Full disclosure: I sell websites. Every day, I meet with companies who are looking for a web-design firm, and naturally, I'd like some of them to choose us.
But I've also noticed something during these conversations: often, people don't ask the most important questions.
A meeting with a web-design company is an interview. You want to make sure their business is legitimate, and you want to get a sense for the personality and culture of the company.
Most of all, you need to understand their approach to the unique challenges you're tackling with your project
In 5 minutes, these 5 questions will tell you more than any hour-long presentation could:
Question 1: What is your approach to usability? More than any other question, this will help you quickly differentiate between experienced web designers and novices.
Asking about usability will help you understand the company's focus--namely, whether or not they have the most important thing in mind: the visitor.
A company without a good answer to this may build a site that they like, or one that you like, but that visitors find confusing or difficult to use. You want a web-design firm that thinks at the highest level: user-centered design.
The best people working in web design today will light up when you mention usability. They will be grateful for the question, and they'll be glad to share their opinions, experience, and the latest research.
Best Answer: "I'm thrilled you asked! We believe in user-centered design, and we conduct usability testing whenever possible. We're visitor advocates and will defend their interests with concrete evidence and research."
Question 2: Can you show me examples of projects with similar goals? Ask for examples of sites with similar goals and features.
Need an event registration tool? Talk to people who can show you one. That way, you can ask why it was built in a certain way, what the challenges were, what results have been measured, and how those results met the project's goals.
Suppose they haven't built a similar site before. Are they up-front about it? Do they have any ideas? What challenges would they expect?
Is design your main concern? Rather than searching for a firm with a portfolio piece that seems to fit with your needs, look for a company that can show you a wide range of designs. This indicates a healthy creative philosophy: a company that listens to its clients, considers the brand, and doesn't take a one-size-fits-all approach to the design process.
Best Answer: "Of course. Let's take a look at a few now."
Follow-Up Question: Is there a limit to the number of design revisions?
Question 3: Can I meet the team? This question will instantly reveal if the team is in-house or outsourced.
A lot of companies farm out the various parts of a project. Perhaps the firm you're considering is a reliable partner company. Or maybe it's an ad hoc team of freelancers who have never worked together before--and who may not be there down the road.
Or is it a team at all? The "company" you're speaking with could in fact be one person offering to sell the project, do the analysis, design the site, program it, and manage the server. Is this person likely to be an expert in all those things?
For any site with serious goals, you should look for a team of specialists. If the team is in fact just 1 or 2 people, ask about their capacity to handle your project. Are they going to be busy selling new clients while working on your site? How important is your project to them?
Best Answer: "The entire team is in-house and works together on similar projects all the time."
2nd-Best Answer: "There is a partner company involved, but everyone has worked together on similar projects."
Follow-Up Question: Have team members worked together before? How many times have they done this?
Question 4: What if I want to make changes later? One of the most fundamental differences among web-development firms is their approach to ongoing changes.
Every website will change over time. Some companies charge hourly for these changes, while others set up a content-management tool that makes it easy, fast, and free to update text, upload images, and add pages.
Best Answer: "We're going to set up a tool that lets you (or anyone with access) manage the site. You'll never wait or get an invoice for basic changes."
Follow-Up Question: What kind of changes will cost money?
Even if your site includes a content-management tool, certain types of changes will require a professional programmer or designer. Ask if your content-management tool will allow you to add new forms, change animations, or create new types of page layouts.
Question 5: How will we measure results? It's not a bad thing if the answer to this question sounds a little technical.
Listen for terms like bounce rate, unique visits, page views, time on site, inbound links, search-engine rankings, conversion rate, etc. If you start hearing jargon you're not familiar with, ask for explanations in simple English.
Best Answer: "We measure unique visitors, bounce rate, and conversion percentage. Our goal is to generate leads, so these are the most important metrics. We use an analytics tool to do this, and we will show you how to track these measures as well."
