Web Designer = Graphic Designer?
May 16, 2006 by Russ Cuthrell

When you think business website designs, do you picture a talented artistic person working hard to create a work of art using expensive graphic design software? If so, you’re not entirely wrong – just 99% wrong.

Most business owners think of “web designers” as “graphic designers”. This is unfortunate because it lowers their expectations about what to expect from their business website. Fact is a business owner needs a web designer for their online business presence far more than they need a “pretty face” for their business online. To compare, it’s similar to needing an architect to build your office building far more than a painter to make it look good.

Every aspect of your business is important but some are simply more important. Using the office building example, a business owner would not construct his business out of cardboard and then just slap some paint on the outside so it looked good from the street. The first customer that entered the office would immediately notice the lack of depth in the business and leave as quickly as possible.

It’s the same concept when building an online business presence. There is no doubt that your online business needs to look great. If it doesn’t look professional, customers are going to be hesitant to do business with you. With that in mind, your website should be solid in design and have depth if you want potential customers to visit, look around, purchase your product or service, and return for a repeat purchase in the future.

So what should you look for when you are selecting a “web designer”? It means don’t look at how pretty their portfolio looks as your main criteria for selecting them – again, you’re not looking for a graphic designer. Here are a few skills that a “web designer” should be able to bring to an effective online business website and you should consider when hiring a web designer:

• Web design and development – ability to design e-commerce solutions, content management systems, user registration systems, and sound web site designs.
• Web hosting services – either providing hosting services to you or assisting you with setting up your hosting with a reputable hosting provider.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – keyword and key phrase selection, keyword density, meta tag generation.
• Graphics creation – (Here is where you may want to use a Graphic Designer!) ensure graphics are optimized for the web.
• Database creation – product databases.
• Web content – content includes streaming video and audio, flash animations.
• Web maintenance – updating content, tweaking website for SEO.
• Internet marketing and promotion – Pay-per-click/ Google AdWord Campaigns, Paid Inclusion, and Search Engine Submission.

Make sure your designer is coming from a systems engineering or programming design perspective, not just a graphic design perspective, and you'll have a business website that not only looks good, but also works tirelessly for you and performs exceptionally well in search engines and helps with increasing your profits.