Finding a Web Designer

Go to the websites of local web designers and check out their portfolios. Visit some of the websites in their portfolio and assess them.

  • Do their sites project a professional (and appropriate) image for the business represented?
  • Is it easy to find your way around the site?
  • Does everything function correctly and quickly?
  • Do you like the style of this web designer?

Once you have settled on a web designer, develop your idea with him/her and then get a price and agreed finish date (and milestones if appropriate). Remember that you have to keep up your end of the bargain by providing the content in a timely manner.

*Don't be tempted to get a friend to build your website. Home built websites rarely look professional and are BAD advertising for your business.

Your Domain Name

Getting a Domain name these days is fairly easy and can be done online in a few minutes.

Choose your domain name carefully. It should be easy to remember, easy to spell and have some relevance to your business. DONT use dashes, underscores and numbers.

Shortlist several variations in case the domain of your choice is already registered to someone else. Check that your chosen domain is not similar to another domain. This may cause confusion resulting in potential visitors going to the wrong site.

Sometimes a long domain name is more memorable. e.g. johnsmithplumbers.com.au is easier to remember than say jsp.com.au
The .com.au domains are good for Australian businesses and leave visitors secure in the knowledge that you are an Australian company. You must have an ABN to get one of these. Other domains such as .com are easier to get and cheaper and suit many purposes.

Go to http://domains.webcity.com.au/ and try their domain name search. If it's available, you can buy your domain name here and also organise a hosting account for it at the same time.

* Note: Your web designer can arrange this for you and may well have his/her preferred hosting company to publish your site on. You have final say though.

OTHER USEFUL INFO

 

Building a Website that Works

A good website needs a systematic approach to achieve high quality and value for your business.

Break the project up into the following steps:-

Determine the purpose of the site

This is a most important first step and typically includes one or more of the following

  • Promote company image
  • Online Selling
  • Advertising Products and Services
  • Providing information to customers, suppliers, employees, associates, organisations
  • Interacting with customers, suppliers, employees, associates, organisations

Decide on Content

Once you have decided the purpose of your site you can then tailor the information accordingly

  • Product and company information
  • Additional content that might interest visitors
  • Advertising (for other companies)
  • Printable information
  • On line forms

Design the site

The design will reflect the values and culture of your company. Endeavour to faithfully reflect the company image with the use of logos, colours, fonts, images etc. The structure of the site will depend on the visual design, amount of content, flexibility of content and additional features required.

  • Structure and Layout of Information.(A most important stage that aims for a clear and logical layout.)
  • Visual Design - themes, colours, corporate identity
  • Size of site
  • Navigation buttons
  • Custom Artwork
  • Functionality

Collect Content

A most important stage before the site build can get underway is collecting and collating all the content required to build the site.

  • Text (Writing, Compiling, Proofing)
  • Images & Photography
  • Illustrations
  • Video Clips
  • Sound & Music

Build the site

The site can now come together and be viewed and fine tuned to attain the final product

  • Domain name and Web Hosting (see side panel 'Your Domain Name')
  • Preliminary layout
  • Test and feedback
  • Publishing
  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  • Statistics
  • Review and fine tuning
  • Ongoing maintenance and updates

TEXT

Writing, Compiling, Proofing your content

You might want to use existing promotional material as a start point. Spend some time on this and get all your ideas down first, sorting them into the appropriate web pages that they will appear on.

Remember your keywords and key phrases and try to include them as frequently as possible without making reading too difficult.

Consider getting a copywriter to put it together for you and/or to proof read the final copy

PRINT

Making your Documents and Information Printable

If you have a lot of documents that you would like to publish consider converting them to PDF format. This format is readily updateable by you, and can be viewed or printed by visitors.

For instance, if you have a Yearly Report, just convert it to pdf and upload it to your website each year.

If you wish for your normal web pages to be printable, inform your web designer so that this can be catered for in the design phase. This will result in a more 'printer friendly' output from your web pages.

