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PSD Conversions Going Beyond Design – Ten Key Areas That Are Affected

One of the basic concerns of people who want to hire a PSD conversions service is converting the designs in the PSD format to fully functioning pages. The design in the PSD format has to be converted to the functional web page. Website owners do not realize that PSD conversions touch upon number of other crucial areas besides design.

If you are looking for a PSD conversions company for transferring your design files to pages that are readable for the search engines then you need to know better than a common man does. Unless you understand how PSD conversions could dictate the success or failure of your website, you will not be in a position to choose the right service provider for your needs because, you will not be in a position to know what to look for while selecting and once your service provider completes the job you will not know what to assess to ensure whether the job is well done or not. Here are some of the key areas that are affected by PSD Conversions. The word ‘affected’ here has to be understood in the sense of ‘touched upon by’ and not in the negative sense of the word affected.

1. Technology

Even though the source files in PSD conversions is the same, the output file or the final outcome expected varies based on the technology using which you are building your website. These are some of the most common PSD and technology combinations:
PSD to HTML
PSD to XHTML
PSD to WordPress
PSD to Joomla
PSD to Magento

PSD to Drupal and so on

You are likely to be building your website in any one of the above technologies. While hiring your PSD conversions company, you will need to look for companies that have expertise in that specific combination. For example, if you are building a website in WordPress you should look for a company that specializes in PSD to WordPress conversions. Looking for technology specific expertise will help you get better results.

2. Search Engine Ranking

The quality of the conversions and the coding style will have a tremendous impact on your website’s search engine ranking. Your website users will see just the external aspects of your website namely the design or the user interface. However, there are many things that do the meet the eyes of the users. However, search engines go beyond the skin and they will assess various factors. An experienced PSD conversions expert or the coding expert will know how to keep the converted pages compatible with the latest search engine algorithms.

While selecting your PSD markup company, you need to check whether their conversions are aligned with the latest Google algorithm. More than 70% of the traffic to websites is sent by Google. Therefore, it is essential to create websites that are Google friendly. If you want your website to perform, well and produce the expected results then it is not enough that your web pages are just beautiful looking but they should be technically sound to impress the search engines.

3. XHTML Validation

The codes written by the PSD conversions company should be compatible with the W3C standards. At times, PSD markup is done using automated software tools. Coding produced by such tools will not only be sloppy but the outcome will also not be compatible with the W3C standards. Google when parsing through your pages will have problems in indexing your pages fully if the expected coding standards are not met. The basic condition required for ranking your web pages in the search results is complete indexing of the pages. If this basic requirement itself is not going to be met, then you cannot expect further search engine benefits.

4. Page Speed

We have already spoken about Page Speed, its importance and how PSD markup could affect the page speed score of your web pages in great detail in another post. Your PSD markup company could play havoc if they do not have adequate experience. Page speed score should not be understood in isolation, number of factors contribute to your page speed score. This includes W3C compliant coding, XHTML validation and so on. Therefore, hiring a company that is conversant with all these dynamics is very important. Problems in this area arises when your service provider offers software aided PSD conversions or when they do not have enough experience whereby they offer just the basic PSD conversions.

5. Page Responsiveness

Another factor the PSD conversions affect is page responsiveness. What is page responsiveness? Today, internet users make use of various gadgets to access the internet including but not limited to iPhones, iPads, Android based smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, smart watches, smart TV and so on. Displaying pages that could be viewed comfortably and used without any problem is not an easy task. Today websites are required to use responsive technology so that the pages are displayed correctly based on the gadget used. Users need not have to select the gadget specific pages but they will be automatically rendered detecting the gadget. Responsiveness is no more a fancy feature, it is rather an important and basic feature. Launching websites that are not responsive will be a huge mistake today. Most customers today access the internet through their mobile phones and in particular, they look for brand websites before buying the product they like to order when they are at the merchant outlet. These are highly prospective leads and to miss them because you do not have a responsive page will put you in a very bad spot. Your PSD conversion experts should be in experienced in creating pages that are based on responsive technology. Before signing up with your PSD markup company, you need to double check whether they have the capabilities to offer responsive PSD conversions. To ensure that they have the required capabilities, visit their portfolio and check the websites for which they have done PSD markup, visit the pages through mobile browsers and using tablets.
6. Browser Compatibility

Users not only access web pages using diverse gadgets but they also make use of variety of browsers. Whatever we have said for displaying gadget sensitive pages is applicable for browser compatibility too. Extensive testing is required to establish that your pages are displayed correctly in all the popular browser types. This is called cross-browser compatibility. This is a very basic requirement for any PSD conversion service. If your service provider is not capable of handling this factor, then it is best to look for a different service provider. Your PSD conversions certainly touches upon cross-browser compatibility concerns in a decisive way and you better pay attention to this factor.

