Website development is the processes and work that is involved in creating, publishing, and maintaining a website. This includes programming, layout, connectivity, user experience and more from the backend of a website, generally performed by a web developer.

A responsive website is designed to appear correctly on all types of viewing devices like desktop computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablets, and other internet viewing devices. One of Google’s ranking criteria is that a website is easy to use on any device and especially on mobile devices. So by having a website that is responsive to the viewing device, your website will clear an SEO hurdle and can receive better placement on the search engine results page.

The answer to the “do I need an e-commerce website” largely depends on the scope of your business and what you plan to achieve online. If you website is informational only or you do not plan on physically selling products online, then probably not. But if you do plan on having users purchase products directly off of your website, then you absolutely do. Call the website design company of Boiling Point Media for an analysis of your marketing goals and we can make the decision together.

Since the creation, redesign or development of a website is critical for online business success, you need to have a website design company that is skilled, innovative, and responsive working on your side. Here are some factors you should consider when hiring a web developer.

• Portfolio – See the past work of the website design company and evaluate it for yourself
• Approach – Website development is multifaceted and complex. Understand how your website team is going to create a website as well as how they overcome challenges.
• Their Website – The website of the website design company is going to show you what they are capable of. Look at the website design to see their creativity, special skills, web ranking, as well as for any factors you deem important.
• Industry Knowledge – Is your website design company going to custom build your website to rank against the competitors in your industry or are they going to produce for you a cookie cutter website? This is important.
• In-House Development – Does your website design company create websites in-house or do they use a third party? The answer to this question will lend insight into the skills of your web developers as well as costs.
• Add-On’s – This factor will show how willing the website design company is to help you in different situations. If there is an endless amount of add-on’s that need to be purchased to get your website to work, the company may be focused more on building profit for themselves versus helping you obtain success.
• Culture – The culture at your website design company will show you how they will work together to complete your website project. Look for web developers that are energetic, collaborative, and continue to learn.

In a general sense, no. This is because website designers have been trained to do web development while SEO specialists are trained in adjusting websites for search and marketing functions. Although these job functions are related, the two functions require different skill sets. Just like you wouldn’t want your dermatologist to perform heart surgery on you, you probably do not want your web developer to perform SEO on your website (unless properly trained to do so). An advantage to using a marketing agency is that they generally will have both a web developer and an SEO specialist on staff.

WordPress outsourcing is the delegating of the WordPress setup and development tasks to an expert and experienced web developer. This can happen at all stages of the website from initial creation to post implementation development. A WordPress web design company will generally not need to outsource their work because they will hire a good web developer.