Thank you for choosing us to help you make a statement on the internet with a new website from iPrescott Business Solutions. We create nearly a dozen websites monthly and find that the following list will help to serve as a checklist for creating and launching your new website!
The following items are essential for smooth sailing through this process.
Website Design
Each business has a character, a style, a soul. We help you to pass this along to your potential clients with your website. It is important that we find a design that reflects your business.
Take a look around the internet and find a few website designs you enjoy. Make notes about each aspect you like and the parts you do not like. We will make every effort to design a website that fits your business!
Sometimes it is necessary to adjust a design to help make it compatible for mobile devices. The world is moving towards a more mobile web so every website we design has been developed with a responsive design to look good no matter what device is viewing it. If a portion of your dream website does not translate well to mobile we will explore options to make it work.
Logos/Graphics
Having high quality graphics on your website helps to show your professionalism. During the design processes it is required to provide us with the highest quality of graphics and logos.
Contacting your printer who may have used your graphics/logos on your business cards, flyers, or mailers is usually the best place to obtain these if not readily available. Newspaper companies and past online marketing companies will have backups as well.
Providing us with their contact information or putting them in touch with us is the easiest route so we can request specific file types and formats.
Website URL
We suggest using Godaddy to register your new domain name. Once finished, or if you already have one, take a moment to collect the username and password for the account.
The account username and password will be needed to direct the domain name to our servers and your new website.
List of Pages
This is a great time to brainstorm about what pages and content you would like to display on your new website.
Pages Include:
- Homepage – welcome text
- About Us – including history
- Services/Goods – one or more pages describing the services/goods you offer
- Testimonials
We will help you to decide on additional pages/content if needed. We have done this several times for many clients, maybe we can come up with something you may have not thought of.
Page Content
Creating a website to place online is the easy part. Creating quality content on those pages is a lot more difficult. This is your business and an opportunity to share with potential clients and customers what you know! Being a business owner, in any field, you know your services/products better than we do.
We do not often provide content creation with our website development. Paying someone to create this kind of content, or spending less than adequate time developing this content, will show in the final result. It is best to take the time to create content that reflects your business and why prospects should choose you over your competitors.
Below are some helpful tips for content creation.
Length: 350-450 words minimum per page about a subject/topic
Paragraphs: keep paragraphs short and to the point. Only 1-3 sentences each
Bullet Points: including bullet points are a great way to add a list of important info
Bold Text: a line of bold text before a new topic/paragraph becomes a sign post to readers
Images: adding relevant images can help set a mood or offer support for the text
Images
Don’t forget the images! Images are a great way to set the mood for pages and direct visitors to a portion of content. Having at least one image conveying an idea or representing the content is truly necessary.
Note: Please contact us for more information on how to get royalty free images for your website. If you use images from Google… They are not free and many times copywritten. You will get sued eventually. We can help you to not get harassing letters in the mail and notices to appear in court for copyright infringement.
Your Competition
During much of this process we suggest making a list of your competitors. This list will help you to get a feel of what your industry is doing. You may gain ideas, and in the future, you can base some of your marketing on these ideas.
Providing us with a list of your top 3 competitors is a good start to understanding your market and planning a stragety to succeed.
The Final Result
This guide was created with several best practices in mind. Some of our clients do not follow every suggestion found above, however those that do have built websites that make a great impact on their visitors. Your website’s impact on potential clients is your first impression. You only get one. Make it good!
Ready To Get Started?
We will provide you with an email address or online storage account to send us the content above.
Any questions? Contact us today!