Developing Your Website

Planning and developing a website can seem a daunting task and often a large percentage of a marketing budget is invested into it. Use the emediates tips below for planning and developing your website- and ensure your experience is as painless as possible.

What is your Website for?

Before investing time and effort into the actual development of your website have a clear idea of the role you want your website to play in your business.

  • Is it to provide an additional 'face' to your business and another point of contact?
  • Is it to sell directly using an online shop?
  • Is it for networking? Will you use it as a forum / blogging etc?
  • Is it a source of information – using downloads and links etc
  • Is it to provide an online gallery – displaying images of your products?
  • Is it for collecting data?

Although there is a good chance that you will change your mind or think of additional uses and needs for your website during the development, it is far better for all parties that you have a good idea of what you want from your site BEFORE the design process begins.

This will help your developers when 'building' your site, as well as help the development to stay on track: both on budget and on time.

Content

The content of your site is obviously of the utmost importance. It could be the difference between capturing and converting visitors into customers or letting them slip away into cyberspace to one of your competitors.

Consider the following points when creating your content:

  • Are your key messages clear and consistent?
  • Are your business contact details easy to find?
  • Is your chosen company brand identity visible and consistent throughout the site?
  • Does the navigation on your site work effectively?
  • Is the copywriting on your site accurate and without error?
  • Is the tone of your copy appropriate for the customers that you want to attract?
  • Do you have too much text on the page? Could you break your copy down into different pages?
  • Are there too many links?
  • Do you have any 'sticky' pages in your site? In other words what content do you have to make customers stay or come back to your site?
  • Do you have any brochures/forms/additional info that could also be accessed through your website, therefore saving admin time in your office?

Visualising

When it comes to putting the copy into the site itself – try and visualise how the site will look and work to your customers.

This can take a fair bit of effort – but once you can do this you will find it a lot easier to make your information appear clearer and more effectively to your audience.

For example you may have a printed brochure that you would like included on the site. Rather than having one huge page of text that takes ages to scroll down – look for ways of breaking the information down. Could each area of expertise/ products be shown on a separate web page?

Communicate with your Developer

Keep communications flowing between yourself and your website developer.

Respond to any questions promptly, ask any questions and raise any issues that you might have as they arise.

Keep a record of all work outstanding, as well as the areas awaiting a response or contribution from yourself. Perhaps use traffic light colour coding to highlight areas needing attention and those that have been completed.

By keeping communications open you are more likely to find that your development keeps to schedule and within budget and that the whole process will more or less go to plan.

REMEMBER you and your website developer are working towards the same goal: a completed website that satisfies your brief.

Testing Your Site

You may not have even considered that you will need to test your website – after all you are paying for a site that works! And shouldn't the developer be doing this?

The developer will test the site. He will check that the functionality works and that everything is in place as requested.

However, in order to confirm that the site is functioning in the way that you had intended, and to check that the website copy that you have provided is in the correct place and indeed double checked for accuracy - you should play a part in the testing.

For your own peace of mind and for the smooth launch of your website you should always schedule time for 'user testing'. This should be done at the earliest point before going 'live' - if only to ensure that you are confident in using the Content Management System (CMS).

Considering your aftercare

There are several reasons for considering your aftercare following the build and launch of your website and most of the time these will be outlined for you before you go ahead with your order.

Areas to consider include:

  • Hosting Contract
  • Admin Support and Service Contract
  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  • Planned subsequent phases of work
  • Statistics (for marketing and research purposes)

If you want to know more about how emediates can help with the design and build of your website and other online marketing then please contact Anil Varma at anil@emediates.co.uk or by calling 01902 711 921.