Website Creation - From Start To Finish
So you want to create a website but you’re not sure where to start. This 7 step guide is designed to help you plan your website, from understanding your options to thinking long term and finding the right web designer to build it for you.
1. The Website Concept
The first thing you need is a clear concept for your website and what its function will be.
- Will it be advertising your business, with information that will rarely change?
- Will you add and update information regularly?
- Do you want your website to support your existing business (for example an online shopping system)?
- Who will be using your site and how?
Being clear about what you want will help website designers to make your website’s design fit its purpose.
A professional web designer or web design company will spend time working out your requirements, but if you have a good idea of what you need, this will save you and your web designer time (and therefore money) as well as avoiding any misunderstandings.
2. Understanding Your Options
Website designs fit broadly into two distinct categories – they are either static or dynamic.
- Static websites: These sites simply present information that does not change, like a brochure for your company, with the pages of your website mirroring the pages of your brochure. A website designer can construct a static website relatively easily and quickly, as it is essentially converting existing information into a website design.
- Dynamic websites: These sites feature some kind of interactivity such as the ability to leave comments or information that may change frequently like products, news or reviews. You can even have a website which allows you to add and edit information yourself, as you would using a word processor. To provide this interactivity, your website must do more than just display information, so some computer programming by a web developer will be required.
3. Learning Some Basic Web Design Jargon
There are all sorts of buzzwords and jargon that web designers use every day without even thinking. Make sure you don’t get bamboozled by reading our guide to
understanding web design.
4. Saving Time And Money By Finding Design Examples
Find other websites that demonstrate the features you are looking for as this will give you a good idea of what is possible, and you can use these as examples to help show web designers what you want.
It’s worth bearing in mind that web design is very different from graphic design for printed brochures or advertisements. The job of a website designer is strike a balance between appearance and functionality, so that visitors to your website can make use of it however they are viewing it – whether this is on a computer, mobile phone or other device.
5. Your Long Term Website Strategy
Whilst the initial creation of your website is probably your main concern, you also need to think about the future of the site.
- If you want a static website design, but in the future some of the information changes, the website will need to be updated. If your website features dynamic content, who will be making updates?
- If users can register with your site and add their own messages, photos or other content, who will make sure that the content is appropriate and legal?
Unless you have specified a website design that allows you to update and maintain it, you may find that you have to pay your web designer or web design agency to do this.
6. Some Final Considerations
There are a few final things you should consider and talk to your web designer or web design company about.
- Hosting – this refers to where your website is physically stored, and is important as you want your website to load quickly. If your website is likely to have lots of visitors (for example if it is advertised on television) the host must have enough capacity, or visitors may not be able to access your website.
- Training - if you or your colleagues will be updating and maintaining your website it’s likely that you will need some kind of training.
- Online Advertising – it can take many months for a new website to appear in Google’s free result listings. Internet advertising can help you promote your site in the short-term until it gains momentum.
Your web designer or web design agency should be able to advise you on hosting, training and in some cases online advertising. Alternatively, Approved Index can put you in touch with internet marketing companies if you want to work with a dedicated specialist.
7. Getting Your Website Built
Once you’ve gone through the steps above you should have a clearer sense of what your website design requires and be in a good position to communicate this to web designers and web design agencies.
Our guides to Choosing a Web Design Company and Questions To Ask A Web Design Agency will help you to find the right individual or company for the job. If you’re ready to get started, simply request quotes now using our simple form.
Receive Quotations for Web Design
