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With years of experience
as a web designer, I can
provide valuable suggestions to add to your own ideas
and help guide your focus when it comes to your business
website. I will do everything I can to make the process
easy and pleasant!
Getting your
website started
Preparing for your website project is much easier than
you would think. It won't be stressful, or take much
time away from your work schedule and you'll be amazed
how smoothly it can progress.
What kind of
content we need for your website
It's
important to make your website text content relevant to
your business services or products. It may be tempting
to write only what you find interesting but if it
doesn't relate to your web site or page topic, leave it
out.
I will search
for appropriate stock photos for the ambiance factor!
Web
viewers want the information they are looking for, so
unless the web page has the information that they are
seeking that is set out in a bold, clear, easy-to-find
way, they will become impatient and just move on to
another site.
When
writing text content for the home page, be sure to use
relevant words and phrases that are strongly and
positively descriptive in telling how your services or
products are superior such as "FAST - EASY - A GOOD
VALUE." Tell the viewers WHY you make these claims.
We'll make this type of info the most prominent.
Structuring your web content
We need to tell them the following ... loud and clear:
-
What we do: (benefits
customers have through use
of our products, or
services)
-
What we offer: (products,
or services)
-
Who we are: (our experience
providing the products or
services offered)
Short
paragraphs and only one subject per paragraph is
advised. Content needs to be concise and to-the-point.
People don't read all of the text on web pages, but they
do scan them looking for certain info, so having short,
meaty paragraphs is better than having long rambling
sections.
It's
really a great idea to put your conclusions at the
beginning of each of the sections. Think of an
upside-down pyramid and get to the point in the first
paragraph, then expand upon it a bit more beyond that
point.
Use lists instead of paragraphs because lists are easier
to scan than paragraphs, especially if you keep them
short. People can only reliably remember 7-10 things at
a time. Keeping your list items short helps your readers
remember them.
Use action words to tell your viewers what to do. Avoid
using a passive voice. Keep the flow of your pages
moving with invitations and instructions as to what to
do next. Sentences should be as concise as you can make
them. Use only the words you need to get the essential
information across.
Website
Marketing Tips:
I
strongly recommend use of CLIENT TESTIMONIALS your
customers have provided you (on your products or
services). These comments will go a long way in
validating your business reputation and help increase
your customer base. I've had a number of web clients who
say their new customers love the fact that they feel
like they already know them personally once they have
viewed their website information so they don't have to
spend time verbally convincing them to become a
customer.
Detailed text descriptions are very necessary, but we'll
also want to break up the text using crisp, clear
photographs of your services, products or completed
projects or other graphics as fantastic visual
reinforcement. If you don't have any, I'll be happy to
locate some inexpensive royalty-free stock photos to use
very effectively.
What about having an email link on your website?
Honestly, if you are not someone who checks your
email no less than every two days, I would not recommend
you have an email link on your web pages. You risk
making people feel neglected by a lack of fast email
response and just annoy potential clients/customers. If
you are too busy to check your email, then it's better
to have have the website guide people to call you or
come into your location.
Things I'll
need for your project:
Web
elements & specific client design requests must be
provided to me prior to starting your web project.
You understand, and agree that it is necessary that you
provide me any of your specific ideas, mock-ups or other
design elements you'd like me to include or follow at
the beginning of the project. It would not work well to
have you submit them near the end of the project after
I’ve done most of the work, and could possibly create
extra time charges that were not figured in to your
estimate if you were to do so.
I
understand you will be making changes and adjustments to
the design as we develop the site and we agree that is
totally normal part of the process, so not to worry.
Do you have any
mock-ups for layout that you want me to follow in the
design?
I'll
need your photos, artwork or logo graphics.
I prefer to use the original unedited photos for
clarity. PLEASE KEEP YOUR
ORIGINALS AND GIVE ME COPIES. I cannot be responsible
for original photos. I don't keep or save any photos
other than the ones that end up on your website after
editing.
Do you have colors, or color schemes that you want? If
you don't have one in mind, that's perfectly fine. About
75% of my clients ask me to take care of designing the
whole website and I will certainly work the colors
around your logo, and other photos or help you create a
simple logo look for the website.
Do you have any web design styles you have seen that you
want me to follow? Will you show the web samples to me
by providing a link? (Or is there one of my own custom
website projects you would like me to use?)
What functions would you like your web site to have?
What Navigation Links do you have in mind, e.g. home,
about us, services, etc?
YOUR DOMAIN NAME: Your domain name is your internet
address name that will be registered and reserved for
your use. It belongs to you only as long as you renew
it.
YOUR
HOSTING ACCOUNT: You/we will need to set up a hosting
account to keep your website up on the internet. (I can
assist you with this or take care of doing it for you.)
I have had some bad experiences with a number of hosting
companies because they are vastly different and I have
my own NOT APPROVED list, so please confer with me
beforehand since I'm the one having to deal with the
variety of hosting set-ups and customer services.
I have two preferred hosting companies I refer web
clients to...(GoDaddy is NOT one of them and in fact, if you choose to use GoDaddy hosting, Yahoo
hosting or Register.com hosting, there may be an
additional $50 fee simply because of the extra time it
takes me to use their rather advertising-saturated system and
set-up. Other hosting companies can also create problems
for me if they use off-shore customer support and can
take more time to resolve issues.
Your
photos and graphics
GETTING YOUR PHOTOS TO ME.
You can provide photos by email or thumb-drive, or
create a disk to send to me through the mail.
Scanning: I can scan photos, but the photo quality is
not quite as good as being able to have them in digital
format. If I have to scan very many photos it will take
more time, so let's discuss the possibility of an extra
charge for that service.
If you
would like items returned, please be sure to mark them
with your name, and provide stamped, self-addressed
return mailing materials.
Your
website's text content
It may
surprise you to learn that approximately 50% of my
clients have me take care of most of their text content
because they don't really feel they know what to write
or how to write it well enough. I'll always work
to enhance your text for the search engine optimization
aspect of your website.
If you have personal biographies or facts that are
specific and pertinent, then please be sure to provide
them. When planning the design layout it is important to
know how much text content there will be.
Go to Web Service agreement
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