Headspace Design

12 things you need to know before commissioning a website - part 1

Posted On July 25th, 2007 Author Kyle Racki  Filed Under Business   0

This is part one of a six-part series. It is meant to give someone relatively new (or simply overwhelmed) to the web the information they need to commission a website for their company. It is broken up into 12 bite sized pieces:

1. Know your audience
2. Content
3. Content Management Systems
4. Hosting and Domain
5. Bandwidth
6. Web standards
7. Search Engine Optimization
8. Browser Testing
9. Accessibility
10. Design/Usability
11. Open Source or Proprietary?
12. Flash or HTML?

This post will discuss points 1-3.

So, your business has finally soared, demand is high, and your customers, prospects and competitors are gradually turning to the web as a means of business. It’s time for you to scrap that clunky old site that you paid your 14 year old cousin $50 to make back in ‘98. It’s time to go pro.

Problem is, where do you begin? How do you know where to go, what to look for and how much to pay? Web jargon gives you a headache and all you want to do is pay someone to make the problem go away. This article can help you.

For starters, it should be said (as obvious as it sounds) that your website is important. Of course you know that. That’s why you’re paying someone for it. Right? Wrong! Many companies hire professionals to design their websites simply because they’re told it’s necessary, and yet they fail to appreciate how important it is. It’s not something to rush into. You don’t want to pinch pennies, just to get something live. Take your time, spend what’s reasonable, and find the right company or freelancer. One who will give you a site that accomplishes your online objectives.

Without getting too technical, this post should give those involved in commissioning websites a clear checklist to use when going out and looking for the right interactive firm or freelancer. It will also give you the right questions to ask when you’re in touch with one, as well as clear up some misconceptions and general web mumbo-jumbo.

1) Know your audience

This is the first thing you need to know before you even flip through the yellow pages. Why do you want a website?

Is it simply to get your name out? Do you want to make money with it? Is it a resource for prospects to get useful non-biased information that will move them to call you? Is it to promote a temporary product or service, such as a contest?

Once you can clearly articulate what your intended purpose with your website is — and who you want to visit it — the easier it will be to fill in the rest of the blanks.

2) Where is the content?

It’s a tired cliché, but it’s so true - content is king. The web is about content first and foremost. No one cares how great it looks, or whether there’s video, or even how easily navigable it is. If the content is useless to them, then they don’t care about it.

There are a lot of sites on the web, so what makes yours so special that people will want to visit it? It’s a known fact that people will visit a website more than once if the content is interesting, and if it changes regularly. So if you want to keep your prospects or customers on your site and not on your competitors’, you have to give them something worthwhile. The information has to be useful, engaging, or funny. And it has to change. Not every six months, not every month. It has to change every day, couple of days, or every week. The more regular, the more they will visit you.

With that in mind, you have to think about two things regarding content—are you able to write your content, and can you keep it updated? Most would say, yes. But think about it - are you trained to write effective web copy?

• Can you write interesting copy that’s easily scanned making good use of heading hierarchy, and seamlessly incorporates keywords for search engine optimization?

If not, the web firm you hire should have a skilled copywriter on board, who can handle the bulk content of your site. But then comes the next question:

• Do you have the time to spend constantly updating your site with news, events, blogs, images, videos, case-studies, products, or all of the above?

If the answer is no, then you either need to hire someone who can handle those responsibilities, or learn the necessary writing skills yourself, and set aside a chunk of time in your schedule on a regular basis to write content. Think of it like shaving. Sure, it’s kind of a pain, but you need to do it, and you certainly can’t forgo it for a couple of weeks just because you’re too busy!

Naturally there will be parts of your website that rarely change, but there should always be at least one part of every site that is clearly dynamic to the user. (For the purposes of this article, dynamic refers to content that is regularly updated and generated through a content management system(CMS).)

3) Content Management Systems

Speaking of which, the next thing to discuss with regard to content is whether or not you need a content management system.

For most, the answer is yes. However if you decide to ignore everything I said about how you need to change your content regularly (silly fool) — and you honestly know that you will only change your site’s content once every 6 months or every year — then don’t bother with a CMS.

Think of a CMS like a time-share package in Orlando. It’s a worthwhile investment if you use it. If you don’t, it’s a waste of money. Every blue moon when you want to change a phone number or delete a team members’ photo, just go back to whomever developed your site and pay him/her to make the change.

In most cases, you’ll find that a CMS is a very worthwhile purchase. It allows you to publish your own content whenever you want through an easy-to-use editing interface, similar to writing an email or using Word. If you were to try to edit your site without a CMS you’d have to know basic HTML, and be able to handle files using File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Thankfully, with a CMS, you can leave that to the pros. Your CMS sort of serves as a translator between you and your website. You write in plain English that you want to add a page and edit copy on your site, and the CMS translates that English into a language that a computer can understand, thereby updating your website.

You may need your entire website editable - but in most cases there are only a few pages you’ll need to change on a regular basis. In my experience, I have found it easier to let pages like “About Us” and “Contact” remain static — since you’ll rarely change those sections — and get a CMS for thing like “News”, “Events” and “Blog”, which you should be updating constantly.

Closely related to this subject is RSS. It stands for Really Simple Syndication. Using what’s called a RSS-reader (which is built into the Mozilla Firefox web-browser), your users can subscribe to the dynamic sections of your site. This way they can check their RSS-reader for updates to the site rather than visiting it each time.

Believe it or not this actually keeps users on your site, because they’re constantly reminded of you every time they look at their RSS-reader, and therefore they wont forget about your site… provided you keep the content fresh. Definitely ask your web team about RSS.

Hopefully these points were a helpful start. Part 2 will discuss hosting, domain and bandwidth. Feel free to email this link to those who would find it useful, and leave your comments/criticism in the comment box below.