Follow-Up Question: What numbers should we expect?
Of course, there are so many variables that it would be hard for even an experienced expert to get too specific in answering this question. But if a company has done similar projects, they should have at least a general sense for benchmarks.
Bonus Tips
* Check references. Or better yet, meet possible web designers through referrals: people you know and trust who have worked with them in the past.
* Ask if the pricing is an estimate or a firm, not-to-exceed number.
* Make sure they are good listeners. This can be an instant deal breaker.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Starting a new website: back to basics
So you have made the decision to have a website developed for your business, but are not sure of what is involved, and where the costs lie? It can be a bit daunting, especially if you are not particularly Internet or PC savvy: web development, web hosting, domain names, email addresses. All of these are factors that need to be considered and costed into your project. As well as that, you've seen many great websites on the net which are packed with loads of cool features, moving graphics, options to sign up for newsletters, database searches and links to other sites. Do you need all these features, and how much will all that cost? What should you have in your website, what's the process, and how much will it all set you back?
Start with a suitable domain name. Start with the name of your company, I believe that a dot local domain name is OK for most businesses, and that a dot com name still really implies an American site, although this is not a fast rule. Why not identify your business as a local one straight off and use dot local, which will promote your country to overseas Internet surfers? Something else to think about is whether the name lends itself to your business products and services. You need a lot of advertising, PR and brand marketing clout to get a name like Amazon to be synonymous with books right? But it is possible as we know. When you've thought of your name, register it.
The most basic type of website is called a brochureware website. That's one that is like what it's name suggests: an online brochure introducing your business, products and services, and encouraging your target market to contact you. A brochureware website is a great start if you want to start off small, with a good Internet presence at a reasonable price.
What if you want your website to be more than just an advertisement, and want more substantial features for your visitors, for instance to make the sale for you right there and then in real time? This requires dynamic functionality and a database behind website and so will cost you more. Your requirements determine the budget. There are no set prices for including this sort of functionality, so specify your requirements to your developer and get a quote.
Even if you start with a brochureware website you can of course expand and grow it over time, and it is best to plan this from the start if that is what you want to do. Remember to consider the size of your site and the impact that this can have on your web hosting costs. Credit card facilities also need to be budgetd.
So, in summary it is fair to say that the costs of owning and operating a website do not just lie in the production of the website itself, although this is the major component. You also need to consider domain name purchase, website hosting costs, domain name-based email accounts, website statistics, service/support, search engine optimisation and of course ongoing management, maintenance and development.
Start with a suitable domain name. Start with the name of your company, I believe that a dot local domain name is OK for most businesses, and that a dot com name still really implies an American site, although this is not a fast rule. Why not identify your business as a local one straight off and use dot local, which will promote your country to overseas Internet surfers? Something else to think about is whether the name lends itself to your business products and services. You need a lot of advertising, PR and brand marketing clout to get a name like Amazon to be synonymous with books right? But it is possible as we know. When you've thought of your name, register it.
The most basic type of website is called a brochureware website. That's one that is like what it's name suggests: an online brochure introducing your business, products and services, and encouraging your target market to contact you. A brochureware website is a great start if you want to start off small, with a good Internet presence at a reasonable price.
What if you want your website to be more than just an advertisement, and want more substantial features for your visitors, for instance to make the sale for you right there and then in real time? This requires dynamic functionality and a database behind website and so will cost you more. Your requirements determine the budget. There are no set prices for including this sort of functionality, so specify your requirements to your developer and get a quote.
Even if you start with a brochureware website you can of course expand and grow it over time, and it is best to plan this from the start if that is what you want to do. Remember to consider the size of your site and the impact that this can have on your web hosting costs. Credit card facilities also need to be budgetd.
So, in summary it is fair to say that the costs of owning and operating a website do not just lie in the production of the website itself, although this is the major component. You also need to consider domain name purchase, website hosting costs, domain name-based email accounts, website statistics, service/support, search engine optimisation and of course ongoing management, maintenance and development.
