Rates and Estimates

Published on March 6, 2010 in cost of a website. 0 Comments
Rates and Estimates DeafVision Web Hosting

Our Rates

Our rates are as follows:

$75 per hour for Web Design / HTML Programming
$75 per hour for WAP Development
$150 per hour for Custom Programming (Perl, CGI, Javascript, PHP)
$150 per hour for Flash Animation
$175 per hour for Database Development (MySQL)
$50 per hour for Content Development and Editing
$50 per hour for On-going Website Maintenance

How much will it cost to design my website?

It all depends on what your needs are. The cost can be anywhere from $1,000 to start to $25,000+.

Every website is unique. How much a website will cost to develop will depend largely on a number of factors and desired features.

For instance, how much custom programming will your website need in order to come to life the way you envision? Will the site need e-commerce features like a shopping cart? Will the site need a database? Will the site need Real Audio / Video capabilities? Is Flash animation a desired feature? What kind of budget do you have for on-going website maintenance? These are just some of the things to consider.

Ballpark.. a simple, beautifully designed nonprofit website consisting of between 5 to 7 pages would probably average out to between $2,500 to $3,500. A professional e-commerce business site, complete with state-of-the-art shopping cart system, would cost between $5,500 and $7,000. These are rough estimates.

The cost for your own website may be less or more, depending on your needs and desired features.

Unlike most web design companies today, we do not believe in churning out cookie cutter websites. We work closely with our customers to ensure their website design matches their vision and target market. Our designs are fresh and unique, just like each and every one our customers.

When choosing a web designer, keep in mind that the website they design for you will reflect your company or organization. What kind of message do you want your website to convey? An amateurish website, for example, can reflect poorly on your business or organization, making it seem unprofessional.

While the cost for website development may initially seem expensive – it is actually one of the best, most inexpensive long-term investments you can make today. Your website will be working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round including holidays.

Web Design Rates

Published on March 6, 2010 in cost of a website. 0 Comments

Web Design Rates

Unlike most other Web design companies, we allow freedom of choice. We are honest and upfront about our pricing structure. Nothing you don’t want or need is forced upon you. You’ll have a clear understanding of the cost before the project begins and no surprises when you receive the final invoice. And…once we receive final payment, you will have a website that will pay for itself in a short amount of time.

We’ve provided some basic price ranges for our most common requests below.

Web Design Pricing

The cost for a website can vary greatly depending on the requirements and scope of the project. Some websites are informational sales tools while others need e-commerce and custom online software functionality.

We provide Affordable, Complete Web Design, Programming, Blog Software, Copywriting and more… Especially For Small Businesses

Corporate Brochure Website Pricing

Our most popular service is our high end, custom design. We create new custom websites and also redesign existing web sites. A typical “Corporate Brochure Website” consists of 5-10 web pages such as Home, About, Services, Producs, Company, Team, Mission, etc. Every company is different – but those are some samples.

We call these corporate brochure websites, because they are just like a brochure in some ways as they describe your company and services. The only difference is you are not limited by the number or printed pages as the content is online.

A typical Corporate Brochure website ranges from $2500-$5000 plus, depending on the number of pages you require, custom functionality and focus on creative. Custom designed websites include project discovery, custom design, revisions to your design, xhtml/css coding building your web pages, inserting your content and launching your new website.

Should you need custom functionality or other advertising services we are glad to offer pricing. We also offer the ability to manage the website yourself with a content management system (CMS), e-commerce to add and sell products, contact forms, flash, search engine optimization and web marketing.

E-commerce Solutions Pricing

We provide a several e-commerce solutions that will allow you to get your products online quickly and easily. You can add products, adjust pricing, upload images and control other features on your own without any html knowledge needed. These solutions are affordable to get you started. We have custom solutions and off the shelf solutions. These shopping carts range from $1500 to $6500 plus depending on the functional requirements needed for your organization.

For the advanced e-commerce online retail store, we provide custom e-commerce solutions as well as SEO search engine optimization features. These custom e-store solutions have a multitude of features.

We have many e-commerce add-ons to customize your shopping cart perfect to your store. We also offer simple template solutions or high end custom designed shopping carts.

Corporate Blog Pricing

We offer a simple blogging solutions with WordPress configurations and installs for $350. For more advanced custom blogging solutions that take on the look and feel of your website with custom configuring – we start right around $1500.

Custom Programming – Online Software Pricing

Custom programmed website with advanced online software and e-commerce functionality start right around have many variables that determine pricing. Please contact us so we can understand the exact functionality of your web project.

Professional Website = ROI (Return on Investment)

We consider a website an investment. If you have an office or retail shop – the cost of a website is very insignificant considering the return on investment. One lead and sale for many organizations can pay for the entire web investment.

What defines a Web page?

A Web site consists of many different Web pages. Every Web site has a home page (often called the index page). The rest of the site is made up of inner pages. Some examples of common inner pages are:

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Testimonials
  • Articles
  • Products
  • Portfolio
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use or Disclaimer
  • FAQ’s
  • Order
  • Resources
  • Rates

Hourly Charges for Web Design and Custom Programming

Creating customized layout and graphics is a process that involves a high amount of artistic ability and creativity. The amount of time that it takes to design a new project can vary greatly depending on the knowledge the designer has about your industry, available resources, and even the creative mood of the designer.

Most Web Designers have different methods for charging for Web design services. Some charge hourly, others by packages and others bid according to your budget. Mount Evans Designs charges by the project for most projects because:

  • It takes the guess work out of the final cost of the project – there are no surprises when you receive the final invoice.
  • You pay a predefined amount regardless of the time the designer spends on the project.

Should you have a smaller project or need additional work after the completion of your project, we bill at our hourly web design rate of $110.

What’s included in our Web Design

Complete customized design and layout of your Web site

Includes preconsulation, creative briefing and custom web design and revisions by our expert staff. We guarantee you will be thrilled with the final product as we take the time in advance to understand your needs.. (A final approval is required before we begin to add content to the pages).

Custom Coding to xhtml/css

  • W3C strict 1.0 valid coding
  • Valid CSS coding
  • Home and Sub page template layouts
  • Custom dynamic navigations with css hovers, etc.

Addition of company logo and any pictures that you provide.

Cross-browser compatibility.

Your Web site will display and function properly in in most web browsers including:

  • Internet Explorer
  • Firefox
  • Netscape Navigator
  • Opera

Upload of the completed Web site to the Web.

Other costs you may incur

Domain Name: Cost usually runs around $39.95/year. We provide domain maintenance packages as well to ensure your domain is renewed at the right time so you don’t lose it to a domain snatcher.

Your domain name is the address of your Web site. For example, http://www.mountevansdesigns.com is a domain name.

Hosting/Servers: Cost begins at $39.95/mo – $100+(approximate – depending on your hosting needs). hosting includes emails for your team, web statistics to track visitors and many other important functions.

