Trojan Soul SEO Essex and Web Design Essex Blog

How do I know who's a good designer and who's bad?

There are a number of things you can look for when choosing the right person/company to create your website. And we're not just talking about the look of your website, we're talking about code.

I know nothing about code, which is why I'm getting someone else to build my site!

And quite right too, but you don't nescessarily need to know the ins and outs of code, you just need to know what to look for in the code generated by website designers.

OK, so what do I look for?

First things first, on your browser, go to VIEW/PAGE SOURCE if you're using Firefox or VIEW/SOURCE if you're using Internet Explorer.

OK, notepad has popped up with a whole bunch of stuff I don't understand, what now?

OK, now you're just looking for certain parts of the code. Partss that will tell you exactly what the designers have done to get your website looking the way it is.

From this, you can tell just how much time has been spent on a website. Giving you a good idea which designers are banging out quick websites and which designers are taking care in their design.

When looking at the source of the page, you should be looking for groups of code. First things first, look for these:

Frames:

If you see FRAMESET in your source, then this website is built inside frames. This immediately smells of inexperience. Frames were OK in the 90's, but are extremely rarely used in todays design. Why? Well, because there really is no need for them, browsers are not keen on them, screen readers simply hate them.

Tables:

Alot of websites still use tables. There is actually a website design company that produces hundreds of these. Pretty much all of the websites that this company creates uses tables, well, from our research anyway. Which, we can't help but a) laugh about and b) feel sympathy for the client as they really are getting a rough deal on their website.

Why are tables so bad?

Well, back in the day before CSS, tables were all the rage. Why? Well, because that was simply the only way to design web pages. These days however, with CSS and web standards, things have improved considerably.

A website built with tables will not comply with web standards because screen readers find them almost impossible to read and search engines, including your friend and mine Google simply hate them and unless your website is monsterous, will choose a website with clean web standards code over your website every day of the week.

Again, tables show inexperience. They show a designer who has refused to move on with their design knowledge, refused to adhere to any rules and more importantly refused to provide their client with a good clean website.

Now don't get us wrong, we love tables here. We always have and probably always will. They're easy to create and do what you tell them to do. But, unfortunately, times move on and you have to go with the flow and adhere to the latest ways of working. The new way of working is more time consuming, which of course isn't great for business, but it's great for the client, and let's face it, the customer is always right, right?

These days, a website made with tables is almost certainly created by initially getting the clients approved image, using a piece of software to slice up that image and then thrown together in a slap dash way.

A website made with tables is quick, quite often nasty and is done in half the time a real website should take, quite often less time. It's great for the company as they can still charge the same but put very little effort in.

That's not to say a website cannot use tables at all. Tables are still often used for forms on most websites. This is because they work better with forms and because they're only a small part of the website they're acceptable, but a website that uses nothing but tables is a poor website created by inexperienced people who simply refuse to move on and are stuck in the stone age.

So what is the right way to build a website?

The right way to create a website these days is with XHTML and CSS.

When you look at the source code for most websites (most GOOD websites), you'll see something like this:

Divs and CSS

If you see this code in the website source code, and you like their designs, then you've just found a candidate to build your website.

Using DIV's and CSS classes is the way things are in design these days. This form of design is loved by everybody ... Web Standards, Search Engines, Screen Readers... Everyone.

Designers and design companies that use XHTML and CSS are designers that care. Care that the client is getting a good website and not just some 5 minute hack job. Which is the way it should be. It's these designers that if I were looking for a website, then I'd insist on having a website with this code.

A couple of very good tools to use to see if your website is well written, is to use the W3 validation services. This service will tell you which sites are well written and will show you if there are any errors on the website. The more errors of course the worse the designer and of course the less they care. Click on the links below, type in the name of a website and you'll see the results:

Website Validator - See if a website has errors

CSS Validator - See if the CSS on a website has any errors

We hope this gives you a good insight into how a website should be created and helps you avoid all the Mickey Mouse designers and companies out there.

Happy website hunting

TSD