Hi WHT,

I have read some comments about some webhosts that use a website template with flash and such for their webhosting companies. I used to have a very plain html/css website and I jumped on the flash template bandwagon about a year ago and I am beginning to realize that my site looks pretty unremarkable.

I am putting together some ideas on a complete overhaul of my website and I would like to solicit some thoughts and suggestions from the more experienced webhosts as to what they feel is important in their website design. I plan on doing another html/css site since I am not proficient in PHP.

What I am mostly concerned about is that my site won't look Hi Tech. In other words I was planning on doing something without a lot of graphics and Hi Tech stock photography pictures and no cartoon like characters.

Any suggestions or thoughts would be much appreciated.

I'd stick to professional over "hi tech" any day.

The most important elements are:
1) Professional look
2) Dynamic & fresh Content
3) Easy navigation
4) Site depth
5) Order link should never be too far away - if the user has to click moe than twice to get to an order link you may lose them.
6) The same goes with contact options. If you have a web based form for submitting sales questions it should never be more than one click away.


Simon

Honestly I think there are many hosts these days using templates loaded with flash as their websites. If you make a nice "web 2.0 style" CSS, XHTML design then you will be ahead of the game.

Learn how to harness the benefits of using CSS. CSS can make very advanced, professional sites, as well as simple sites. :)

Good luck.

From my viewpoint, if you are going to use a template, you might as well throw your business out the window :). Using a template looks lazy and also reflects poorly on other parts of your business.

We spent a bit of money to have our site professionally designed and coded (PHP) - http://www.unsitesolutions.com . Overall, it was well worth it.

If you need any work done, Nick from ItybitySolutions (http://www.itybity.com/ ) is highly recommended.

From my viewpoint, if you are going to use a template, you might as well throw your business out the window :). Using a template looks lazy and also reflects poorly on other parts of your business. We spent a bit of money to have our site professionally designed and coded (PHP)...

I would disagree to this. Quite a few of our customers don't have the budget to hire a designer, so we recommend templates. Especially with new businesses, establishing a professional online business presense quickly and easily is all that matters. A good web template does this effectively.

:peace:

I would generally agree with icestorm, especially for a new person, someone without a budget for a designer or someone not very experienced, but I thought he said he was going to build it himself? Maybe I misunderstood. Anyway, I feel a professional site always goes farther than a "high tech" or something to flashy. Template or build it yourself.

I would generally agree with icestorm, especially for a new person, someone without a budget for a designer or someone not very experienced, but I thought he said he was going to build it himself? Maybe I misunderstood.

I have a budget but it is rather small right now. I am not terribly experienced but I am going to attempt to do it myself. We'll see how it turns out. I had built my previous website from scratch. And it was not bad if I do say so myself but it looked very plain and not very Hi Tech to me so I replaced it with the template I have now.

Thanks!

Flash is pretty good but its not good for our Dial-Up users.

Honestly I think there are many hosts these days using templates loaded with flash as their websites. If you make a nice "web 2.0 style" CSS, XHTML design then you will be ahead of the game.

Learn how to harness the benefits of using CSS. CSS can make very advanced, professional sites, as well as simple sites. :)

Good luck.

Agreed. :peace: And there are many great examples.

A web-host's site design and impression about it will have some impact on potential customers, but the site doesn't necessary have to contain flash to fascinate customers. Personally, I like to see flash, but I hate when I have to wait the flash to be loaded.

Also, I just have to mention a funny situation: my PC speakers are almost always turned off. Since I'm frequently making a VoIP-calls (obviously during the call sessions speakers are turned on) and at the same time like very much multi-tab and multi-windows browsing, several times has happened that flash intros have scared me to death :uzi: (cause I forgot to turn the speakers off after the calls).

Visit http://csszengarden.com/ you won't find flash or PHP in there. Just HTML, CSS, and lots and lots of talent. I found the book version indispensable. Good luck. Remember, it's not the violin, it's the violin player.