Thinking About the Details

A Critical Eye

A mistake many organizations make when it comes to their website is going through a redesign because they want to look like everyone else. If your site feels dated, get a second opinion from people you respect who are outside of your organization. Create a simple survey and ask peers to walk through and evaluate your site. You should consider asking questions like:

1) What is the goal of our organization?

2) What is the purpose of the website?

3) Were you able to easily navigate website?

4) Was the information on the Home Page clear and concise?

From the responses you get from those questions you will be able to better understand the strengths/weaknesses of your Home Page and overall website. Content is king and whether you have a “dated” website or the coolest most up-to-date design out there – if your user doesn’t understand what you are trying to do or where they are supposed to go, you have lost.

Maximizing the Options

Small and even medium sized businesses may not have the capital to invest a $70,000 + website design and development project. That’s okay. But just because you don’t have a big budget does not mean you have to sacrifice design and layout. Here are a few tips to help you understand where to begin.

1. Determine your budget

Whether you are shopping around for an agency/web design company to build you a site, or you are going to embark on building your own website, it is important to first determine your budget. If you are trying to get bids from credible agencies, that is one of the first questions they should ask you. Don’t be intimidated if your budget is low. Agencies like ours will do our best to work within your budget and give you the best website collateral we can.

2. Research Website Platforms

If you don’t have a large budget, it is best to look at some of the open-source website platforms available. There are three open-source platforms that you should at least familiarize yourself with before beginning your website project. WordPress, Joomla! and Drupal. These three platforms are reliable, offer customer support, and are great for backend management. When working with clients with small budgets, we generally lean towards building a template on WordPress because of its flexibility and because the backend systems can be easily managed by clients who don’t have a lot of website experience.

3. Determine Your Content

Coming up with content then organizing the content into a meaningful layout is tough. But providing content to an agency prior to the start of your project will save you money. Working with an agency that has experience organizing content so that it is meaningful to the user is beneficial. Content may be king, but if your user gets confused and frustrated when they are on your website, it doesn’t matter what content you have because they are going to leave your website.

4. Organize Media

You are most likely going to want to use photography and video to help sell your business to your user. You have 5 seconds to capture your user’s attention, and if there isn’t some sort of graphic or image that interests them, then you run the risk of having them leave your website. If you are going to have graphics, photography, video, or any kind of media, collect those files prior to starting your project. If you are working with an agency, they will help generate media for you (again, depending on your budget), or they will help you select images that fit your brand and the goals of your business. Avoid stock photography and cheap images as much as possible.

5. Find a Web Host

There are many companies out there that specialize in website hosting. If you know your budget, you will know how much you can afford to spend each year on hosting. What type of website host you will need is depended on several factors. One is how much traffic your site will receive at any given moment of the day. If your businesses is small, chances are you won’t have huge spikes in traffic initially and you can get away with paying less for a hosting package. We recommend using a hosting site that is either local, or a company that has excellent customer service. Read customer reviews and look at how often they back up and what their down times are like. An agency may also be able to recommend web hosting solutions for you as well.

Having these areas covered when going in to a project will help lower your cost and help ensure you will launch a successful website.

Next up: Thinking About the User