Research Your Options for Web Development
Launching a website involves many skills and disciplines. Here’s what you’ll need to consider:
- A website requires design, coding, copywriting, and online marketing. If you’re operating an ecommerce site, or collecting customer information, you’ll also have to take into account backend systems like payment processing and database management. Larger companies can offer a lot of these services, but are more expensive; freelancers usually specialize in one or two areas and tend to charge less per hour or project, but you’ll need a roster of talent.
- Do your due diligence. Before choosing to work with a company or a freelancer, make sure to ask for references and portfolios. We recommend that you create a request for proposal (RFP) to better communicate your website objectives to your potential suppliers. This can help them give you an accurate estimate of the duration and cost of your website project.
- Don’t overlook open source applications and tools that are freely available on the web (e.g. WordPress) that can give you a website at the fraction of the cost of building one from scratch.
Get a Contract
A signed legal contract can protect both parties in a web development project, whether you’re working with one company or several freelancers. A contract is a written agreement between you and your suppliers, without which there is no legal proof of the terms and conditions of your project, such as delivery, payment amount, schedule, expectations, type of work, and future support.
Build Your Website
Before proceeding with website development, you should:
- Create a prototype or design mock-up (called a “wireframe”) and get feedback from your friends, family, and user groups made up of potential customers.
- During early development, consider the user friendliness of your site’s design and navigation.
- Ensure your content focuses on your customers’ needs and helps them accomplish what they would like to do on your site.
- Give your customers a good first impression by having good content and web copy.
- Make it easy for people to find you online by optimizing your website for search engines.
Stay Current
Read articles and attend seminars on how you can improve your website. By learning about web tools, technologies, and trends as they emerge, you can make better decisions about how to improve your website, and generate more traffic or sales.