Preparing for your website

What is the main purpose of the site?

Online Portfolio / Business Brochure / Internet Presence in preparedness for future expansion / Online Catalogue / To attract new business / Combination of one or all of the above.

Have you got a domain name (website address) in mind? There are some important points to be remembered when selecting a domain name, having hyphens and underscores can cause problems when you name drop your website with people typing in the wrong address, having numbers instead of words can also cause similar problems as can unusual spellings. These issues can be advised upon.

Content

• Description of your business and the services / products you supply
• Contact information, working hours, location
• Background, References, Brands / Manufacturers used / supplied
• Products / services
• Photos / Examples of your work
• Pricing structure
• Have you got a source of relevant images of your products/work i.e. CD-ROM, supplier’s website, scanned images etc.

Preparation

• Have all text, images*, tables, stock lists etc in either Word, Excel, Publisher or Plain Text format, on disk.
• Get together all the text and images to be copied and/or scanned compiled and ready.
• Sketch / note any ideas you have down on paper.
• If you are incorporating a company logo/colour scheme, have ready source / reference material.
• How many pages have you opted for, what do you want to use them for? Home page / Introduction, Products / Services pages, Contact / Feedback Page.
• Do any of your suppliers/satisfied clients have Websites that your website can link to? Exchanging links with other Websites is now an integral part of search engine ranking.
• Do you require me to source high quality images for your site? If so, detailed descriptions are required.
  If any custom graphics are required, please sketch or jot down any ideas you have.

*If you require me to take digital photographs it can be arranged.

All of this preparation will help to have your website completed, online and exact to your specifications as soon as possible. The biggest delay in website design and building is compiling all of the content to be included.