Online marketing now ranks ahead of TV, Radio and Print as the preferred advertising method for businesses and a professional user-friendly website will help your business to remain relevant and competitive.
The Web Design component is fundamental to the overall success of the entire online marketing strategy and building a website brings together a number of different services and skills necessary to assist in designing your website and helping to get you on-line.
Client Consultation
To build a new website, client consultation is necessary as there are certain things that we need to know. We need to know about your business and how you expect a website will promote it.
- What message are you trying to tell.
- Who are you trying to target with your website.
- What are your expectations
- What subjects, in order of priority, do you want to cover on the website
- What is unique about your business, products and services
Website Planning
Good website planning is fundamental to developing a well designed and effective website.
It’s a good idea to give some thought to how you want your webpages to look. This is the perfect time to play around with as many ideas as you can while it is still easy to do so. The website structure will have influence the final design but don’t be afraid to try something new. That said, 90% of websites have a certain basic structure because it works. People browsing expect to find certain things in certain places. For example, people expect to see a menu either on the top or sides of a webpage. The last thing you want is a potential customer struggling to navigate around your new website.
Nearly all websites will have common layout elements, such as a header (often with a logo), some will have a showcase image or images at the top, a menu for navigating around your website, a main information page and a footer.
Good planning at this stage pays off, keeps your costs to a minimum and allows for a smooth design process.
Website Design
We design professional websites that will work for you. We can build a wide range of websites suitable for small businesses or for personal use. All the websites we design comply with current standards and are optimised for the best search engine results. Whether you are after a new website to promote your business or after a re-design of an old outdated website, we may be able to help.
Photography Services
Photography services can be a big part of web design and we can provide the services of two professional photographers to assist in designing your website.
We specialise in most forms of photography including corporate, event, landscape, portrait and wedding photography. All our website images are optimised for website use.
Content Creation
Users know good content when they see it and will likely want to direct other users to it. This could be through blog posts, social media services, email, forums or other means.
Organic or word of mouth is what helps build your website’s reputation with both users and Google and it rarely comes without quality content.
Creating compelling and useful website content will likely influence your website more than any other factors….
Domain name selection and purchase
When designing a website, the first thing you will need to do is purchase a domain name that preferably, reflects your business. This is not always easy because the domain name you want may already be taken by someone else so you may need to be a little creative here. It is possible to buy a domain name from the owner if you really have to have that domain name assuming the owner is willing to sell it otherwise, look for one that will tell your story. Most if not all web hosting companies will have a search field for finding a domain name that you can use.
Website Hosting
Website hosting is done by companies that provide storage space on a server to store your website files that they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing internet connectivity. (Wikipedia)
There are lots of web hosting companies all vying for your business. Most offer a good service at a low price.
Website Analytics and Monitoring
Website analytics is the collection and analysis of website based data. At Hobart Website Design, we use Google Analytics which is a free service by Google to track the performance of your website.
Website Maintenance
Website maintenance is very important particularly for business websites. You will want to regularly keep the content fresh and relevant to your current and potential customers.
There are two parts to website maintenance, the look and feel of the site and the underlying code will also need regular maintaining.
Google Analytics generates detailed statistics about visitors to your website. This information can be used to fine-tune your website with the aim of increasing relevant traffic.
Training and Assistance
For each website we build, we will provide basic training and assistance to help you manage your new site.
If you don’t wish to manage and update your site then that is ok, for a small fee, we can do that for you.
Maintaining your own website isn’t that hard. If you can use a wordprocessor and know your way around a computer then maintaining your website should be easy.
We are not going to build a new website for you, hand it over and leave you on your own. We will provide support for you and advice as required, show you how to back up your website, how to blog if you want a blogging option.
Remember, your website is available online worldwide and 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. For a website to be truly effect, you have to feed the monster, that is keep it up to date, blog regularly about your products and services, perhaps you are having a special, well advertise it, you have a worldwide audience. Get to know how your website works and what it can do for you.
A website is your Yellow Pages advertisement, your on-line brochure. The differences are that unlike the Yellow Pages advertisement, a website is heaps cheaper, lasts for more than a year without exorbitant fees and conveys vastly more information.
