Design Interventions

So, you’re shopping for a web site designer. What do you need to look for? There are quite a few very important things to consider.
Make sure you’re comfortable with your web designer. You need to be able to give them a call if you have a question or need something changed.
Things to keep in mind:

a. What is your budget?
b. Can you write amazingly?
c. Do you have your brand?
d. Can you see past what YOU want and do what your customer needs?
e. Can the designers/developers meet your needs?
f. Does the designer ‘speak your language’?
g. Do they give you ‘one on one’ attention or pass you on?
h. How much input will you have?
i. What do they charge?
j. How do they set up payment plans?
k. How long will it take?

Know the elements you want in your site before calling a designer or touching a computer.

1. Who is the target? Who are the customers who will be reading the site? Young, old, trendy, established, male, female, affluent, needy? Know your demographics and create your site for them.
2. Informative, or e-commerce? Your initial steps will be different depending on the answer to that question.
3. Blog, social media? Make sure you have enough time to update these on a regular basis.
4. Branding. Do you have your logo, colors, type styles, slogan?
5. Who will update your site? If it’s you, make sure you make that clear when you talk initially to your web designer. Make sure you have time to do it.
6. Budget. This will determine the level of professional input you are able to choose to plan and design your site.

Pre-planning will save you time and money in the long run.

You bet they are.  Use your stats to find not only who is looking at your site, but what words thy use to find your site, where their computer is, what kind of operating system they have and what time of day they read your site.

An integral part of a successful website is the statistical analysis.  Schedule  time each week to review your stats.  From this data determine your next course of action.  Do you change your key words to ape those readers are using to find your site?  Do you delete pages that no one looks at, or do you change your text to make those pages more interesting?  For e-commerce sites, lack of interest in certain pages may lead to eliminating certain products to concentrate on the ones that are making money for you.

Stats tell you where viewers came from, how long they stay on the site and how they found out about your site.  Statistics are invaluable in the growth of a successful site.