should be used and where.
So for example:

• What hex codes should be used for the footer
• Which hex codes for the main menu?
• Which hex codes for the fonts?

Why is it important to use consistent colours?

Let’s say that you hire a local web designer here in Wales, and you just say, the main colour across the new website needs to be a dark blue, well, what you might find is that the dark blue that’s used, unless you have an exact hex code, that you can tell the web design agency to use, it may not match the blue, that’s used say on the company’s cars, so even though it’s a dark blue colour, it might not match.
So, this is why its important to use hex codes, so the company has a colour scheme, and this colour scheme looks the same across say the blue that’s used on the companies vans, shop front and website.

Why is it important to choose a font when having your website built?

Your marketing agency should help you to choose a font, this font can then be communicated to the web developers, then the web developers when they are writing all of that code for each page, lets say they are a PHP web developer, they can code the page, so that lets say Arial font is used.

Does your web design business also offer to create brand guidelines?

You might want to hire a web design company that also offers logo design, plus can also create a set of brand guidelines, this way you may not have to hire say a web design business, and then also a marketing company, as you may find a business that offers both services under one roof.

This is why so many companies come to us, from builders, to lawyers, because our agency, that’s based right in the heart of Cardiff, Wales, can offer web design, organic seo, logo design and also to create your companies brand guidelines.

Have you had your company logo designed?

We can also design logos.

Why your WordPress developer will need this information

Your Cardiff web developers, will need to know your brand guidelines, such as what font to use, what hex codes to use, what logos to use, so the web developers will need to know your company’s brand guidelines.

This information will be needed by your web designer

Whichever web designers you use, whether they are located in Wales, or the other end of the U.K, they will often need a set of brand guidelines, to make sure that the website is designed with say the colours that your business wants.

Does your business here in Wales, Cardiff need to have brand guidelines created?

If so, why not call us?

Does your business need a web designer?

Whether your company is in Cardiff Bay, or you own a business right next door to Cardiff Castle, or your business is near Roath Park, wherever your business is, we can offer top-quality white hat seo, we can design CMS websites, we have WordPress web designers, we can also offer Joomla websites.

If you need a Cardiff digital marketing agency, then why not call top-space-designs?

 

We are having a brochure website built- what are some of the more important design elements that should be included?

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Introduction

You’ve decided that your website needs a mark-over, to look more modern, to reflect what your company here in Cardiff has expanded into.
And you know from running a business for quite a while, or looking to set-up a new company, that you do get what you pay for. Meaning, that often for a lot of businesses, the main way that they advertise the business is online, so their website is critical to the success in many ways to the business.

So, they don’t just want a cheap, bosh, its done type website, no quality is needed. When talking about quality, its important to remember this, when it comes to really good web design, there are so many factors to consider, its not just about what the main picture on the homepage looks like, every single detail needs to be considered, needs to be carefully thought out, that’s why we say whichever web design agency you hire, whether they are in Cardiff, or another city, just make sure you invest in quality, as your website is often one of your most important ways to market your business.

So, our best advice is this, only invest in quality, don’t pick an agency just because of some special offer, cheap deal or the fact they can put the site together in record time, instead invest in quality, a quality site, built by experienced web developers.

So, there are a million and one things to consider when getting a new website designed, but to provide some food for thought, we thought we would mention a few things that we think are important, but do remember there are many more to consider as well…

Fast

So, let’s say your into running, you love nothing more than finishing work, and going for a good jog, its just well, your current daps, well there looking a bit tired, so on the way home from work, your looking to get a pair of trainers, yet one website, well, its so bloated, its so over designed, that its slow, so what happens?

Well, you’re likely to leave for a company website that better designed, that’s fast, where the web designers have thought not just about a fancy design, but also making it fast, so that the customer finds it easier to purchase items, so the point we are trying to make is, whichever web developers you hire, don’t just go off the website looking good, is it fast? Is it easy to buy items? Is the mobile version of the site well-designed?

Are there are coding issues at all? Such as the PHP code working is such a way where the drop-down menu, doesn’t stay down? If so, this needs to be fixed.

Contact forms

Does the website have enough contact forms coded into the company’s website, so for example, let’s say you’re a lawyer, why have just one contact form on the “contact us” page, why not have say your WordPress website designers, to code a contact form on every single main service page, this is so, for example, let’s say you’re a property lawyer, when they click on the page to do with “property disputes” there’s a contact form, so when the customer writes a message, this is sent directly to the right lawyer? Instead of all the messages going through the same contact us page.

Easy to use

Is the company website easy to use? So, for example, lets say you sell coffee online, is it easy to change the order, remove items from the basket? Is it easy to pay? What’s the mobile version of the site like, is it easy to use?

Has your web design agency created brand guidelines?

Does your web developer, or your chosen web design agency, here in Wales, do they know which hex codes to use? Do they have a company logo to add to the site? Do they know which font to use? Sometimes “brand guidelines” need to be created, so that, the web designers know how to design the site, and so all of the businesses marketing is consistent, for example, the same logo and font is used on company letters, as it is the company’s website.

Mobile ready and a responsive design?

Will the website design be responsive? Will you have a mobile version of the site built?

