- Why does my business need a website?
- How much should I expect to pay for a website?
- How long does it take to create a website?
- How can I promote my website?
- What are the first steps to creating a website?
- What are the critical decisions involved in developing a website?
- What are key points to remember when developing content for a website?
- Does off-the-shelf software really work in developing a website?
- Is there really a difference in quality of website development?
- What benefit does a professional web development company bring?
- How involved must company personnel be in developing and designing
a website?
- What name can I use as my domain name?
- How can a website save a company time and money
- Can my company internally do an adequate job in constructing the
website?
- Can a company host their own website?
- Does it really matter what company does the website development?
- Does the marketing strategy need to be considered during site development?
- How important is strategic planning?
- What is the basic difference between utility and design in a website?
- Why does a website need to have objectives?
Q. Why does my business need a website?
A. While there are many ways in which a
well-developed website can benefit a company, the following are particularly noteworthy:
Sales Tool
A good website acts as a constant sales tool for your company, representing it both
day and night. It can become a regular and reliable contact point with current and
potential customers. Additionally, a well-developed site can become an integral
part of your business operations and can contribute significantly to overall sales
and profits. Furthermore, customers often turn to websites as a source of customer
support - they can often find the answers to their questions by consulting information
contained on the site.
Competition alone can be a compelling reason to have a site. Good explanations are
scarce when a customer asks why one of your competitors has a website and you don't.
A well-designed website can also act as an effective public relations and advertising
medium. Current and potential customers often increase their awareness of an organisation's
activities, products and services by browsing websites.
Q. How much should I expect to pay for a website?
A. The pricing for a site can vary greatly
depending upon your technical demands, design issues, and website objectives. Whether
doing it yourself or working with a consultant; business knowledge, technical capabilities,
and experience of the Web developers can all be factors in determining the final
cost of your website. While all these factors are critically important, many Web
development companies do not have the experience or resources to successfully merge
them for the benefit of the client. Price ranges, therefore, are clearly reflective
of what you can expect in a finished product.
Common price ranges can be from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands or more
depending upon the completeness of the web development effort.
Q. How long does it take to create a website?
A. The web development process can take
from a few days to several months or more depending upon the complexity and technological
demands required. When a customer can devote time to working with the web designers,
the development time is often cut down dramatically.
A company should have a basic idea of what they would like the corporate website
to achieve and the corporate image they would like the website portray. A company
which has strategic objectives in mind beforehand will enjoy faster website development
than a company that is unsure of what they would like their website to accomplish.
Q. How can I promote my website?
A. Be sure to consistently and prominently
display your web address on items such as letterhead, stationery, sales invoices,
and business cards as well as on promotional items such as T-shirts, pencils and
advertisements. Additionally, be certain to register your site with search engines
and make a point of spreading news of the website by word of mouth, especially to
current and potential customers.
It is also a good strategy to consult and expert on search engine placement optimisation.
The essence of this type of consultation is to help your website to rank well on
a particular search engine when an inquiry is made using keywords relevant to your
site. Ideally, you're striving to be within the very top grouping of websites displayed
by the search as these enjoy a far greater number of visitors than those at the
bottom of the search.
Q. What are the first steps to creating a website?
A. After determining what purposes will
be served (mission and objectives) with the creation of the site., you should draw
up a budget and evaluate if the website should be created by internal personnel
or by a specialist outside company. Within that decision, critically look at what
internal resources (i.e.talent and time) can truly be devoted to the Web development
effort. A comprehensive project management plan should then be devised. This plan
should outline the various steps and components of the project from start to finish
- including timelines and resource allocation commitments.
Throughout the Web development process open lines of communication should be maintained
with all personnel involved including external professionals that may be a part
of the process. Upon the project's completion, testing should be performed to ensure
that the website performs as it should and that the desired result has been achieved.
Q. What are the critical decisions involved in developing a
website?
