Web design is the skill of creating presentations of content that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web, by way of a Web browser or other Web-enabled software like Internet television clients.

The intent of web design is to create a web site—a collection of electronic files that reside on a web server and present content and interactive features/interfaces to the end user in form of Web pages once requested. Such elements as text, bit-mapped images, and forms can be placed on the page using HTML/XHTML/XML tags. Displaying more complex media (vector graphics, animations, videos, sounds) requires plug-ins are also embedded into web page by using HTML/XHTML tags.

Once you understand the term web design you might be able to differentiate between website graphic designer and web designer. Another thing is clear that web designers have acquired skills which they are not gifted so naturally; some have acquired good and some have less skills. Now, as a project owner, it is your job, to decide who is good for you.

Let us see qualities of good web designer. Here we will see interpersonal skills of web designer, not technical aspects as technical aspects depend on the nature and demand of your project.

Good Planner

Good web designer need to plan ahead the goals of website they are going to build it. Web designer can put focus on possible people who might be interested in website.

Good Organizer

Web designing needs to deal with lots of stuff at a time. Designer should organize code files, images, texts, videos, audios, and a lot more. If designer don’t put all in well-labeled folders and organize it in a good manner then some elements might be misplaced.

Good evaluator

Your web application is one kind of sales representative for you; therefore it needs constant faultfinding eyes so that final shape would be a robust design. Your web designer need such eyes so your site can catch maximum traffic and you get maximum customers for your business.

Good Partner

Your web designer should have proper understanding of your business just like a partner so he/she can formulate effective design strategy that gives your business a maximum benefit.

Good Portfolio

Your website designer should have good a portfolio means he/she should have past experience in related fields or technology so he/she can perform challenging tasks with a confidence. For instance your project need Ajax based application and designer’s portfolio don’t  see any usage of Ajax at all then there are less chances to implement it correctly.

Good Relationship

Once your web design project is finished and after some time you may require updates or your business improves due to website and now you want to expand it. In such scenario, you again need the services of your previous web designer because he/she is the person who is most accustomed with your project. In short, your web designer should be relation oriented and believe in long-term relationship.

Good Communicator

Finally, your website designer should be good communicator since communication is a vital aspect from the beginning to end of the project. Project designer should extract all needed information from the clients, convert it into coding, and deliver results as per clients’ desires.

All of above the qualities of good designer or rather a good professional, that’s why I believe that good web designers are made in heaven.

1. Do you have website and your business is dependent on the internet?
2. Does your website go along with your current business goals and strategies?
3. Is your website not complementing your online and offline marketing efforts?
4. Is the content of your website outdated and irrelevant?
5. Do you have high visitor bounce rate?
6. Does your site rank lower in search engines?
7. Does it generate PPC leads if you have any?
8. Does your website bring enough traffic for you?

If your answer is not affirmative then you have to make efforts to know how websites brings traffic for you.

When your prospective customer enters his search query in search engines like Google, Yahoo!, or MSN, search engines start to see the relevant websites for them. During the search, these search engines follow some rules to get appropriate results. When you know these rules of SEO and align your website accordingly then you most likely will come ahead in the eyes of these search engines. More customers will come to your site and you are likely getting more business with them.

Now the question is, who will help you to know the rules of search engines and make or suggest changes in your website? They are called Search Engine Optimization consultants and they definitely will help you to improve your business this way. SEO consultants will check your website and draw a strategy to get higher traffic through SEO and other marketing techniques.

When an SEO expert suggests redesigning website according to their guidelines, you don't say no to them and take a rigid stand anyway. You must support them and let them make changes the way they want because your website may have following deficiencies and issues from the point of view of SEO:

Content

Search engines work on the base of key words or text entered by a user, this means search engines will look for matching keywords on your site to pick you up. If they don't find aligned text or keywords in the content of your site they will leave you therefore, the very first job of SEO expert is to make search engine friendly content of your site. The keyword placement, density and use of keyword synonyms are the areas where SEO will make changes. Another thing is freshness and relevancy of your content. For sake of freshness they can include news corner, blogs, etc.

Titles and Tags

Titles, headings, subheadings etc. should have relevant keywords so Google, Yahoo, and Bing can find them easily.

URLs

URLs of pages and sub pages should have relevant keywords as Google, Yahoo, and Bing prefer easy navigation of the web pages. In case of dynamic page generation like that happens with CMS you need to do coding such a way that it can generate web page URLs SEO friendly so you don't lose your traffic.

Image Optimization

Images need to have alt tags so they can be searched by crawlers. They also need checking for corresponding texts for images and alt tags too.

Links

Proper linking of your pages must be foremost criteria for your site. If you have not good landing pages and your SEO doing hard effort to earn good weighty links for you then you may not get your traffic converted in to your prospective customers.

XML Site Map

Without submitting XML site map you can not get good indexation in search engines.