Posted under Web
I know that you are really busy. Most small business owners are. In fact, I am a small business owner and I am really busy but I get to charge you hourly so if you help me help you - you save money and I save time. Everyone wins!
I find that when a client engages me to design and develop a website for them, they pretty much think they can hand me a check for the deposit and a website will magically appear in 4-6 weeks. Not so. Unless you want to pay me to hire a photographer to get photos, develop your content and read your mind, I need your time and input in the process. I do hope that most clients find this a really good time to polish up their marketing as a whole and help me create a website that truly represents your business and its unique selling proposition. Here is a quick checklist for preparing to work with a designer or agency to develop a website:
- Reasearch domain names. Go to Network Solutions or any other domain registration site and start plugging in domain name ideas. Go for the shortest and most memorable. If you have a business name, you should purchase your business’ exact domain name but consider something more directly representing your product. If you sell widgets the first obvious choice is widgets.com. If your name is Sam—the next obvious choice is samswidgets.com.
- Set up hosting. Hosting enables your website to be displayed on the Internet. It is where your web pages are stored for the world to view. You can provide the hosting info to your designer and they will set up your site on it.
- Plan out what pages you want in your website. The old standbys are Home, About Us, Our Services and Contact. If you need more, decide what they are in advance. Take a trip to your competitors’ sites to get some ideas.
- Make a site map. A rough flow chart with Home at the top and the other pages underneath. This will give you a visual of how your site flows.
- Gather your content. Organize and structure the content according to your site map. Its best to assemble this in a Word document or Excel spreadsheet.
- Inventory your assets. Logos (digital versions preferred), brochures, ads and any other existing artwork are important elements for dictating the design of your website. Gather photography or visit stock photo sites (dreamstime.com or istockphoto.com are inexpensive options). Hiring a photographer can seem expensive initially but the return on invest is enormous if you have excellent and compelling photos to use on your website, print materials and video.
By gathering stuff in advance, you save time and guesswork for the designer, which ultimately ends up saving you money. If you don’t want to deal with the preparation, then prepare to pay for the designer or agency’s time to research, prepare content and imagery in addition to design and development of the actual site. At the end of the day, a website could be your most important marketing tool so I would advise making time for the project. It will be well worth it.All the best!