Launching your new website - part 1

Launching a new business website or getting a re-design of an existing one can be very daunting. To help with the process we've put together a series of short articles to help you be prepared and to help make sure you make an informed choice when selecting your website designer.

What are the first steps?

Before contacting companies and getting quotes it's a good idea to gather a loose brief of what you are looking for. For example, do you need to take payments, sell products on your site or will your website just be an online brochure outlining your products and services? These are essential things to decide before getting quotes as they are key determinants of the price you will end up paying. In this week's blog post we've asked our designers what their top tips would be for getting started and we've put a list together from what they said.

What Pages Do You Need?

Have a think about the different pages you might want on your website and what sort of content and functionality you might need on these pages. This will give your web designer a good idea on how long it would take for them to produce your website and calculate a cost of build.

How Would You Like it To Look?

It's useful to do a bit of research and find some websites that you like the look of or ones that inspire you. This will help your web designer get an idea of your tastes, if they can achieve your requirements and help with the quoting process. Generally it's much more important to see how you would like you website to look than worrying too much about finding examples which come from the same industry as your own.

Images For Your Website

When getting a quote this is not necessarily something that you will be asked for, however if you are interested in getting a website designed it is a good idea to start gathering some images or taking photographs. As a tip, having these banked will speed up the briefing process once you have made your decision. Be aware that if you don't have your own images you might need to add the cost of a photographer or the cost of stock imagery for use on your website to your budget.

Your Web Address & Email Account

Have a think about the web address / domain name you would like for your new website. Your email address takes the form of name@yourwebaddress.co.uk so bear in mind that a long domain name will mean an even longer email address. Often the web address and email addresses are included as part of your website package so check beforehand to avoid any unnecessary costs. A temporary website holding page and email addresses can be set up normally from day one while your final website is under construction.

Get a Quote When Ready

When you know the rough parameters of what you require, contact a few companies to get quotes. It's not always necessary to have everything ready before getting your quotes. Quotes can vary widely from one designer to another. This doesn't necessarily mean one is better than the other but might mean they are more focused on one segment of the market. Price can be a good indicator of if the designer is right for you but of course price is just one element to consider and basing your decision just on price has its own risks.

Get a Holding Page

If you are not 100% ready to get your website built but you want to make a start, a holding page is a great way to do this. Having a holding page will help start building up your reputation on Google and can include basic information such as your logo and contact details.

Armed with the information outlined above we think you'll be well equipped to get accurate quotes and get the ball rolling.

This article forms part of a sequence of articles regarding launching your new website. Visit our blog to view the latest parts as soon as they are available.