A CMS that is easy to use, or that the web designers can offer training?

So let’s say that you run a business that sells wood-burning stoves, yet the stoves that you stock, those companies that make the stoves, they regularly have new products, so you want a CMS, that you can add blog posts too, so, what you have to ask is, is the CMS easy to use? Is it easy to add blog posts too?

Offers as much useful advice as possible

Is the website useful for your customers, or are left with unanswered questions, if your company website doesn’t answer frequently asked questions, then the bounce rate is likely to be high.

Easy to update?

Is the companies website easy to update?

Are the plugins easy to update?

Are the plugins easy to update?

Can you change the NAP information yourself?

Is it easy to change the NAP information, for example your companies phone number is the footer of the website, if your company phone number changes?

At your web design company- how does the web design process work?

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You may well be an established business here in Cardiff, one of Cardiff’s longest standing businesses, and you’ve decided that your company website, well its looking a bit tired, dated, it needs altering, and of course, we are web designers that offer complete redesigns.

Alternatively you may well be a brand new company, you’ve set Cardiff as your destination to set-up your company, you want to create a brand new WordPress site, you want us to create brand-guidelines, you want us to write the content marketing, design a company logo, come up with a colour scheme, keep the WordPress site updated, in terms of WordPress updates, plugin updates, you also want us to manage your businesses SEO, that’s improve the local seo, as well as the organic, and we can do all of this for your company, all for a rather modest fee.

 

 

Yet, we know having a new company website, or redesigning an old one, well, it can mean that businesses owners can have a million and one questions, so, with this in mind, we grabbed our senior website designers, said stick the kettle on, and we put our heads together to write this, a rather long blog post, which addresses some of the more frequently asked questions, that our web design company in Cardiff frequently gets asked.

 

What if I haven’t a clue how I would like my website to look?

Now it doesn’t matter if you are starting a removal business, or you run a large insurance business, most company owners or the marketing team, may not know if they want a slider, what a site map is, what hex codes to use, who is writing the content marketing, who’s designing the logo, how the main menu should work- we could go on, but we will pause for breath at this point.

What some businesses do, here in Cardiff Wales is let us come up with design suggestions, that’s to say our web developers, once we know which CMS option you want, such as a WordPress site, we can start to come up with design ideas, of how you may want the site to look, in terms of colour schemes, logos, main menu design, homepage design, about us page design, how the footer and header can look, how the mobile version of the WordPress site can look, so in a nutshell, our web designers can offer you loads, and loads of food for thought.

That way you can sit back, grab a coffee, and simply have a look at what our design team here in Cardiff have come up with, then we can start building the WordPress site, once you approve one of our designs.

 

We need a web design business that basically manage everything, are you able to do this?

 

Yes, often businesses that hire us are either super busy with revamping the rest of their marketing, or they are a new business, and they are just getting started, so often management is busy hiring staff, finding a businesses premises, choosing the interior décor, and also purchasing core items of machinery or vehicles, so the point we are trying to make is this, our web designers, can take-care of the whole WordPress web design process for you.

We can then check in with you, to approve say the hex codes, the menu design, and what key pages look like, say the homepage for example, then our super-talented web designers, and WordPress web developers can build your new site.

 

I want to pick from a few options, can you offer us this?

So let’s say for example that your setting up a new restaurant, it’s a new restaurant, your opening it in Cardiff Bay, you’ve invested a lot into the restaurant, now you want an impressive website to match the location, and what your restaurant has to offer, so you’ve come to us, what you can do is let our web designers come up with a few ideas, we can narrow down what you like, then we can start building the site.

 

How do I know which colours we should be using, and what are “hex codes”?

Let’s say that your setting up a large construction company here in Wales, you know you want as the main colour, a yellow, but you don’t know which shade of yellow, our web designers can suggest many different hex codes, so that we can find the perfect colour shade for your company website.

 

Why does your business so strongly promote WordPress websites?

We think that if you hire the right web designers, like Top Space, then we can build truly great and impressive websites for your company, some of the best websites we have built, in terms of our customers being really happy with the work, have been when we have used WordPress as the CMS.

 

Have you got highly experienced web designers and web developers that work for you?

Most definitely, we have some super talented web designers, there so good at what they do, they will produce top-quality, websites, plus they are also experienced web developers, so often they can come up with recommendations for you, so for example, if you haven’t a clue what the “site-map” should be, our web developers have often built websites for other companies in the same industry, so we can start to pick out pages, and features that you may want, such as an AMP version of the site, for example.

 

Why should we pick you as our Cardiff web design business of choice?

 

Cardiff, like most U.K cities are crammed to the rafters with web designers, from one-man-bands, through to agencies employing a lot of staff, many companies hire us, just due to the quality of the work.

We simply design ace-websites, even if we do say so ourselves. Plus, we have copywriters, logo designers, WordPress web designers, PHP experts, CSS, HTML and JavaScript web developers, so simply put, we can build any site.

 

Can your web design business create brand guidelines?

Yes, if your company hasn’t got a set of brand-guidelines, that’s to say, which hex codes to use, a logo, and also font type, then we can help your company, here in Wales, to create a set of brand guidelines.

