B
E F O R E Y O U B E G I N
. . . |
| Work
out your objectives. |
|
First things
first: Before you can start planning your site's content, you need
a clear objective.
What do you
plan to achieve by having a website?
- Displaying
your products to potential customers, saving on brochure mailing
and printing costs?
- Providing
information to a wider audience?
- Generating
more sales?
- Actually
sell online?
- Simply provide
information on your location and services, much like a yellow
pages entry?
If you don't
have a clear goal, your site is likely to fail.
|
| Plan
your site's structure carefully. |
|
It is important
that your site flows in a clear, logical manner. If the content of
your site isn't concise and easy to navigate, your visitors will soon
depart - no matter how good the graphics are. Spend some time
planning the content of your pages, and draw up a flow chart with
your designer. |
| Assess
your audience. |
|
Age group? Male
or female? Students, families, or professionals?
If you
have a rough idea of what market you are aiming at, your site can
be designed accordingly.
|
| Check
out the competition. |
|
Search for some
websites relating to yours. Get an idea of what you like, and even
some examples of what you DON'T want to end up with.
|
| D
E S I G N I N G Y O U R S I T E
. . . |
| Speed
vs appearance. |
|
Bear in mind
that the more graphics-intensive a webpage is, the slower it loads.
During the design of your site, some compromises will have to be
made- usually speed vs appearance.
Are both of
equal importance to you?
Is it vital that the pages load instantly so your lower-end clients
are not "put off"?
Must you have a cutting-edge, flashy site regardless of the additional
loading time?
To asist in
decision-making, your designer will need to know whether you expect
your audience to be using old, outdated computer equipment, or the
latest technologies. This can often be judged by anticipated age-group,
occupational fields etc.
|
| Less
is often more! |
|
Resist the temptation
to place large amounts of text on a single page. Computer monitors
create more eye-strain than printed material, and lengthy scrolling
is also undesirable. Even the most dedicated reader may be discouraged
by a screen full of text to scroll through.
Edit your brochures
to make them more concise. Together we can decide the best way to
arrange your site's content, find ways to break up copious amounts
of text, and add graphics to bring it to life.
|
| Big
is not best ! |
|
Remember that
not everybody has a 19" screen and broadband connection. We recommend
that all photos are small enough that visitors will not have to scroll
to see the entire image. We are experienced at selecting the best
image size, file type and compression ratio for each image - just
send us your photos, and we'll take care of the rest!
|
| A
F T E R I T'S "F I N I S H E D"
. . . |
| Promote
your site! |
|
If you want your
clients to know about your website, you'll have to put in some work
yourself! |
| – |
Update your stationary
to display your website and email addresses. |
| – |
Make sure that
all your advertising includes the website address. |
| – |
Mention it to
your clients if appropriate. "Actually, you can view our catalogue
on the web". |
| – |
Distribute promotional
flyers to your entire mailing list, and place a small pile where clients
can see it. |
| – |
Post a promotional
poster on your noticeboard.
|
| Don't
forget to update it! |
|
The best-designed
site in Australia will be bad for business if it's information is
not kept up to date! Incorrect contact details and out-of-date information
can be worse than no website at all.
You have several
choices when it comes to updating your site:
|
| – |
Paying us to
update a page when required.
Just look around the web for an hour, and you'll see that this almost
always fails. Six months down the track staff invariably lose interest
in maintaining the site, department budgets get cut back, and the
site becomes stagnant. |
| – |
A pre-paid update
plan. If you've already paid for your quarterly update, there's a
good chance you'll actually get us to do it!. |
| – |
Doing the updates
yourself.
Simply altering text doesn't require much knowledge or software.
If your staff don't have basic html skills, we can give tutorials
on what's required. |
| – |
Paying extra
money in the design stages to include an auto-update section or two.
Your "News" or "Calendar" section could include
a program allowing your untrained staff to easily make alterations
over the web. Update the info as often as you want without paying
us a cent! |
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