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PSD To WordPress Conversions – Special Considerations

It is not without reason that today thousands of websites make use of WordPress as their CMS or content management system. When WordPress was launched no one thought that this simple blogging platform would become a leading content management system that will power so many thousands of websites. WordPress is an open source content management system. It was initially launched with very limited design templates. Now that it has become a high-end CMS used by top brands, the basic designs will certainly not suffice. If you want to launch a WordPress powered website you will want your website to look unique and special. You could either choose to buy a readymade template or try to build your own custom design.

Companies that like to make their brand stand out from the rest of the competition always go for custom designed WordPress designs. It is really a fancy idea to get a custom design for your website but one of the challenges that you are likely to face in designing a stunner is converting the PSD designs to WordPress format.

PSD Conversions

PSD conversions is a normal process in the web designing. However, not everyone will be able to handle this consideration effectively. Most of the designers just create the design layout in PhotoShop and a programmer has to work on the design and code it to HTML or other relevant coding technology. In case of WordPress, the pages have to be coded to WordPress format so that the pages will resolve correctly in the WordPress website.

Challenges In PSD To WordPress Conversions

Converting complex designs to WordPress pages will require vast experience. Not everyone will be able to handle these conversions. Only someone with adequate programming skills will be able to do 100% justice to your designs and convert it to pixel perfect pages.

Professional vs. Shoddy Job

Attention to details is a key ingredient in creating impressive conversions. If there is one factor that stands between top-notch PSD conversions and a shoddy job, then it is attention to details. The coding expert who is engaged in the job should also have some design sense to convert the PSD files to WordPress format without compromising on the aesthetic appeal. Attention to details is certainly going to be a biggie here.

Functional Details

When it comes to PSD to WordPress slicing job, we are not talking of just the design transfer but there are other even more challenging tasks. You need to ensure that the website is fully functional too besides just transferring the designs to the WordPress pages.

As opposed to the basic HTML pages, WordPress pages need to take into account technical compatibility and functional feasibility factors too. Therefore, it is not enough that your WordPress website just looks good but it should also be functionally effective.

WordPress is a fully loaded content management system. Retaining all the features without losing their integrity is the challenge the coding experts will have. Moreover, the website should also leave room for seamless incorporation of additional plugins and modules at a later stage.

The coding experts should be conversant with the latest version of the WordPress. Every new version of WordPress launched will have additional functional capabilities and bug fixes. All these should be taken into account during the conversion process otherwise; the final output will be affected. You will have a pixel perfect WordPress page but your users will frequently run into issues when they start using your website. Functional integrity is yet another challenge to be borne in mind in PSD to WordPress conversions.

Cross Browser Compatibility

Regardless of whether it is PSD to WordPress conversions or PSD to other open source platforms, there is one common concern that needs to be addressed and that is cross browser compatibility. Your WordPress website should be able to render itself correctly in all the leading browser types. Unless you have tested the web pages in all the leading browsers, it is not possible to ensure cross browser compatibility. Very often we come across websites that load correctly in most browsers but even such websites run into glitches when you try to use their payment gateways. For example, number of banking websites work only in specific versions of Internet Explorer. They do not work in Chrome or other leading browsers. Customers that try to make payments through internet banking from third party service providers run into problems if they do not log into the third party website using Internet Explorer. Here such banking website would have failed to test the cross browser compatibility features and that is why customers run into problems when they try to perform a transaction from a different browser.

Responsive Design

Responsive design is yet another feature to be incorporated. At one level, the pages have to open correctly in all the leading browsers and all the functional modules too should work correctly regardless of the browser type. At another level, the website should also work well regardless of the device used to access the website. Responsive website design is the need of the hour. When you launch a WordPress website, your website should be coded in such a manner that appropriate pages are served to the user based the device used. This is part of the PSD to WordPress coding challenge to ensure that your website users get the right pages served in their device. Users need to squint their eyes to view your WordPress pages if the desktop version is served to the user who is accessing your website through a mobile device.

Similarly, all the functionalities of your website should function seamlessly in the responsive versions too. Make certain that your users are able to complete the transactions fully without any glitches even if they use their mobile devices. As you could easily notice that when you are converting your PSD designs to WordPress format, compatibility challenges have to be addressed at various levels. You cannot therefore handover the conversion job to someone randomly just based on his or her self-made assurances. You will need to review the portfolio of the service provider closely to understand their capabilities. This does not mean that you will always run into trouble while hiring your PSD to WordPress conversion service provider, the point we are trying to drive home here is that, this is a very complex process and you need to have the right people on the job. So make the right choices after taking into account the reputation and the credibility of the service provider.

Search Engine Friendliness

If you were to ask yourself why you should have a website in the first place, what will be your answer? Greater and better reach. Yes, every business out there today by taking their brand online is trying to get better reach. If it were not for better reach then what is the point? When we are talking of better reach, we cannot certainly avoid the discussion on online competition. If you were the sole service provider in the niche then you will have no problem in terms of reach. However, that is not the case. In reality, your brand has to compete with thousands of websites.

