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PC Limited's Web Design Check List It is our goal to help make your choice in web design companies as easy as possible. Because of this, we have created a few pages with important information in printable form. They can also be sent to your e-mail or to someone else's with the form at the bottom of the page. Print or send all three so you can refer back to them at your leisure. We are happy to be of assistance and please feel free to contact us! This 10-step checklist was designed to help you with the many decisions involved in designing a web site. If you are really serious about getting a web site, then follow the steps and you will be well on your way to owning a successful web site! Step
1: Sizing Up your
Competition This simple important step will help you to determine the main purpose of your site. It will give you an idea of what specific online features you want to offer your potential clients. It will give you an idea on how you want to approach your visitors, and ideas on what you want your site to look like. The first thing you should do when thinking about starting a web site business is to search for businesses that have web sites in the same field as yours. These businesses will be your Internet competitors and you want to look them over carefully. See what online services they offer. What are they charging for a similar product? What features are on their site? Do they have online payment capabilities? List at
least 5 web sites that are related to your product or service
below. Pick sites that have
features you might like on your site, have similar product/services as
yours, or look similar to the way you want your site to look.
Next thing would be to determine how your business or product differs from your competitors. Are your prices lower? Do you offer a better refund policy? Do you provide superior customer service? Or maybe you offer a service that your competitors have not thought of yet. Try to list as many differences as you can find between your business and the ones above.
Step
2: Determine the Purpose of
your Web Site There are many reasons to start a web site. Your next step is to figure out what exactly you want your web site to do for your business. Is your purpose to sell your products directly over the Internet? Or maybe you just want to advertise your “brick and mortar” business to increase brand awareness. Do you want to start an online community where people can interact with each other? Are you looking to collect leads for B2B sales with an e-mail form? It is
very important that you have a clear understanding of what your web
site’s purpose is. It will
help you decide how many pages your web site should have, which features
you need to accomplish your goals, and how you want to interact with your
visitors. Having
all of this in mind when designing your site can also help to make your
purpose clear to your visitors as well.
For example: If your purpose is to collect names, e-mails, and addresses
so you can ‘market’ your product/service to your visitors, then you
may want to offer a free newsletter to them.
You can have them sign up for a newsletter about your field of
business, and in return you get their contact info.
You now know that the subscribers are interested in your type of
product/service and have given you permission to ‘market’ to them in
your newsletter. When designing the site, you already know that this will be one of the main things you offer on your site! You should have a link to the newsletter on each page, and you should probably have a page about the newsletter and what it can offer the subscribers. What is the 'Purpose’ of your web site? Step
3: How do you want to do it? Such a simple question…right? No such luck. This step can be one of the most difficult ones to figure out. But it has to be done. One of the most important decisions you may need to make for your site is e-commerce, so we will cover that one first. There are several ways to conduct business over the net. We will give you a brief overview of the most popular ways to do it. You can go with the full-blown package which usually consists of: 1. A shopping cart to display products, keep track of your visitor's purchases, and collect payment information. 2. A credit card processing program that verifies valid credit cards and actually processes the charge. 3. A secure server directory on your hosting account (https://) to protect the transfer of sensitive data. 4. A Secure server certificate, which notifies your clients that your site is truly secure. 5. And last but not least, a merchant account with a bank. · You can find a service that offers all of the above for a percentage of each sale. For instance: Instabill.com, Paypal.com, and Yahoo Paydirect (to name a few) offer all of the above for 10% (or so) for each charge. It’s a bit more complicated than just that, but basically that’s the deal. · You can buy an inexpensive check-printing program (usually $15 to $50). Then you can add a web form on your site for the customer to enter in their checking info. You then enter the info into your check program and print the check. While the
first choice may be a bit expensive to set up, depending on your business,
it may actually be cheaper in the log run than the second option.
There are also many different online companies that are in between
or offer some but not all of the above.
We suggest you do an extensive amount of research before making a
decision on your e-commerce applications and of course, we will do what we
can to help you find a solution that is best for you. List some of your thoughts and ideas on e-commerce here:
Next, will you need a Membership Database on your site? You should determine how many members you would like in your database, the information you want on your registration form, and what kind of features (like search capabilities, photo upload, chat, etc.) you would like to make available to your members. List any Membership Database features you might need here:
You should also decide on any other features you want for your site. Here is a list of a few popular features that you may want to consider:
There are many more out there than we have listed here. Do a little research to find others you may like to add to your site. Next list the features you have decided to place on your site below:
Step 4: Name Your
Pages Now you should decide how many pages your web site needs. What will those pages should be called, and what information you want on them? Some common page titles for the average site are:
These are just a few possibilities. You should already have a good idea about your pages from the research you did on other similar type web sites. Go ahead and list the pages you need and a brief description below. Please use the back of this page if you need more room.
Step
5:
Determine the “Look and Feel” of Your Site Your
web site will be representing your business.
It is (or should be) more than just an online flyer or
advertisement. You should
make your visitors feel comfortable, and welcome.
Your page should be organized, well written, and attractive.
Don’t annoy your visitors by putting up pop up ads, too many
banner ads, or by using scripts that won’t let your visitors leave your
page. The
colors in your site should be appealing and easy on the eyes.
