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The Web Design Checklist

Kevin • Aug 09, 2019

Web Design Checklist Anyone Can Use

A web design checklist is your greatest ally when you want to build a website. It will save you money. It helps eliminate bad communications, making it clear what you want. The designer can build the site to your goals.

Most web design mistakes come from miscommunication. Nothing racks up extra fees like adding or changing your goals. With this checklist, you will be able to save money and get a great website.

Web Design Checklist To Save Money

Have A Purpose For Your Website

Whether a website design is a winner, or a loser is up to you. The key to website greatness is having a purpose. There must be a clear goal for every page of a site, not just the site itself. Many websites have no goal or focus; they never ask people to do anything.

So, if the goal of your site is to sign people up for your newsletter or get them to buy a product or service, we can help.

You Need A Web Hosting Company

You must have a web host. If you pick the wrong plan or host, you can destroy the visibility of your site before you start. You need a fast site that allows you to customize what you can do. We recommend Host Gator or Blue Host, we can help you set it up if you like. For a fast website, we will recommend cloud hosting.

Pick Out A Great Site Name

A good site name helps with branding, but SEO is also enhanced. Being the first thing people see when they find you on the internet, your site name starts the buying process. Most people will use the .com for the web address, nowadays there are plenty of other choices. This comes in handy if your choice is not available.

You Need A Buyers Profile

While we can guess who your ideal customer is, you know who they are. You are familiar with how they talk and what their problems are. You know how to solve their problems. All this information allows us to make you a website tailored to your customers. As your business grows, your ideal customer may change. We can help adjust the site to its new needs.

People Need To Know How To Reach You

The days of people accepting websites without contact information, is not acceptable. We will need the name, phone number and email of those who can handle problems. I will put these on the website; it makes people feel safe. People want to know that there is a person behind the site. We will need the real decision maker for the website. The job is much harder when we have to work through underlings who cannot decide.

Time Frame On Site Launch

We need to know when you want to launch your website. This will allow us to figure out the right amount of resources to give to your project. You need to realize, with web design and most other things, you can get it fast, high quality, or cheap. The big thing is you can only get two of those. When you want it fast, we will have to either get a lot of help or use templates. If you want it high quality, it will take time and resources. If you want it cheap, we will use templates or just squeeze it in between other jobs.

Know Your Budget

We will strive to give you a great website within your budget. First, we do custom web design; we do not use templates to create your website. The basic site will have all the SEO basics and best design features. Now, conversion rate optimization and building in full SEO optimization costs extra. This is a lot more work. If you are changing things all the time, it will cost more.

Solve Your Customer’s Problem

While having a goal for us to achieve is important, remember you need to solve customer problems. Without the solution, the site will never succeed.

Have A Short-Term Goal And A Long-Term Goal

Whatever your goals are for the website,we will then craft a sales funnel to guide the visitor to your goal. Long-term goals allow us to plan for future expansions and optimizations. Conversion optimization is an art, not a science. It takes a lot of testing, to make sure it gets the best results.

Your Other Marketing Will Link Up To Your Website

When you plan other marketing projects, remember they will lead people to your website. To get maximum effectiveness, you need to have landing pages. These are specifically designed to get people to perform actions. If you have them go to your homepage, people will not find just what they are looking for. They will find a lot of things to distract them. Keep them on track.

E-Commerce, If You Want To Sell A Product/Service/Subscription

There are a lot of things that need to be put in place if you will receive money on your website. Without proper safeguards for you and your customers, there can be terrible problems. Know what you are doing.

Know What You Want It To Look Like

If you have a branding requirements for feel or color, let us know. We will put them into the site and give it consistency on all pages.

Stand Out From Your Competitors

Once you only competed with your local rivals and now you are competing with companies from out of town, even out of the state, or country. You need to stand out. Something that will set you apart from the rest. Iit could be your great customer service. Your personal style or the latest equipment could be reasons people want to pick you. They want to get the best to make them feel special.

Special Software Or Features

If you want applications on your website, from CRM, accounting or even games, we need to know. We can plan the website to include those features and it will be easier than if you try to add it later. We can also put in archives or other features.

Migrating A Website

If you have a website, we can help you migrate the site with minimum problems. When you move a site, you probably will have a drop in traffic for a while. How do people find out about you now?

Who Will Do Your Content And Graphics?

Content and graphic design are one of the major parts of web design. It takes time to create and we can do this for you. If you supply your own, it makes our job easier, you also control what the message is. So it is cost effective to do your own. We may have to edit the content for SEO. The big thing to remember is if you do not get it to us the site will be delayed.

Coordinate With Your Other Online Marketing

We offer social media marketing and PPC or display advertising. We are Google Ads Certified. We will design landing pages that will help save you money on advertising.

Fresno Webmasters

Fresno Webmasters is a boutique web design and internet marketing company. You can email us with answers to the above questions or call us and we can get your project going.

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