Your PSD to WordPress conversions should ensure that your website is aesthetically appealing and at the same time, it is also very search engine friendly. WordPress is known for its search engine friendliness. However, it has to be supported well by your design. The entire conversion and process and PSD to WordPress deployment should take this single factor as the most important criterion because without being a search engine friendly website, all your other efforts could go simply wasted. Therefore, your overall concern should be building a search engine friendly WordPress website.

W3C Compliance

For most of us, what is going on inside the website will be of no concern as long as they look good and they load correctly. However, when it comes to running a successful WordPress website, there are always things that go beyond the surface. The codes written for your WordPress pages should be clutter free. They should be compliant with W3C coding standards. Even though externally you will not notice any change or difference, you need to make certain that clean coding standards are used in your website. If you need to upgrade your website or make any changes to your codes then your future programmer or coder should be able to understand the codes. You need to insist that your PSD to WordPress coding experts stick to W3C coding standards. Very often, as a customer, you may not be technically qualified to review the codes or may not even know the difference whether the coding standards follow W3C conventions or not and that is why it becomes very important that you choose a well-established service provider with good reputation.

Page Speed Score

Another important consideration when you are trying to load you are trying to convert your PSD designs to WordPress website is the page speed score. This refers to the speed at which your pages load in the users’ browser. Your website needs to load fast to ensure the best user experience. Search engines like Google consider page-loading speed as an important ranking factor. If the pages take too long to load then it will lead to user frustration. Search engines are particular that they keep their customers happy. If your website is not going to match their standards along these lines then you are not only going to have frustrated visitors but you are also going to have problems with the search engines. They would not want to rank you on top of the search results. In other words, your website’s ranking will be affected. Keep in mind the page loading speed when you are converting your PSD files to WordPress and optimize the pages for fast loading even in the slowest connections. There are certain coding techniques that could help you speed up the page. For example by keeping the number of server requests to the minimal level, you will be able to increase the page loading speed to a considerable level. You should therefore know how to handle things here. In case, you are not coding the pages yourself, but hiring a coding company for the PSD to WordPress conversions then make sure that they are capable of handling such requirements and that they deliver you a fast loading website. Here even if you are not going to be a technically sound professional, you should at least be a well-informed customer. You therefore keep all these factors in mind when you are getting your PSD designs to WordPress format.

Conversion Turnaround Time

Conversion turnaround time is going to be another area that you need to focus regardless of whether you are going to handle the PSD conversions yourself or going to get it done by a third party service provider. On the one hand, you should get the best job done and on the other hand, you should get the work done in a timely fashion. You cannot throw a sloppy work just because you do not have time. Attempt the conversion tasks only when you know that you could complete it to perfection or else get someone that could do it for you even if you have the capabilities to convert the files yourself.

When you are going to hire a third party service provider to take care of your PSD to WordPress conversions, make it a point to check with your service provider on the conversion turnaround time. Number of PSD conversions company do not have their own in-house team of coding experts for advanced conversion jobs or for specialized PSD conversion tasks such as PSD to WordPress. They outsource such tasks while doing only simple or basic PSD conversion jobs in-house. You will not know whether a company is handling their PSD conversions in-house or having them done with third party service providers. You need to be cautious therefore in selecting the right company. Before signing up ensure that you understand their process, get their commitment and assurance on the deadlines. Work only with companies that deliver work on the agreed deadlines.

Are You Apprehensive?

Are you feeling apprehensive after reading all these? Getting PSD to WordPress conversions is indeed a very challenging job. This is not something that you would want to do using a DIY video. There are various technical challenges in the process. Moreover, you need to have the bigger picture in mind. It is not just the design or not just the coding, but everything should be well balanced to deliver the users with a user-friendly website.

Converting your PSD designs to WordPress should also take a futuristic view. Your website should be compatible and user-friendly to the future users too so that you are not busy making changes to your website or upgrading within few months because it is looking outdated or its functionalities are obsolete.

You will be making a sizeable investment on your website. If this investment should yield the expected results, you need to put in adequate efforts in getting things correct right at the first time. WordPress it itself is a powerful platform but if you are not cautious, you could end up running into problems. You will fail to get the best out of this powerful platform.
WordPress like all the other open source platforms is an evolving platform. Many new features, functionalities and capabilities are added to WordPress. With each new updated version of WordPress, come its own set of complications. The coding expert who is working on PSD to WordPress markup should keep himself or herself continually updated of the latest development and incorporate this knowledge in the conversion process.

You have a huge responsibility ahead of you. Make sure that you rise up to the challenge and do justice to the conversion jobs. Alongside, you should also keep yourself updated of the latest Google search engine updates. If not all PSD markup companies are unable to take care of the conversions effectively then these are some of the reasons. Someone with limited experience or limited industry knowledge could wreck the job completely putting you in a very difficult spot, forcing you to look for someone for a complete rework.

If you work with a company that has vast experience in the field and with a company that enjoys good reputation then you will not be required to worry about such issues. All that you need to focus now is to identify the best service provider in the industry for PSD to WordPress conversions, a company that has converted thousands of pages so that they will not use your project as a test ground for learning. With a bit of careful review and screening you will certainly be able to find a right partner to work with. Do not forget to get a detailed quote before you sign up with your PSD to WordPress markup company.