Hosting is your website’s home on the Internet that you buy or rent as a place for your Web site and domain name to reside.

Photos: Cost varies based on where it is obtained. Most photos we acquire for you run between $15-$30 for web and a little bit more for high resolution pertaining to print.

Photos liven up the site and give visual meaning to the words. We carry a wide variety of royalty-free photos, however, if you require photos that are not in our collection, then you will be required to purchase these photos seperately.

Web Site Maintenance: Cost is $110 US/hour

Need to update the content on your site? Want your latest photo added? Let us do it for you. We don’t require any contracts and we don’t require a one-hour minimum. You are billed in real time, so if it only takes us 15 minutes to make your changes, you are only charged for 15 minutes of time.

We can:

  • Add, remove or change text
  • Add articles, reports, ebooks or links to existing pages
  • Add logos, photographs, or images

Maintenance services apply to changes to your existing design. Maintenance does not apply to redesigning an entire page or site.

How Much Should a Web Design Cost?

Published on March 6, 2010 in cost of a website. 0 Comments

Every week, I get emails from potential clients who all want to know one thing: How much for a design?

Nine times out of ten, my answer causes them to run for the hills. Scary thing is, based on industry buzz, my prices could actually be considered totally reasonable by comparison. Don’t believe me? Well, today you get the whole scoop—my prices, their prices, and my always-priceless editorial commentary on the subject :-)

My Prices

For the sake of argument, I’m going to constrain today’s post to blog design only.

When people email me and ask for a quote, I always follow the same process. I visit their current site and determine the following:

  • The current CMS platform (WordPress, MovableType, Drupal, etc.)
  • The scope of the site – how many unique styling elements will be required for specialty pages?
  • The perceived complexity of the re-design. Does this person want a graphical masterpiece with all kinds of bells and whistles?

Generally speaking, there’s not a whole lot of variance in these areas from blog to blog, so after checking out the site in question, I usually have a good idea of how much to charge. Now, to answer the question you all want to hear…How much is all this gonna run ya?

At this time, blog designs start at $1500. This price is for a blog that has minimal graphical complexity, no customized icons, and no logo production. What you do get at this price is rock-solid, hand-crafted, browser-tested CSS, XHTML, and simple (but striking) graphic design.

In most cases, bells and whistles like plugin support, unique page designs, and extra graphics push the price up into the $1800-$2000 range. From there, the price is largely dictated by page-specific CSS/XHTML production and custom graphic design. It’s totally conceivable that a pimped out blog could run as much as $3000. Rest assured, though, that it would be totally badass, and the recipient of the design would receive mad props for having such a killer online abode.

Their Prices

Based on my experience, I have reason to believe that about 90% of you who just saw my prices thought, “Gosh, that’s awfully expensive!”

Well, you’re right, but actually, you’re wrong too.

You’re right because $1800 is a decent chunk of change – for an individual. You’re wrong because companies throw this kind of bread around all the time. They do so because they understand that crafting a brand holds a value that is oftentimes hard to measure in dollars and cents alone. On top of that, companies typically have a monetary objective behind the launch of a new design, so to them, there’s a foreseeable payoff. Individuals, on the other hand, are oftentimes unable to see things in such a positive light. Let’s face it – most people don’t make a sustainable (or even decent) income off of their blog.

Everybody wants a killer design, especially after seeing one that they lust over. Problem is, nobody wants to pay for it.

At this year’s SXSW, I attended a very informative roundtable discussion that focused on – what else? – blog design. Naturally, the hottest topic of discussion was pricing, and the panelists freely gave out information regarding not only their prices, but also some info regarding industry pricing trends.

For instance, The Blog Studio charges $3000-$5000 for a blog design. Some people thought this was quite high, but Peter (who runs TBS) was cool enough to break things down into their individual elements to explain pricing more thoroughly. It’s been nearly three months since SXSW, so I’ll try and rehash things as best I can here. The major elements of blog design include:

  • Graphical comps produced in Photoshop
  • Graphical splicing for optimal CSS/XHTML structure
  • CSS/XHTML production in standards-compliant fashion
  • Unique CSS/XHTML adaptation to CMS platform of choice
  • Bell-and-whistle functionality to meet client requirements

All of the steps highlighted above require a certain degree of expertise to be completed in professional fashion. Unfortunately, people who want designs are oftentimes unfamiliar with the amount of knowledge required to pull all this off in seamless fashion. Sometimes I think people see a design and think it’s all just a matter of applying a “look” to stuff that’s already there. In reality, that’s basically what’s going on. In practice, however, things are intensely more complicated.

And this is why you hire a professional.

Another person on the panel at the SXSW design discussion was the female member of a husband and wife design team. While I don’t remember her name, I certainly remember what she said about blog pricing. $2500 and up, and this “just really begins to cover the actual time investment” required to deliver a complete, robust design.

Want another example? Javier Cabrera, a talented designer who’s responsible for some really great stuff, charges $2500 as a base price.

How’s my $1800 price tag sound now? Looks to me like I need to raise my prices :-)

Watch out for that curveball!

People like surprises. Unfortunately, when those surprises include a hefty price tag, people hate them.

Here’s why professional web designs are the curveballs of the site construction process. Well, hey, let’s look at the process first:

  1. Buy a domain name: $10
  2. Buy a hosting package: $60/yr. with two years prepaid – $120
  3. You set everything up, and then you realize you need a design because your site currently looks like 50,000 others out there. Whoops.

The problem here is that when setting up a new site, newbies often think, “$10 for a domain? Awesome, let’s get started!”

Next, they get hit with the reality of hosting fees, and while they’re a little bummed about having to pre-pay for two years in order to lock in that great price of $5.50/mo., they go ahead and kick down $100-$200 to set up their hosting.

Their tab is already up around $200, and now they’re beginning to wonder if this web stuff is all it’s cracked up to be.

Unfortunately, they get hit with a wicked case of design lust while browsing and getting acquainted with the blogosphere, and now they really want a hot design. “Shouldn’t cost too much, right? After all, look at all those cool designs out there!”

And then BAM! They get slapped with the reality that a wicked design is going to cost them $1500+, and they totally reject the idea, especially since the hosting fees were already a tough pill to swallow.

Talk about your curveballs.

Case study: my clients

My clients all have one thing in common. They have a concrete, business-based reason for hiring me to design them a killer site. Thus far, there have been no exceptions to this rule. All of my clients are doing one of the following:

  • Using their site to sell a product
  • Building a subscription list for marketing purposes
  • Building links and increasing exposure to help with ad/referral conversion

Based on this information, I think it’s fair to conclude that professional designs are really only open to the following people:

  • Those with a plan
  • Those with a lot of money

I never really thought of it this way until this morning, but it’s definitely true. Professional blog designs are a luxury item. Look at it like this: plenty of businesses buy 60″ HD TV’s for their stores and displays, but only individual consumers who have money and really want a big, bad TV would ever actually kick down and buy one.

