Some of the comments I hear from a client after finishing their project are “wow, thanks for the great website… you have thought of everything”, “You did a great job.” I usually say, “We thank you as well and I will share that with the team”.
Many clients don’t know what is involved in building their website or even care. They just want a site and want us to help them get there. So I want to provide a little insight to what is involved, what a client can expect from us and what we expect from the client. Yes, you!
You will meet with someone from our web sales team to discuss strategy. Strategy? Yes, your site needs to have a plan in place for what you want to accomplish.
The days have gone where it is just “cool” to have a website. Today it is not only necessary, but it needs to serve a purpose. You need a website that is going to provide the information your customer needs as well as be easy to use so you don’t lose them.
Check out this related article on Strategy for a site.
Our sales team is not here to “sell” you, they are hear to “educate” you on what options you have and to find a solution that best fits your needs. You need to really consider what is the function of your site. Don’t just think, “make money”; we all understand that, but you need to think as a customer. Who are you selling too? What do you want the customer using your site to be able to do? These things are helpful to know. Our sales team will educate you on the possibilities to achieve those goals.
Once you agree to have us build your website, it goes into production. We plan the site navigation, the applications you will need, and the design of the site. We also need you again at this point. We need logos, content, photos, and any other items that you want to include in your site. We then work with this information to give you the best results.
Here is a quick check list of some things to gather:
Photos- high resolution if possible. If you have a low resolution image and it is 72 dpi (dots per inch)…make sure they are large. (Next blog we will discuss resolution of images.)
Logos- we need your logo in a clear, large file size of a jpg, eps or tif file. We can not grab one from an old site and have it look clear. No gifs please.
(Again, resolution will be discussed in our next blog article…)
Content- this is the text and information that is going to fill your pages. This also includes any forms you may want. This part is something to start working on right away so we can keep the site on schedule.
Just before your site is complete, our Tech team gets involved. As we build and develop your site they need to find out about your hosting, DNS (domain name system), your email, and other details for a successful launch of your site.
This is where YOU become involved again by providing us the information to switch your DNS, create URLs & email addresses. Will you need to be secure for purchases? An SSL might need to be purchased.
After your site is launched we encourage you to manage the applications we built for you. We will provide assistance in helping you with your new site and how to take care of it. As always, we are still here for you, so if you need help, changes or updates, you can always call on your web team.
Anyone can build a website that looks pretty, but it takes a village to create a functional one. If you would like to discuss your web design or web site development project with Delaware.net, please click here.
Great Post.
One of the biggest challenges in building web sites is in getting the client to submit their content to us so that the site can go live. Most folks are so busy with their day-to-day operations, that they sometimes don’t have the time to sit down and write out this content for us. Delaware.Net has relationships with copy writers, and this could be a solution for those that are just too busy to generate the written content that is so important for their new web site. This content is also critical if the client hopes to come up high in search engines as well! The problem with copy writing service is that it is expensive - plan to spend $1500+ for a good copy writer. A really large corporate site could obviously even cost more for that service. The copy writer would need some of your time to interview you and capture the main points that they would write about. The sad reality of this solution is that few small or medium sized companies actually want to invest in this area of their site. “I’ll write it myself” is usually what they will say in the early planning stages when the cost of a professional copy writer is discussed. Many fail to get this to us on time, so you should give yourself a deadline to get that content to us.
While it is fine if you write your own content, we (Delaware.Net) will most likely still need to review what you submit, to make sure that it is easy to understand for your target audience, and to make sure that the words/phrases used are going to help you with search engines. The worst-case scenario in a web development project is when a client wishes to have a high-performance web site, and yet they are unwilling to produce ANY kind of written content for their web site. Since we are very date-driven with our project management, we have had to put safeguards into place to prevent clients from failing with their content submission deadlines.
Bottom line - it is VERY important that you, the customer, get your written materials and other collateral materials together for your new web site, even before you begin shopping for a web design firm. Having your materials organized and more importantly - WELL WRITTEN will help speed your web site development process, and it should save you quite a bit of money. This effort will come back to you also with your search engine placement, and you should end up with some quality content for future print literature for your company as well. Most folks don’t realize that Delaware.Net also produces brochures and print materials as well as web sites. Just as with web sites, however, it is equally difficult to get written content from clients for print brochures.
Clients have a huge impact on how successful their projects are, and it all starts with solid planning, organization, communication, and above all - quality content delivered to us that we can use for the project. Generally speaking, the better the web site content is, the better the web site performance.