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Professional Website Creation and Management
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Creating a Working Website
These are what we consider essential steps to achieve a working website.:
You can do them yourself or have them done by a web developer. Most folks find their preference is to do some themselves, depending on their technical expertise, leaving the rest to their web developer. Whatever the breakup of tasks it is vital that all parties involved clearly understand what jobs are whose responsibility. As with most things in life - the more time you invest the less money you will need to invest to achieve a worthwhile outcome.
Assessment of suitability
You have probably already done this; there are some situations where a website is not a good investment. However, if you offer goods or services which are not severely geographically constrained, a website is by far the most economical means of spreading the word about what you offer.
For example services which are exclusively local and are needed in emergencies - such as plumbers and glazers - still do much better in the Yellow Pages - nobody uses email when their bathroom is flooding.
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Identify your targets ~ what you want the website to do FOR YOU
It is important to know the major goals for the website, its like life - if you don't have a direction in mind, then any direction will do and they don't all lead to a better business experience. Some common targets are:
- Improve market place prominence
- Encourage new customers.
- Produce sales leads.
- Sell products - especially digitally downloadable ebooks, audio and video.
- Keep your customers informed and up-to-date.
- Customer support interface.
- Maintain a catalogue of your goods and services.
- A showcase of your achievements
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And, speaking of targets, it is also very important to have an accurate description of the website's target audience - who is it aimed at. This will be the key factor in choosing graphics, style and substance.
Locate existing assets
Your website needs to have an impact - many new customers will find it via an internet search engine which means they will be fully aware that there are many, many other sources (websites) offering similar goods or services. So it is important that the website looks and feels interesting to generate and retain interest.
You could spend a lot of time and money creating new graphics and content. Or you can review your existing materials - brochures, adverts, user guides, catalogues - and identify what is suitable for the website. This approach can save you substantial expense and heartache.
That is not to say you will have everything you need for your website to hand, but knowing what you have can save a costly “re-inventing the wheel”.
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Determine your Budget
The question I am asked most often is "What does a website cost?".
Its a fair question but its much the same as "How long is a piece of string?".
Without knowing what the goals for the website are and what materials are available it is impossible to accurately gauge expenses. It is far better to have a clear idea of what you want to invest in the website to prevent cost blow-outs.
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As a guide here are some figures which may help:
| Item |
What it does /
Why you need it |
Cost range |
Our price |
| Domain name registration |
Every website needs an address - just like every business needs an address in the real world. On the Internet this is called a “domain”. Your domain name is your internet address and we recommend acquiring one at the outset of the website creation process. For business .com or .com.au domains are the best choices. |
Annual cost ~$20 - $100
prices vary widely and some places bundle the domain registration cost with the hosting cost. Domain names are issued on a first-come first-served basis, if someone else has registered the name you want it is unavailable. |
.com.au $30pa
.com $25pa |
| Hosting |
Every website needs to be located on a computer permanently connected to the world-wide-web. This is called hosting the website. |
Annual cost ~ $40 - $1000+
there are a lot of factors affected by your choice of hosting, including reliability, resilience, response time, support quality/competence.
to some extent it is a case of you get what you pay for but not always. |
$140 + GST |
| Website design |
The 3 most common ways websites are designed are:-
- DIY - with today's Content Management Systems you can easily find inexpensive packages which offer “Site building software” and you can do it all yourself. This doesn't suit everyone as there is a significant learning curve to master site-building.
- Have your brother's mate's sister's cousin's niece do it - she's a whiz with computers. Often the most appealing and “economical” option, the question to ask yourself is “Would I be happy letting this person serve my customers?”
- Hire a professional web developer - and yes I am biased towards this as it brings expertise and practical knowledge to bear.
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no financial cost - $000's
For the website owner there is the usual trade-off between time and money - the more money you spend the less time you have to devote to overseeing the process. |
Typical small-business websites range from $800 - $5000 for most small business websites. |
| Website Maintenance |
Usually this will be done by the same people who did the design. However sometimes it can work well getting the initial design done by a professional and then doing the maintenance work yourself - this decision is best made in consultation with whoever does the initial design. |
varies widely in terms of both time and money - depending on who and how the work is carried out. |
$85 per hour |
Develop the specifications / blueprint
As with all construction projects the outcome depends on the plans the builder is given.
With websites you don't need an architect to make detailed drawings but it is very useful if you can make a list of what you want the website to do - its functionality - and what you want it to say or show - its content.
These can be made in consultation with friends, staff, colleagues and your web developer - if you have one in mind.
At this stage you can also check the anticipated cost with your budget and make appropriate adjustments to ensure your specifications and your budget are compatible.
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Build the website
There are several sub-tasks here - such as create any graphic images needed, write the text for the web pages, assemble it all and test it to make sure it functions as expected.
These tasks are all the responsibility of the web developer who may choose to parcel them out to appropriate individuals.
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Website testing
Once built, the developer needs to make sure that it works as per the specifications - do the emails go to the correct recipient, are orders processed reliably and correctly and so forth.
This phase is about the technical functioning of the various pages and processes making up the website - have the ideas which defined the way the site should operate been faithfully transcribed?
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Customer Acceptance
Once the developer is satisfied that the site conforms to the specifications it is time to make sure that the public - or at least the intended customer base - can use it to do what you originally intended.
This is where friends and colleagues can help out - but beware - often they may criticise the design which is no longer under revue. It is the functionality of the website which is being examined at this stage and comments like “I don't really like that shade of green” are best politely ignored.
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Go Live
Once you are satisfied that you have what you want, it is time to let the world know your wonderful website is waiting for them.
By now every advert you place, every email you send, every invoice you issue, every receipt you give - in fact every piece of paper you send out - needs to carry the website address (or URL ).
The site also needs to be submitted to the Internet Search Engines (such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alta-Vista) - we include this as part of the website creation but you may find that others regard it as a separate (and chargeable) item.
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Maintaining the Site
Nearly everyone in the trade will tell you that your website needs to be kept fresh, up-to-date and tantalising.
We disagree to some extent - many websites function very well with static content and annual updates to reflect price changes. After all, if the website faithfully reproduces your business online then it really needs changing only when the goods or services you offer change.
Nevertheless there will come a time when you want to add, change or remove some of the website's content or functionality. If a content management system (CMS) was incorporated in the site anyone with basic computer skills can make changes to the words and pictures but probably not the basic functioning. In this case you do not need your web developer to maintain the site. However if you, like most business-owners want to make changes infrequently it can be cost-ineffective to have yourself or a staff member try to remember how to update the site when there are long periods on inactivity between updates.
We find that infrequent site maintenance is best done by someone who is keeping their website maintenance skills fresh through frequent use. In most cases the cost is modest and only a fraction of related costs - such as reprinting a brochure with new prices.
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