A. Decide what the purpose and objectives
of the website are and determine if the Web development process should be an internal
process or a contracted service. While there are many other critical decisions that
are to be made when developing a website, these two considerations are paramount
in determining the eventual success or failure of the Website.
Is the purpose of the site to help create and impress a certain image upon the general
public of who your company is and what it is about? Or is it intended to be a sales
tool and marketing promotion effort that can also help support the sales function
and salespeople? Or possibly, is your company looking for ways to cut down on operating
costs by allowing customers to electronically obtain product and company information
and thereby reduce related personnel expenditures?
While all of these goals are certainly reasonable, the construction of the website
itself can determine the success or failure of your efforts. That is why it becomes
so critical to decide when it is best to bring in an outside professional company
to assist in the consultation and construction of the website.
Q. What are key points to remember when developing content
for a website?
A. Remember your intended target market
or audience. Keeping this focus in mind will make things much easier when writing
material for the website as well as making the tough decisions on design issues
including the use of graphics.
Equally important, a person should ask himself or herself what they honestly expect
to happen as a result of having a company website. Answering this question will
allow clear direction on what objectives the website is supposed to meet. This in
turn will allow companies to more objectively determine the level of success or
failure of the website and any corrective action that should be taken.
Additionally, continue to seek customer feedback concerning your web efforts because
this can be the most valuable form of market research that can be had.
Q. Does off-the-shelf software really work in developing a
website?
A. Yes it does. The more appropriate question
should be 'does it fulfil what your strategic planning objectives for developing
a website is really all about'? In other words, a website can be created and represent
really nothing more than a shallow effort if it does not focus beyond simple design
issues.
Remember that while design alone may attract someone's attention, it takes good
content and meaningful value to have a visitor stay and more importantly to return
again. This person in all likelihood will share the benefits of your site with others
which will likely result in more visitors. Unfortunately, many of these important
qualities in web development are simply lost or not considered when relying on off-the-shelf
software for web creation.
Q. Is there really a difference in quality of website development?
A. Yes there is. Website development done
properly involves much more than simply designing the look of the website. While
appearance certainly is an important aspect, it by no means should overshadow the
equally important aspects of site functionality and strategic objectives for the
site.
It takes all these combined elements to have a professional and functional website
that adequately represents your company's best effort. Generally speaking, there
is a tremendous difference between off-the-shelf created websites versus custom
tailored sites that were developed by professionals.
Q. What benefit does a professional web development company
bring?
A. A professional web development company
can bring a wealth of experience, strategy tips, as well as a fresh approach and
the technical perspective required for developing an effective website.
Additionally, some companies can bring planning methods and company review procedures
that can benefit the company at-large as well as the website development project
at hand. There is also an intangible benefit to utilising an outside company - the
tranquillity and peace of mind that comes from putting a project in the capable
hands of a professional.
Q. How involved must company personnel be in developing and
designing a website?
A. Initially, there should be plenty of
involvement of company personnel in order to ascertain the key objectives and requirements
for the website. This includes sharing of company processes and best practices as
well as suggestions for improvement of how customers could be served more effectively
and efficiently. The company personnel involvement should be a standard effort even
if a web development company is used.
Q. What name can I use as my domain name?
A. Generally speaking there is tremendous
freedom in selecting a domain name that makes sense for your company. The selected
name does not have to be your current company name. In fact, a good name might be
one that represents conceptually what your company does or is all about. You can
easily find out what domain names are available and with what extensions (.com,.org,.net,
etc.) by checking with several domain registration companies on the Internet.
Some professions might have legal or tighter restrictions on the selection of a
domain names depending on the licensing requirements at the state or federal level.
Some affected professions such as attorneys, law firms, etc. might require extra
care in domain name selection.
Q. How can a website save a company time and money?
A. Savings can many times be realised by
allowing customers to electronically request products or obtain information through
a company website as opposed to dealing with customer service representatives. Customers
often prefer websites to using the telephone for retrieving information or buying
things. Websites also allow them to obtain information at times that are most convenient
to the customer. This especially holds true as customers nowadays demand expanded
hours of operation.
