Web Design Process

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Web Design Process

We can create a new web site from the ground up or revamp an existing site. Our initial consultation with you is free. If you are located in the Chicago, IL area, we can meet with you in person. The design and development process for a site typically includes the following steps:

(1)  Discuss your objectives and needs.  We'll first define what your web site should contain. We can help you determine what type of site would best support the objectives of your business. We can also help you evaluate your online marketing strategy and your target audience. For a list of questions we commonly ask, see the list of Consulting Questions (below).

(2)  Review any existing materials.  In the next step, we review any existing text, photos, logos, and other materials you have and would like to use. We will also look at web sites of similar businesses to see what others in your industry are doing. Based on our findings, we can make recommendations on what your web site should include.

If you already have a web site, we can make recommendations for modifications, updates and improvements that will help improve your site and bring it up to current standards.

(3)  Agree on the project scope.  We then determine the number of pages, number of custom graphics, and any other services you may need, such as web hosting or domain registration. Based on our understanding of your requirements and the estimated time it will take, we can prepare a written price quote so that you know the cost in advance and how long it will take to complete. After mutual agreement, we ask that you print out and sign the completed "Terms and Conditions" (Adobe PDF format), which you can then fax or mail back to us. This standard agreement protects both parties.

At this point, we should register your domain name and establish web hosting. We would be happy to do the leg work for you in completing these two items. We can take care of everything you need in regards to these two items. The domain name will be registered to you, and the hosting will be in your name as well (Both of these items are from very reputable third party vendors and you will be billed directly from them).

(4)  Design, develop, and test your site.  We now do the actual design and development of your web site. This includes defining the site structure, page layout, navigation, content, and graphics. As this is progressing, a working draft version of your site will be uploaded to a private location on our server for your review. Throughout the design process we will periodically ask you to review the progress and to give your input on the design and direction of the site. This "hands on" process allows you to get the exact site you want, in the quickest timeframe and at the lowest cost to you.

After the site has passed your final approval, it will be optimized for quick downloading and thoroughly tested. We test your site to make sure it displays correctly using different browsers, at different monitor resolutions.

(5)  Upload your site to a Web host.  After the final version of your site is completed and tested, it will be uploaded to your web host and retested.

(6)  Submit your site to the search engines.  Next, we will submit your site one time to several of the most popular search engines. If needed, we can help you find a more extensive promotion of your site.

(7)  Manage your site (optional).  A web site must be kept up-to-date to keep your clients coming back. We can make cost-effective changes to the content on your site, run site maintenance, and promote your site online using various techniques.

Consulting Questions

The following are questions we commonly ask during our initial conversations with you. This is to help us determine what type of web site would best support the objectives of your business, and to give us an idea of what your expectations and requirements are.

What is the nature, function, or purpose of your business?
Who are your customers?
Who are your competitors?
What are the objectives or expectations for your Web site?
How soon would you like to launch your web site?
Approximately how many separate pages do you envision for your site?
Are there any existing web sites that you may like to use as a model?
Will you be providing most the content for your site (text, photos, logos, etc)? If so, on paper or in digital format?
Will you want any customer response or feedback forms on the web site?
How many e-mail addresses will you need for the web site?
Would you need certain pages of your web site to have restricted (password protected) access?
Will you be selling anything directly from the web site? If so, how many different items or products? How do you want to obtain payment information from your customers?
Have you registered a domain name for your web site?
Will you need to have your web site hosted?
Will you want to have your web site updated or maintained? If so, how often would content be updated?
Would you be interested in having your web site actively promoted or marketed?

FAQ's

Q: Some companies will let me design and host my site for free. Why should I pay for these services?
A: You generally get what you pay for. Here are some of the problems with signing up for free web sites:

You cannot use your own domain name, but rather will get a name like (www.theirbiz.com/yourbiz), as an example.
Various ads will be inserted on your site, and you will have no control over the ad content.
Your design choices (layout, colors, graphics) will be quite limited, and your site will subsequently look like all the other sites hosted by the company.
There is no real support if something goes wrong.
It will look like you got it for free.

Q: I already have a site on the Web. Why do I need to have my site managed now?
A: Most Web sites fail to draw customers or are ineffective because nobody is actively maintaining, updating, and promoting the site. Do you really have the time and technical expertise to be the Webmaster of your own site? Site management generally involves the following services:

Updating your site with new content.
Checking your site for errors, the number of hits, and other maintenance tasks.
Checking your site's placement in the search engines, and resubmitting regularly.
Promoting your site by sending out newsletters, participating in newsgroups, etc.

Q: Why doesn't my site rank very well in the search engines?
A: Having your site rank high in the search engines is a science and the rules are always changing. Here are some reasons why you may be having poor placement, many of which are a result of poor HTML design:

Incorrect placement of the TITLE tag or empty TITLE tag content.
Missing or incorrect use of the name, description, and revisited META tags.
Too many occurrences of the same word in a page (spamming).
Missing H1 tag content.
Missing ALT tag content in your graphics.
No meaningful content in the first 250 characters on each page.
No links from other Web sites to your site (link popularity).

Also, you should always manually submit your site to the search engines. This will bring better results than using automatic submission services. You should also resubmit your site once a month to ensure that the search engines do not drop your site from their listings.