Website Design Brisbane*Web Design Brisbane

Steps to determining your Website requirements

So you are in Business and you need a Website to represent your Business. How do you determine what to ask for and ensure that you will be happy with it?  It’s very difficult for customers to know what they need and no one wants to waste money on something they are not happy with.

To assist you I have set out common questions and steps people have used to arrive at a Website they are truly happy with. 

Firstly you should determine what the purpose of your website is:

• Is it to display products and services and give pictures and information regarding them. Remember to attract visitors you need more than a simple site trying to sell products. Everyone has that and most visitors are used to rejecting or saying no.
• Is it to make your Business look impressive and professional or small and budget?
• Do I need a primarily simple site or one that is extendable and dynamic? I.e. one built using a database and can be extended indefinitely or is a static html site sufficient.
• Is my primary purpose to be search engine friendly or to impress visitors? I.e. do you expect most of your visitors to be those you give cards / referrals to or are you expecting visitors to find your site through Google? 
• Do I plan to sell products on line with fixed pricing and automated payment possible? If so you probably need an ecommerce payment setup. We have many eCommerce shopping carts in production.

Steps:

1. Determine purpose above.
2. Determine if you need an extendable dynamic database Website or budget fixed Website.  Extendable sites cost a little more.
3. Colours, layouts and formats. Determine what colours you prefer and provide samples.
4. Sites. Find some sites you like. Busy or simple?, Flash or static?.  Peruse lots of Websites, and browse through free website templates available from places like http://www.oswd.org/ which have literally thousands of free layouts available.  If you can find one you like or partially like but wish to modify it will keep your costs down.
5. Logos. Do you need a logo or picture on your site.  Find some samples or make up something even draw it with colours to make a starting point for your graphic design.

Budget:

Do you really wish to appear cheap or does your business deserver more.  Remember this is a one off cost, not recurring and if you get benefit from the Website, you should not go for the cheapest, but one that will be cost effective.  You are representing your Business.

Beware:

• Static Websites.  Over 90% of sites are static HTML and cannot easily be extended. They may look good but cannot be extended. 
• What language. Of those that are dynamic most are written in PHP which can be extended but at a higher cost than commercial software written in Microsoft.NET or Java. So although you may have a cheap up front cost your long term cost will be higher.
• Hosting. Is your site hosted in Australia and fast or overseas and very slow.  Its easy to be cheap when your site takes 15seconds or longer to load a single page. BUT your customers will not be interested in waiting and will go elsewhere.