So You Need a Website? - Tampa Website Design and Development

Frequently, we encounter business owners who don?t have a lot of experience with computers or the internet, but need a website. It can be a difficult and complicated process. It?s ok though, we don?t expect you to be experts on all things web-related ? that?s why you hire us! However, if you go in knowing what to expect, you can save yourself and your web developer a lot of time and possibly a good deal of money.

What do you want in a website?

You know you need a website, or need a new and improved website, but you aren?t sure what exactly you need or even what features are available. At the very least, you need a website that provides the ?who, what, when and where? ? location, hours of operation, type of business, business name. You?ll also need a method by which to receive feedback from site visitors (a contact form).

However, with the range of options available, you?re not helping yourself much going with just the bare minimum. The vast majority of businesses have websites and to be effective you need to stand out. That is to say, give people a reason to keep coming back to your website. Frequently updating content about new products, sales, special offers, company news, etc., is one of the most common methods of providing site visitors with a reason to keep coming back. Selling products online (e-commerce) is a great way to provide customers with a convenient service as well as increase sales. Connecting with social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.) can be useful as a means of incorporating technology-based word-of-mouth marketing into your business strategy. It can also provide more advertising opportunities.

Incorporating features such as these is best done with a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, which does add to development costs. However, the benefits easily outweigh any costs associated with upgrading to a CMS.

Additional Options:

• Newsletters
• Customer data management
• Member accounts
• Multiple site contributors
• Photo galleries
• Forum
• Downloadable content

The Purpose of Your Website

This is somewhat related to the previous topic, but is much more specific. Is the purpose of your website to primarily provide information about your business?
Do you need your site to be an online store?
Are you looking for a means of publishing content for your customers?
Or, do you need a means by which you can easily communicate with your clients on an individual or group basis (customer support or technical training)? Having an idea about what you want to do with the site beforehand will save quite a bit of time and time is money!

For example, if we?re building a major e-commerce website with advanced sales tracking and account management features, we can easily plan for that and incorporate it into the primary development phase. If we have to add those features after we?ve begun building the site, it can substantially increase the cost.

You Get What You Pay For

People are savvy enough these days to spot the difference between a do-it-yourself $15/month website and a professionally developed website. And it?s not just a matter of having good photos. Your website should be as attractive as possible provide your site visitors with a convenient and pleasant user experience. The drawback is that you do have to make a significant investment of time and money in order to have a good website. Don?t be too surprised if the quote for your website is upwards of $600 or $700.

Probably the most difficult concept to grasp is that websites are not like advertisements ? you can?t simply buy them and wait for the customers to come. A properly managed website is more like opening a new business location. It?s another opportunity to reach customers you may not have been able to reach before and can open up extremely profitable avenues for increasing revenue. However, none of that will happen if you try to cut corners and are more concerned with spending as little as possible. Be ready to spend as much as $200 on photos and graphics.

Nothing in Life is Free

One of the most important elements of a professional-looking website is professional-looking content. High quality photos and well-written text are touchstones on a sophisticated website. More likely than not, you will have to purchase text and visual content or hire someone (photographer, technical writer) to create content for your site. Most of the time, a web developer will be able to procure content, but again, this will likely be something which has to be purchased. You shouldn?t expect a web developer to bear the cost if you decide to add more stock photos when the website is nearly finished. Also, most of the images you find with Google Images are copyrighted and using them without permission is piracy.

Have a Plan and Stick to It

As you contemplate what you want for your website, it?s important to be sure that you?re going to get the website your business needs instead of the one you like the best. It would be great to have the resources to devote to building a website that can do everything, but unless you?re willing to spending upwards of $50,000, you are going to have to focus on what you really need in a website. In fact, if you sit down and make a list of the things you actually need on a website, you might be surprised by how much you can save. Also, you?ll discover that the money you would have spent on an animated intro can be better spent on getting training at how to effectively use social media or creating written content optimized for search engines ? not as glamorous as an animated intro, but better in the long run.

Website Updates and Maintenance

In many ways, your website will be like a bricks and mortar business ? it needs to be in a good part of town (good domain name and hosting), well-constructed (solid programming infrastructure), stylish design and needs to keep up with the ever-changing tastes of customers as well as keeping pace with market trends. If you?re looking to get a new website or renovate your current website, you will have to have a website on which you can easily post content updates and on which visitors can interact. As the internet is becoming more interwoven into society, your website is where you will communicate with your customers. As such, you?ll be required to devote time to posting news about your business, publishing information about upcoming sales, creating newsletters which will be emailed to your customers, etc.

Having a Good Website Doesn?t Mean You?ll Need a Second Mortgage

The idea is that your website will allow your company to grow so that the profit it generates more than offsets the time spent working on it. If cost is a factor, you should work with your web developer to arrive at something which works for your budget. You may also consider shifting your overall marketing strategy. These days, people are more likely to use Google and Bing to search for local goods and services than anything else. If you?ve been running ads in print publications such as the yellow pages, consider using the money spent there to build or improve your website.

Keep In Mind

There is no single best website or even best way to build a website. Also, you?re probably going to think your web developer spends most of his or her time thinking new ways to inflate costs, though I assure you that most of the time, this is not the case. If you are hesitant about the cost, simply ask for an itemized list along with the quote. Possibly the most important thing to keep in mind is that when you decide to get a new website or renovate your current website, you?re investing in your business and allowing your company to evolve. You may have to learn some new skills, but in the long run, your business will be better off.

Source: http://tampawebsitedesign.org/so-you-need-a-website/

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