STRUCTURE

Information Structure and Layout

Number of pages: as a start point, think about what navigation buttons you will have on your site. e.g. Home, Contacts, Services, Portfolio etc

Consider whether you are you likely to make frequent changes to your site. Maybe you want to be able to make changes yourself.
Does the layout need to meet new requirements such as sponsorship deals, new products, advertising, events etc

DESIGN

Designing the LOOK of your website

Consider:

The visual design of the site should meet several criteria:-

  • It should project a look and feel that reflects your business
  • It should cope with the content you will be adding
  • It should be easy to navigate and find information
  • It should not be too cluttered or too sparse

Investigate:

  • Likes and dislikes of current promotional material, competitors, other websites
  • Collect web addresses of websites that you like
  • Collect printed promotional material that you like
  • Assess your Company Branding - logo, colours, design

FUNCTIONALITY

Adding Functionality

Adding functionality to your website can complement your business. You can incorporate your website more closely into your business processes and reap some worthwhile benefits.

  1. For instance you could have visitors add themselves to the mailing list and then publish a monthly newsletter.
  2. Ecommerce (Online selling) can bring in sales you would otherwise have missed and can cut costs on sales.
  3. Online entry forms can save a huge amount of work by automatically entering all details into your database and processing payments.
  4. Content Management Systems can help you manage your own website so that you have control over the content plus your members area, mailing list, ecommerce section etc.

Talk to your web designer to understand what is possible, how it can benefit your business and what it will cost.

IMAGES

A (good) Picture is worth a thousand words

Assemble a collection of good quality images that can tell a story about your business. Start taking photos of your jobs, services, staff etc etc.

Try to include people in your images. If you own a restaurant, show people in it enjoying themselves. If you lend money, show people enjoying themselves spending that money.

Consider a professional photographer. You will be surprised at how well your business 'scrubs up' with a professional eye scanned over it.

You can also buy images for a very reasonably cost. Check out Istock photos http://www.istockphoto.com

VIDEO

Video on your Website

With today's broadband and video streaming technology you can easily add movie clips to your site. They are useful for travel sites, instructional videos and product demos etc.

They should be professionally produced with titles, commentary etc

SOUND

Add Impact with Sound and Music

Music can add a whole new feel to your website. Sounds can also be used to emphasise effects such as button clicks and page transitions.

There is a ready source of well priced royalty free music available that will create the mood you are after (and you'll be able to sleep at night)

Be careful adding sound as it can sometimes annoy visitors. It's always a good option to have a Sound On/Off button.

Be aware also that using music from your favourite artist can get you into trouble. Copyright issues may surface.

DOMAIN NAMES

Registering your own Domain name

Your domain name should be easy to remember and easy to spell

The .com.au domains are good for Australian businesses as visitors know you are an Australian Company.

Check availability at: http://domains.webcity.com.au and try their domain name search engine. You can buy your domain name here and also organise a hosting account for it at the same time.

See the feature box 'YOUR DOMAIN NAME' on this page for more information.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMISATION

Some quick tips to help your search engine rankings

  • Research good keywords: try them out on Google and see what comes up
  • Make sure your pages have sufficient text -too little and Google may to turn it into a supplemental page
  • Dont duplicate pages.
  • Make Meta Tages unique: i.e. Page Titles, Descriptions and Keywords
  • Repeat keywords frequently throughout your text
  • Use your most important keywords in headings
  • Include your major keywords in the first and last paragraphs of your page
  • Make sure all your images have descriptive tags attached

For more info on this subject check the box 'OTHER USEFUL INFO'

Statistics

Web Site Statistics help guage your success

You can check visitor rates, see what pages visitors access and how long they stay at your site. If people are leaving quickly then you may have a problem with your page or you may be targeting the wrong audience.

Website statistics are usually collected automatically by your Web Host. Ask your web designer or web host how you can access these.