So you have decided you want to get a website developed, or you want to get your current website revamped. Contrary to popular belief your local web development company won’t be able to magically design your perfect site for you.

A successful web design & development project is like a good marriage; it needs buy in and compromise from both sides.

Here is a checklist of items you need to prepare before contacting a web design company.

Budget
Know what your budget is upfront. Like everything in life you get what you pay for, you’re not going to get the site of your dreams for €500.
If this is your budget no problem, get the next door neighbour with the Bebo account to do it for you.

Nature of the Business
Document exactly what the nature of your business is. A professional development company needs specific requirements, and needs to understand your business before they can even consider a design or an SEO strategy

Target Audience
Who and where is your target audience? Are you trying to target children, young people, adults or pensioners? Are you targeting your town, county, province, Ireland, Europe or the whole universe?

This is vital information when it comes to creating a design concept, for example what font size to use, what colours would be attractive to a certain demographic. It is also essential from a marketing point of view and how to best pitch your business online. Remember the web is moving at such a fast pace that every detail is important.

Main Competitors
You should know this already, and if you don’t then are you taking your business seriously? Knowing who your main rivals are is essential. If there are many competitors then this is a good and bad thing, this means that there is a market for your business, but it also means that you will have to invest to beat your competition.

Having a look at successful rival sites is a great way to give you ideas for your own site. Try and list the top five features you like about your rival sites, so your developer will have a clear indication of your requirements. Remember the designer cannot read your mind, if you know any designers that can read minds, please get them to contact me ASAP!

Style of the site
What style are you looking for?

• Clean
• Simple
• Flashy
• Minimalistic

Again do your research and take note of sites you really like. This will make the designer’s job a lot easier if they know what your personal taste is. Sure the designer will come back with sample designs but they need some guidance (unless they are mind readers of course!)

Extra Functionality
In the old days of the web, a site consisted of text and images mashed together. Nowadays with the emergence of so many web technologies, a website can basically do anything within reason. Extra functionality, such as a built in shopping cart or Flash animation will cost extra, so its important you know up front what you require so this can be factored into your budget.

Conclusion
I hope this gives you some indication of the groundwork that needs to be done by you before you begin your website project with a web design studio. Remember the designer will build the site of your dreams but they need the raw material from you to create the vision.

If you already have your ground work done, feel free to contact me anytime (087 6006529) so we can kick things off.