Speaking about the different stages of website development, we always assume that the client already has a website, or has a clear idea of what it should be like. However, there are times when a corporate resource is urgently needed, but the business owner does not know how to do it correctly, what stages of work and just whom to contact.
Creating a website from scratch is both simple and complex at the same time. On the one hand, you can make a really good and high-quality web resource from scratch, on the other hand, without having enough knowledge and time, you can make a lot of mistakes that will put an end to the subsequent attraction of customers.
Attention, interest, desire, action
The main mistake of managers is that they immediately start looking for a contractor, believing that it is he who will think over the structure of their site and make a layout with good usability. Unfortunately, this is not the case, the specifics of the business vary greatly depending on the subject and the contractor cannot physically know the key features of each area.
Guided by the principle of “attention, interest, desire, action”, it is necessary to think over the structure in such a way that the visitor, having got to the site, becomes interested in an interesting offer (attention), begins to read the conditions of the promotion (interest), his doubts disappear even before they appear (desire) and he, interested in the offer left an application (action).
Key features of the project
Having drawn up the structure and understanding what sections of the future website will be, it is necessary to fix all this on paper, this will help the future developer to correctly build the menu on the site. In addition, be sure to indicate the key features of your project that should be reflected on the website.
For example, key features may include the absence of a price for goods, or all items in the catalog are only on order. If such information is not conveyed to the developer, then the catalog will subsequently have to be redone.
Finding a developer and launching a project
Having collected all the necessary information, it is time to find a website development contractor. We talked about the choice between private masters or a web studio earlier, so we will focus on what needs to be provided to web specialists (remember, the more complete the information is, the faster the work will end):
- Site structure . The structure file, or list of sections, is needed to create the menu. At the stage of drawing the layout, the designer shows the output of sections and their nesting.
- Important points and features . Key features can be quite significant and influence development, so it’s always best to list them all.
- Completed brief . Each developer has his own questionnaire with a pool of questions on the project. Fill out such a document thoughtfully, because it is extremely important for the subsequent work of designers and programmers.
- Content and photo for design . If you have a photo for the site and written texts, this will be a big plus and will help you prepare a high-quality layout faster and better.
- Domain and hosting access . Often clients already have ready-made hosting and domain. Development is best done at a temporary address, but transfer access should always be at hand.
- Contact information for contact forms and contact block . Most often, after the launch of the site, customers forget to register the current email boxes in the contact forms. It is better to play it safe and provide them to the developer in advance.
Checking the finished site
After receiving a message from the developer about the readiness of the website, do not rush to accept the project and transfer it to a permanent address. Absolutely any project can have jambs, and in order to find them before launching the resource, you need to carefully check it. What you should pay attention to?
- Operation of all pages and functions of the site. It is best to check it yourself, and give a link to friends so that they also try to go to the pages and use the functionality.
- Work of all forms of feedback. As mentioned earlier, most often they forget to enter the current e-mail in the forms. But that’s not all you need to check, try submitting an empty form, look at the bounce text.
- Correct display of all sections. An empty site may look correct, but when adding content, it is quite likely that the layout will go wrong, the design may “float”, especially on mobile devices.
- Ability to add content to a page or block. It is important to try to add content to the site yourself, including images and files. Make sure it can be easily done through the editor, without the use of html codes.
Don’t forget about support and promotion
After the completion of the development work, the site must be filled. If there is an employee for this, it is better to take care of his training in working with the system in advance. If there is no responsible person, technical support will come to the rescue . The cost of such services is low, while saving time is very large, since there is no need to study the system, the agency employee clearly knows what needs to be done.
In order for a website to start making a profit, it needs to attract potential customers. A quick way to do this is to launch Yandex.Direct, but it’s more correct to start the search engine promotion of the site in the top results. This service is more expensive than support and the withdrawal period can be up to six months, but users who came from the “search” are the most relevant audience of the site and, with proper promotion, the effect can be felt by the end of the second month.