Is your website getting you more business?  Does the website tie into your existing yellow pages advertisement?  Does your website help attract new business from your local chamber of commerce affiliation?  Does your website just help your current customers?

The purpose of a website can be very different depending on the specific goals and objectives of the company.  Some websites integrate with a referral and networking strategy while others integrate with a heavy yellow pages and more traditional print marketing strategy.  It is important to understand the goals of how your website will integrate into your business.  This is the key to our strategic planning process.

Content Outline

The first step after the planning process is to brainstorm some ideas on how the website will work.  What will visitors be looking for?  How can we backup the things mentioned in the yellow pages ad to provide more information?  How can we let visitors know the company is credible?  The questions that need answering on your website will certainly vary depending on the type of business you are in, but the questions your visitors will be trying to answer are the questions we need to keep in mind as we brainstorm ideas for the website content.  Typically websites include sections such as About Us (Company Profile and History Information), a Links Page (to showcase affiliations with other companies), and a Contact Us Page (to let people know how to get in contact with you).  The other sections of your website will vary depending on your products and services and what you are trying to accomplish.  It is vital that before moving on to the design phase a clear outline has been created of the different content sections of the website.  The section names can still be changed after this point, but the way a visitor navigates through the site should be set at this point.

Graphical Layout

Once there is a clear content outline in place, it is imperative that you come up with a professional looking online presence.  Your online presence is equivalent to your waiting room.  It is most often the first or second thing someone will see from your company.  It is absolutely crucial to make sure your website looks and feels like your company materials.  You wouldn’t want to see a “techy” looking website when searching for a financial planner.  If you were comparing two financial planners, you would also not expect both of their websites to look the same.  Just like in traditional marketing, the key to a successful online strategy is to differentiate yourself from your competition.  Because of this, we highly recommend against using template designs.  Template designs, while typically inexpensive, can actually hurt your business by not providing a unique competitive advantage.  All websites are not created equal.  Click here for a listing of the features of a professional website and a listing of features typical of amateur websites. (link to website checklist).

The look and feel of your website is determined by the graphical layout.  You may have a logo, many brochures, letterhead, business cards, print advertisements, and many other elements to influence the look and feel of your website.  The key with the graphical layout is consistency across all the elements you are using in your company.  If all of our marketing materials are green and now your website uses red, it is highly likely that someone viewing your website may not even realize the website is for the same company that is described on the green brochure.  You may start with just a logo or multiple existing photos and graphical elements from your existing materials.

Our trained and experienced graphics designers are certified in the website design process.  Designing a graphical layout for a website is not like designing a print advertisement or a printed brochure.  People look at websites differently when it comes to amount of text, white space requirements, and color rules.  Our graphics professionals are trained in these principles and experienced in website layout design to know how to properly implement these items.  After receiving any graphical elements the customer chooses to have influence the look of the website, we will complete a first draft of the graphical layout and show the customer a “proof.”  At this time the customer can make any changes to the proof that are needed.  We can change major elements such as positioning and sizing or minor things such as color and alignment.  We will continue to make changes and show the customer “proofs” through as many revisions as necessary to make the website layout absolutely perfect.  If FLASH animation is required on the project, our FLASH experts integrate the appropriate amount of FLASH technology without distracting the user from the core purpose of the website with animation.

Technical Programming

Once the layout has been approved by the customer, our technical programmers take over the website development.  Our certified website programmers use the latest technologies in HTML and Javascript to insure that when Internet users are browsing your website they see exactly the same website regardless of the type of computer they are using.  Your website will not break apart on different resolutions, nor will there be any horizontal scroll bars in standard resolution.  Our programmers take the content provided by you and work with you to format the content on each page in a professional and intuitive manner so the user going to the website can easily find the things they are looking for.

Once we have completed the programming on the website, we go through a tweaking and proofreading process with the customer to make sure the content is accurate and free of mistakes.

We have alliances with several copywriters that can assist you with coming up with website content that is polished, professional, and representative of the image of your business.  If writing content due to time constraints or because of an inconsistent message in your other marketing materials is difficult, a professional copywriter may be the way to go.  We can work together with the copywriter to make sure the content is extremely professional and totally appropriate for the purpose of the website.

Pricing

Our fees for these services vary with the complexity of the project.  We can provide simple inexpensive solutions for start up businesses that can fit into any budget and we can provide high end fully automated and integrated websites for larger businesses at an extremely competitive price.  We provide the most professional service at the best price.  All websites are not created equal.  Click here for a listing of the features of a professional website and a listing of features typical of amateur websites. (link to website checklist).

Now What…

Some websites may require some database programming for certain lead tracking applications or document download implementations.  We fully explain this process in our Strategic Application Planning and Database Application Design sections.

During the design process, we will work with the customer to choose the appropriate domain name, setup the hosting and Email accounts associated with that domain name, and formulate a Search Engine Optimization strategy for the website.