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Today PSD to xhtml services or PSD to HTML conversion services are becoming increasingly popular. The demand for the PSD slicing services is increasing day by day as more and more non-technical people get into web designing industry. The advantage today is that you do not have to write even a single line of coding while designing your website. You could easily outsource the coding needs to experts and they will be happy to deliver pixel perfect coded pages, which allow you to create visually stunning websites that also comply with W3C standards. However, you cannot choose your service providers randomly if you want to get quality work delivered to you. Let us look at various factors that you should know before you hire your PSD to HTML conversion services. When you plough through the article, you might think some of the factors discussed are very basic, yes they may be but surprisingly people tend to ignore what you consider very basic while selecting their service providers and blindly go with the price factor. So we think there is no such thing as ‘too basic’ and everything we have discussed here are highly important factors which one needs to take into account while purchasing their PSD to HTML conversion services.

Experience

What is the experience of your service provider? Has the service provider been in the industry for several years now, going through the various motions of the PSD conversions industry? Experience is certainly a game changer when it comes to finding the best service provider in the PSD markup industry. An experienced service provider would have handled various types of PSD conversion requirements. They would have handled many conversion challenges, dealt with various conversion formats. All these will come in very handy when you are trying to get your PSD conversions done. Your service provider would not be using your website as the test ground but would know what exactly to do when you present your requirements. When we talk of the experience, it is not just the experience of the company as a whole but also the experience of the individuals hired by the service provider. There is no point hiring a company that has been in the industry for 10 years if the work pertaining to your website is going to be assigned to someone with just one year experience. It is as good as working with a one year old company. When you are hiring your PSD conversions company, make it a point to ask them what is the experience of their coding experts who will be handling your requirements. Companies have the obligation to tell you what kind of coding experts they are engaging to strip your PSD designs.

Tableless PSD Markup

Today most of the PSD slicing companies promise to offer tableless markup services. However, this does not mean that you should automatically presume that all the companies offered tableless PSD markup services.

If you are not sure what tableless PSD conversions mean, you need not be bogged down by the technicalities of PSD conversions. You just need to ensure that the PSD conversions offered is tableless conversions because of the long list of benefits it offers. One of the important benefits is that tableless CSS gives you the highest level of compatibility with different types of browsers. When you are creating your website, it is important that you attract the maximum number of visitors to your website. Today, visitors do not come to websites not just using the desktop computers, they rather make use of various desktop to handheld gadgets. All these use variety of browser types and display sizes. If your website should survive all these variations and if it should be easily accessible without any glitches then you will need tableless CSS.

More to that, tableless web pages are lot lighter. They will therefore load faster when compared to the other versions. You are therefore going to ask your service provider what kind of conversions they will be delivering you. Have it confirmed with your service provider that they deliver tableless PSD to XHTML conversion solutions.

Stay Away From Software Aided Coding

You will need to ensure that your website is coded manually. There are companies that promise to offer manual coding services but in reality, many of them make use of software aided coding or software aided conversions. If you are looking for accurate PSD to HTML or XHTML conversions, then it is essential that your PSD conversions are handled manually. This is going to be another major selection criterion next to experience. Check with your PSD conversions company whether they offer machine conversions or manual conversions.

Why work with a company?

Today, you can find numerous PSD to XHTML conversion service providers on the web. Some of them are professional organizations while others are not organizations but freelance service providers. If you are going to need just one or two pages to be sliced then you might as well go with freelancers. On the other hand, if you have a massive website with PSD conversion needs for 100s of pages then it is not advisable to go with freelancers. This does not mean freelancers are not talented but it is simply because they may not be reliable. Not all freelancers are self-motivated nor are they deadline conscious. In case, something happens to them or they find better opportunities, they will leave you in a quandary midway. On the other hand, you do not have to worry about such issues when you are dealing with a PSD conversion company. Even if the assigned coding expert leaves the organization or goes on a long leave, the company will ensure that someone is put on the job so that your work is not stalled or your deadlines are delayed in any way.

You could see frequently, customers ignoring this factor and hiring their service providers through some freelance platforms.

Understand The Conversion Process or Workflow

When you are sending out your work to your PSD to XHTML service provider, you need to understand their work flow. Here again many people think that they need not have to know all these details and that they just send the work without understanding the workflow process. In what way is this important for a customer? Firstly, you need to know whether the work is handled by an in-house coding expert or it is further outsourced. You will need to avoid companies that further outsource their work to some third party service providers. This could affect the overall quality of the work and your website’s aesthetic appeal because it is not done by a professional conversions expert but by some amateur service provider.

Does your company honor deadlines?

Very often customers complain about deadlines. While taking up bulk conversion orders, service providers just for the sake of securing the order promise unrealistic deadlines. When it comes to actual delivery of the work, they delay the customers. When it comes to launching a website, time is of essence. If your website is not launched at the right time, then you could miss important opportunities or someone else could compete with you and launch their website usurping the pioneer title in the industry.

It does not mean that all the service providers are bad, you need to find service providers that honor their own deadlines and companies that take pride in delivering the work in a timely fashion. Once you establish your relationship with such service providers, you will not have to worry on the long run. You can make use of the same service provider for all your subsequent requirements.

