Planning your website can be a tricky process, but don’t worry; I’ll make it easy for you! I will take you step by step and help you plan your site, from beginning to launch.
Whether you’re building a website for your business or your organization, you need to start with a plan. All good plans start with quality information, and to get quality information you need the right questions. This article will help you nail down your website goals and collect the materials necessary for web development. The more effort put into the gathering process, the more likely you will end up with an effective, customer-driven, and well-planned web presence.
Every effort is made to get your website finished as quickly as possible. I like to customise design sites so that there’s a different outcome for every client. Your site should fit your needs, your Web goals, and your style. It needs to capture the essence of the image you want your customers and clients to have of you, and your business.
With all that said, the design is often the part that gets finished long before the most important part: Your content. More often than not, the web project runs along rather smoothly, and quickly, then suddenly ends up gridlocked as I wait for the content, or photos, or videos. It’s been my personal experience that the main reason why this part seems to stall is because most people either do not know what to write, or they know what they want to say but have no idea how to put it all down on paper. This is where hiring a professional writer can come in very handy! I can’t stress enough the importance of quality content. If need be, hire a skilled writer.
On to the steps we’ll go through from start to finish. To save you from having to read all the details online, I will give you a brief outline of each step of the entire process.
- Website Project Questionnaire — After I’ve gathered all the information from you regarding the general website plans (i.e., number of pages needed; how much content; how many images; media/photo galleries; etc.)
- Terms / Deposits — If the terms is accepted, a 50% down payment will be required before work begins. Along with the invoice, you will receive a copy of the Terms which spells out what i will/will not do, what I are/are not responsible for, and other miscellaneous items.
- Your Info — Anything that you can provide to help speed the process up will not only help the both of us it will also be a cost savings for you. This includes, but is not limited to; company logo, brochures, articles, photos, other images, and videos. If you’re selling products, we will need all of your product information/photos/costs. The more information you provide, the quicker your project will be completed and the better the final results.
- Test Site — I will create a test site based on your information so that you can critique and discuss. If you also requested a customised header design, this usually comes before the website concept since the website will be designed around your logo and header. Your feedback is essential in the web design process.
- Design Look and Feel — Based on your feedback from the test site, the customisation is established and will be used for your site. Did I mention that Your feedback is essential in the web design process? – Only the homepage and general customisation/navigation/ colour scheme and home page will be customised, Once you approve the test site your main content will be added once your site is ready to go live.
- Content – Now the content begins to be placed on your site. If we’re going to be using any scripting, that will integrated into the site as the pages are built. Examples of scripting would be the contact form, Google’s tracker or Adsense, and so on. Also, as content is placed, SEO for each page is being done. Your site will be optimized using keywords and descriptions taken from your content. This is not to say that you should write for the search engines. Write for your readers first and foremost, being sure to strategically place your keywords within your content.
- Website goes “Live” — After you have approved on the final review, and everything is as it should be, your site will be ready for public launching! Following the launch of your site, you will receive support depending on the package you selected in order to make any MINOR changes to the content of your site, such as add/remove a paragraph, or make a grammatical change in content.
I look forward to the opportunity to work with you on your web project!
