02 May 3 Things To Know When Building A New Website
1 – Go Ahead And Grab Your Domain Name
Before you even begin looking for a web design company, be sure to set your domain name(s) for the project. You can use the search tools at many of the major domain name sellers to check the availability of the names that you wish to use. Keyword based domain names like www.web-design-ideas.com are actually counted down by the search engines now, so try to make them work off your brand or mission. Also check them out on the US Trademark Office TESS search to make sure that no other companies have the same keywords trademarked.
Domain names are fairly cheap if they are not grabbed up yet, but can get pretty expensive if you have to buy them from an owner, domain auction or domain squatter.
There are also horror stories that we have run into over the years where competitor web design agencies buy up a domain name after initial talks with a new new customer. They then mark the domains up several hundred percent and hold them hostage.
Picking it up yourself is easy, and is also important from a legal standpoint. The Registered Agent on the domain record is the legal owner of the domain. If someone else buys it for you and holds it, they will probably be considered the owner if an issue arises.
2 – Set Your Budget
Be sure to sit down and set a scope for your website project. This scope will drive the number of pages, features, and the level of design and research from your website design agency.
Three factors will be the major force behind how much the project should cost:
- Design – How much customization do you need in the overall design? Will a standard WordPress theme meet all of your needs? Do you need a custom website design from the ground up? Usually your project will land somewhere in the middle.
- Unique Content – How much unique text content will you need to get the best return from the new website? Will these pages be easy or hard to write? Can you write the content, do you have the time available, or will you need to outsource to a copywriting service? Will the outsourced writer need to do extensive research to properly write the unique copy?
- Functionality – Does the site need more than a contact form? Do the leads from various forms need to be tracked in a database or CRM? Are you selling online, and what type of payment options do you have to offer? Any other functional requirements or integration with internal systems or third-party systems? How important is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to meet your goals?
Get a few quotes to be sure the web design company you choose isn’t ripping you off or missing something.
3 – It Has To Be Mobile Friendly
With the latest changes to the search engines, and a huge increase in the use of mobile devices for website access, responsive web design or mobile-friendly websites are now a requirement.
Once you dig through all the research, it can work out to a 50% penalty to the rank of all of your keywords on search engines.
You can check whether your site makes the mobile friendly grade with Google’s Free Tool.
