When you’re shopping around for a company to handle your web development, you need to make certain that the company understands your plans for the site in the future, as well as what you need done now. The reason for this is, quite simply, that your website needs to be able to accommodate the future growth you anticipate your company to go through. If it cannot, you’re going to find yourself paying to have the same services done repeatedly. Here are some things to discuss with the firm handling your web development.

Templates

Consistency is one of the most important parts of good web design. One of the things that will really throw users off is if they are browsing through sites and, without warning, the pages suddenly look different. This is common in sites that are built in stages. The first stage of the site may use a particular page design for the interior content pages and, when additional content is added, an entirely other designs may be employed. This is a bad thing.

The company handling the web design for any business should be able to provide that business with consistent branding across the various pages within their site. The look of your webpage will be an important part of your overall branding effort. When you lock onto a good design, you want to make certain that it is used consistently, so that your users get the sense that you are very organized, precise in what you do and attentive to detail.

Templates are among the most common solutions used for this problem. A template allows the web designers to insert content into a page and, save for that content, the page is consistent with the other pages of its type on the site. Any company that handles web development should be able to provide you with templates or, at least, use them to design your site.

Content Management

Companies that handle web design should be able to tell you about your options for content management tools. These include some names you may have heard before, such as:

• WordPress
• Joomla
• Drupal

These are all platforms that allow users to update their own websites easily. You will generally see them employed on the blog sections of the website, where the website owner themselves is likely to add content including articles, images and so forth. Having a content management system integrated into your website makes it easier for you to expand your website as you have more content to offer and as your site grows in general.

Technology

A good web development firm should be able to guarantee that they are using the latest technology to build your site and that whatever they are using is compliant with World Wide Web Consortium standards. This ensures that you won’t have trouble with the code in the future when you want to expand the site, add new features and so forth.

If you address the potential for growth from the start, you’ll find that it is an enjoyable process in the future, rather than an occasion for stress.

Article provided by Division [1] Web Design, an Edmonton web design, software application and web development company. Like us on Facebook