Web Site construction Planning is key to building a web site, which starts offline with a pencil and paper. You need to know what you hope to accomplish with your web site. Make a lot of money doesn't count, that's a given. Your going to have to do better than that what is another goal of your site. Do you want to share information about your company? Do you want to sell products? Do you want to sell a service? These are the major three. So what do you want it to do? Brochure or promote, or sell a product or service. Know your target audience. Define your company, what do you? Do you sell products or services? You need to have a topic, you need to know what it is you do, before you can tell someone else what it is that you do. Building a web site is not just about putting up a web page, without an aggressive online marketing campaign, you will not be to thrilled with your results. I know it is said "if you build it they will come......" that is simply not true! You need to promote it! If they can't find you, then you can reach them. SEO/SES (search engines) Just like web design if your business does not take up a lot of your time and you have the time and money, you can go out and learn to build a web sites and how search engines work. If not, hire it out. It is easier, more cost effective and makes better business sense; learning to build web sites and search engine optimization is a business in itself. The way to find the Web Design firm that fits your needs. First and foremost, there are millions of firms out there, some good and some bad. You will hear this a lot, "My brother's son does that and he is really good at it." OK, not to say that his brother's son can't build you a web site, or even that it will not be a good looking site, but think about this, his brother's son is probably between 16 and 20 and has very little knowledge about business; he probably does not know a lot about search engines, marketing, name branding and what your target audience is looking for. He probably knows everything there is to know about HALO, HalfLife and many other high tech video games, But we are talking about your professional company. Do you remember your father or grandfather saying, "You get what you pay for."? This ring true more than anything when it comes to Web Site Design. Now, let's look at some costs, of course they will vary, but I have some here for my example. Do it yourself (DIY) OK you don't know much about HTML, Cold Fusion, PHP or any of those web languages, so you will need a program to get you started. I am going to use Macromedia Dreamweaver or Adobe Golive because it is a "What you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) editor meaning it will build the code for you; both cost $399 USD. You will need something to build you logo or edit graphics, there are two that are the top ones, Adobe Photoshop $599 USD and Macromedia Fireworks $299 USD; choose one and that will get you the basics and you can build a great site with just two of them. Now, let's add this up, for our example, I'm using the two Macromedia products, together they cost $700 USD for someone who is not web savvy we're talking about two months to learn how it all works. Now you will need to know something about search engines, so if you don't know anything about them, I suggest you hire that out. The search engines change daily and unless you want to start a new very time consuming hobby and have plenty or tension headache medicine, shell out the cash, it will be worth it believe me. Beware of the ones that claim to be free, they will only get in you a few search engines and get you banded from most of the major ones. Remember again "You get what you pay for." If you want to be successful trust the professionals, I wouldn't even try to fix my car, I trust a professional. So let's add another $700 to start you off with SEO/SES. All in all three months later you have spend $1400 possibly more, you may buy a book or two, but you get the point. You are now ready to build your web site. Providing you studied up on your programs you should be done with your site in about three weeks. In total you have 4 months invested. Hire it all out First, Know your buget how much you want to spend, or how much you can afford. You need to look for a firm that has a one stop shop, one that can handle everything you need to build, promote, and maintain your web site. Don't be afraid to ask the firm what they can do, ask them about all of the above if they stumble around and don't sound as if they even know what you are talking about, thank them for their time and move on, if they confuse you with a bunch of technical jargon, again move on. They may know what they are talking about but if you are lost now wait till you get under way.....move on. Say you find a firm that fits your needs, they can do it all, Your first question is how much will it cost? That is a good question, answer that question yourself, I have a $10,000.00 budget for this project. As I said, before you go out looking for a firm know how much you want to spend. alright you don't have $10,000.00, you were thinking more like what you would spend doing it yourself, you know that $1400.00. You will find that most firms will laugh you off the phone, but remember you can get this done. So here is what you do: You call or email around to find your firm, you know how much you want to spend, $1400. So you can tell them that is your budget and they can tell you want you can get done for that amount. You will probably find that there are firms that will build you a 5 page web site for that amount, but you will also find that you will be missing a very big piece of the online puzzle, I.E. your online marketing campaign. You decide you can live with this, there is no rule that says you have to build and market it all at the same time. Just know that you are not going to have immediate results, you will have to wait for them and as long as you know that, you will not be frustrated. Now either way you have your web site built and you still need to do some more Online Marketing and some offline marketing as well. The fastest way to get yourself in the top of search engines is to buy your way to the top. You could go out to Overture or one of the other and enter all the information need, or you could just have the firm you are already using do it for you yes be a fee involved, but it will be done right and be worth the cost. Let us not forget AdSense by Google, you can get paid to have Google ads on your web site. You can go out and do your homework, sign up, put the script on your site and experiment till you find something that works for you; or you can have the firm you are already working with do it for you for a fee. You figure out what is best for you. In closing, All People hate SPAM, don't do it. Pop ups have very few redeeming qualities, and with the growing number of pop up blockers, this should tell you something. I did not even scrape the surface as far as this topic is concerned, how about some of you web experts jump in here is tidy up the loose ends.
Learning web design, SEO and everything else requires a lot of time, effort and some experimentation. I believe that most established business owners lack the time for this and will concentrate their efforts on the business itself. It depends on the circumstances ofcourse, but in many cases it is simply more cost effective to outsource the web stuff to professionals. T
I am a webmaster and a business man. I was luckily I had the time to learn both in the past 43 years of my life. But then again I was selling things on FidoNet long before the Internet as we know it. If your only a business man without the FULL RANGE of web mastering skills you really need to hire a company to do your site, and a good one.
OK I've only ever built two websites : www.bamzooki.org.uk www.cavaliermailing.com - This is built for the company I am currently working for.. I put all of the principles that I learnt through my sales role in my previous job working for a web development company. The main elements are quite straight forward: What is the site's most wanted response; in this case it was ensure that once a visitor visits the site they contact us - and so a contct form and telephone number on every page. Simple concise navigation Good balance of text and images Quick Loading pages No gimmicks (Ok I tried a little on the directions page) Not too much information - remember the idea is that they contact you.
well i am a web developer myself so i mostly create all my designs.I have my own company too but as far my own websites are concerned i design them personally myself.
Wow, that was a lot to digest, but all very good points and examples; well thought out article rsharrer - looking forward to more.
Sadly this happens way too much. Actually, referral business is great, but those looking for design simply trust their friends and don't do their own research.
I think it really comes down to your own decision on the best use of your resources. If it's something you can do yourself AND you can do a competent job AND you have the time... by all means, DIY. However - if your time is better spent on business development (rather than figuring out how to design the best possible site for your company) - you could be wasting opportunities to build your business, simply because you want to save some $$ by doing it yourself. Like all things in business (accounting, sales, human resources, etc...) it's all about finding the mix. Good Luck.
Awesome points TopSpin - finding the right mix is basically the same as "opportunity cost" in my book.