Website Design
Build It For The First Time Or
Build It Better
Every design shop has their own take on how to move a client’s
website dreams and desires into a realistic online presence. At
Left
Shore Designs, we’re believers in keeping things simple.
As
a rule, we won’t try to go into an existing website and try to
figure out someone else’s "wiring job". It’s been our experience
that, in most cases (and there’s an exception to every rule), trying
to muck through someone else’s design coding will ultimately cost
the client more money than if a fresh, new site had been created. To
this extent, here are the “stem to stern” steps we will be following
to create your website:
Step One: Gathering The Info
Your Internet presence should reflect the feel, function and heart
of what you’ve worked so hard to grow. But it’s your business, not
ours, and you’re going to know the ins and outs of it a lot better
than we will. What are your business goals and dreams? How, in your
mind, can the web be utilized to help you achieve those goals?
Consider the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide
information, promote a service or sell a product? What do you hope
to accomplish by building this web site (make money, share
information, something else)? Is there a specific group of people
who the site will help you reach? What kind of information will that
target audience be looking for on your site? These are the kinds of
things we'll need to know from you before we can proceed to step two
- build and present a straightforward navigational sketch.
Step Two: The Plan
Once the information is garnered, it’s time to pull together a plan
for your web site. There’s an old carpenter’s term, “measure twice,
cut once”. Left Shore Designs will build and present a
straightforward navigational sketch – a rough site map if you will –
that gives you a feel for planned web page layout. There will also
be a mood and graphical mock up that represents your branding and
calls to action. Of course, this presentation is all tied directly
to your espoused goals for your website.
Step Three: Send the Plan to the
Internet Art Studio
The Web Design Process at Left Shore Designs, Plymouth, MA. Sticking
with our carpentry analogy, building a website is a lot like
building a house – you can see charts, blueprints and artist’s
renderings, but it’s never the same as viewing the actual house
sitting on the plot of land. This is the point where the website
itself is created. In this phase, communication between both you and
Left Shore Designs is crucial to ensure that the final web site will
match your needs and taste. You will be able to view your project
throughout the design and development stages. This will allow you to
express your likes and dislikes on the site design.
Typically, we start by developing the home page, followed by a
“shell” for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for
the content pages of your site and provides continuity throughout
your entire Internet presence. Once the shell has been created, Left
Shore Designs will take your content and distribute it throughout
the site, in the appropriate areas.
Step Four: Setting Your Website Free
With Left Shore Designs
At this point, if we’ve done our job right, the entire swirl of
XHTML, Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) coding and Java scripting should
look like a beautiful website to you (sorry, we haven’t figured out
how to add the “new car smell” to a website yet). Before we hand the
finished files over to you, Left Shore Designs tests the site code
to assure that it meets the current web development standards. This
effort also assures that any applicable “bells and whistles” (forms
or other scripts) work and and that there are no issues in
cross-browser compatibility.
Once you give your final approval, it is time to deliver the site
(web design services fees start as low as $499). An FTP (File
Transfer Protocol) program is used to upload the website files to
your server. Left Shore Designs does not offer domain name
registration or web hosting services, but we can work with the
hosting company of your choice and even make recommendations in this
area.
The Final Step: Promote It!
Just because you have a website doesn’t mean the world knows that.
While part of the proper construction of any website should include
the addition of appropriate descriptive and key word “Meta tags”,
that’s not enough to get you recognized.
Many web designers fail in this area due a fundamental
misunderstanding of website promotion at its most basic level.
However, Left Shore Designs, in one form or another, has been riding
the website promotion wave since the beginning.
If you do nothing else, make sure your subscribe to the Search Site
Submission service (read more and subscribe now).
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