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Nowadays most businesses desire to build some sort of an online presence to enhance the sales, services, and visibility of their company. Yet many business owners view the endeavor as their own personal interest in what they want rather than providing a business tool that will add value to their customers' experience. Too many either ignore the advice of seasoned web design professionals or they are so infatuated with getting the bells and whistles for their website that they do not realize their mistakes until it registers with them that they are not getting a return on their investment.
While having a website is an excellent tool to enhance one's business, it is not a panacea to make all your business goals come true. Building an online presence is rewarding, but it will take time, patience, and careful planning to reach your objectives. This guide provides a practical, business approach to web design and development.
The Practical Business Approach to Web Design is a simple philosophy which takes the approach that any design or development solution taken to build your company's online presence should accomplish the following outcomes.
Increase sales of products and services.
Increase visibility with potential customers and clients
Enhance services offered to customers and clients
Provide relevant information about the company, its products, and or its services.
Provide another means of contact with business associates, customers, clients, partners, and employees. This guide provide six practical steps you can take in building your online presence.
1. Decide Why You Need a Website?
What are your main reasons for getting a website? Do you need a simple online business card? Do you want to sell products and services online? The reasons for having a website are important for helping you plan and develop an online presence.
2. Do Your Homework
Before selecting and purchasing web design services, it is very important for you to at least get a general understanding of what it will take to get your website built, online, and maintained. Knowing what's involved will make you a smarter consumer which will prevent you for paying for services that you do not need or that is overpriced.
3. Who Is Going to Design Your Site?
Do you have the skills to design a professional looking website? One in which no one will think that your 10 year old did it? If not, it is important to select someone who can design to your needs and educate you about development options, issues and best practices.
The following is a list of items that should be discussed with your web designer during the initial contact and planning process.
Company goals and objectives for having a website
Company or corporate identity including company culture, products, and services
The budget allocated for the company website
Information about the company's customers/clients (Who are they?)
Choosing an web address/domain name
Hosting and eCommerce services
Maintaining and updating your site
Getting your site listed in search engines (site promotion)
Services provided by the design company, and the size of their development team
The design company's production/development process
The design company's quality assurance process
4. Select the Type of Website that you need
Based on your needs, time-frame, and budget select the type of website that you need.
A. One page business card: this is a good place to start if you simply need to display your company name and contact information.
B. Online brochure: this is a 3 to 6 page website that has information about your company, products, and services.
C. High Impact Site: this website is mainly comprised of web animation and multimedia (sound and video) content. This content is developed with Adobe Flash and takes 2 to 3 times longer to develop than a standard website. Flash can be used to create intro pages for sites or demonstrations/presentations. You will see mostly gaming sites, entertainment sites, and sites geared for kids and young adults using almost 100% Flash. For any other site I always recommend integrating flash with standard web development.
D. Information Site: this type of website is used to build online communities. Database features are required to maintain user information and to manage content.
E. Ecommerce Site: This website has information about your company as well as the capability to sell your products and services. An ecommerce site is more expensive to build and maintain especially since it involves credit card transactions. There are companies that offer merchant solutions (ecommerce shopping carts) along with their hosting plans. Depending on what services you select, this type of site requires a database to handle customer information and information about your products and services.
5. Understand the Web Production Process
Building a website is much like building a house. When you sit down with an architect he asks questions to get a feel of what you want. Next, you are shown pictures of different types of houses. Once you have chosen the style, then you customize your selection (down to the doors on the kitchen cabinet). After that's done the architects lays out the plans then contractors build the house. Designing a website should work in a similar fashion, however most clients leave the fine details up to the designer. Getting a website built is an exciting and challenging venture. The exciting part is having your own space on the net that is available for the whole world to see. The challenging part is deciding what you need to adequately represent your company on the Internet. Once those needs are determined you then have to figure out how to implement your plans.
Once contractors have all of the information to build a house, it can be constructed without any further contact with the client unless he needs to clarify something about the plans. Web designers do not work with concrete, wood, fixtures, or plumbing but they do work with code and images that lay a foundation and framework of how your website will look and function. Like the building of a house, change requests made after the foundation and frame has been completed will cost time and money to redo (you should not expect a web developer to redesign and reconstruct your website without any additional cost).
The following is a brief outline of a web design planning and production process.
Planning: The client and designer meet to determine needs, wants (site purpose and functionalities)
Design Proposal: The design and development team provide the client with a functional specification: which outlines in detail, website navigation, content, description of look and feel (frontend), technologies and functionalities needed, and cost.
Contract/Commitment: Client and Designer agree to business relationship.
Phase I Production: The Graphic design team provides client with website composition samples, Software engineers begin programming functionalities (backend development).
Phase I Sign Off: The client views, chooses, and approves layouts.
Phase II Production: The approved designs are turned into a functional website. Backend development is completed.
Quality Assurance testing: QA Team or development team tests the website to make sure things work properly and that the site is working according to the functional specifications.
Client Testing: The client gets a first look at fully functional site and test the site to verify that it meets agreed upon functional specification.
Alignment: If client concerns are raised, the site is aligned to meet the functional specification or additional specifications are implemented.
Phase II Sign Off: The client gives okay that the site meets the agreed upon specifications.
Site Launch. The website is up and running for the world to see.
6. Get Started!
After you have determined your needs and evaluated the information that you received from a potential web developer. The next step is to get started. Most companies that offer Web Design and Development Services will also often offer help in registering your domain and choosing a hosting services (which can be purchased separately from different companies). It is important to discuss domain registration and hosting with a potential designer because they often offer a package discount.
First impressions make a huge impact on your company's reputation, however many companies seem to throw sound business practices "out of the door" when developing a website for their company. Many would not want their business represented by employees who were shabbily dressed, nor would they continue to employ associates who did not wear the company uniform or follow the dress code. A website (from a business perspective) is a twenty-four hour, seven days a week employee and representative which can be seen by the entire world. Protect your company image when getting online by selecting a web design service that can he you develop a professional looking online presence.
Author:
Eric Jackson | ThisBrother
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