Supadü lets marketing and creative people build web, Facebook and mobile sites

Choosing a new website builder is a big decision. Here are some key issues to consider:

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Is the site mobile-ready?

Check that your website will be compatible with mobile devices. This doesn’t mean your developer has to design an app or even a mobile site, just that it’s fully accessible from smartphones and iPads. Users should be able to access your site without running into trouble. Not convinced? Recent stats show that by 2012, mobile internet users will exceed desktop users globally, and an estimated 3.5 billion people will use their mobiles to access the internet by 2015.

Does your fee include support?

When signing up a developer, check whether the fee is for the website build only, or if it includes development support. Support will usually give you a few hours of the developer’s time a month. This will keep you covered should any nasty glitches show up once the site is live. Find out more about the packages and support offered by Supadu here.

Do you code to standards?

There are levels of compliance that your website should meet. It’s best practice for your site to meet World Wide Web Consortium standards (known as W3C) for HTML and CSS, for example. This means that your site is built using standard web building blocks. If you’re not building to the latest standards, don’t expect your site to look good on future browsers. New browsers are being built with the latest standards in mind, so this is an easy win if you pay attention to it.

Which browser will the website work best on?

Sites don’t look the same in each browser, so it’s important that yours gets built with your customers in mind. If your site meets W3C standards, it should work on most browsers. According to NetApps, Internet Explorer is the most used browser across the globe (used by 57 per cent of internet users), followed by Firefox (23 per cent), Chrome (ten per cent), and Safari (six per cent). This varies by country, so look into it before deciding. The Suapdu team can offer help if you'd like extra support on specific browsers. Remember Internet Explorer 6 is no longer supported by many platforms such as Facebook.

Do you follow progressive enhancement or graceful degradation techniques?

Graceful degradation means you’ve built the site so that it’s optimised on the newest browsers, but is still visible on older versions. Progressive enhancement means you build the site for an older browser version, but progressively enhance it. Each sector will have different majority browsers.

Will the site depend on technologies such as Java or Flash?

If its usability is dependent on a specific technology, some people won’t be able to see and use it. Flash is not, for example, supported in iPads or iPhones. If the site is built on a Flash platform make sure your developer also codes it for HTML compliance; and likewise for Java. While Flash can make your site look cool it’s not good for usability or SEO.

How will the site be hosted?

Understand the specifics: how often will the site be backed up? How resilient will the servers be to failure? How scalable are the servers? What are the maximum data levels? You need to know the details. Most hosting packages guarantee a 99.9 per cent uptime, and backups should be daily if you have regularly changing data on your site. Find out if there is a certain bandwidth allowance for your site and if there is an additional fee if you exceed the stated bandwidth allocation.

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Is the site mobile-ready?
Does your fee include support?
Do you code to standards?
Which browser will the website work best on?
Do you follow progressive enhancement or graceful degradation techniques?
Will the site depend on technologies such as Java or Flash?
How will the site be hosted?