Were you looking for an economical way to increase visibility of your business and/or services that will prove to be extremely beneficial?

Published on March 1, 2010 in jamalsmith.com Promotional truck. 0 Comments

February 24, 2010

Dear Valued Customer

JamalSmith.com is always looking for ways to include our loyal customers in advertising and promotional activities to grow their business.  With this in mind, we are now offering an awesome and exclusive opportunity to you.

Were you looking for an economical way to increase visibility of your business and/or services that will prove to be extremely beneficial? Then, the jamalsmith.com custom SUV is for YOU!

The jamalsmith.com custom SUV will offer you the ability to reach thousands of people daily and even more throughout the east coast during special events. Our packages are affordable and designed to benefit all budgets.  If you would like to sign up for a package or have questions, e-mail us at promotions@jamalsmith.com or call and speak with a sales representative at 704.298.1122 ext. 2

Let us help you move your business!

WINDOW Package $500
For $500 we will place your logo on the truck in the size of 11×8.5
We will provide 2,500 4×6 promotional flyers
Add the company logo to a plastic giveaway bag
Add the logo to the promotional t-shirt

GRILL Package $1000
For $1000 we will place your logo on the truck in the size of 17×11
We will provide 5,000 4×6 promotional flyers
Add the company logo to a plastic giveaway bag
Add the company logo to the promotional t-shirt

WHEELS package $2000
For $2000 will give you one of 4 doors on the truck specs to be provided.
We will provide 10,000 4×6 promotional flyers
Add the company logo to a plastic bag size will be doubled compared to the smaller packages
Add the company logo to the promotion t-shirt (size will be double compared to the smaller packages)

TENT starts school package
For $3,000 we will give you the back window of the truck
We will provide 15,000 4×6 promotional flyers
Add the company logo to a plastic bag and the logo will be the second largest
Add the company logo to the front of the shirt to be shared with the lj’s goes to jhs package

THE WORKS PACKAGE – starts Jr high school package
For $4,000 we will give you the hood of the truck
We will provide you 20,000 4×6 promotional flyers
Company logo will be the main logo on the giveaway bag
Add the logo to the front of the t-shirt as the main logo
We will also play a 30 second infomercial inside the truck on a 35” – 40” TV

FULL BODY EXPERIENCE PACKAGE – $5000
For $5,000 we will give the entire side of a truck plus the hood
We will also provide you 30,000 4×6 promotional flyers
We will provide you with 500 t-shirts
Your own promotional plastic bag
We will also play a 60 second infomercial inside the truck on a 35” – 40” TV

Top 10 Benefits of Office 2010 Beta

Published on February 28, 2010 in Microsoft Office 2010. 0 Comments
Microsoft® Office 2010 offers rich and powerful new ways to deliver your best work at the office, home, or school. Grab your audience’s attention and inspire them with your ideas visually. Create results with people at the same time and stay connected to your files across the town or around the world.1 With Office 2010, you’re in control of getting things done and delivering amazing results according to your schedule.
1

Express your ideas more visually

Office 2010 opens up a world of design options to help you give life to your ideas. The new and improved picture formatting tools such as color saturation and artistic effects let you transform your document visuals into a work of art. Combined with a wide range of new pre-built Office themes and SmartArt® graphic layouts, Office 2010 gives you more ways to make your ideas stick.
2

Accomplish more when working together

Brainstorm ideas, provide better version control, and meet deadlines faster when you work in groups. The co-authoring experience for Microsoft® Word 2010, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, Microsoft® Excel Web App and Microsoft OneNote shared notebooks let you work on a file with several people at once – even from different locations.2
3

Enjoy the familiar Office experience from more locations and more devices

With Office 2010, you can get things done more easily, from more locations and more devices. Using a smartphone or virtually any computer with an Internet connection, you can work when and where you want to work.3

Microsoft Office Web Apps
Extend your Office 2010 experience to the Web. Store your Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files online and then access, view, edit, and share content through the web.
Microsoft Office Mobile 2010
Stay current and respond quickly using enhanced mobile versions of Office 2010 applications, specifically suited to your Windows Mobile-based smartphone.
4

Create powerful data insights and visuals

Track and highlight important trends with new data analysis and visualization features in Excel 2010. The new Sparklines feature delivers a clear and compact visual representation of your data with small charts within worksheet cells. Filter and segment your PivotTable data in multiple layers using Slicers to spend more time analyzing and less time formatting.
5

Deliver compelling presentations

Captivate your audience with personalized videos in your presentation. Insert and customize videos directly in PowerPoint 2010—trim, add fades and effects, or bookmark key points in the video to call attention to selected scenes. Videos you insert are now embedded by default, relieving you from managing and sending additional video files.
6

Manage large volumes of e-mail with ease

Compress your long e-mail threads into a few conversations that can be categorized, filed, ignored, or cleaned up. The new Quick Steps feature let you perform multi-command tasks, such as reply and delete an e-mail in a single click, saving you time and in-box space.
7

Store and track all your ideas and notes in one place

Get the ultimate digital notebook for tracking, organizing, and sharing your text, picture, video and audio notes with OneNote 2010. New features such as version tracking, automatic highlighting, and Linked Notes give you more control over your notes so you’re always on top of where your ideas came from and the latest changes when working in teams.4
8

Get your message out instantly

Broadcast your PowerPoint presentation to a remote audience, whether or not they have PowerPoint installed.5 The new Broadcast Slide Show feature allows you to share your presentation through a web browser quickly without additional set up.
9

Get things done faster and easier

Microsoft Office Backstage™ view replaces the traditional File menu to give you a centralized space for all of your file management tasks, such as the ability to save, share, print, and publish. The enhanced Ribbon across Office 2010 applications lets you access commands quickly and customize tabs to personalize the experience to your work style.
10

Access work across devices and platforms

Enjoy the freedom of using Office 2010 from more locations on more devices. When you use Microsoft® Office 2010, you’re getting the familiar and intuitive Office experience across PCs, Smartphones, and Web browsers on the go.

Unable to send out email on port 25

Published on February 17, 2010 in Email Issues. 0 Comments

Many large ISPs (Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, etc) block port 25 connections to prevent computers within their network from connecting to servers outside of their networks.

The majority of spam (unsolicited email) on the Internet is caused by malicious software viruses that take control of infected computers. Often times the user never knows their computer has been infected until their account has been suspended. These viruses direct the infected machines to send email through port 25. ISPs takes spam very seriously, and block outgoing connections on port 25 to prevent infected computers from being used by spammers to send unsolicited email. Outbound port 25 blocking is a standard industry method to control spam.

