Business Design Checklist

What I Need to Design Your Web Site
 

The more information you can provide about how you want your web site design to look and what you want the site to accomplish, the easier it will be for me to create a site that you will be proud of.

I have created a check list to help you streamline the process. Please try to have these materials ready before I begin your web site design.

Necessary information includes:

• Your business name
• Contact name
• Business address
• Business phone number(s)
• Brochures, product catalogs, text, logos, photos that will help me prepare your pages

If you have text or graphics in computer files, it is easier if these are emailed to me. If you know how to compress your files with winzip, please do so. Graphics files must be .gif or .jpg. You can also send these files on a 3.5" floppy, zip disk, or CD. I can scan color and black/white photos. Reproduced photos from brochures and magazines do not scan well. When scanning your own photos, please scan at 72 DPI Resolution.

Examples of photos:

Your logo (preferably your original)
A picture of your business
A picture of yourself
Pictures of your employees
Pictures of any special equipment or projects (examples: outfitters-people on an adventure; construction-buildings being built; real estate-homes for sale; etc.)
Pictures of your products
Special images you feel would bring personality to your site

Examples of Text

Your site visitors will want to know "What's in it for me". You will want the text on your home page to solve a problem, provide information or a solution that your visitor will want to know more about. The rest of the web site design will provide a way for you to solve that problem.

About Us information -The Internet is such an impersonal place. By providing a little information about your business, it lets the visitor know they are dealing with real human beings. Include Trade organizations you belong to, suppliers you deal with (when applicable) and information that affirms you are a reputable business.

Information about your products and services. (Be sure to check copyrights if used on the web.)

Try to have a good idea of what you want your pages to say and have your information organized. Please feel free to draw sample pages. A good idea is to cut pictures from your brochures or product catalogs and paste them into your sample so I can see what you have in mind for your site.

Other helpful information

If you have found other web site designs that are similar to what you would like your site to look like, provide me with the URL and what you like about the site(s). This will give me a better idea of what you are looking for in your site.

Links to other business related web sites

If you have a page to list links to related web sites (not competitors) it can give visitors a place to go to find more information. An example would be a real estate web site with links to mortgage lenders or other community web sites providing additional information about the area.

Often, if you have a links page you can ask other businesses to exchange links (you put a link to their site and they put a link to yours). Since some search engines look at how many sites link to yours for positioning, a link exchange page can help with search engine positioning. You will also gain additional exposure from being linked with these other sites (especially if your site is brand new and the other sites are getting decent traffic).

Colors and text style

Think about the colors you would like in your site. An idea of colors you would like in your background and for text is very helpful to me. If you have special fonts you like, please let me know. Be aware that some fonts don't look the same in the various browsers. As a default I use Arial or Veranda.

Title, Description, and Keywords 

You will need these three elements to be found by some of the search engines. If this information is not provided to me, I will include this information for you. However, you know best who your customers are and what they might be looking for.

Title: 5-7 words that describe your business (usually your business name). When someone does a search, this is what appears above the descriptions of the sites found in the search.

Description: One or two sentences that describe your pages. This is the short paragraph that shows up when you conduct a search in the search engines.

Keywords: These are the words someone would type into a search engine to find your products or services. Some search engines weigh the use of keywords in the meta tags as well as the text in the body of your web pages. As an additional service, I will optimize your pages with targeted keywords for an additional fee.