As somebody who visits thousands of websites a month, I can always identify which ones were created by a professional web designer. There are so many important little details that go into building a website that an amateur just doesn’t have the experience necessary to realize what they are missing. Even for websites built on platforms like Squarespace or WIX, a professional web designer can make all the difference to your site.
A Professional Web Designer Will Ensure Your Site Works Everywhere
The biggest difference a professional web designer can make is ensuring that your website works seamlessly across all devices. The problem with amateur designers or building a website yourself is that you build the website perfectly to your devices, operating system, and preferred browser. The reality is that there are so many different device screen sizes nowadays that building a website specifically for your device is going to create problems with other devices.
How Does A Professional Web Designer Ensure Compatibility With All Devices?
There’s a term called viewport and this is important for ensuring that your site works across all devices. The most common mistake is that most amateurs use pixels instead of dimensions related to the viewport. However, the viewport isn’t the magic key to make sure your website looks how you want on every device. Sometimes it’s necessary to use pixels to get the design you want.
Fun fact: designing a website that works on all devices really is just a bunch of math you have to do. If you want a section of your website to take up the entire size of your screen you would set it to 100vh which means 100% of the screen. However, you might have to account for the size of your header. If your header is 10vh then your section will need to be 90vh. If your header was 50px then you have to set your section to 100vh and subtract -50px from the upper margin.
Testing All Devices, Browsers, and Operating Systems
A professional web designer typically utilizes a variety of testing methods across multiple devices, operating systems, and browser types to ensure that the site is how they want it to look. In my case, I am fortunate to have a collection of physical devices like a mac, pc, android, iPhone, and tablets to test my websites on. This gives me a pretty solid perspective of how an everyday user will interact with a site. Additionally, I utilize the dev tools available in most browsers to test devices I might not have access to.
A Professional Web Designer Never Forgets Favicons or Meta Descriptions
This is how I can tell within seconds if a site was built by a professional web designer or not. These are minor details that often get forgotten but have an impact on your site’s professional appearance.
Favicons
Favicons are icons that appear in the tab of your browser while you are visiting a site. Generally, they tend to be the business’s logo but that’s not always the case. Almost every website that I see built by an amateur tends to have the default favicon provided by the platform the site was built on. (WordPress, WIX, Shopify, Squarespace, etc)
Meta Descriptions
You could debate that meta descriptions are more related to search engine optimization than web design but a professional web designer should understand SEO when building a site for a client. Meta descriptions are the text that appears in a search on any engine describing what the page is. Personalizing a meta description to the page’s content is important for getting more clicks to your website.
The Balance Between Design and Functionality
SEO (search engine optimization) and UX (user experience) are the two major components that a professional web designer has to keep in mind when designing a website. Solely focusing on a how website looks will most likely have a negative impact on SEO and UX. You want a site that can be easily navigable and found by people searching on the web while still looking aesthetically pleasing.
Building a website that has no text or copy will significantly reduce your chances of ranking organically on the web. There’s no place better to hide a dead body than the second page of Google so SEO is critical to make sure your website is found on the first page. As beautiful as media-only sites look, they have no content to help them rank organically.
Additionally, a website that looks beautiful but doesn’t have pathways and links that are easily identifiable will cause users to leave a site quicker faster than you can say, “Why?” The sad reality of websites is that most users spend very little time on them. This is why it’s important to create a user experience that keeps a visitor engaged on your site for as long as possible.
A Professional Web Designer Will Tell You About Legal Necessities Regarding Your Website
A professional web designer will most likely set up cookies on your website to track how users interact with it. Additionally, almost every website has a contact form that collects personal information on it. If you have a store built into your site then you are also collecting payment. There is most likely a legal requirement to have at least a privacy policy on your website. You will also most likely need a cookie policy as well as a terms of use disclaimer.
Every state is a little different with what’s a legal requirement to include in these disclaimers and I’m not a lawyer to tell you what’s best. That’s why I utilize Termageddon for my clients. They make setting up these disclaimers simple and they stay up to date as laws change.
Need A Professional Web Designer For Your Website?
After reading this blog you might be saying, “Well now I know all these things. Let me go build a website myself!” If that’s the case then I recommend you read my blog 2 Little-Known Issues When You Make Your Own Website.
For those who are starting to realize that there’s a lot that goes into a website and wants to make sure it’s all done properly. DOS-M can help provide peace of mind by building you a customized website. With over 5 years of experience as a professional web designer, I can help your vision comes to life. Set up a discovery call with me or get in touch anytime!
