We get a numerous clients that come to us and say "I want a website for my business, but I don’t know what’s involved" We do! But we also have people who come to us, frustrated and even angry about how their previous web designer treated them or how their website just did not perform for them.
In this article, we aim to look at the types of questions you should ask yourself before contacting a designer, and the preparation work you should do.
1. Do I need a website?
Although this may seem like an obvious question, in some circumstances, it may not. Perhaps your marketing budget could be better spent elsewhere. However, many people won’t discover your services through any other means. The Internet has become an expected tool of modern business; it’s low cost, and an effective way to bring clients to your business.
2. What are my goals for the site?
Are you going to use your site to sell products through your site? Advertise your business or service you provide? Do you want to increase membership in your organization, or offer Web-based benefits to current members? Do you want visitors to email you? Call you? Subscribe to a newsletter? Knowing your goals will help focus your ideas for the site.
3. What am I trying to sell or promote?
Even if you don’t like the idea of selling yourself, it’s what we all do, every day, if we want to be successful. Don’t be afraid of sales and marketing. Answering this question will help you determine the theme of your site, such as the site navigation, and the tone of the written content.
4. What do I need to get my site online?
Domain name
The way your business address allows your customers to find your shop or office, a domain name allows you to be found online. A domain name (URL) is written as www.yourbusiness.com.au (where www stand for World Wide Web). Hailstorm can help you purchase a domain name for your business.
Website Design and development
Website design involves developing an appropriate look and feel for your site. The copy needs to be written and any additional tools such as online forms; shopping carts and audio clips need to be added.
Hosting
Just like you rent office or shop space, web hosts provide space on Internet servers for storing websites. This service is usually offered by ISPs or web hosting specialists. Hailstorm offers a number of hosting packages to meet your needs.
Upkeep
Once up and running, your site should be updated with fresh material, giving people a reason to return. You will need to determine if you have the skills to update it yourself, or outsource the work to a designer.
5. Should I hire a professional or do it myself?
When answering this question, you should ask yourself, ’Do I have the skills, time and desire to design my own site?’ Keep in mind that when you hire a web designer you immediately acquire thousands of hours of experience, access to the latest tools of the trade and insider knowledge of the industry. Since an unprofessional Web site can be worse than no site at all, I strongly suggest you do what you do best and outsource the rest.
6. What content do I need to build the site?
A could starting point is to tell your visitors about your company and what services or products you can provide for them. Secondly, images will help add depth and appeal to your site. The images may include you company logo or photos of people or products. Poor quality photos or bad clip art can make the most attractive site look amateurish; sometimes no photos can be better than poor ones.
7. What are my responsibilities to create an effective site?
Even if you hire a professional web developer your input is essential since no one knows your business better than you. You should expect to help develop a site outline with your developer, pull the copy together and give input on the layouts presented to you. Once your site is live you should also budget time to add content on a regular basis. You should reply to emails and inquiries in a timely fashion to show you haven’t abandoned your site.
8. What will my site cost me?
The web design industry is very diverse, and as such offers a wide range of billing rates. Some designers will charge by the hour, some charge per page and some charge fixed rates for their services. The price will reflect the time it takes to analyse your needs, designing the layout and coding the site. It’s hard to say how much you could expect to pay. Some designers may charge anywhere between $500 for a simple site and up to $40,000 for a large corporate site. As a rule, you get what you pay for. Experienced designer and developer are worth their weight in gold.
Before you settle on a designer, remember! You are in no way obligated to commit to the first designer you contact. A good designer will produce a website proposal and an itemized quotation after the initial interview. A designer or developer that gives you a figure off the top of their head is just out to make a quick buck.
Once the site is up and running, you have two options available when it comes to updating your site. You can either hire your designer to make update and changes, or you can do it yourself. We would recommend hiring your designer to do update, as he or she has the experience. Time and time again we hear about customers who take it upon themselves to update their site. Some are successful; others end up having to call in the designer to fix up the mistakes. This can end up costing more then it would to have the designer update your site.
9. How do I attract more traffic to my site?
It is unlikely that your business is a monopoly and therefore you need to look at search engines, links and advertising to develop your business presence online. It is important to develop unique keywords that describe your business, and set it apart from similar businesses. A good developer will make you site search engine friendly, and put you in touch with professionals who can help optimize your site and help get your site a top listing on search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Put your URL (web site address) on your business cards, news letters, emails and stationary. Continually update and improve on your site. Reviewing your site’s traffic reports can alert you to what visitors are finding interesting and what they’re ignoring.
10. How will I know that my site is successful?
Firstly, you can ask your clients or customers how they found you. You can look at your sales records every few months. Have you met them? If so, is it time to create new, more challenging goals?