What size businesses do you work for?

We work with large businesses here in South Wales, as well as smaller companies, we offer very competitive rates on web design, whether that be WordPress websites, or to have our web developers build a totally bespoke company website, using PHP.

Who writes all of the text, we simply haven’t got the time?

This is a really common question, and if you’re setting up a new company, let’s say you’re starting a new coffee shop, you most likely haven’t got the time, to sit-down and write over 2000 words, so why not let our web design company in Cardiff, do this work for you?

One of the most frequently asked questions, that our web design company gets asked is how does your web design process work?

That’s the say often a business will want a website designed quickly, therefore they would like to know timescales for how long it will take us to build say a word press website.

For example, a business might be setting up in Cardiff Bay, and let’s say that the business is a restaurant, they want their website to be live by the time the restaurant opens, so they want to know the web design process.

We explain typical timescales for how long it takes us to build a website, and how our clients can help our business to build the website more quickly.

 

We meet with our clients

first things first, we normally meet with our clients. Sometimes on a low value web design contract, we sometimes do not need to meet the clients, because sometimes a client will explain clearly over the phone how they would like their WordPress website to look.

For example, the business owner might know exactly which colours they want to use, they may have already written the content marketing, and they may have a very clear idea of how they would like to each page, such as the homepage to look.

Then our web developers can begin building the website sometimes they need to use PHP, JavaScript and HTML coding in order to build the website.

For some other businesses, we need to be meet the business in order to gain a much better understanding of how they would like the website to look

 

We gain an understanding of your business

It’s also not just a case of understanding how want the website to look, but if you want our business to also write the evergreen content marketing, then we will also need to understand your business, and for this often need to meet with the business owners.

For example, we will need to know a bit about the company, the company’s history and also most importantly want to know which services you wish to promote the most.

For example, a scaffolding company might contact us for a website, and it might not be immediately obvious that the business wants to concentrate primarily on commercial and industrial scaffolding contracts, therefore we will need to meet with the business owners in order to understand that this is where they wants to gain more work, in terms of industrial and commercial scaffolding and therefore the website should make this clear.

 

We recommend which content management system would best suit your businesses requirements

We will then need to meet with the business owners in order to explain the different types of CMS.

You may not know what CMS means, it simply means content management system, we will need to know which content management system your business requires.

For example, does your business require a WordPress CMS or let’s say you may wish to opt for a Joomla! CMS.

We work with the marketing department in order to understand your brand guidelines

We then will need to gain a copy of your brand guidelines, normally the marketing department within your business will have a copy of the brand guidelines.

The brand guidelines will stipulate which hex codes to use, how the logo should look and which font to use as well.

We will give this to the web developer so that when they are writing the HTML, PHP or JavaScript so that they use the right hex codes, fault and also company logos.

 

We start to build wireframes

Our web designers will then start to build wireframes.

We start to show you draft copies of the website

Our web designers can then start to send you draft copies of the website, for example they may begin by building the homepage, once this is built then may send you a draft copy for your approval.

Content marketing

Our business can also write the content marketing for your business; that’s to say one of our copywriters can write the evergreen content marketing for your company. This can sometimes speed up the web design process.

However, some businesses here in Cardiff, would like to write the content marketing themselves, if this is the case; then we always ask if this can be written before we start to build the website, so that our web designers can immediately add this to your website.

We gain your feedback

Once we have started to build the main pages, that is the homepage, about us page and the various different service pages, our web designers will ask for your approval, that’s to see if you are happy with the design, then our web developers will finish building your new company website.

We offer training

Our web design agency also offers WordPress training, so if your business requires WordPress training then we can help

We offer WordPress training

We offer WordPress training in Cardiff

We also can maintain your website

We can also offer to maintain your website, for example we can update your website, we can update your plug-ins and we can also offer hosting.

This service is an optional extra.

We also offer SEO

Our business can also offer SEO

If you would like to get a quote for web design then why not give us a ring?

We work for a wide range of different businesses, this can range from a restaurant in Cardiff Bay, right through to a solicitors practice in the centre of Cardiff.

We mostly build high-quality WordPress websites, however we can offer many different types of websites as well, for example we can build Joomla! websites

 

 

Why it’s crucial to get your websites navigation right

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Sometimes when a company here in Cardiff, South Wales are having their website designed, they will concentrate on what the homepage looks like, and what the main pages look like.

That’s to say sometimes they will want a slider, that’s to say something on the homepage that will instantly communicate what the business can offer.

Yet sometimes it’s the finer details that the business must also pay close attention to- that’s because if the website has a main menu that’s not easy to use, well this could mean that the website incurs a very high bounce rate, which means that the businesses SEO could be negatively affected.

This is why you should work closely with your web design company to make sure that your company website looks great, but that the main menu works well.

Here’s what we deem as essential when building a main menu for a website:

·        Clearly visible (we do not like menus that only appear when you hoover the mouse)

·        Easy to use

·        Make it simple, group products

·        Carry out split testing or A / B testing and try and reduce the businesses bounce rate by improving the menu

The main menu

What is the main menu we hear you ask?