How to Configure Outlook Express to use port 587 for sending email

1. Open your Outlook Express, select the Tools menu and from the drop-down list select Accounts.
2. Next, select the Mail tab then choose your email account and click Properties.
3. After selecting Properties, the Mail Properties window will appear. Select the Advanced tab on the far right portion of the window.
4. From the Advanced tab, review the area underneath Server Port Numbers. In the Outgoing mail (SMTP) field enter the number: 587.
5. Once you are finished, select OK.

How to Configure Outlook to use port 587 for sending email

1. Open your Outlook, select the Tools menu and from the drop-down list select Account Settings.
2. The Account Settings window will open displaying the Email tab. Click to highlight your email account and then select Change.
3. From the Change Email Settings screen, select More Settings from the lower right-hand portion of the window.
4. From the Internet Email Settings window, select the Advanced tab.
5. From the Advanced tab, review the area underneath Server Port Numbers. In the Outgoing server (SMTP) field enter the number: 587.
6. Once you are finished, select OK.

How to Configure Thunderbird to use port 587 for sending email

1. Open Thunderbird, select the Tools menu and from the drop-down list select Account Settings.
2. From the Account Settings window, in the left-hand column, select Outgoing Server (SMTP) and from underneath the Ougoing Server (SMTP) Settings area of the window on the right, select Edit….
3. In the SMTP Server window, enter 587 in the Port: field.
4. When you are finished, select OK.

How to Configure Entourage (Mac Mail) to use port 587 for sending email

1. Open Entourage, select the Tools menu and from the bottom of the drop-down list select Accounts.
2. On the Accounts window under the Mail tab, click on your email account to highlight and then select Edit.
3. The Edit Accounts window should appear opened to the Account Settings tab.
4. In the Override default SMTP port: field enter 587, then select OK.

Once your Outgoing SMTP port has been changed, try sending/receiving email once more. If you continue to have problems. please open a trouble ticket with Technical Support.

Avoid Blacklisting your own Server

Published on February 17, 2010 in spamming. 0 Comments

There are tons of blacklists available today and, in general, blacklisting is a great way to help control the transmission of spam. For those unfamiliar with blacklisting, it is a means of blocking unwanted email by performing a lookup on the reputation of the server (IP) used to send the email. Each time an email is received, a blacklist lookup is first performed on the IP address of the server used to send the email. If the IP address comes back clean, the email is accepted. If the IP is known to be a source of Spam, the email is rejected. Simple and often effective.

Blacklisting is great for blocking spam, but it also has it’s drawbacks. Particularly when you’re sharing an IP address with other websites, you may find yourself in a situation where your IP is blacklisted because of the sending habits of other users. If you’ve ever been on a blacklisted IP yourself, you know how much of an inconvenience this can be. When your IP is on a blacklist, anyone using blacklist filtering will reject email from you!

But did you know that you, personally, could be the direct cause of blacklisting yourself!

It’s true. And most people don’t even realize they are doing it.

3rd party email providers like Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, etc. use blacklisting to reject email and they rely on feedback from users to identify what is spam and what is not. When you login to these email providers and check your mail, there is often a “This is Spam” button you can click to signify a given email is spam. When you click this button, these providers analyze the message headers and report the IP it originated from as a spam source. With enough complaints, this IP address may end up on a blacklist so that mail from this IP can be rejected upon receipt.

Now, let’s setup an example. You just purchased hosting through Acenet and have your website online, example.com in this example. You want people to send you email at your new domain, perhaps at the email address contactme@example.com, but you don’t want to have to check yet another email address. So instead of setting up an email account for contactme@example.com, you decide to setup a forwarder to your Hotmail account. Now, all email that is sent to contactme@example.com is forwarded directly to your Hotmail account. Convenient, right?

But now, ALL mail is forwarded to Hotmail. Not just legitimate mail, but spam as well. You login to your inbox at Hotmail and see all of the spam that was received at contactme@example.com and forwarded from our server. In an effort to stop these spam emails, you click “This is Spam” for each message.

And you inadvertently tell Hotmail that your account with Acenet is a source of spam!

Hotmail does not distinguish between the originating IP address and an IP address that forwarded the email. In the eyes of Hotmail, any IP that aides in the transmission of spam is considered a spam source. So by allowing spam to be forwarded from your account to Hotmail and then flagging them as spam, you can actually cause Hotmail to blacklist your server’s IP address. Once this happens, all mail sent from your server’s IP will be rejected by Hotmail.

We do not recommend setting up forwarders from your account with Acenet to 3rd party email services for this very reason. If you must forward mail from Acenet to 3rd party mail providers, do not click “This is Spam” for these emails.

I don’t have a website, how do I choose the right web design company?

Published on February 12, 2010 in What you should know before starting a website. 0 Comments

When choosing a web design company, don’t just go for the cheapest offers- because you get what you pay for. In the long run, going for a cheaper company will actually be more costly. If your website is designed poorly, it will drive away customers and other businesses. This section offers steps in considering the best web design company for you.

Consider what you need for your business website design

Before you contact any web design companies, figure out what you need first. You need to consider the following questions:

1. Who is my customer?
2. What is the purpose of my site?
3. Do I want to sell online or provide information to possible customers?
4. How will I promote my online business? (by search engine promotions or word of mouth?)
5. What is my budget?
6. What do I need to get the site up and running?

Without planning ahead and considering these questions beforehand, you may choose the wrong company to design your site. By answering these questions ahead of time, you will save time, money and will be able to tell the web design company what you need.
Ask around for good companies

The best way to find good web design companies is by asking other business owners who designed their sites. Another helpful and easy way, is researching on search engines like Google or Yahoo. Working with local companies makes it easier for both parties, but check out their websites first and see if it’s the company for you. Don’t forget to check out their portfolio to view their previous projects.
Contact web design firms and ask for a quote

Call or e-mail different companies and describe the type of work you want done. You should not only pay attention to the price, but to their response time. A website design takes time and needs to be done in cooperation with the web design company. If the company you contact is not readily available, they may not be communicative or organized enough to handle your project.
Compare their web design quotes

Cost is always something to take seriously. Get quotes from different companies and compare the prices. Here are some things to consider when comparing quotes:

1. Try to get a fixed quote: Try to find a company that won’t charge by page or by hour, because if you’re unsure about how many pages need to be done, or how long it should take, this will be very costly. If there are extra costs for additional work that needs to be done, this should be charged per hour.

2. Check the company’s ability: Web design is a combination of creative design and technical development. Try to find a company that has both the creative and technical development skills and check out their previous projects.

3. Check if they make a Google-friendly website: Sometimes a Google-friendly website is more important than a good looking website. Why? According to a study conducted, over 70% of website visitors are lead to a site by major search engines. If your site cannot be found by one of these search engines, you will lose out on a lot of money. Many businesses pay thousands of dollars to Search Engine Optimization companies to be one of the highest ranked sites in search results. SEOs will sometimes ask for you to build a brand new website, in order to help boost your ranking. Therefore, it’s crucial to find out whether your initial website is search engine-friendly.

