Planning Websites
Planning a website...
If you order a website for your business from us, you need to tell us what you want the site to do and what you want visitors to do. To one or degree or another you need to provide us with text for your pages, details of any specific colour scheme you want us to use, and supply any images or logos you want us to use. There are lots of things we can or will do for you but these are the basics. We can and will talk you through all these things but if you'd like to read up on some of the things that go into building a website, keep reading!
If you don't already have a domain name, it's one of the first things you should decide on (see domain names). You'll also need to have website hosting (see below), but we can help or guide you with that.
Here are a few things have to be considered when building or planning a business website:
- Website Domain Names: You need a suitable domain name for your website - and finding the right one needs careful thought.
- Website Page Contents: The text content used on a business website is very important and needs to be carefully written.
- Using Images: As with magazines and newspapers, photographs play an important part in making a website visually attractive.
- Hosting: Before you can put your website on the internet, you need to find suitable web hosting.
WEBSITE OBJECTIVES
Explaining what you want your website to do
It might sound a little obvious, but before we can create your website, and before we can even give you a design quote, you need to tell us what you want the website to do! For example, do you want to sell products online, get site visitors to send you enquiries by email, telephone you or visit your business? If customers don't provide us with their own, when planning a new website we create what is referred to as a 'design brief'. If you'd to know what goes into writing a design brief, click 'Read more' below.
WEBSITE PAGE CONTENT
Writing content for your website
The most important thing on your website is the 'content'. By 'website content' or 'page content' we mean the text that is used on a website. Having a pretty website isn't enough to guarantee success; your visitors (and Google) will measure your website by the words on the page. If you'd like a few guidelines on how website content should be planned, click 'Read more' below.
WEBSITE IMAGES
USING PHOTOS ON YOUR WEBSITE
The images that are used on a website are important. In addition to adding visual appeal to a website, they also help to sell products and concepts. Even if you only use images to make them more interesting, they still need to be relevant and good quality. For a little advice, click 'Read more' below.
GETTING ONLINE
WEBSITE HOSTING, MAINTENANCE AND UPDATES
Every website needs to be hosted on a server connected to the internet, 24:7, and hosting is a very important consideration. Allied to this, you need to consider things such as how often you plan to update your website with extra information, or perhaps add extra pages in the future. For a little advice, click 'Read more' below.
Website Colours
As with any form of marketing, colours play an important part in website design. You know from your own experience of browsing online that how a website looks can affect how long you stay on it, and the feeling it gives you. Assuming you already know which colours you want us to use, (let's say a medium blue and light grey) how do you tell us exactly which shades of blue and grey you have in mind?
Colours on a computer screen are created by mixing the colours Red, Green and Blue. Each of these colours is measured with a value from 0 to 255 and these allow us to identify more than 16 million different colours. Each has a unique 'Hex' (hexidecimal) code and, by using Hex codes, you can tell us exactly which colours you want us to use. Luckily, there are hundreds of online colour pickers to help you choose the colours for your new website. Here are two of the more popular sites and our own colour table:
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CMS or HTML?
We are happy to tell anybody who listens that we are fans of HTML websites. This website, for example, is an HTML website. We chose an HTML design because we have absolutely no use for a time-consuming blog, and the site doesn't need any sophisticated add-ons, just a couple of simple forms. From a visitor point of view it is easy to use and loads quickly.
HTML websites are generally more secure, need less maintenance and are cheaper than CMS sites, but are not as easy to update or add new pages to, if you expect to do this frequently. Having said that, our 'Plus' service includes an update service if your website is hosted with us.
However, if you want your website to include a blog or need data-driven features and functions, a CMS website may be what you need. The most popular CMS platform is WordPress, which we also work with. Unfortunately, CMS sites are more expensive, require regular maintenance and updating, are usually slower than HTML websites and are the prime targets of hackers.
Before you order a website, from us or from anywhere else, you should draw up a list of what you want your website to do. These requirements will dictate what type of website you need.
If you're not sure what sort of website best suits your needs, we will include our recommendations in your pre-purchase quote.