Well, sometimes a website will have many different ways that a shopper can navigate around the website- for example there may well be links on the homepage (Main Menu)- there may well be links in the footer, plus there might also be a search bar so people can type what they are looking for.

And if you sell say over 1000 different products, well, your going to need a search bar, as often a shopper will know the product that they want, they are just shopping on price, and who can offer the customer the best deal.

Yet, one of the most important parts of your website will be the main menu, now normally this is a bar that is located across the top of the website, with a drop-down menu.

Now, a lot of businesses try to be different, that’s by having a menu that disappears, that’s until the shopper hoovers their mouse over the menu, or by having a menu that expands once you click a box, but if your selling products, or you are a company that offers services, there’s one things that is for sure, test, that’s to say test whichever menu option you go for, make sure it works.

Your web developer may build a menu that’s not the best for your business, that’s to say a menu that’s over simplified. This simply means that the designer may well be designing a minimalistic website and in-keeping with the overall design of the website, they may make a menu that is simple.

Yet if the menu fails in its main purpose which is to get shoppers to the page of the website that they want quickly- well, your business may obtain a very high bounce rate.

So we would recommend, which ever Cardiff web design company that you choose, that you carry out split testing or A/B testing to make sure that the main menu works correctly, and that the businesses bounce rate is kept as low as possible.

That’s to say if you were to later hire your digital marketing agency, to later improve your businesses organic seo, then they may start to alter the design to see if this improves your businesses seo.  

Sometimes a business will opt for a menu that compliments the design, for example it might be a menu that you need to click on to make it expand into full screen mode- yet if the menu doesn’t work on say a smartphone, then you might get a very high bounce rate, so make sure that you choose a menu that works for your business, yet works on desktops, mobile and tablet as well.

So, make sure that your web design agency here in Cardiff does testing.

Bounce rates

Let’s say your web designer designs a CMS website, and the style is minimalist, so you don’t want a large main menu, you’ve instead opted for a menu that’s discreet, the shopper has to click a box, and then the menu appears.

Yet, the menu may not be built correctly that’s because it may not work on smartphones, and because of this your website could have a very high bounce rate.

This is why it so important that your web developer does testing, plus you may wish to carryout A/B testing, that’s to try and improve your businesses bounce rate.

Easy to use

Here’s the thing, well known company’s will spend a great deal of time building their main menus.

That’s to say the main menu should be easy to use, you may sell say over 5000 products, yet the web design company should aim to make the main menu easy to use, that’s to say as soon as a visitor to the website lands on the homepage, you should be aiming to get the customer to the right page as quick as you can.

A menu that doesn’t do this, and makes it hard for the customer to find the right product will just mean that the website incurs a high bounce rate.

So often a lot of HTML, CSS and PHP coding will need to take place on an ongoing basis to make sure that your business can design a menu that helps to reduce your businesses bounce rate, while helping shoppers to find the products that they want more easily.

For example, let’s say that you retail men’s clothes, and you contact a Cardiff web designer to help build a website.

Yet, when the WordPress website is first built, it groups all shoes together, and your business monitors sales, and also the websites performance in Google Analytics, now the business later hires the web design business to improve the design, that’s by building a new main menu, and splitting shoes by type, so running trainers, formal shoes and casual shoes.

The business spots that the organic seo improves, so does the businesses sales, so this is why you should always aim to improve your businesses design and organic seo.

Okay, granted, we are not saying that by just changing the design of the main menu, that this will instantly improve your company’s seo, however, often if a business improves its SEO, then often the design will need to be improved as well.

For example, an seo consultant may want “formal shoes” to have its own page, so the business can add a meta title, meta description and alt tags for that page. This then means the design of the website needs to be improved, and so by making a design improvement, sometimes the SEO will improve as well.

This is why major brands and company’s often work with an seo agency and a web design agency, and these company’s often work together to improve the website.

Often the designers will use A/B testing, or split testing to improve the design, however before they make the change for all shoppers, they may use A/B testing to see if the design change has made an improvement in terms of sales.

So before the HTML and CSS changes to the design of the website are available for all shoppers, they may use Google Analytics to see if the design changes result in the business making more sales.

Design the main menu

You should spend a lot of time with your web designers designing the menu, sometimes a company will design the menu quickly.

Yet, if the main menu does not include enough pages, or is not easy to use, then over the long run this could increase your businesses bounce rate.

Often many web designers will advertise a fixed price to design a website, which may well be great for some businesses. However, sometimes the price is kept low to only design the website to say four pages, or if you pay more you may get a 10 page website.

However, what a business should do, is instead of opting for a low cost website, is to think about how many pages you really need. That’s to say we would recommend designing a sitemap, thinking about how many pages you need, then opt for a design that is best for your business, not to save money by opting for a fixed price package which may offer less pages than what you need.

Why do we say that?

Well, lets say you run a business that sells double glazing, and you opt for a web design business because they offer a really low price for a 5-page website. Yet, if you cannot fit all of your product range, such as double glazing, UPVC doors, conservatories, about us page, contact us, homepage and also double glazing repair, so you decide to consolidate pages, well this might adversely affect the businesses seo.

As any good web design agency will tell you, for each main service that your company offers, such as for example, UPVC doors, the business should have a separate page for that product.