4. Check out the payment plan: Be picky! There are several web design companies who want your business, make sure to choose a payment plan that is fair and realistic. Paying more than 60% of your total project fee as an upfront installment is not a good idea. It is wise to hold a portion of the payment until you are satisfied with your website. Check out if the company has any guarantees or money back guarantees to secure your investment.

The Benefits of Having A Web Site

Published on February 12, 2010 in Why you need a website?. 0 Comments

Whatever your business it can benefit from having a web site. If your competitors have web sites you need one too to maintain your competitive advantage, but as well as this, your web site can benefit your organization in many other ways.

A brochure – but unlike traditional paper brochures your site is easily updated, always current and cost-effective.

Your web site acts like a company brochure, but unlike a traditional company brochure your web site is always current and can be accessed 24 hours a day.

Your web site is also high quality, full color, up-to-date and interactive.

Your site can be updated quickly and regularly, keeping product offerings and prices accurate without the costs associated with updating traditional printed literature and the delays of printing, publishing and distribution. A more environmentally friendly solution than traditional paper-based literature and without the distribution costs.

Your products, services and company information can be seen worldwide 24 hours per day. Rather than having to wait for a brochure, customers can instantly access the information they want.

Increase your customer base

Your web site is accessible to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

Your products or services have a worldwide audience – something that would be hard to achieve by other methods.

In addition to this, your website allows everyone to compete on an even playing field, from tiny organizations to the largest of corporations.

Reach a new audience

Many people like to find out more about a company and their services before they contact them and a web site can give your organization the edge over a competitor who doesn’t have a web site.

And many regular internet users now prefer to search for a service, product or organization on the internet rather than through a more traditional method like the Yellow Pages. If your organization is not on the internet you could be missing out.

New methods of communication

Not only can you communicate to your customers through your web site, but they can also contact you through it. Your customers will have new ways to contact you. Online e-mail facilities allow people to e-mail you easily. Online forms produce more specific communications and feedback. You can also encourage communications by setting up online quizzes, competitions and interactive questionnaires – valuable methods of collecting visitor demographics and generating leads.

Streamline your processes

Your web site can save your organization time and money. Information such as company news, announcements, new product launches, technical information and user guides can be published on the web site for viewing and download saving you printing and distribution time and money.

e-commerce functionality can be incorporated into your website allowing consumers to order their products and services online, greatly reducing administration expenses. Your e-commerce site will enable customers to order any time so extending your trading hours without the normal necessary human presence or office expenses. Receiving payments over the internet can reduce your collection costs to a fraction of the old ways of invoicing and collection.

Integrate your web site functionality with your back office processes to create a truly automated office system. For example – connect your online ordering system with your stock system so stock availability is always current, automate your technical support processes and introduce new online methods for customers to obtain technical assistance.

Improve customer service

Your customers will be able to find up-to-the-minute information on product and service ranges, availability, costs through your site – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Your customers will have new ways to contact you through electronic forms or e-mail facilities on your website.

E-commerce facilities offering online ordering can save your customers time and administration costs.

You can offer your customers a more personal online experience by creating tailored areas on your site just for use by that particular customer. These sections can have secure access.

New marketing possibilities

Being online opens a number of new advertising options for your business. The internet unites the benefits of print and television advertising (text and graphics plus moving images and sound) and eliminates the usual time and space limitations of traditional media forms.

Methods of advertising available include:

- advertising banner placement on your own site or on other sites
- promotional e-mails which can have images and links to your site, particular areas of your site or even specific products
- downloadable games and screensavers, tailor-made and branded for your business
- digital newsletters

Unlike traditional media forms, the Internet is interactive. It can be an effective, low cost one-to-one marketing tool.

You can create an image for your business with your site. No matter how small your business, with a well designed and constructed web site your business can look like a PLC on the Web.

Improved internal communications

You can have a web site purely for internal use or you can have an intranet extension of your company web site. This site can be used for internal announcements and news, communications, information database and information sharing with areas for employees to post data. Online discussion forums can improve morale and act as valuable information exchanges.

13 Reasons Why CSS Is Superior to Tables in Website Design

Published on February 12, 2010 in Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site. 0 Comments

For the past few days, we’ve been scouring the web searching for the top 13 reasons why Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are superior to table-based layouts when designing a website. Some web designers swear that table-based layouts are better than CSS-based layouts, while others believe that table-based layouts are ancient history and XHTML combined with CSS is the only real solution to coding a web site’s visual layout. Since we’re one of those CSS die-hards, we’ve compiled a list of 13 reasons why CSS-based layouts are superior to table-based layouts.

Note: CSS cannot be used on its own to create a website – CSS is merely the tool used to style a web site’s visual information. HTML or preferably, XHTML, must be used to define the structure of a website. In addition, tables are perfect for tabular data, however, that’s about all they are good for nowadays.
The List

1. Faster page loading
2. Lowered hosting costs
3. Redesigns are more efficient
4. Redesigns are less expensive
5. Visual consistency maintained throughout website(s)
6. Better for SEO
7. Accessibility
8. Competitive edge (job security)
9. Quick website-wide updates
10. Easier for teams to maintain (and individuals)
11. Increased usability
12. More complex layouts and designs
13. No spacer gifs

1. Faster page loading

Table-based layouts are notorious for having an extraneous amount of junk markup. In case you’re unaware, Wikipedia defines markup as:

a set of annotations to text that describe how it is to be structured, laid out, or formatted.

Pertaining specifically to web design, markup is the XHTML/HTML code used to structure, lay out, and format the design of a website. So, why are table-based layouts accused of containing junk markup? The easiest way to answer this question is to show a live example of a web page marked up using tables versus that very same web page marked up using CSS. Sitepoint.com already put together a very nice example, so rather than creating our own, we’ll just reference theirs.

First, view the source code contained within their table-based layout. This page has 245 lines of code. Notice within the markup there are an obscene number of instances of:

* td align
* td width
* bgcolor
* width, height
* br (line break)
* font tags (font face, color, size)
* cellpadding, cellspacing, border

The biggest drawback to using tables is that both the content (text, images) and visual information (layout, positioning, text sizes, etc) are contained within the same HTML, PHP, or ASP file. One of the biggest advantages to migrating from a table-based layout to a CSS-based layout is the fact that the content is stored within the HTML, PHP or ASP file and the visual information is stored within a CSS file(s).

Next, view the source code contained within Sitepoint.com’s CSS-based layout. This page has 170 lines of code. However, Sitepoint.com decided to include the style sheet information internally rather than externally in a .CSS file. Had the style sheet information been included in a separate .CSS file, then this page would only have around 45 – 50 lines of code – about 5 times less than what the same table-based layout had. Wow!

