1) Research
If you are going to publish a website for your business, you are
going to want to make sure you out do your competitors right? I
know I would. I would want my site to be brighter, cleaner, more
organized and easier to use than my competitors. Not to mention,
I would want to make more sales or bring in more visitors than
the competition. I recommend starting out by searching for your
competitor websites and see what they are doing, you might just
be able to find some great ideas that will work for you and
better your business.
2) Layout &
Design
Now that you have a feel for what your competitors are up to on
their websites, you can start to get together ideas for the
layout and design of your website. Now, you can either leave
this up to your website designer (in the next step) or if you
are picky and particular, like me, you will need to visualize
the layout of your website. Draw it on a piece of paper if you
have to, I frequently grab a blank piece from the printer feed
and start sketching away. Start with a rectangle (similar to the
shape of your screen) and have at it.
3) Locate and
Hire a Professional Website Designer
I would prefer to stay local, but like myself, I have clients
nationwide that desire my website design & development services.
I find that a lot of clients want to meet me face-to-face
because of the fact that they will spending hundreds or
thousands of dollars on something that they can not physically
hold on to.
4) Request a
Price Quote Estimate
Just like me, many other website designers (atleast the
professional ones) will have some way to request a total cost
estimate for your website project. This is normally a free
service in the form of a web form that will ask you for basic
information about your project such as number of pages,
timeline, budget, design specifics, etc. Be prepared to enter
this information as it will greatly help that designer give you
an accurate quote. If you leave something out and request it
later, it could slow down the project or dramatically increase
the cost. Be sure to submit several different quotes and feel
free to shop around as each designer will have a custom price
estimate suited to your needs.
5) Decide on a
Website Designer
Once you have received responses back from website designers
look over all of them (there may be a lot depending on your
area) and choose a designer that gives you the fairest price and
expresses and understanding in the result you are going for.
Deciding on a designer might be the most difficult task as you
don't want to hire a 14 year old who will waste your time and
you don't want to hire a busy designer who will put your work
off until you demand it. Like I said, I suggest staying local
and requesting a face-to-face interview. Understand that you may
not be his/her only client at the time and there might be a
short delay in production. Typical small business websites
should only take 5 to 7 business days max from design to publish
and should range in cost from $250.00 to $2,000.00 based on
specific needs, turn around time, features and other factors.
- Make sure your
Website Designer offers the following:
- Free Quote
Request
- Is capable of
custom website designs
- Can accomplish
any work you give him/her for the price
- Previews of
the work
- Design
revisions/changes to previews
- Satisfaction
Guarantee/Money Back Guarantee
- Does not
require full or large payment up-front (typical
sub-contractor scam)
- Transfer of
full ownership once work is completed
- Provides a
professional invoice for work completed
- Offers
multiple file delivery options, CD-ROM, uploading to server
or zipped file attachment
6) Working With
Your Website Designer
Feel free to be open and express your design needs and
requirements. Remember, this is your website and you have hired
the designer to do the work for you. This is similar to ordering
business cards, you will need to tell the designer specifics
like layout, page/category names, the goal your website is
trying to accomplish and what info you would like on the site.
Being specific will help get the design idea across to the
designer which will allow him to be more productive and
efficient in the design process. In turn, resulting in a more
accurate design with a fast turn around.
7) Previewing
the Designer's Work
During the website design process, you will be interested to see
how far along the designer has come. You can request to have
periodic updates sent to you at which point you should be able
to customize and critique the design. I call these previews
which are emailed to the client for approval of the work. The
client can review and refine my work. Each client of mine is
entitled to unlimited design revisions until satisfied or their
money back. Once the website design meets the client's
requirements and the designer gets final approval, we can move
on to the next step which is finalizing the entire website and
publishing.
8) Finalizing
and Publishing
Finally, once you have given the designer the final approval
he/she will create the entire website. Keep in mind that the
entire website is not created just based on the preview. This is
just to show you an example of what the site will look like when
complete. It is very time consuming for designers to create
entire websites and this avoids investing time and money incase
the client backs out. Be prepared with the text (also called
copy) and information, prices, descriptions, paragraphs, etc.
that you want to display on your website. Some web designers
will charge extra to create copy for you, but you can save a lot
if you write it out in a Word document or email and send it to
the designer. He/she can copy it in to the site in specific
locations you request or strategically based on design knowledge
of the site. Once the site is complete, the designer may require
payment before uploading or sending you the files he/she
created. Make sure you get an Invoice for your records and
request a hard copy back up if the designer is uploading the
files for you.
©
Copyright 2007 MJM Design. All rights reserved. This article was authored
by
Matt McWilliam
for
MJM Design.
Matt McWilliam is the owner of MJM
Design located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. Read more about
Matt McWilliam.
To get started,
request a free quote today.