This is so the web designer can add a meta title, meta description, alt tag and also product description to each page.

A/B and split testing

You may wish to hire a web developer that can offer what is called “split testing” or “A/B testing”- this is so the web developer can make improvements to the main menu, or the mobile menu so that your business can reduce its bounce rate.

Mobile version / Responsive

Often a business will sign-off their web design on the basis that they are happy with the desktop version of the website, however, you should also consider if you are happy with the mobile version of the website.

As sometimes there can be problems with some websites mobile menu’s, for example a drop-down menu that expands too far down the screen, a menu that doesn’t load at all, or a menu that has small font.

So, your web developer should test the menu, that’s to make sure it works correctly, and the font is large enough to read.

Google Analytics

Your business, or your marketing agency may wish to install Google Analytics, this is so you can monitor how many visitors your site gets, plus when you make website improvements, such as changing the design of the main menu, whether this improves your websites bounce rate, by lowering it.

How we can help:

If you run a company here in Cardiff that requires a Joomla, or a WordPress website, then why not call us?

We are an established web design company. We have web developers that can build a website for your business.

Our web design company can offer WordPress websites, Joomla websites, plus we can also help your business to improve its organic SEO.

We make the whole web design process easy for your business, we can even write the content marketing for your company. We can build a simple website, or we can work with large businesses here in Cardiff as well.

We are a local web design company, so why not give us a ring if you need any of the following services:

·        Web design

·        Organic SEO

·        Logo design

·        CMS websites

·        WordPress websites

·        Joomla websites

·        E-commerce websites

Why its crucial that your web design company designs easy to use navigation

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Introduction

Your on your way into the city centre of Cardiff, South Wales, that’s because your web design agency wants to show you your new CMS website- they have been busy little bees and now it’s time to show the website that they have been working on for many months.

And your impressed, your new CMS website looks the part, it has the intro video and shows you the Managing Director walking around your offices, while they sip on a cup of latte and meet all of your staff that are situated around your offices in Cardiff Bay.

So, you drive away happy- that’s to say your website designers have pulled it out of the bag, and you now have a website that looks ace- or have you?

That’s because sooner rather than later you start to get these sort of e-mails “we can’t get passed the homepage- why’s your main menu disappeared”.

“Hi, we just wanted to know how to get your company’s address, we can not get onto the company’s contact us page”

So, what’s happening?

Well, we will tell you, it sounds like a glitch with your main menu, that’s to say all that coding that is supporting say the intro video of your business, and all those features that have been used to design the homepage, well they look great- but there might be a coding error.

This means that the website is not responsive, so when someone looks at your website say on a smartphone, they do not see the menu, so what happens?

Well you get one very high bounce rate, and you get a very high bounce rate and this shows in your businesses Google Analytics account, and soon after this your rankings start to fall, so this is why its so crucial to make sure you hire a web developer or an web design agency can build a high-quality website for your business.

This means that so many web design company’s these days compete on price, that’s to say at the start the website may look great, but if the CMS (Content Management System) does not receive updates, then the website may develop glitches.

Also, with some CMS the main menu can sometimes be difficult to use, that’s to say all the coding, the Javascript, the PHP and the CSS may be correct, there’s no glitches, yet the main menu may still be difficult to use,  that’s to say your business may sell many products, yet if the products are too broadly grouped, say over 100 products are in each category, then this may mean that the shopper is unwilling to sort through thousands of products, or hundreds, and this may cause your business to have a high bounce rate.

Easy to use

It’s all well and good hiring a web developer, and you stating “I want a really minimalist website, I want the menu reduced so it only appears when the customer hovers over that section of the website- but what if some customers cannot find the menu, and this means your businesses bounce rate increases?

So, we often think its far better to have a fixed main menu, a menu that’s easy to use, and a menu that will transport the shopper to the right page easily, otherwise if you put design over practically, well you could be losing customers, as they may not be able to find the products or services they want, and therefore swiftly leave your company’s website.

 

So what do we think contributes to making the main menu easy to use?

·        You must have a mobile friendly version of the website

·        The mobile version must be easy to use

·        Opt for a drop-down menu if possible

·        Ensure that the website loads quickly, ask your web design company about obtaining an AMP version of the website

 

Who wants minimalistic?

Sometimes a business here in Cardiff will offer a lot of different services, for example an architect may offer a lot of different services, for example they may want to work with residential, commercial and industrial company’s- and offer different services to each, which would obviously mean a lot of pages, and this could mean that the main menu starts to look a bit cluttered.

So sometimes some website designers may say, well, let’s just condense everything down to a few pages- this way you will be obtaining a minimalistic website, yet sometimes this can be negative for the business in two ways.

One the customer may not find the service they want, that’s because the services have been condensed into just a few pages, so the description may well be very short, so the customer may not deem that business as a business that offers what they want.

Secondly by getting rid of pages, say on your WordPress website, well your businesses seo could be negatively affected. So for example unless each service has its own page, then each service will not have its own meta titles, meta descriptions, title, H1-H6 tag.

So, its really important that each service has its own page, plus the menu to get the customers to those pages must be easy to use.

