How to pick the right
Indianapolis, Indiana web design firm
by HardworX, LLC

Picking the right web design firm in Indianapolis is not an easy task. Any person can proclaim himself or herself to be a “web designer” or “web master” with little or no training. No governing body or licensing agency exists that assigns this title. You could wake up tomorrow and declare yourself a “web designer”. The best way to determine what makes a true web designer or web design company is to investigate their website. Sure, looking over their portfolio of past work may help, but no other guide post will help more than inspecting their website. The design firms website should embody these basic ideas:

1. Communicate the idea
2. Navigation is very important
3. Don’t be overly artsy or flashy
4. Simplicity

The web design firm should convey that web design is not about art, it's about communicating your ideas to make money. Let’s be honest, you are not going to pay money for a web design firm to make a confusing, artsy web site. While you still want the site to look appealing, it should first communicate your ideas and be easy to use.

Stay away from companies that have overly flashy websites. These firms usually care more about how the website looks and when you will be sending their check. Also, by over-using artsy design tools such a Flash and Shockwave, it’s possible that you are making your website invisible to search engines like Google.

Steer clear of design firms that use “Splash” or “Intro” pages. These are pages that you see when you first visit a site. Usually an animation or artsy picture is displayed with bits of information and a link at the bottom to skip the page altogether. Such pages are usually pointless and silly, turning off and boring potential customers. Not only that, but it can wreck a sites chances of being listed on major search engines.

Every click on the site is a decision made. If the visitor to your site gets confused, they will go to another site that isn’t confusing. This is especially true of navigation - probably the most important element of a website. The navigation should always be clear and consistent. Someone shouldn’t have to move their mouse over an image to discover where it may take them. The best type of navigation is simple text links that appear in the same place on each page.

“Broken Links”, or links that go to a page that no longer exists, is a good indicator of a bad company. Look out for these when exploring a web design firm’s site. If any of these are found it’s a good sign that the company doesn’t maintain it’s website - so it probably won’t be able to maintain yours.

Check to see that the company provides hosting or has a close relationship with a hosting company. This will result in fewer headaches for you, especially if you don’t want to get carried away with the technical side of your website. A good design company will work with you to find out what your needs are, then use the right hosting for your site. If a problem should arise down the road then the design company and hosting company will be able to quickly and easily respond to the problem.

Check to see what e-mail address the web design firm uses. Look on their site for an e-mail address. If their website’s address is www.somecompany.com make sure the email address matches, like info@somecompany.com. A true sign of an amateur company doing business on the Internet is when they use an e-mail address like, somecompany@aol.com or somecompany@msn.com.

Make sure the web design company picks up the phone. Just because they have a nice website and respond to your e-mails, doesn’t mean they are a real company. Make sure they display a phone number that can be easily found on their site. Pick up your phone and give them a call; if they don’t answer, then you probably shouldn’t give them your business. A simple call 5 minute can make quite a difference.

There are many businesses around Indianapolis that offer web design, but very few have web sites that display the basic rule of designing a web site for a business. Following this advice will start you on the right track to finding a web design firm that will work in your businesses best interest.

Frequently asked web design questions.

Q: What is web design?
A: Web design is the act of creating a website

Q: What is navigation?
A: Navigation is what allows you to from page to page on a website.

Q: What is hosting or web hosting?
A: Hosting is how your site will be made available on the web. If your site is loaded onto another computer or server, then that computer is hosting your website.