Before you request an estimate from website design professionals, it's highly recommended that you sit down to plan out your website first. No plan, or a vague plan can be costly.
Here are some questions to help you:
Why do you want a website and what do you want it to accomplish for you?
Who is your target market?
Establishing your target market helps to plan your website's content to address that specific audience.
Do you have a budget for your website?
Your website designer/developer needs to know your budget in order to help you plan a website within it.
What are others in your industry doing?
It never hurts to look at other websites in the same industry to get ideas of what information to provide (or not to.) Your website cannot be an exact copy of what someone else has done, it's illegal, however doing this helps you to come up with ideas of what you like, what you don't or what you may not have thought of.
How many pages will your website need?
Once you know the purpose of your website, you need to decide what different pages it will need, and what order they will be in.
Simply put, your website is very much like a family tree.
The "parent" is your home, or index page, and from there follow the next generations, or pages of your website. The following image will give you an idea of what's meant by this, using the Village WebDesign website as an example.
"Village WebDesign" links to: "Portfolio" "Estimates" "About" and "Home" - shown on the second level of the image.
"Portfolio" links to all of the websites described on it, which are shown on the third level of the image.
On your website, it's quite possible all of your second level pages will link to somewhere else, as well as the third, fourth, fifth level and possibly deeper.
What will your content be?
Once you know what pages your website will have, then you should establish a basic content plan. The webdesigner you choose will assist you with the finer details, however you should know if a page will be primarily text, text with a few pictures, a webform such as a newsletter sign-up (which legally must be double opt in) etc.
What colors will your website be made of?
Do you need a logo?
Do you have your own logo?
Once your plan is complete, you're ready to contact a professional website designer for a quote on the cost of your well planned and thought-out website.
Here are some questions to help you:
Why do you want a website and what do you want it to accomplish for you?
- Increase sales?
- Provide information?
- Accept registrations or other forms of submission?
Who is your target market?
Establishing your target market helps to plan your website's content to address that specific audience.
Do you have a budget for your website?
Your website designer/developer needs to know your budget in order to help you plan a website within it.
What are others in your industry doing?
It never hurts to look at other websites in the same industry to get ideas of what information to provide (or not to.) Your website cannot be an exact copy of what someone else has done, it's illegal, however doing this helps you to come up with ideas of what you like, what you don't or what you may not have thought of.
How many pages will your website need?
Once you know the purpose of your website, you need to decide what different pages it will need, and what order they will be in.
Simply put, your website is very much like a family tree.
The "parent" is your home, or index page, and from there follow the next generations, or pages of your website. The following image will give you an idea of what's meant by this, using the Village WebDesign website as an example.
"Village WebDesign" links to: "Portfolio" "Estimates" "About" and "Home" - shown on the second level of the image."Portfolio" links to all of the websites described on it, which are shown on the third level of the image.
On your website, it's quite possible all of your second level pages will link to somewhere else, as well as the third, fourth, fifth level and possibly deeper.
What will your content be?
Once you know what pages your website will have, then you should establish a basic content plan. The webdesigner you choose will assist you with the finer details, however you should know if a page will be primarily text, text with a few pictures, a webform such as a newsletter sign-up (which legally must be double opt in) etc.
What colors will your website be made of?
Do you need a logo?
Do you have your own logo?
- If so, do you own the copyrights to it?
- Is it a "vector" based file? (Whoever created it can tell you that, or send it to you).
Once your plan is complete, you're ready to contact a professional website designer for a quote on the cost of your well planned and thought-out website.