 

So what’s the solution?

Well, in terms of choosing a menu, we would not recommend condensing pages just to a few pages so the  menu looks less cluttered- no we would always recommend to our clients that they have as many pages as the business needs, and to then use the right main menu to support this, so for example, a main menu that has drop down boxes, that is fixed often works well.

However, with that said, every business is different, so if you are unsure as to which menu you require, you can always meet our web developers.

 

Breadcrumbs

Okay, so I want men’s socks, size nine, in blue stripes, no actually I want dark socks, that will match my suit, hang on how do you go back to dark socks?

Well, this is where breadcrumbs should have been used, that’s to say the website designers should have used bread crumbs, this is so that with a few clicks the shopper can go back to the last page or another page on your website easily.

So for example, lets say you run a law practice, you might see the service you want, lets say employment law advice, then read about the various solicitors, then you want to go back to the service you want, yet with breadcrumbs you can easily go back to the page that you want.

 

Return to the homepage

Okay, so this is really basic, but your website should always make it easy for the shopper to go back to the homepage of the website, and what do we mean by this?

Well, often the company’s logo will act as the link to the homepage, but if it doesn’t, and the shopper buys say a pair of trainers, the decides that they also want to purchase say a skipping rope, if they cannot get back to the homepage, and then use the main menu, well they may find it hard to navigate around your businesses website, which may mean that they leave the website, abandon the shopping cart, and then you could miss a sale, this is why its so important that your website design company gets the navigation right for your business.

 

Responsive

Your website should be responsive, plus the web design agency must make sure that the website works correctly on smartphones, and tablets, if it doesn’t, then you could be losing sales possibly, that’s because the shopper may leave your company’s website, then purchase from a website that makes it much easier for them to purchase an item.

 

Testing

Some web designers will offer really cheap prices, but if the website is not properly tested, that’s before it goes live, well the website could have 404 errors, or glitches, which means that the menu may not work, and certain pages do not neither, this is why its so important that the web design business does testing, but also, the business must also do regular testing.

For instance, a WordPress website that does not get regular updates may have a plugin that’s outdated, that plugin could then act as a way a hacker could hack the website, then through the plugin the website could be hacked, so this is why the website should be updated.

 

Don’t overwhelm the customer

Let’s say your business sells 2000 products, it’s a fine art for the web design company to create a menu that groups products, so that the customer can get to a product quickly, yet not make the product group so large they are looking at 300 products at a time, so that they have so much choice that they leave the website.

So its important not to overwhelm the customer, to get the menu right, that’s so when someone clicks say on “mens shoes” another menu then appears, called a sub-menu, which may state “formal mens shoes, “casual shoes” or “running trainers”, this way the customers getting to the product they want more quickly, which may mean that your business is more likely to make a purchase, rather than leaving the website because its too difficult to use, and are therefore more likely to start looking at the different shoes you offer.

Bounce rate

If your web designers do make changes to the main menu, then why not do split testing, or A/ B testing, this is so that you can monitor if your businesses bounce rate increases, or decreases as a result of the web developer changing the menu.

 

How our web developers can help:

We are a digital marketing agency in Cardiff, South Wales- if you need a new WordPress, Joomla website, SEO or help with your content marketing, they why not call our web design agency in Cardiff today?


 

What does “AMP” mean and how could this help my business?

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We all expect a fast service when we make a purchase from any company these days- whether that’s purchasing a burger at the local drive thru restaurant or let’s say queuing to buy a new dress at a shop- we all expect to be able to buy something and to do this quickly.

And this is exactly the same online, that’s to say if a business doesn’t offer a fast service, well, that business may just be losing customers.

For example, if a web design agency was to build a website that’s slow then following could occur:

 

·        Increase the businesses bounce rate

·        Negatively impact the businesses SEO

 

And the reason for this is because a lot of SEO websites now state that if a shopper is made to wait for anymore than 3 seconds for a page to load, well they could lose that customer.

So, this is why website developers are looking to make company websites even faster, and one way to do this is thru what’s called “AMP”, which stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages.

This is why many Cardiff web design agencies like Top Space are now offering to build a CMS website, but also for the web designers to also build an AMP version of the website.

AMP simply stands for accelerated mobile pages, and if you haven’t got the time to read the whole of this article, then the condensed version of this blog post has been bullet pointed for you below:

 

·        AMP can be used to create ultra fast websites

·        Ideal for loading company websites onto a smartphone more quickly where there may well be a weak mobile network

·        HTML and CSS can be used to build an AMP website which is ultra lightweight, by that we mean that the website can load quickly

·        A lot of web design company’s such as Top Space are now offering to build AMP websites

 

Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)

So, you want your website designers to build a website that has a lot of text or to put a lot of information of your company’s homepage, it also has a long self-loading video, and this has to be placed on the homepage of your website.

The video then gives a guided tour of your offices which are in Cardiff Bay, and you also meet staff in the video on your homepage, that’s a great way of showing people what your business can offer, where your business is based, and also a chance to meet your staff, so win, win right?

Plus, if this is placed onto your websites homepage, then this will make the website more modern, right?