Note: When a style is applied to more than one page, make sure to use external CSS style sheets rather than including the style information internally (on the same page as the content). Internal style sheets are only appropriate if there is one page using the style information. For more on internal and external style sheets visit w3schools.com.

Lets take a look at the code used within the CSS example. As you can see, junk markup found within table-based layouts are replaced in CSS layouts. These replacements include:

* divs replace tables as the main structural elements
* no more height, width, cellpadding, cellspacing, border, bgcolor, font tags; all layout information is contained separately within the CSS stylesheet
* h1, h2 tags replace font tags for headings
* br tags are eliminated

A load time that could make you cringe

When comparing the load time of the table-based layout versus the load time of the CSS-based layout, the table layout took 2 – 4 times longer for the page to load (.25 – .4 seconds versus .1 – .12, respectively). Although we’re talking about milliseconds in this particular example, it doesn’t matter. People hate waiting for websites to load. It might just be those extra milliseconds that make an impatient visitor choose to point to a quicker website with similar content. Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
2. Lowered hosting costs

Some hosting providers have payment plans for their customers that are based on the amount of bandwidth that is used each month. Bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is permitted to occur between your website and the rest of the Internet. The example used in the previous point, 1. Faster Page Loading, illustrates the difference in load times between a web page using a table-based layout (.25 – .4 seconds) versus that same web page using a CSS-based layout (.1 – .12 seconds). In that example, the table-based layout’s file size was approximately 16kb (images not included) while the CSS-based layout’s file size was 8kb (images not included). We also mentioned in the above example that the style sheet was contained internally within the HTML file. If one were to remove the style sheet from the HTML file and link it as an external style sheet, then the size of the CSS-based HTML file would be 4kb. 4kb! That is a reduction in file size of 75% (compared to the table-based layout’s file size).
So what does this mean and does it apply to you?

Each person who opts to pay a hosting company to host their website must choose a hosting plan. There are tons of different plans available, and unless your hosting plan includes unlimited bandwidth, then the aforementioned example is something that should concern you.

As an example, lets pretend that your current hosting plan allows for 1 gigabyte of bandwidth per month. If your website only had the table-based layout page on it, then that would allow for about 65,536 page views of that page. Under most hosting plans, once you go over your allotted bandwidth, you either:

1. Pay additional, marked up fees, based on the volume of additional traffic (think of going over your cell phone plan’s minutes, being charged per minute for each minute used outside of your predetermined plan, and at the end of the month being surprised by a huge bill).
2. Your website is temporarily shut down until you purchase a chunk of more bandwidth or upgrade your plan.

In comparison, if your website only has the CSS-based layout page, then that would allow for about 131,072 page views. Thats 2x the amount of traffic compared to using the table-based layout page!

Although this is an example of a single page, the numbers really start to become shocking when you have several pages on a website (like most people do). If you’re using a table-based approach, then each web page will load the content AND the style information independently, each time a new page is loaded. However, if you’re using a CSS-based approach and have an external style sheet attached to all of your files, then that style information will only be loaded a single time.
The numbers don’t lie

The bottom line is that the amount of bandwidth (and consequently, money) you can save using a CSS-based approach are quite astonishing compared to using a table-based approach. The numbers don’t lie (and neither do the higher hosting bills you will receive when using a table-based approach). Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
3. Redesigns are more efficient

Redesigning a website using tables is significantly slower than redesigning a website using CSS. As we mentioned earlier, table-based designs mix visual data with content. On the other hand, CSS-based designs separate visual data from content. By separating the visual data from the content, a web designer is able to easily make changes to the appearance of a single page (or multiple pages) by simply editing the external CSS style sheet. This is one of the biggest strengths of using CSS style sheets: Universal, site-wide updating. More on Universal updating later in the article. Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
4. Redesigns are less expensive

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Time is Money”? This phrase can be applied to redesigning a website. Assuming you are familiar with CSS and some of the browser specific bugs that unfortunately come with it, redesigning a website using CSS should take much less time than redesigning a website using tables. If you’re paying someone by the hour, then you will most likely find yourself paying less if the designer(s) is redesigning your website using CSS (simply because it shouldn’t take them as long compared to redesigning a website using tables). Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
5. Visual consistency maintained throughout website(s)

When using external CSS style sheets, it is much easier to maintain visual consistency throughout a website. Rather than having to edit the code of every page, adjusting column widths, column heights, spacer gifs, and all of the other ugliness that comes with table-based layouts, CSS gives the designer control over elements that are used throughout a website, on a few pages, or on a single page.

For example, say you want to change the width, height, and background image of the header that is found on every page of your website. Rather than having to edit every single page on your website (or using find and replace to search through a specified directory or set of documents), all you would need to do is:

1. open up your external CSS style sheet, find the “header” div (or whatever you decide to call it)
2. change the values for the properties “background-image”, “width”, and “height”
3. upload the style sheet with the new settings.

Bam! Assuming that you’ve uploaded the new background image, every page within your website that includes the header div will display the new header background image with its newly assigned width and height attributes. Very simple, very fast, very consistent. When using table-based layouts, it is easier to lose visual consistency due to the fact that each page’s style, layout, and design are independent from each unique page within a website. The reason for this (as mentioned earlier) is because table-based layouts include the visual data and content within the same page – intertwined. CSS-based layouts keep these two elements separate from each other, which not only makes tweaking visual information easier, but also allows you to change the appearance of divs, body text, headers, and all of the other elements included site-wide within a website simply by changing a few values in a CSS style sheet. Again, any page using the elements that are located within the style sheet will automatically display their assigned attributes. Unlike table-based layouts, this feature guarantees visual consistency throughout your website. Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
6. Better for SEO

In case you’ve missed the web marketing acronym train, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In case you know very little about web marketing, Search Engine Optimization, according to Wikipedia:

is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (”organic” or “algorithmic”) search results for targeted keywords. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results or the higher it “ranks”, the more searchers will visit that site.

Chances are, no matter what the purpose of your website, having more people visit your website is something that would certainly be welcomed. If you’re using a table-based layout, then the amount of traffic to your website may not be as good as it could be if you were using a CSS-based layout. Crazy, isn’t it?

There are a number of reasons why CSS is superior than tables for SEO:

* Smaller file size makes it easier for Search Engine Spiders to crawl through your website.
* Less junk markup makes it easier for Search Engine Spiders to decipher between code and content. Ideally, try to keep your content-to-code ratio as high as possible (more content than code, obviously).
* Structural organization is greatly improved by using h1, h2, h3 tags ensuring that the Search Engine Spiders know what you’re trying to show them. Font tags cannot communicate a page title or header, even if the font size is larger. Either way, don’t forget to include important keywords relevant to your target audience (i.e. If you’re selling motorboats in a small town in California, use “Motorboats in Small Town, California” rather than “Motorboats”). In addition, if you’d like your h1 information to appear after your body tag (or near the top of the page’s code) but don’t necessary want the h1 information to be visually displayed at the top of the page, then CSS will allow you to using absolute positioning which gives the designer freedom to place the h1 information practically anywhere on the web page.
* No more Javascript rollover effects. CSS allows the designer to program a variety of rollover effects (images, text decorations, etc) that are defined within the CSS style sheet. This method allows the Search Engine Spiders to focus more on your website’s content rather than unnecessary Javascript markup. If you’re looking for fancy, Flash-like rollover effects that combine CSS and Javascript resulting in graceful, lightweight rollover animations, then take a look at the latest that jQuery or mootools has to offer (thats for another article).