A website can also help to support the company sales effort by providing salespeople
with instant access to demonstrations or information (i.e. the latest scheduling
or product information).
Q. Can my company internally do an adequate job in constructing
the website?
A. With the proper resources of talent
in the areas of business, design, and technology a company with a well-developed
strategic plan for both the business and the web development effort should be able
to do an adequate job.
Many companies both small and large often times have a difficult time simply trying
to allocate all the previously mentioned resources at any one point in time. Therefore,
it is sometimes best to hire a professional company to do web development projects
and websites. There is a certain amount of objectivity that must be consistently
represented in web development work. Many times, this factor alone persuades a company
to use outside help in order to maintain the objectivity balance required in all
areas of website development.
Q. Can a company host their own website?
A. It is possible for a company with the
appropriate servers to host their own website but there are many reasons why most
companies decide to circumvent the possible headaches of going it alone. A company
must determine what they truly expect to gain by doing the hosting themselves. This
is especially true considering the competitive market rates that are presently being
offered by hosting companies. Commercial hosting companies provide a level of consistent
equipment reliability as well as security assurances.
Q. Does it really matter what company does the website development?
A. It is extremely important that if the
company chooses to contract with an outside professional web development company,
that the contracted company be adequately experienced and have the necessary skill
sets in business, design, and technology that are required to produce an effective
website.
Many times the less experienced and prepared web development companies can do nothing
more than simply follow instructions. While following instructions is certainly
an important quality to possess a company should expect to get much more in terms
of assistance with strategic planning decisions.
Additionally, the web development company should bring a broad knowledge of what
is represents best practice in similar type companies and industries.
Q. Does the marketing strategy need to be considered during
site development?
A. Certainly one of the underlying concepts
supporting the development of the website should be the marketing effort and expected
benefits of this type of planning. So marketing clearly should be incorporated when
planning, designing, writing, and coding a company website.
Understanding what type of marketing objectives are attempted to be met with a website
can certainly add clarity and focus to all aspects of the web development process.
Often times overlooked are the simplest of marketing axioms such as being certain
to have contact information prominently displayed and available for customers, or
if appropriate, making it simple for someone to know at what price something is
being sold.
Additionally, there are technical reasons that your marketing focus must be incorporated
into development. From proper keyword rankings on search engines to working best
with partner sites your pages must be optimised from the beginning in order to complement
your marketing strategy.
Q. How important is strategic planning?
A. Strategic planning should be at the
very core of driving decisions that will ultimately determine how a company website
is developed. There should be a consistent and cohesive conceptual understanding
of what the purpose of this website is in regards to the company doing business.
Strategic planning ensures that the mission of the company is clearly understood
internally and shared externally with the public and intended target audiences.
Many companies must first undergo a formal review of where they are as a company
before consideration and direction can be given to a Web development project.
Q. What is the basic difference between utility and design
in a website?
A. The design aspect of a website can allow
for an aesthetically pleasing look while the utility aspect represents the true
functionality and henceforth the usability of the website.
Based on experience and background, many web development companies approach website
development from only the approach that they know. This is why it is so important
to understand what skill sets and knowledge levels are possessed by the Web development
company doing the work. The same issues must be assessed if the company is doing
the web development internally.
A careful balance between utility and design should be sought after. Many times
when surfing the net you can clearly come across a website that disproportionately
either slants towards utility or towards design. In either of those cases, however,
there is clear dysfunction when utility and design are not in balance.
Q. Why does a website need to have objectives?
A. Having a website that does not fulfil
specific objectives suggests that there was inadequate planning and vision prior
to development. Generally the website should attempt to accomplish specific company
objectives that can truly be accomplished or enhanced through the medium of the
Internet. Only through the measurement of accomplished objectives can a company
successfully assess the return of investment of money and resources that it took
to create the website.
The days of having a meaningless business website without purpose or objectives
are short-lived at best. The demands of the customer and the competition alone justify
better website development.