Making the decision to set up your first web site or to redesign your current site is always a big step for a business or individual. Questions below serve to gain an understanding about the project. Please read through and think about the items. Do not be worried if you do not have answers to some of these questions. That’s why we are here to help. Contact us for a free consultation via e-mail. Thank you and good luck!
Planning
- Do you have a vision and mission for the site?
- What is the primary industry or focus of the web site?
- Could you provide a list competitors in the industry (including web sites) and what you like and dislike about their sites?
- What kind of visitors would you like to attract?
- What is the desired launch date?
- What is the general working budget?
- Would you like us to do a turnkey solution or just update/create a portion of your site?
Initial Discussion
- Have you decided on the domain name?
- Do you have a hosting provider preference?
- Would you like to be able to update your site through a web interface?
- Do you have a preference if the site is hand coded vs. using existing software tools including open source software?
- Do you have a preference regarding the color scheme?
- What are some sites that you consider well designed?
- Do you have your own graphics or would you like us to create the graphics for you?
- Would you require converting, adjusting, optimizing of your graphics?
- Would you like us to take photos for placement on the web site?
- Do you require training?
- Do you require e-mail accounts setup?
- Would you require a mobile version of your site to be built?
Preparation
- Which pages would you like your site to have? Some suggestions are below:
- Home – welcome page with basic introductory data
- About Us – present your company, mission, vision, people and services
- Contact Us – provide address, telephone, e-mail or internet contact form
- Product or Service Information – information about the services or products you offer, can be categorized
- Careers – jobs listings
- Facts &Questions – frequently asked questions regarding your company and its services
- Testimonials
- Additional features : Blogs, Discussion Forums, Newsletter, Shopping Cart, Calendar, Polls, Wiki, Custom Forms processing… etc.
- Do you have descriptive text for each of the above pages? At emalis, we provide copywriting services for a fee.
Development and Testing
- Our preferred development setup includes an Apache web server on Linux with PHP scripting and MySQL database.
- During development, specific milestones are set for project tracking purposes.
- Do you have any specific requirements for the development phase of the web site?
- Once the site is completed it is be posted on a test server for approval.
- Do you have a checklist for your web site acceptance test?
Support and Maintenance
- Would you like us to submit the site to search engines?
- Will you be submitting the site to specialized directories on your own?
- Would you like us to interface with the hosting provider and troubleshoot possible issues?
- Will you be making site updates or would you like us to make them for you?
- Will you make site backups or would you like us to do it?
- Would you like us to perform search engine optimization of your site (validate HTML, optimize meta tags, keywords and descriptions)?
Other Notes
- Here at emalis, we strongly believe in open source software.