Web Design - What is the Real Cost of a Website?
In web design, there is no fix cost. Company A can charge $3,000 for a 10 page HTML website but company B may only charge $500 for the same thing. Why is this so?
The answer is that they are most certainly not charging you the same thing. A company that charges you $3,000 for a website may have more experience and knowledge in online marketing and web design. They will spend more time to design, organize and make your site SEO-friendly. This will ensure that your site is a nice and marketable. On the other hand, another designer or company may charge you only $500 for the same specifications but they will most likely only put a fraction of the effort into it. Therefore, there is really no fixed cost.
When you are getting a company to design your website, cost should not be the only concern that you consider. Instead, you should look at other factors that will determine how well your site is going to be. Is the company knowledgeable in online marketing and SEO? Do you like their portfolio? Can they develop a site which is marketable that will bring you enquiry and sales? By looking at these factors, you can sometime justify the cost that they are charging you.
When you are getting a company to quote you a price, make sure that you let them understand the specifications of your website. This is because with more specifications, the price will be higher. Therefore, you must be clear on what kind of site do you want to develop. Do you want an e-commerce website that display catalogs of your products and allows online transaction? Or do you just want a simple static HTML website?
And also, if the company is knowledgeable in SEO, the charges of the development may be higher. This is because SEO is the bed rock of online marketing. SEO is the process of increasing targeted search engine traffic to your website via natural search engine listings. To achieve success with SEO, your website must be SEO-friendly. To make your site SEO-friendly, it starts from the time you design your website. If you design a website which is not SEO-friendly now and a few months later you decide to implement SEO, it will cause you a lot more money because you will need to revamp your site again.
If you are thinking of just getting your website online and do not care about online marketing, I will advise you rather not create a website. A website is meant to attract visitors, build brand, and turn visitors to customers. It should be nice and marketable. Search engine is the biggest traffic referral source. With search engines, people are looking for companies that can provide them with the product or service that they need. If your website is not listed on the top of the search result listings, you will miss the deal. So make sure that you make the right decision now.
The answer is that they are most certainly not charging you the same thing. A company that charges you $3,000 for a website may have more experience and knowledge in online marketing and web design. They will spend more time to design, organize and make your site SEO-friendly. This will ensure that your site is a nice and marketable. On the other hand, another designer or company may charge you only $500 for the same specifications but they will most likely only put a fraction of the effort into it. Therefore, there is really no fixed cost.
When you are getting a company to design your website, cost should not be the only concern that you consider. Instead, you should look at other factors that will determine how well your site is going to be. Is the company knowledgeable in online marketing and SEO? Do you like their portfolio? Can they develop a site which is marketable that will bring you enquiry and sales? By looking at these factors, you can sometime justify the cost that they are charging you.
When you are getting a company to quote you a price, make sure that you let them understand the specifications of your website. This is because with more specifications, the price will be higher. Therefore, you must be clear on what kind of site do you want to develop. Do you want an e-commerce website that display catalogs of your products and allows online transaction? Or do you just want a simple static HTML website?
And also, if the company is knowledgeable in SEO, the charges of the development may be higher. This is because SEO is the bed rock of online marketing. SEO is the process of increasing targeted search engine traffic to your website via natural search engine listings. To achieve success with SEO, your website must be SEO-friendly. To make your site SEO-friendly, it starts from the time you design your website. If you design a website which is not SEO-friendly now and a few months later you decide to implement SEO, it will cause you a lot more money because you will need to revamp your site again.
If you are thinking of just getting your website online and do not care about online marketing, I will advise you rather not create a website. A website is meant to attract visitors, build brand, and turn visitors to customers. It should be nice and marketable. Search engine is the biggest traffic referral source. With search engines, people are looking for companies that can provide them with the product or service that they need. If your website is not listed on the top of the search result listings, you will miss the deal. So make sure that you make the right decision now.
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