Enrim Design Blog

I get a lot of calls and emails from potential clients who don’t know where to start or what to look for when they want to create a website. And it is no surprise! Internet has an infinite amount of possibilities and options, it is very easy to get lost. So I decided to outline the first steps that you can take to get on your way. The process described below may be different for each individual and project, but might save you some time and money.

Before you contact a web designer, you need to decide what would be the main goal of your site?

Promote your services?

Promote your products?

Sell products?

Promote support for your services online?

Keep in touch with established clients?

Attract new ones?

Show off your work/portfolio?

All or combination of the above?

Defining your audience goes hand in hand with defining your goals.

Who will be visiting your site?

What will they be looking for?

What is the action your audience needs to take (fill out the contact form, leave comments, etc)?

Once you know why you want to have a website and the audience you will be targeting, you should start doing some research and gather ideas.

Visit your competition’s websites – notice elements and features you like about them and consider what would work for your own site.

On your competitor’s site notice how many pages they use and what they are (example: home, about us, contact, services, etc) and see if you need something similar.

Visit blogs and design sites to see what style of sites fits your company best.

Based on the above, decide what kind of content you will have – remember sites are designed around the content! That, as well as the way it is structured, is what will attract your visitors and make them stay.

Some variations could be:

Mostly text – brochure site, providing information about your company or services

Mostly text – a blog

Mostly images of products – to sell

Mostly images to promote your services – portfolio

I would recommend to write down a list of pages and define content for each. For example: about page (2-3 paragraphs of text along with 1 or 2 images), portfolio page (thumbnails of all my works that would link to detailed descriptions of the project) etc. Also, make sure you have your logo (here’s a nice website where designers can bid on your logo design) as well as any other visual material that is essential to your business.

Consider how often you will update the site. If you do want to have your site updated regularly, consider if you would like to make the updates yourself or if you would rather pay somebody else to do it.

Once you decided on what you would like to achieve with your site, weigh your own skills and time to see whether you need professional help creating what you have in mind. If you don’t have high budget, then there are a lot of solutions out there that might take you a little bit of time, but will save you some money. Otherwise, find yourself a good web designer.

What to look for in a webdesigner:

PORTFOLIO! Make sure you see what this company/freelancer has done in the past and whether you like it.

References. Ask for them and follow up on them.

Research. Google the company and see what people say about them.

Ask questions as to how the company/freelancer operates.

Once you picked a web designer, you should start thinking about the domain name and hosting. Chances are, your web designer will be able to give you some suggestions as to what domain name would work better and will also be able to provide you with hosting that would be customized to your needs combined with a good price. I highly recommend NOT to register and host your domain name at cheap services. Consult your web designer, there are a lot of solutions out there.

Once that is out of the way – start working on your content right away! Either hire a writer or do it yourself, but start early! A lot of delays happen because the client doesn’t have the content to put on the site. In other words, even though it might seem like you have a lot of time to do it, chances are, by the time your developer is done with your site, your content won’t be completed. If you have the content early, it will also help you designer to create a better structure of your site.

And my last point, but certainly not the least:

Expectations. Once you start working on your site, don’t be expecting to be done in a couple of days. If you want  a quality product, it will take time to build it up. Creating a good site takes a lot of work on both ends – the client and the designer. Expect a lot of back and forth and a lot of brainstorming. If you found the right designer, it will feel good to bounce off of each other with ideas

Summary:

• Determine the purpose of your site
• Determine your audience
• Research competition
• Research design options
• Outline your content
• Consider how often you will update the site
• Weigh your options, and if possible, hire a web designer
• Come up with a domain name
• Work on the content

Here is some more reading material for you to help your research:

Define a Clear Goal for your Website

Finding and Working with the Right Designer

If at any point you feel lost or confused please feel free to contact us at info@enrimdesign.com or call 1-866-466-8086 for a free consultation.

I’d love to hear what you have to say so leave comments with your ideas and suggestions!

Good Luck.

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Tags: article, Education, web design, website

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 28th, 2010 at 5:18 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.