We get asked a lot to sort out issues and non performing websites for a variety of different companies who we then provide quality web design advice to.
So we thought a good idea would be to publish some thoughts on the process of getting a website, designing a website and getting traffic to your site and the thought processes that people should go through.
We have already written about choosing a web design company and whilst we would like everyone to use our services we obviously realise that is not going to happen. For more or less impartial web design advice on choosing the right partner to work with go to our page web design company
Let's imagine that you've chosen the web design company you're going to deal with. You're happy with what you've seen and heard, now all you need to do is to go through a design specification. Daunting eh?
Well not really, if you follow our process here. There are some key steps to getting what you want.
First of all think about what your site is there for. Is it there to give information out about your company?. Is it there to sell products?Is it there to create a marketing database? There are lots and lots of different reasons that companies have websites and the chances are you will have more than one good reason to be getting one. Make a list of these reasons, they will help you enormously in the design process. This is one of the biggest pieces of web design advice we can give.
Secondly think about the appearance of your website. The options here are endless and we'll try to give you a brief overview of them. Realistically look at your budget. If it's limited then we would recommend looking at a template and then changing it to fit your needs. Then benefits to you of template design is that you can see almost exactly what you're going to get before the design starts. However, the biggest plus factor will be the cost. Because some of the design work has been done then the cost should be considerably less than getting a site from scratch.
Some clients dislike using templates, because they fear that there site will not be unique and this is completely understandable. However, generally speaking the designers can change so much, and there are so many templates out there that the chances of someone recognising that your site came from a template is slim to non-existant. And even it they do then is this a major problem? Will they think less of your company? Probably not. Templates can be a great way of getting an excellent cost effective site.
The other option open to you is to get a complete bespoke design. Depending on your requirement and your budget you might decide that the bespoke web design is your preferred option. The benefits to you are reasonably in so far that noone else will have the same site as you. An obvious advantage if you are offering certain types of products or services.
If you plump for a bespoke web design, then what should it look like? How will you know what you're going to get? Good question, you're going to invest your money and the results are uncertain and this makes you nervous, well it would make me nervous! Your web design company need your help here. They need to base the design on something, you will need to come up with ideas, things that you really like and things that you really don't.
You have probably seen other websites that appeal to you. They might be live sites or templates. Mention these to the web design company, but obviously be aware of copyright infringement. The last thing you want is a replica of site and then getting sued for it. Be careful! We would suggest that you give the designer five or six sites which you like then they can get the overall look and feel right for your site going forward.
As a general rule of thumb we would suggest that if you can afford it, then get a bespoke web design. Although templates have their place and are used extensively in the industry, if you really want to stand out get a bespoke web design.
Moving on, there are a number of technologies out there and they can be confusing. HTML, PHP, ASP, ASP.net, Java, Flash, SWF and the list goes on. Do you need to know about these? Does it matter what your website gets written in?
Essentially, be guided by your web design company. They may specialise in one technology and they will lean towards that. However, there is one thing you should be aware of. Flash sites create some wonderful looking websites (example here) but, and it's a big BUT they can create problems and issues with search engines. I won't go into much detail here, but if your web designer suggests an entire site in flash and you intend to get a lot of search engine driven traffic, then you will definitely have to work on an effective search engine management strategy.
That concludes getting the first part of the web design advice section about what your initial steps should be in getting your site designed. We now need to look at images and how to write text for your website. This is incredibly important. Click to move on to writing text
To talk to us in person if you have queries
Call us asap
01530 566090
other pages you might find useful optimisation for beginners is a good one to try. |