In a nutshell – if you’re at all concerned about SEO for your website, then use CSS instead of tables. The aforementioned points illustrate how even the most basic features that CSS has to offer can make a significant difference when optimizing your website for the search engines. Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
7. Accessibility

The definition of accessibility, according to Wikipedia:

Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product (e.g., device, service, environment) is accessible by as many people as possible.

There are many reasons why using CSS is advantageous over using tables:

* Separating content from visual information
* Universal cross-browser style declarations
* Placement of interactive elements
* Multi-medium support (web browsers, screen readers, personal data assistants)

Separating content from visual information

Structured content is managed by markup languages such as XHTML. Predefined tags (h1, h2, h3, p, li, ol, ul) allows content to have structure by identifying elements as headings, paragraphs, lists, and other common document constructs.

Visual information (presentation) is separated from the content and no longer needs to be embedded into each page’s content. Formating visual attributes are defined in a separate style sheet document(s) which allows the designer to apply new formatting to content without the hassle of having to format the content itself.
Universal cross-browser style declarations

Giving the user the ability to enlarge fonts in their favorite web browser is crucial. Not only can this make reading more comfortable, but it is also essential for users who have vision impairments. The W3 (World Wide Web Consortium) recommends the use of relative length units (em) rather than absolute units (in, cm, mm, pt, pc).

It is not recommended to use pixels to declare font sizes since IE6 (Internet Explorer 6) is unable to enlarge text if the text is defined in pixels. Because backward compatibility is very important and also because IE6 still commands a large percent of the browser market share (30.7% – w3schools.com), it is integral that the use of relative units for font sizes is adhered to.

That being said, all browsers have a different, default font size for rendering the text when no CSS is present. Therefore, it is good practice when designing a website for cross-browser compatibility, to always declare a default font size within the body tag:

body { font-size: .7em; }

Another important attribute for various XHTML elements is the user of the line-height attribute. Just as most browsers have a different default font size, so do they have different line-heights. Headings, paragraphs, and lists are just some of the structural elements which should have a line-height attribute. For example, to define a consistent line-height for paragraphs within a website, use the following:

p { line-height: 1.5em; }

Placement of interactive elements

To accommodate users with physical disabilities that affect manual dexterity, be careful not to place links, buttons, or form fields too close together. Not only can this make things confusing from a visual perspective, but it can make the selection of these elements difficult for handicapped users.

There are a number of things that can be done to facilitate easier selection of elements:

* Increase interlinear space values (apply the line-height attribute, as mentioned above; a value of 1.5 is often a good place to start)
* Increase the margin and padding around items in vertical and horizontal lists of links;
o For a horizontal list – li { margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 5px; }
o For a vertical list – li { margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; }
* Provide an adequate amount of space between form buttons and between form fields

Multi-medium support (web browsers, screen readers, personal data assistants)

Perhaps one of the biggest advantages to using CSS over tables from an accessibility point-of-view is the ability to serve different style sheets to different mediums and devices. Because information on a screen reader or personal data assistant appears differently than on a computer’s web browser, it is important to include alternative style sheets that include basic formating rules for a particular device. Not only will this expand the accessibility of your website to all sorts of web-enabled devices, but it is just good practice in general.

Rather than listing all of the different recognized media types, head over to W3.org and take a look at their extensive list. Not only does their page list all of the recognized media types for various user agents, but it also explains the @media rule and provides a few examples on how to create style sheets for different media types.
Make accessibility standard for your websites, or else!

Accessibility is absolutely necessary this day and age. By making your website more accessible using CSS, not only are you making content consumption and site navigation easier for users, but you’re also accommodating those with various disabilities. And if by chance you don’t care much about accessibility for the handicapped (shame on you), you should – you can be sued for having an inaccessible website.

Can tables do any of the aforementioned accessibility items? No, they can’t. Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
8. Competitive edge (job security)

We get quite a few replies to our posts which contain anti-CSS rhetoric (and we’re almost positive we’ll get some with this article) from people who seem to believe that tables are still useful and acceptable for designing and assembling websites. An interesting observation is that the majority of the time, these table-loving comments come from web designers and web developers who are still using tables to build their websites. This illustrates an important point: some people do not want CSS to replace tables simply because they don’t want to have to learn something new, are afraid of change, make a living using table-based designs or [INSERT another poor excuse here]. If, by chance, you are a web designer who is making a living off of table-based designs, you shouldn’t worry too much. All you need to do is learn CSS – it isn’t THAT hard, seriously!

If you’ve read the majority of this article, then chances are you will agree that CSS has some very clear advantages over table-based designs. Perhaps this is the reason why more and more web design companies are transitioning to CSS-based designs and leaving tables where they should be – in spreadsheet documents. Perhaps that is why more and more web businesses and web startups are looking for designers proficient in XHTML and CSS-based design. CSS is just plain better (yea, we’re biased, so what!).

If you design websites for a living or are studying web design in school or on your own, increase your competitive edge and learn the current technology that is powering web design – CSS. Although booting up an application such a Dreamweaver and creating a table-based layout is quick and painless, you’re not really learning anything by letting the program do most of the work for you. Not just that, but you’re missing out on all of the goodness that comes with CSS (not to mention you’re cheating yourself or your clients by using outdated website technology). Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
9. Quick website-wide updates

Out of all of the reasons contained within this article regarding why to choose CSS over tables, our favorite is the ability to be able to make quick, website-wide updates within an external CSS style sheet. Though we’ve touched base on this a few times throughout the article, (3. Redesigns are more efficient), this is often times one of the biggest selling points of CSS and therefore deserves a bit more attention.

Do you value your time? If you’re like us, then the answer to that question is “Yes, of course I value my time”. So, if you value your time, why would you want to open and edit every single document that contains the element which you want to update within your website (i.e. the header)? Unless you have a fetish for opening multiple website documents, this probably isn’t something you want or like to do.

Enter CSS.

Feel like changing the font family, font color, font size, line height, bullet-image, and letter-spacing of every single list element contained within your website? No problem. Simply open your external CSS file (the style sheet attached to all of the pages within your website – aka “universal style sheet”), find the “li” (list) selector, and add, edit, or delete properties with whatever values you so choose. Save the changes, upload the file, and Bam! – every single list instance (li) will be styled with the latest attributes defined in the external style sheet. Try doing that with tables.