Try to pick colors that compliment each other.
For instance: Neon green and orange are NOT good choices for your web site
colors! Popular colors and
colors that are known to “sell” are school-bus yellow, blue, red, and
green. Take another look at our site (and others) and try to see how
we use color to help “sell” (or at least bring attention to) specific
areas. The basic layout of your pages is pretty much up to your preferences. We try and capture the “feel” that you want for your site. Do you want a “fun” site or a “no nonsense” site? Or maybe you just want a “comfortable feel” for your visitors to enjoy. Just keep your navigation simple, keep your pages neat (too many bells and whistles can run people off of your site), and be consistent. We have provided an area below for you to list some of your thoughts and ideas.
Step
6: Custom Graphics Of course
you would like to have a bunch of custom designed images on your site.
Everyone does! The
question is….which ones do you need?
You may need a logo created for your site.
You may need banners created to advertise your site.
But what else do you need? Well,
that all depends on the “feel” you want for your site.
If you want a “fun” site, then you may need cute little images
to place next to your page names. Or
if you require a “business” feel for your site, you may want a
“sleek” header created. Bold,
technological sites may need a cool Flash Intro to help instill the
feeling of “competence” in their visitors. If you have a portfolio you would like to
display, you might need images of your work scanned and arranged in an
attractive graphical layout. See
our portfolio for an example. List some of your ideas for custom logos, images, or banners that you might need:
Step 7:
Choosing a Domain Name Your
domain name is every bit as important to your success online as your web
site is. If you end up with a
domain name like www.someone-elses-site.com/happyland/your-site.htm,
the likelihood that anyone will remember it and come back to your site are
remote, to say the least. A
good domain name is also plays a crucial part in the listings you can
achieve in some of the top search engines.
Example: Here are
two possible domain names- www.joesplace.com
and www.joescafe.com A search
engine will pull up the second one for the search term “café” before
it will the first. Try to choose a name that has your product or service in it. Try to get a .com if you can, or at the least a .net. Most average surfers will automatically want to put .com at the end of a domain name. If they only remember part of the name, and if it ends in .com or .net, they just might find your site again. You can search for available domain names right on our site at: http://www.pc-limited.com/domains.htm. Once you find one you like, ORDER IT before you lose it to someone else! List
your domain name here:
Step 8:
Hosting Your Web Site Web hosting is basically a “place” to store your web site. Your site is stored on a server along with other websites and your domain name “points” your visitors to the proper server. Choosing a reliable web host can be confusing sometimes. What features do you need? How many megabytes and gigabytes do you need? And....what the heck is a megabyte, anyway? It can be simple if you look at it this way. Start small and work up! Talk to your webmaster and have them help you determine what technical features you need, then choose a service that gives you the minimum amount of MBs and GBs that you can get, that will also support the features you have on your site. You can upgrade to larger accounts as your traffic grows! We suggest that you do a little Internet research and find a few hosting companies with prices you like, and then present them to your webmaster for further investigation. Step 9:
Submitting Your Site to the Search Engines Every company who offers Web Site Submission services is in the belief that their way is the best way to gain a good position in the search engines and directories. Every company who thinks this is not necessarily wrong! Getting a top position in the search engines is a very tricky thing to do. There are so many directories out there. Many of them want different info, presented in a different format. Some require payment, some don’t. Some are spidered by robots and some are review by humans. Some want you to submit weekly and some will ban your site if you submit more than once a month. And many of them change their criteria regularly in attempts to avoid an engine full of SPAM! One thing
most of us agree on though is…Submit to each search engine or directory by
hand! There are always places
where you can “submit your site” for free.
But most of them are automated programs and will do very little for
top placement positions in the search engines.
They may not submit all of the info that each search engine
requires and some search engines won’t even glance at submissions made by
automated programs. Here is
what you can do. You can
create specific pages tailored for each search engine’s criteria (called
Doorway Pages). You can place
little tags called meta tags in the html of your web site to help the
robot spiders read and list your pages properly.
You can also make sure that you have a nice informative site with
easy navigation for the directories that are reviewed by humans. We suggest that you do some Internet research on this topic and learn as much as you can, so you can either do it yourself, or at least be knowledgeable enough to make an informed decision on whom to hire to do it for you. A good place to start is www.jimworld.com. Step
10: Promote, Promote,
Promote…and then Promote Some More! This is,
by far, the Most Important step of all!
We have heard many times, from many different experts that a
potential customer will view your ad, or site 5-7 times before deciding to
make a purchase! They will
check around and then come back. Check around some more and then come back.
Then they may check around even more and then forget all about your
site! How do you keep them
coming back? Here is a
small list of ways to promote your site.
Some may work for you and some may not.
Only by trial and error, documenting your results, and
modifying
your techniques based on those results, will you finally find the best
marketing strategies for your site.
What ever you choose to try. Just try something! Be creative and never stop promoting your web site! We hope that you have found our Web Design Check List helpful. If you are truly serious about purchasing a web site, and you follow all of these steps, you have a great chance of a creating a successful Internet business. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help in any way we can! Good Luck!
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