Non Stop Portals

There are a lot of reasons organizations decide that it is time to upgrade their website. The most common reason is to generate more business by making it easier for buyers to find the product/service offered by the company. Business owners are using the Internet to find other companies that they want to do business with, so they recognize the importance of selling their own services through the Internet.

This article describes some of the planning questions you need to be ready to answer when getting ready to build a new web site or revamp an existing site.

Business Background

A website developer needs to understand your business. The best way to generate traffic for your site is to provide valuable information to the prospective buyer that is specifically targeted to your product/service offering. Here are a few questions to consider.

1. What are you hoping to achieve with a new website?
2. What does your company sell?
3. What terms would a prospect type into Google to find your company?
4. Describe your target audience. Who currently buys your product/service? What are the demographic attributes of your target audience?
5. Are you trying to create new channels of distribution?
6. Who are your competitors?
7. Is your product resold by distributors?
8. Will your website be selling online? Do you already have an established credit card payment processing service?

Website Appearance

If is important to create a consistent identity across the various forms of corporate branding. Consistency in the colors you use and corporate logo create an impression. For example: What company is represented by the red bullseye target? Obviously, the answer is embedded in the question -- "TARGET".

A graphics designer creates an artistic impression of a custom website design based upon their perception of your personal preferences and the preferences of your target audience.

1. Do you have an existing logo suitable for using on the Internet or do you need to create a new one?
2. What web sites have you seen that you like?
3. Are you planning to post videos or movies on your site?
4. What is your preferred color scheme?
5. Do you have a library of graphical images to use on your site?

Website Content

Really -- the most important part of your web site is content.  Web site visitors pass along the names of sites they like.  The visitors like sites that provide relevant information.  The first step in developing content is to research the terms that prospects will use to find you.  Individual pages of content should be written for each targeted term.

1. Do you have any experience in researching your own search terms?  Have you ever used any pay per click advertising?
2. Does your organization have internal copy writing skills?  Do you want the website developer to write the copy for you?
3. Are you planning to write an ongoing series of new articles?  Call it a blog or series of articles -- the concept is an ongoing set of new and fresh content.
4. Are you going to allow multiple editors to post content?
5. Would you like to provide the ability for site visitors to post comments about your content?  Comments can be moderated before they will appear on your site.
6. What social media platforms do you use?  Do you want to take advantage of cross-linking to the various social media platforms?
7. Do you want to have the ability to modify the site content on your own?
8. Does your organization have any internal graphics design capabilities?
9. How many products/services are you planning to describe on your site?  Does the copy for these items need to be developed or is it already in place?

Other Considerations

1. Are there some special features that you want on your site?  For example: secure sections, calendar of events, event registrations, forums, knowledge base, customer support tickets, integration with a Customer Relationship Management system, photo albums, directories, user registration, optimization for mobile phone access.
2. Do you already have your domain name?  Do you already have a hosting provider?
3. Do you need assistance in getting your products/services recognized by the search engines (search engine optimization)?

Summary

Website developers charge for their services based on the level of work it takes to accomplish your requirements.  The more work you can do on your own, the lower the cost to you.  If you know how much you want to spend on a new web site, the development team can present you with choices that will fit into your budget.

Nonstop Portals provides website design and development.  We can develop a new website that focuses on converting prospects into actual sales that fits into your budget requirements.  Call us at 888-881-4605 to discuss how we can help you quickly grow your sales with effective Internet marketing services.  We are located in the Raleigh, NC area, but we can provide virtual development services for any location.