Leave it to the Professionals
Just about everyone knows of someone that can put up a web page. Let's face it, it's not that hard to use a WYSIWYG editor such as Adobe Dreamweaver or NVU to create an HTML page.
More often than not, when discussing the intricately intriguing topic of web design with potential clients, I hear, "Oh yeah, so-and-so's cousin's friend does web design." Egypt "My sister's a lawyer and she created her own website." Of course, DIY (or Do-It-Yourself) is a very popular choice because people think that they're saving money when in all actuality it cost more given the fact that those 'do-it-yourselfers' do not know how to design a website for people and search engines.
I understand the DIY mentality especially when it comes to HOME improvement projects. However, do not suppose for one minute that if I was going to court and needed legal counsel that I would attempt to represent myself. Same concept right? Leave it to the professionals. That means web design too!
Designing for people
On average, when someone clicks on a link to visit your website, they will spend at most, 30 seconds on your site before clicking the back button to return to where they were coming from. This happens all to often without the website gives them something that truly catches their attention.
Website graphics and images solve this problem when they give the website visitors a visually appealing site to look at. Although, have you ever been on a website where the graphics took forever to load? This especially happened during the 'golden age' of dial-up internet. Website graphics and images should still be small so that they will load faster. They are a few out there that are still using dial-up, if you can believe it or not! This is just one example of how a professional web designer designs for people.
Designing for Search Engines
Having a search engine friendly website is crucial to any successful online marketing campaign. Search Engines do not see the graphics of the website. If there text within the images as opposed to raw HTML text then the Search Engines will not be able to read the text. The Alt tag. The Alt tag is a way for search engines to know what the image is about. An Alt tag is a small phrase or keyword about the image. This is just one example of how a professional web designer designs for search engines.
