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Website Design Essentials – Preliminary Planning

Your business needs a website, but you don’t know where to get started.  There are many web development companies out there, large and small, but you aren’t ready to talk to them yet.  You want to get organized first, figure out what to put in your site, and where.

Begin at the beginning.  Before you call a website developer, walk through these steps to get your site planned and organized.  You’ll save time and money by defining exactly what you want and need before meeting with a website development company.  And you’ll get exactly the website you dreamed of without going through multiple, costly changes and revisions.

Before meeting with a website developer, determine these essentials:

1. What is the purpose of your website? Do you need an online brochure? Do you want to sell goods and services online?   Websites can roughly be divided into two major types—those that present information only and those that sell and collect payment, commonly known as e-commerce websites.  A custom e-commerce website can be expensive, although simple templates exist that make them affordable to even small businesses.  E-commerce websites require a secure method of collecting payment, including a digital ID and a merchant bank account.  A good website development company can walk you through the additional steps needed to sell online.
2. Who is your target market? Is this site for customers, suppliers, employees, or all of these? Aim your content at your target.  Make your content clean, crisp, and WITHOUT ERRORS. 
3. What is your budget? Website costs range from a few hundred dollars for simple sites created by the small, one-person website developer, to many thousands of dollars for a robust, e-commerce site done by a large, experienced design firm.
4. Research competitor's websites and any other websites you like. What elements and features do you want to include on your site?
5. Consider the life cycle of your website. Will it remain the same for some time? Will it change on a regular basis? This determines the structure of your site.  An experienced website developer can design a backend database to enable frequent updates, with a user interface so you can make changes remotely.  This ability costs more, so be sure to ask about various ways to make changes to your website.
6. Will your website collect visitor's information? Will you collect email addresses for future mailings? How do you want that information delivered? By email?  In a database? 
7. How big is your proposed site? You and the site developer can create a site outline, starting with a home page. What pages link from the home page? What pages link from those pages?   Determine the different functional areas of the site, then organize the linked pages logically.
8. Consider actual content—words, images, animations, or sounds, for example. Do you have existing words and images, or do you need assistance in developing them?  A website copy writer can interview you and create your content. Written content can be taken from existing brochures or marketing materials, but the site developer needs them in an electronic format.  You can save money by providing this content in a ready-to-insert format, such as a Word document.  Developers may charge for time required to scan or type your content.  Images must also be digital—pictures taken with a digital camera, or photos scanned and converted to an appropriate format.  Developers frequently have access to stock or professional photos, but these may add to the cost of your website.  (If you arrived at your appointment with your website developer, armed with a disk containing prepared content and images, they might fall off their chair!)
9. Decide on your personal style. Do you prefer a professional, corporate look? Something more casual or artistic? Somewhere in between?  This may depend on the type of business you are in.  A funeral home website may look somber and conservative, while a jazz bar website may look artistic and funky.
10. You are ready to get to work! Once you have identified your wants and needs, you are ready to call in the professionals.  The website developers you choose will appreciate your efficiency and preparedness.

Leslie Rowe  Fax 941-227-4695   Sarasota FL 34243                       Another site by netproDESIGN

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