As a client, you should plan to be involved in all three phases of the website life cycle shown below...
PHASE I - Plan
- Determine the purpose of your site - Attract business, sell products, provide promotional information,
service customers, support your industry, increase business efficiency and productivity
- Content - What do you want your site to say
- Research - Study sites of your competitors, suppliers, related businesses/organizations, etc. to get
ideas of what you like and dislike so your site can present your business or organization in the best
way possible
- Determine your target audience - This can help guide the overall theme, content and layout
- Compile materials - Collect print and electronic copies of text content, existing promtional material,
photos, logos, graphics, etc.
- Other considerations - Budget (how much to spen on development as well as monthly hosting fees), domain
name - should be unique, easy to remember and relevant to your business name and service or purpose,
Email - how many addresses do you need and who should have them
PHASE II - Develop
Working together we will focus on...
- Interface and navigation which will be efficient and intuitive
- Style and design - While being practical and functional, your site should also have aesthetic appeal,
reflecting existing logos, colors and fonts as well as making a good impression and keeping readers attention
- Programming - your site will use code that is streamlined, browser compatible and ideally, browser independent
- Efficiency - code and graphics will be optimized for fast downloads
PHASE III - Sustain and maintain
- Search engine/index/directory submission (general purpose)
- Listing in directories specific to your business, organization or location (trade associations, local chamber
of commerce, etc.)
- Update all your printed material to reflect your website address and emails if needed (e.g. Letterhead, business cards,
quotes, invoices, contracts, signage, print ads, etc.)
- Contact suppliers, customers and partners to discuss exchanging site links. This is good promotion and it
can help your search engine rankings
- Periodically check the listings and search engines for your website. Update and resubmit as needed
- Always be aware of opportunities to add to your website and make it more useful
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