Guidance for your first web steps
DDGraphics
WebMedia
affordable & personalized
web development services.
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First Steps - Make a Plan
Developing an effective web site is a team effort. You are an integral part of the team. Other members of your web development team may include a graphic artist, a copy writer, a photographer, a programmer, and a search engine optimizer. You provide the guiding hand that determines the budget, the look and feel, and the content of your web site. Remember, you are paying for the website, you should get a website that you can be proud of and that meets your needs.
DDGraphics WebMedia will work with you to develop the web site design that fits your likes and needs and give you guidance along the way.
So, before you hire a web design firm you should answer the following questions:
• What is my budget?
• Who is my target audience?
• What information do I want to communicate to my audience?
• How will my website benefit my organization?
• What is the timeframe for completion of my website?
• How will my customers or members benefit from my website?
• Will I need the ability to change the content of one or more pages on a regular
basis?
Gather Information
Start gathering information that you may want in your website and build a paper and/or computer file. Do some research on the internet looking at the websites of your competition or websites of similar organizations. Be critical. Make notes about the look and feel of each site? What do you like? What don't you like. What information do they provide? What information don't they provide that you think should be in your website?
Gather information about your organization, including testimonials, artwork, papers you or your staff have written, product or service information, logos, mission statements, etc.
Have as much of your information as possible in digital format. This will reduce the cost of production of your web site. Or, DDGraphics WebMedia can convert your documents, photos, artwork etc. to digital format by providing scanning, data entry and copy writing services.
As you go about gathering and categorizing information for your website, kept in mind what most users of the internet are looking for, information and knowledge. While your primary objective of your website may be to sell products or services, the visitors to your web site by and large want to be educated about your industry, your products, and your services.
Visual Styles
Your home page should clearly communicate to your visitors what your web site is about and how to easily find the information, products, or services that they are seeking. The visual style of your home page is your visitors first clue about your web site. If your web site is promoting financial advise and your style is light and frivolous, the odds are that your visitors will not take your advice seriously. Keep your style consistent with the tenor of your content.
Page Categories
We've all seen web pages that are crammed full of all sorts of information. You do not want your visitors to struggle to find the information they desire in a blizzard of information snippets. Keep it simple. Each page of your web site should have a unifying theme. This has two advantages. Search engines try to determine the relevancy of key words to the theme of a page and your visitor appreciate having related information grouped together so they don't have to hunt for the nuggets of information that they are interested in. Remember, A frustrated visitor will leave and look for a better organization website. A minimal web site can be just one page, here is who I am and here is how to contact me. People need to quickly find out how to contact you at least three ways, mail, email and phone. The contact information helps give your website credibility You are a real person or organization that stands behind the information on your web site. A typical small website is composed of five or six pages that include a home page, a contact page, a page that describes you or your organization, a links page that lets you recommend other websites with complimentary information, and a page that describes your products or services.
Contact
DDGraphics WebMedia
Now that you have developed a sense of what you want your web site to accomplish,
what style it should have, and about how many pages should be in your web site, it
is time to start working with a web developer.
Please fill in as much information as you can about your web site project in the space below. This will help us understand your likes and dislikes and your goals. We look forward to working with you. We can work with you by phone, email, fax, or in person in our office or at your place of business or somewhere in between.