Well, not exactly, that’s because a lot of businesses are now moving away from company websites that might take a long time to load.

That’s to say if the design is too complicated, then this may cause a slow company website, which may mean that the company’s bounce rate increases.

Fast website hosting and AMP websites

So for example, you may have hired a web design company, and they have stated that they will provide your company with “fast hosting”– but what does that exactly mean?

Well, sometimes it can mean that your website will load quickly, on the other hand it doesn’t really mean much at all- that’s because some hosting companies say they are fast, when in reality you may see your beard growing as the website loads- so in reality they are not that fast at all.

So often what’s needed is a web design agency here in Cardiff, like Top Space that can design a website that’s built to load quickly (AMP), plus also the business to choose hosting that is ultra-fast.

 

AMP stands for accelerated mobile pages and this means that your website is then designed so that it loads more quickly but when you couple this with ultra fast hosting, well its like your turbo-charging your company’s website – Kevin Jones  web design manager

 

That’s to say the coding, the Javascript, the HTML and the CSS will all load much faster if the hosting is fast, but combined to that, you should pick a Cardiff web designer that knows how to build a fast website.

 

And will this effect the design of the website?

Well, yes, that’s because a page that’s AMP normally looks very basic, as its not intended to look super impressive, the main focus is on speed.

So, think formula one, the company’s that build formula one cars are concentrating on speed, plus reducing weight, well the same concept can be applied to building an AMP website.

The website is built for speed, so the website developer and website designer will get rid of elements that mean it will take ages for the website to load.

For example, if the homepage has too much text, then the web designer may recommend design changes are made to speed the company’s website up.

So, for example, you know we mentioned earlier about an auto loading video on the homepage, well, this is a good example of what can slow a businesses website down and cause a high bounce rate, so if the website developers were to build a HTML AMP version of the homepage, they would remove this element.

Faster websites

So in a nutshell, what does AMP offer?

Well, that’s a really easy one for us to answer, AMP if implemented correctly by a website design company can help to speed up your website.

This can mean that a shopper may stay on your e-commerce website for longer- and why is that?

Well, lets say a shopper in Cardiff, South Wales is looking to purchase a used car online, and that shopper is happy to travel anywhere in the U.K for that brand of car.

Now, one website has thousands of cars that are for sale, but the website is slow on the smartphone that the shopper is using, so they leave that website, and so do many other shoppers, which means that the business obtains a high bounce rate.

However, business number two, well that company has hired a web design agency here in Cardiff in order to build an ultra fast website, that’s to say every bit of HTML and the CSS has been designed so that the website is fast, and this means that shoppers on average spend longer browsing all the various cars that are for sale.

This means that when the business compares key stats, such as time spent on site, bounce rate and number of organic visitors, the website has a stronger website, so the SEO improves, so now you can see why its so important to have a CMS website that is fast.

Lower bounce rate

One of the other main benefits of owning an AMP website, is that AMP could lower a company’s bounce rate.

And how could it do that?

Well, let’s say you sell running trainers, and your website loads quickly, then the person may buy from you rather than another business, where the other businesses website was taking too long to load onto the smartphone. So just as we mentioned in the example of used cars, its important to lower your company’s bounce rate.

A business here in Cardiff may lower there bounce rate in many different ways, for example hiring a web designer to do split testing or A/B testing, that’s to make gradual design improvements, such as re-designing the main menu, this is so the main menu is improved, the company and the web designers may then use A/B testing to see if the design improvements have resulted in more sales, plus lowering the bounce rate or not?

So that person who’s on the train looking to purchase a new pair of running trainers, well, they are most likely going to want to use a website that’s fast, and one way a business can obtain a fast website is to use AMP.

Why you will often need a website developer

Some companies may think that AMP can be switched on, that’s by merely altering a setting in the CMS settings, however often AMP needs a lot more work.

That’s to say often a web developer is required.

Light Weight Web Pages

The whole point of AMP is to make a light weight page, so this means that an AMP website may look very basic, yet the main purpose is to make the website load more quickly.

AMP HTML

Why should my business invest in an AMP website?

“40% of people abandon a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load”

If a company wants to decrease its bounce rate then it may use AMP as one of the methods to try and reduce the businesses bounce rate.

How our web design agency can help:

Do you run a business here in Cardiff? Well, if your business requires a new WordPress website, or help with your company’s seo, then why not call us?

 

Should my business be using “lazy-loading” on our website?

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Introduction

If you were to ask many digital marketing agency how SEO has changed in recent years, and what area’s a business should improve if they are to improve the company’s SEO, well they are bound to say one word, and that is “speed”.

And why would they say speed?

Well, that’s with good reason, whether it be Google’s Accelerated Mobile pages, or AMP for short, or be it how fast the mobile version of your website loads, speed is now very important.

Which may well be the precise reason why your reading this article, that’s to say you may well have heard about “lazy-loading”– and wondered whether you should add lazy loading to your WordPress website?

Well, to give you a bit more of an idea about what lazy loading is, and how it may help your business, we thought we would write this rather helpful article for you.

Page speed

Did you know that if your website takes over 3 seconds to load, that 40% of people will then abandon that website?

Well, you do now.

