Freelance Web Designer, Keith Bates

Hi! Thanks for browsing to my online portfolio. My name is Keith Bates and I specialize in web design, maintance and Flash design in the Dallas, Texas metroplex.

As a professional web designer, I have designed numerous websites utilizing CSS, Flash, Coldfusion, PHP, MSSQL, MySQL and XHTML standards.

Along with web design, I have developed several ecommerce websites as well as Content Management Systems (CMS).

Contact me for price quotes or questions.

Web Design Services

• Web Design
• Flash Animation Design and Action Scripting
• Coldfusion Development
• CSS Design and Layout
• XHTML Validation
• Content Management Systems
• eCommerce
• Logo Design

Click here to view my portfolio.

Choosing a Web Designer

I'll try my best to keep the jargon to a minimum but won't make any promises.

Anybody can design and build a website but not everybody should. Having a poorly designed website might actually do more harm than having no website at all. Let's say a customer finds their way to your website. Visually, it's not appealing or perhaps you have broken links, poorly written content or your navigation is convoluted or hard to use. That customer will most likely not turn into a customer and leave to visit your competitor's website. They have built a preconceived notion that if your website is clumsy or difficult to use then so is the owner of the website. Of course, this is debatable because if you have no website at all then how will they find you? My answer, the phone book, community websites, newspaper, etc.

In any case your website is causing you to lose money.

Finding a freelance web designer might appear simple but you need to choose wisely. Web designers could be compared to mechanics. They expect you to not know what you are doing.

So what should you look for in a Freelance web designer?

No Templates - There is probably nothing more annoying (unless you deliberately purchased a template) than witnessing another website that looks identical to yours. Carefully review the potential freelance web designer's portfolio.

Evolving Web Designer - Look for a freelance web designer who is on top of their game and persistent in improving their skills. A good designer not only talks the talk but they walk the walk. Again, look at their portfolio. Look for good use of colors, layout, texture, typography, spacing and the general flow of content. Are their designs easy to use and navigate?

Cross Browser Optimization - While it's difficult to optimize a website for every single browser, they should look and function the same in most popular browsers. Specifically, browsers on the Mac and PC platforms. Trust me, you don't want potential prospects leaving your web site because it doesn't display properly in Firefox or Safari (let alone IE 6 or 7). Ask the web designer if this is something they offer.

Standards and Validation - Find out if the freelance web designer follows current website standards and validates. Put websites to the test by browsing to http://validator.w3.org/ and entering the website address. If the website comes back with errors then this should raise an eyebrow. Ask if they comply with HTML, XHTML and CSS standards.

Basic Search Engine Optimization - I say "basic" because these tactics alone won't necessarily guarantee your website a higher ranking with the search engines. However, it does help... a lot. Check that they make use of site maps, link titles, image descriptions and of course meta tags. These basic principals alone will help ensure your site is fully indexed by a search engine.

Instilling higher standards for your website will certainly help you weed out the bad web designers that pollute the market. By this point, you will have solid candidates bidding for your project... like myself!