Or what if you decide that you want to change the font family for all h1, h2, and h3 tags on your website? Imagine trying to use find and replace to accomplish this task with table-based layouts. Although this could be done, it will take a heck of a lot longer than by simply editing the h1, h2, and h3 selectors within your web site’s universal style sheet. Website-wide updates don’t get much easier than with CSS. Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
10. Easier for teams to maintain (and individuals)

Just as project management software (mentioned in our article “12 Steps to Creating a Professional Web Design“) simplifies collaboration within web-based projects which have several people onboard, so too does CSS simplify projects with multiple contributers. Rather than having to sift through page after page of junk markup found in table-based layouts, designers only need to open and edit the external CSS style sheet. In addition, as long as members of a team use descriptive selector tags in the style sheets(s), then it will make editing much easier for additional team members to go in and edit the file without needing to be briefed and educated about the style sheet’s contents and structure.

To better explain descriptive selector naming, here is an example of a few elements from a style sheet:

#mainContentLeftColumn { property: value; }

#mainContentMiddleColumn { property: value; }

#mainContentMiddleColumnLeftColumn { property: value; }

As you can see, the deeper into the web site’s structure you go, the more detail the selector names have. With these descriptive titles, a team member who knows very little about the layout of a website or organization of a style sheet should easily be able to find the exact selector(s) in the style sheet and edit them accordingly without having to make guesses about the meanings of different selectors. Not only will this save your team time in the long run (as previously mentioned, each team member won’t need to be briefed on the structure of the style sheet), but it will also save time for an individual working on a project by themselves.

With table-based layouts, there is no advanced selector labeling available. Instead, tags such as table, font, tr, and td plague the content documents. Since these elements cannot be labeled, this can make table-based designs a nightmare for teams and individuals to manage. Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
11. Increased usability

Usability – what is it, and why does it matter? According to Wikipedia, usability is:

a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal.

From a website perspective, usability refers to the ease in which people are able to navigate, interact, and browse a website. Without strong usability, a website is destined to fail. Although there are a number of reasons why usability is better with CSS than with tables, we are just going to mention a few for the sake of time.
Printer-friendly style sheets

CSS enables the web designer to serve different style sheets for different media types – one media type in particular is a print style sheet (media=”print”). On table-based layouts, oftentimes the user will be forced to click the “Printer Friendly Version” on each article that they wish to print. This can become cumbersome, especially if a user prints a lot of material on a website.

CSS skips the “Printer Friendly Version” step all together and will serve up a printer-friendly version of an article or web page simply by instructing the browser to print via the File menu. No more searching the website for “Printer Friendly Version” buttons. No more having to be online to print article. As a matter of fact, once the print style sheet is downloaded, it is stored within the browser’s cache (stored locally on the user’s computer) and the printer-friendly version can be printed offline, using the parameters contained within the cached print style sheet to format the document to be printed accordingly.
Faster page downloading with CSS

As we explained earlier, table-based layouts take longer to download. Because the information on each page is independent from all of the other pages within a website, table-based layouts must be downloaded over, and over, and over again. CSS-based layouts, on the other hand, cache the style sheet information the first time a web page is loaded; therefore, it is only the unique content that is loaded on each page, which makes CSS-based web pages load much quicker than table-based web pages.

Here are a few other reasons why page loading is slower with table-based layouts than with CSS-based layouts:

* Browsers read through tables twice before properly displaying their contents – once to determine the structure, and once to determine the content
* Tables only appear on the screen when the entire table has been downloaded and rendered
* Tables are choked full of spacer.gifs (see 13. No spacer gifs) which further bloat a web page

Users hate waiting for web pages to load. If they have to wait too long, then they may decide to leave your website and find a quicker website with similar content. From a usability perspective, CSS-based designs are much more usable than table-based designs simply because users generally don’t have to wait as long for a page to be loaded.

Plain and simple: a faster download speed leads to increased usability, which, according to a study by Jakob Nielsen from useit.com, can increase your web site’s sale/conversion rate by 100%. Need we say more? As a matter of fact, yes, we do – Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
12. More complex layouts and designs

From a web designer’s perspective, the fact that CSS-based layouts have the ability to be much more complex than table-based layouts should be enough of a reason to use CSS instead of tables when designing a website.

A web designer’s creative boundaries should not be limited by the tools he/she uses, but instead, by their own creativity. When using table-based layouts, web designers are stuck creating layouts that are rigid, inflexible, and based on grids. CSS-based layouts, on the other hand, allow the user to be as creative as their imagination allows them to be. Absolute positioning of elements paired with the z-index property allows CSS-based designs to position elements on top of one another (like layers in Photoshop), allowing for more unique, complex, and beautiful layouts.

In addition to using layers in CSS, the language itself includes tons of unique styling features that table-based layouts cannot offer. Rather than listing some of these great features, we recommend purchasing a book on CSS (CSS: The Definitive Guide, by Eric Meyer is one of our favorites) and learning about these features at your own pace.
The beauty of CSS

So what kind of layouts can be created with CSS-based designs? CSS Mania showcases some of the most beautifully designed CSS websites from all around the world. After browsing CSS Mania and other CSS galleries, we’re certain that you’ll be thinking one thing: Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
13. No spacer gifs

Besides something that sucks, what is a spacer gif? Wikipedia defines a spacer gif as:

a transparent image, often used to control blank space within a web page, that can be resized according to the width and height dimensions it is given. Spacer GIFs are not browser specific. The reason a spacer GIF is invisible is so that an HTML developer can create a table cell and fill the background with a specific color that can be viewed through the transparent spacer GIF.

Although it served a purpose prior to CSS, spacer gifs are no longer necessary. Background colors can now be defined by using the “background” property in CSS. Spacer gifs bloat up a web page by adding additional junk markup to the already enormous volume of junk markup found within table-based layouts. Other than that, there isn’t much else to say about spacer GIFs. Don’t use them. Just say “NO” to table-based designs!
13 Reasons Why CSS Is Superior to Tables in Website Design

If you’re at all concerned about the performance of your website, accessibility, usability, hosting costs, having complex and unique layouts, quick website-wide updating, and clean, simplified, structured markup, then CSS-based layouts are your only option. If you don’t know CSS, then learn it. It isn’t that difficult. Just like anything else, it takes time. We can promise you one thing though: if you do take the time to learn CSS and migrate from tables to CSS, you won’t regret it. Your website will be a better place for everyone to visit, and you will more than likely reap additional benefits not possible when using table-based layouts.

No matter if you’re a professional web designer with a large portfolio, an amateur web designer just starting out, or the owner of a small business or personal website looking to grow online, CSS will benefit you much more than table-based layouts and should be your tool of choice used to create a new website or upgrade an existing one.

Accept no substitutes – migrate to CSS, and “Just say “NO” to table-based designs! “.