7. Confidentiality

Whenever you are hiring a PSD conversions company for transferring your PSD designs to pages in the required technology, you are giving your service provider access to your ideas, which may or may not be copyrighted. You may be operating in a niche whereby your concepts are supposed to be fully guarded until you take your brand online in full swing. Confidentiality is a major concern in such situations. Even if you are operating in a less sensitive area, you are entitled to 100% confidentiality. PSD conversion services certainly affect your privacy and confidentiality. You are expected to be highly cautious in this regard. Any oversights here could put you through the risk of losing your ideas to your competitors. In many industries, more than what one offers, who first offers it counts. Stealing the pioneer role is very important while establishing a new concept and a new brand. When you are hiring a PSD conversions company, you need to first establish the credibility of the service provider. Spend time screening the service provider and proceed only when you could establish 100% that you are dealing with a trustworthy company. If customer reviews are not positive, then do not be compelled to choose any service provider because the industry is in no short of PSD conversions company.

8. Scheduled Launch Of Your Website

You are likely to have a specific timeline for the launching of your website. You will be able to launch your website as scheduled only when your service providers deliver you the fully tested website. While selecting their service providers, customers often fail to pay attention to this factor. During the development process, they face glitches due to various reasons why in turn affects the deadline. You are required to keep a certain amount of buffer time to accommodate reasonable delays in the delivery of the work. You should schedule your launch only after taking this buffer time into account. However, certain service providers could take you to the extremes of frustration by their undue delays collapsing all your plans.

In this regard, to save yourself from such risks you need to look into few crucial factors. Firstly, the experience of the service provider matters a great deal. Yes, how experienced is your service provider? Why is experience a matter of concern here? An experienced service provider will be able to handle even the most complex conversion requirements with ease. Another important quality vast experience is likely to bring about is the ability to anticipate bottlenecks during the development process and be prepared to handle them effectively without losing too much time. Experienced companies would already take such factors into account while calculating the timeline and therefore deliver more or less on time. It is totally up to you to select companies with adequate experience in this field.

Another factor that could lead to delays is that the company could be under-staffed. It is easy to project the image of a well-established, big company online. However, it may not be the case in reality. If you end up with such providers, then delays are to be expected. This again boils down to proper screening of the service provider before hiring one.

9. Overall User Experience

We certainly cannot deny that the PSD conversions performed on your website has a very great role to play on the overall user experience. You may have come up with a brilliant design but when the design is not accurately transferred as fully functional pages, you are likely to compromise on the user experience. Your service provider should be able to capture the vision you have for your website and work along those lines than just trying to fit the design like a jigsaw puzzle. They should understand what is going on in each page and effectively transfer the pages to the required format. Whether it is the navigation of the pages or the loading speed of the page, everything will have its bearing on user experience. You should understand here, that your online success would depend on the user experience that you are offering your visitors in your website. You could spend thousands on creating an impressive design and spend thousands more to promote your brand online to attract a lot of visitors. Even if you succeed in all these efforts, what happens to the visitors after they come to your website is certainly a matter of great concerns. This will certainly be decided by quality of the pages that you deliver your users. Your PSD markup company could be of great support here provided you have chosen the right experts in the field. If you have gone merely by the cost of the PSD conversions without taking into account the other factors then you should know what you are compromising in this process.

10. Professionalism Of Your Brand And Brand Credibility

Customers are today very cautious, most of them have used the internet for more than three decades so they know how to spot scams a mile away. Customers today have acquired the art of avoiding brands and services that are not credible just at the look of the website. Your website in other words sends out an enormous amount of clues to your customers about who you are and whether you could be trusted. Your website has a very important role to play in this regard. We cannot stress enough the importance of creating and emulating professional image about your brand. A sloppy PSD markup work could ruin the show forever putting your brand in a place where you cannot possibly salvage anything. What distinguishes a professional website from an unprofessional website? In most cases, it is the attention to details. Choosing a markup company that pays attention to details will make things work for the better.

Winning the trust of the customers is not an easy game. Even if you are a trustworthy player, it is not enough that you make claims about your qualities. Customers are not ready to buy self-made claims. How much attention you have put into the designing of your website will have a subtle impact on your visitors. This factor again should not be taken in isolation. When all the above factors discussed above fall in place, you will automatically come out as a credible provider to your customers.

As far as fighting the online competition is concerned, you cannot leave any stone unturned. One of the important stones that could have hidden treasures for you is the selection of the best PSD markup service.

To conclude

Customers often do not realize the far-reaching impact of selecting their PSD conversion service providers. Why does this happen? The answer is very simple… customers are not adequately informed, they do not also bother to make the required efforts to educate themselves. If you should also be sporting such an attitude, you should understand that you would be the loser. The PSD conversion industry has service providers in all shades. Only when you are well equipped with basic knowledge you will be able to make the right choices. By this, we do not mean that you should become programmers yourself having in-depth knowledge about PSD conversions. It is enough that you are just aware of the above factors and understand the dynamics between the various factors and how each one of them have a specific bearing on the quality of your website and the overall user experience.

You should know what to look for while selecting a PSD markup company and what to check once the selected service provider delivers you the work. In between, during the development process, you should monitor the process to ensure that it is moving in the right direction so that you could spot any deviations relating to the timeline and try to get things back on track. On the one hand, you should have a dependable service provider to handle your project effectively and on the other hand, you should learn what it takes to be a good customer too. This is a two-way path and you cannot blame it all on the PSD conversions company. If you know what you are talking about then you do not leave room for anyone to take you for a ride. Given that PSD conversion forms a very important part of your website’s online success, you certainly need to put in adequate efforts.