Your New Website… What Do You Want?

Often times, we are confronted with a very familiar term, “I don’t know”. The client knows they want a new website or a website redesign but they just don’t have the full vision yet. Once the process begins, because the project wasn’t fully hashed out, we find that the client tends to add more items to the project, piecing it together as we go. This is difficult for a number of reasons. The first being simply that once a project’s scope has been determined, going back and adding new features or functions is sometimes difficult and can end up costing you more of your tightening budget. The second reason is that the project usually comes out weaker than it could or should have. When you piece a website together in this way it often causes problems because the foundation of the site may not have been built to complement those additions. When this is the case we need to build out additional functionality to account for those additions which often makes the overall site (usability and functionality) less solid.

Building a website is like building a car. First you must ask yourself, “Do I want a Mercedes Benz or do I want a Yugo?” After you’ve figured that one out, what kind of features do you want? Sure, the Yugo is bare bones and the Benz comes with a lot of options… but you need a customized look and feel so you can stand out from the crowd. Do you want a a new paint job and rims (design)? Or do you want an upgraded engine with the satellite radio/DVD combo (development)? The options are endless… what do you want?

When a company wants to spend their budgetary dollars more wisely they will give a hefty amount of thought into what their web development and web design. They will brainstorm it and form a strategic plan of action. Sometimes, however, it’s not that easy. We don’t expect other companies to know the technical side of what we do, as well as we do, so we tend to encourage our clients to contact a web consultant.

A web consulting company can help you identify and outline your company’s needs as well as make recommendations on how to accomplish those needs. Did you know that choosing the wrong operating language for your site can cost your 10’s of thousands of dollars?! Do you know how to edit HTML and CSS code on your own? If you choose the wrong web design company you may be left having to pay for each little change you want to make if you don’t! Are you a high maintenance business that needs the site to run on it’s own? The right web development company will offer you maintenance and content packages so you don’t need to worry about the day-to-day operations. Is search engine optimization a big factor in your business? Do you know the cost of running a REAL SEO campaign? Did you know that running a campaign for a highly competitive term could run you upwards of $20,000 a month or more? All of these items and more can be answered by a good web consulting company.

So before you decide to go straight to the company that is going to build your site it may be a good idea to have a plan ready from a professional web consultant. With a plan in hand the development company will know exactly what is needed and what is wanted because the homework has already been done. This is make your web design or redesign project run much smoother and make your site that much more efficient!