So this is why the speed of your WordPress website is super important, as most people simply do not have the time to wait if a company’s website takes too long to load.

So this is why web developers, and website designers should work really hard to ensure that they build a brilliant website, but its simply not enough now to just focus on design, instead you must think of what many SEO’s call the “user experience”- meaning how can you make your website easier to use.

For example, does the main menu work easily?

Does the shopping cart allow you to purchase items easily?

Does your website load quickly on smartphones?

Here’s another really interesting fact, a mere 1 second delay in a pages response can reduce the conversion rate by 7%.

So its really important that you get your website running fast, and one way to do that is to use lazy loading. But, before we go any further its worth mentioning this, that is, if your thinking about adding lazy loading to your website, do get a website developer to do this for you, as if its not done properly and if GoogleBot cannot crawl and index the website, then your seo could be impacted.

For example, sometimes if lazy loading is not installed correctly, a glitch may develop where not all of the page loads, which means that only the top paragraph may load for each page, which means that GoogleBot may only crawl and index that page, with just the one paragraph of text, which means that the page may well be deemed “content thin” which simply means your seo could be impacted, so do consult with an expert.

So, what does “lazy loading” actually mean?

Lazy loading is simply when elements of a page aren’t loaded until they are needed. So in other words, let’s say you have a website that sells shoes, and you sell many different types of shoes, yet not all of the page will load.

So this means say only 10 pairs of shoes will load, then the other say 50 pairs of shoes, well they will not start loading until the user scrolls down to reveal them.

And what’s the main benefit of this?

Well, it can speed up the website, that is so the reader is not left staring at a blank page that’s taking too long to load.

Faster websites

So this does mean that your website could be faster, which means that your websites bounce rate could possibly decrease.

And what does bounce rate mean?

Well, your web developer and your SEO agency should be working to reduce your businesses bounce rate.

The businesses bounce rate is simply the percentage of visitors to your website that have left whilst only visiting one page.

So for example, lets say you sell candles, yet the home page doesn’t actually sell any candles, yet you find that 90% of all organic visitors to your website come through the homepage, yet the homepage has a 80% bounce rate, meaning that for some reason all those visitors are not going to a page that sells your candles, so it’s the web design agencies job to try and reduce this.

For example, your web design company may offer A/B testing, sometimes called split testing, that’s to try and see if they were to make a change, then see if this helps to increase sales?

More responsive

With lazy loading your website could become more responsive, and what do we mean by that?

Well, lets say you are looking to purchase new pair of running trainers, and this website sells over 1000 pairs of running trainers, instead of a shopper having to use a website that’s slow to load all of the products, as soon as the shopper scrolls down the page, instantly the next set of running trainers are there, making the website more responsive.

May not work correctly

Here’s a super important thing to remember, make sure that if your business does implement lazy loading that its done right. Hire a web developer that has experience of implementing lazy loading for other businesses, as if glitches do occur, then this could impact your businesses seo.

How our business can help:

If your business requires a new website, then why not ring us?

What does lazy loading mean?

Our web design agency explains what lazy loading means, and how it can be used to improve your businesses seo

Our business requires a new website- what information will your web design company need in order to build the website?

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Introduction

You may well be setting up a new business right here within Cardiff, or you may have been running your company for a very long time now.

Yet, now you have decided that your business requires a new WordPress website, but you do not want the website design process to be dragging on for months, so you may ask your web design agency what information that they will need so they can start the web design process.

So, in order to help you, we have listed below the details that you will need in order to help our website designers build your new WordPress website:

How many pages do you need?

Okay, so this may sound a really simple question to ask, that is how many pages does your website need? Yet when you think about it, in matter of fact it does need a bit of thought.

And why does it need a bit of thought?

Well, sometimes some businesses think, well they will only need say 10 pages for their website, yet then notice later on that they have completely missed out a service that they offer on their website, and now need a page added.

Or alternatively, a business may find out at a later date, that because one of their main services has only been mentioned on one section of the website, and that service hasn’t got its own page, that the SEO will be much harder to do.

And what do we mean by this?

Well, lets say for example that you run a fencing business, and you say to the website designer in Cardiff, we only want a simple website, we just want all the fencing services, they are wooden fencing, decking and artificial grass all listed on one page, the homepage, we do not want a WordPress website that has many pages.

Well, you may then hire an SEO agency, and one of the first things that they might tell you is its far better to have each service, such as decking, fencing and artificial grass all on their own page.

So, yes in some cases this means that the business may need a complete website redesign.

So this is why its always worth planning all the pages that your business needs before you hire a website designer.

And this could be something as simple as just writing the menu down on a piece of paper, then showing which services you want mentioned in the menu, and how many drop down boxes there should be, and what those services should be.

So for example, for wooden fencing, you may want “wooden fencing” to be written in the main menu, then have a drop down box for “hardwood fencing” and “feather edge fencing” for example.

What do you want your website to do?

Do you want your website to sell products, if so, do you have pictures of all the products to send to your website designer?

What CMS do you want?

Does your business want a WordPress website or a different CMS?

Who’s writing the text?

Who will be writing the text for your website?

If your business is writing the text, how will the text be laid out on the page?