Creating your own custom website can help you stand out from the competition. But before your get started, says Cara Crosetti, Los Angeles-based account director and web specialist with Wickware Communications Inc. of Toronto, you should consider some important points.
Building a website, Crosetti says, involves “a lot of planning and work up front.”
First, you must have a strategy and have specific goals you want to achieve through your website. Making these important decisions at the outset, Crosetti says, helps prevent complications later in the process.
To get your web strategy off on the right foot, Crosetti offers these tips:
1. Assess your technical capabilities
Before you start designing your site, ask yourself whether you are capable of doing this kind of technical project on your own. If you haven’t had experience in applications, software or website development, Crosetti says, “you are really in for a lot of work.”
Designing a professional website is like taking on another full-time job. There is a lot more to it than slapping together a template and applying some images.
To create a final product that’s professional and thoughtful, Crosetti says, you should seriously consider hiring a professional website designer.
2. Develop a site map
Even if you are using a professional designer, you should map out what you want your site to do for your clients and for you. Then, visualize how all the pages will link together. How many pages do you want, and how will they fit?
At this point, consider whether you want features such as contact forms and a media page, and develop your privacy policies.
“It’s all the really unsexy stuff,” Crosetti says, “that shows a level of professionalism and includes all the content and messaging you want. This is likely one of the first things a developer is going to want to know.”
3. Decide on the level of usability and functionality
Figuring out how user-friendly you want your website to be, Crosetti says, is essential in developing a great site.
You will need to decide what kind of interactive features you want your site to have. Do you want video or other elements such as retirement-savings and mortgage calculators? What about a blog? This all comes back to having a defined plan on what you are hoping to accomplish through your site.
4. Develop a content document
Similar to the way you determined your site’s features and usability level, you need to write out the content for your site in advance. Consider your overall message and the experience you want to offer your clients and prospects.
Before meeting with a web developer, Crosetti says, you should have at least a paragraph written for each page you want on your site.
“When you build a website,” Crosetti says, “it’s not static or one-off. You are building a living, breathing thing.”
This is the first article in a four part series on creating custom websites. Next: How to hire a website designer