Things you need to prepare before reaching out

A website is most successful when it’s well planned out. Anyone can add images and text to a screen and arrange them in a reasonably pleasant manner. But if you want your website to not only exist but actually work for you, you need to prepare some things ahead of time.

What’s the purpose of your website?

Why do you want a website? What are you hoping to accomplish? What problem is it solving? It’s very important that you take some time to consider this. Designing your website around a clear goal will make it much more streamlined and focussed. It will allow us to direct visitors to a singular purpose and it will also give us some way to measure if we’ve accomplished the goal.

Who is your target audience?

Who is the website for? Specifying a particular group of people can help us gear some styles, language and colours to suit that demographic. It can also help us prioritize some features or screen types.

Do you have a business name/domain name in mind?

Have you already purchased a domain name? If you have a business name and a domain name in mind, you need to use care. Domains get bought up quickly these days and should be purchased soon so it’s secure. If you miss out and your ideal domain name isn’t available, how flexible are you?

An ideal domain name is, even now, a simple word or phrase with .com but those are very hard to find and can be costly. If you are not located in the US then your country’s TLD may be a great alternative. Something in your field can work as well.

There are a few things you need to consider before purchasing your domain name. Adding extra numbers to get a .com is not a good idea. Many bad actors use that technique to try to pass themselves off as legitimate businesses. Domain names with numbers are not as comfortably trusted by search engines and it may impact your ranking.

Have you done any branding work?

When we talk about branding, we’re considering the look and feel of the colours, symbols and fonts and trying to create something that resonates with your target audience. I can help with this but if you already have done some of this work, please let me know.

Do you have a logo and is it in a vector format?

All logos must be in vector format, look for the file extensions .svg, .ai, .eps. Those will look the best on a wide variety of devices and is much easier to set to the proper size without losing clarity. The issue is that depending on the site, the size of the logo may need to change to work well on different screen sizes and types. 4k screens would suit a larger sized logo than a phone. Retina screens need a higher resolution image than a standard screen. Vector images meet all of those needs and always look crisp and clear.

Do you have photos and content ready to go?

I am not a content creator, photographer or writer. If you don’t already have content, we can source out other professionals in those areas to help. If you have photos and plan to write your own content, you may want to have some of that ready to go before we even begin. That way we have a place to start.

What features and functions do you need the website to support?

If your entire plan is to create a shop, or membership site, those are complex features that take extra time and consideration. How about an events calendar, photo gallery, or courses? Are there any extra forms you need, besides a basic contact form?

The more information about your business, your website, and your goals that you can hand me in advance the better.