Of course these words are music to our ears. Here’s a few things to think about if you are considering commissioning a website for your company in 2012.
Question 1 – What is your website for?
- Ecommerce
If you want your website visitors to buy stuff on your site, then you should know that ecommerce comes in many flavours. Here are some of the big issues to discuss with your developer: - How many products will you sell?
- Will people buy more than one product at a time?
- How are your products categorised?
- Do your products come with customisation options?
- What payment solution do you need?
- How do your delivery charges work?
- How is stock managed?
- Service Provider
This sort of website is for companies that perform a service rather than sell a product. The content you need depends on the type of service you provide, but here are some issues to discuss with your web designers - What sort of information do you want to put on your site?
- Do you want to update the content yourself regularly?
- How much investment do you want to make in the design (look and feel) of the site?
- What information do you need to provide in order to get the process moving?
Question 2 – How will people find your website?
If you have high expectations yet no strategy for bringing visitors to your website, then you are probably going to be a bit disappointed when your site is launched. Buying a website does not automatically mean you have bought the right to appear in position 1 on Google for the most popular term in your industry.Your web designer will be happy to discuss ways to promote and popularize your website and help you achieve your objectives. It’s always best to discuss this before your site is built so that allowances can be made in the design for your marketing objectives.
Ask your designer about:
- Search Engine Optimsation (SEO)
- Link building
- Content creation (blogs, news, articles)
- Social media (twitter, facebook, google+, linkedin)
- Offline advertising
Question 3 – How will you know what’s going on with your website?
Quick Quiz: Which do you think is the easier problem to fix…
- A website with no visitors
- A website with lots of visitors but no sales / enquiries
Answer: OK, so there isn’t an answer to this question. The point simply being if you don’t know what the problem is, there’s not much chance of you fixing it.
Make sure you discuss analytics strategies with your designer.
In Summary
Have a think about the above points before you have your first discussion with your preferred web design company, and you’ll find the whole experience is much more productive.
01926 411 827