A website is a sales and marketing tool, and like any other form of advertising or marketing, there are considerations to be made when contemplating a new website. An important consideration is always money, but this may not be the most important aspect of your website. How important the cost of the website is may be decided by your specific requirements and goals. There are companies that provide inexpensive website design packages that fit most budgets. Other companies offer higher end, customized products. Which direction you go will be based on your requirements, budget, and goals.
This article lays out some of the considerations that must be made to build an effective and profitable website. Questions or comments? The affordable web design experts at Fast Web Site Solutions will be happy to answer any questions you have, free of charge!
1. What is the goal of your website?
Answering this question before the web design process begins is extremely important. Without a clear direction, your website will attempt to be everything to everybody instead of targeting your potential customers. The goals of your website may be extremely simple, and require only a small informational site that gives your local clients a place to locate information about your business, and maybe a map to your physical location.
Some firms wish to sell their products online, and this presents several follow up questions. How will the website be promoted? Is the fulfillment chain organized and ready to go? Who (in your company) will manage the day to day operations of the website?
What is important is that you have a clear and concise goal for your website. Without direction, your web design company can’t build you an accurate bid, and your website is destined for failure. A small business owner doesn’t need any technical knowledge to build her website plan. Simply sitting down with a pen and notepad and answering a couple questions should help solidify the web design site plan. Who are the targeted users? What information will be available on the website? How do you envision the website bringing in clients? What is your budget? What is your expected return on investment?
2. How do I choose a web development company?
Hiring the correct web design company is extremely important to the success of the project. There are many thousands of excellent design firms out there that could a good job for you. How do you sift through them all to get the perfect fit? Here are a couple general guidelines to follow:
- A reputable web design company will have both phone number and email contact information on their website. Sometimes it’s best to use a local company that you can meet with face to face. Other time, you might need to use an outside firm that matches your requirements. However, if you can’t reach the web design company by phone, move along - they’re probably an outsourcing company that uses non-English labor to build your site.
- Choose the website design development company that best meets your requirements. Some designers specialize in certain technologies, while others are more general. For example, if you have a custom accounting solution that you need to tie to your web store, a provider that sells services relating to your accounting package might be best. If you only need a small 3-5 page website, a discount design firm might be best.
- Ask for references. A web design company should be able to provide you with at least 2 and up to 5 references. Then, call the references to make sure that they had a good experience with the design company. Next, research the design firm’s website and look for example sites they’ve created. Contact people at those companies to see if they had a good experience during their website design process.
- Get examples of previous work. This will give you a good gauge of the web designer’s quality of work. Don’t use their own website as a gauge. Often, web design companies spend a lot of time on their own site.
3. How will I promote my website?
