Tips for Choosing a Design Firm for Your Website

Online interactivity is the latest wave in creative advertising. In all markets having a website is no longer an option it is a requirement. Successful interactive web production requires a strong combination of world-class graphic design and leading edge technology skills. The firm of your choice should combine technical expertise with creative initiatives to support your success in this vital advertising medium. To launch a national interactive campaign, including mobile, streaming, customer registration, sweepstakes, User Generated Content and rich media make sure your agency can execute your creative vision. Look for the following when choosing your design firm.

1. The Basics
- Site Map and Original Custom Design
- Unique Home Page and Complementing Pages
- Copy Editing
- An estimate of cost and time before your begin

2. Database Driven
- Web 2.0 Technologies
- Site built on Enterprise framework
- Custom PHP/MySQL coding

3. Expandability
- Make sure you will never out grow your site
- You should have the ability to add additional feature modules on at anytime.
- Reporting Analytics - Web Traffic tracking for data based decisions

4. Customizable Admin Center
- Allows the site administrator to set the style and format of all content to ensure web page consistency and uniformity
- Allows for web content editing with basic word processing skills
- Self managed image files

5. Meta Tags/Search Engine Setup
- Preparation of your website to search engines and directories is vital. The design should allow your website to be search engine friendly this includes research and placement of the best titles, keywords, key phrases, etc. on your site.

6. Manual Submission
- Many search engines require hand-submitting a website and will not accept software submissions. If you want your website to appear in Google, Open Directory (DMOZ), the entire Web, Alta Vista and others, your site must be submitted manually in order to be accepted. Google is topping the charts as todays #1 choice for Internet users.

If you are at the point where you know you need a site or a face lift to your existing site consider contacting StarWorks Marketing & Communications, Inc. (a NARMS Associate Member) for a free consultation. From now until March 31, 2009 StarWorks is sponsoring an Extreme Website Sale for NARMS members only. For only $1600 you will be web-ready for the 2009 NARMS Spring Conference. Call 715-344-9848 or email starworks1@sbcglobal.net for more details.