At times, when you miss your deadlines for launching your website just because, your PSD conversions company has delayed, you could even end up suffering monetary loss. For example, if you are a web design company that is outsourcing your PSD conversion needs to a third party service provider with the intention of improving your productivity then meeting deadlines are very important because, you are answerable to your customers. If you constantly delay your deliveries then your reputation in the web design industry will be tarnished. Moreover, you will start losing business because of your PSD conversions service provider. We cannot emphasize here enough the importance of finding companies that meet deadlines.

What ranking advantage are you getting from the PSD conversions?

One of the main reasons why we are putting in so much effort on getting your PSD conversions is to make your web pages search engine friendly. Google and the other search engines cannot understand the content of the images. They cannot as a result rank your website correctly. Moreover, loading the entire page as single image without PSD markup will make the pages very sluggish. It will in turn affect your page speed score. All these will make your website less desirable for the search engines. If you entrust your PSD conversions to an experienced PSD conversions company with adequate technical skills, then they will ensure that the pages are coded in the most search engine friendly way. If you are unable to leverage search engine friendly coding then you are putting yourself in a very disadvantageous spot despite spending a lot of money on your PSD conversions. You will need to check how well the websites coded by your PSD conversions company are faring on the search results.

How about the portfolio of your service provider?

There cannot be a better way to assess the quality of your service provider than by reviewing their portfolio. Make sure that they are featured in their website and do not ask them to send sample links of their work. The reason why the samples have to be featured in the website is because anyone can claim credit for any work online and we will not know until we cross check the details. If the portfolio is uploaded in the website, then it is made public and the chances of cheating are less. You will therefore need to make sure that you take time to review the quality of the work done by reviewing the portfolio of your service provider. Therefore, do not hesitate to ask for references and for publicly featured portfolio to your service provider. As your website is going to be your online face, you cannot afford to make any mistakes in this regard. There cannot be any compromises on the quality of the work. You need to therefore leave no stone unturned when it comes to finding the best service providers for your PSD conversion needs.

Overall customer experience

What is the overall customer experience with the service provider you have chosen? Some of the service providers give you exceptional customer support at the presales stage. However, once you signup with your service provider, you will be totally forgotten. This is not something uncommon or farfetched but it has been one of the most frequent complaints from the customers that hire some dubious service providers. You should not end up with such service providers. You need to screen them closely and work with companies that offer seamless services with exceptional customer experience. Working with premium service providers will certainly save you from such hassles. Is your service provider assigning you a project manager? Yes, premium service providers assign dedicated account managers who give impressive services. You need not have to deal with multiple people or follow up with some random people. You will know exactly whom to follow up right from the beginning of the project. Moreover, you will also know what is the exact status of your project, as your project manager will keep you posted of the status of the work regularly. Working with such a company will make the entire process enjoyable. Moreover, you are not required to micro-manage your project.

Transparency in pricing

Most importantly, when you are hiring a service provider for your PSD to HTML or PSD to XHTML conversions, you need to be clear with the pricing. How much are you going to be charged and what is the pricing model your service provider will be using etc., should be first established. You will have to work with a trustworthy service provider. Before you contract any service provider for your PSD conversion, it is essential that you establish their credibility without which it is not advisable to work with them.

Ask for detailed quotes and ensure that there are no hidden charges. You need to ask specific questions on hidden charges to avoid unnecessary surprises at a later stage.
Your service provider should also be ready to provide you with satisfactory coding solutions. If the quality of the work submitted is not up to the mark, they should be able to rectify the issues without any additional charges. You will need to discuss all these matters in advance.

It is best if your service provider offers money back guarantee. Working with service providers that offer money back guarantee gives you additional assurance on the overall quality of the work to be expected. Only companies that have experience delivering impeccable PSD conversions will announce money back guarantee. Not all the service providers in the industry could so easily promise money back guarantee. When you are scouting for the right service providers look for service providers that offer money back offers. This way, you can keep the risks minimal.

Guarding your interests as a customer

Guarding your interests as a customer is very important when you are trying to identify the best PSD to XHTML conversion experts. To ensure this you will need to pay attention to all the above factors. There are no shortcuts to finding the best service providers. Either you should go with references from your friends or you should look out for the best providers yourselves. Instead of rushing to pick your service provider without adequate screening process and regretting later, it is best to take some time to make your choices. Initially, it might look like a tedious process but on the long run, you will realize that you have been on the right track by carefully scrutinizing multiple services providers. Ultimately, it is your brand reputation that will be at stake if the markup of your website is not professionally handled. Your markup company will not be affected in any way. Therefore, be on your guards when you are picking your service providers.

You need not have to be paranoid in any way. All that you are required to do is to be little cautious. Ask the right questions, wait until you have gotten the right answers. Weigh each service provider carefully. Once you have done these, then you will not have to worry about running into issues at a later stage. All your subsequent PSD conversion jobs will be done in the most effortless way because you have already toiled to find the right service provider in the industry for handling your needs.