Before You Contact A Web Professional

In our experience, many small businesses jump on to the Internet bandwagon without preparing first. As with buying a storefront without checking the surrounding area’s demographics, you could get lucky … but the purchase could just as easily turn into a drain of money, time, and energy.

If you have never worked with a web professional, you will benefit from doing some groundwork. The ideal client can provide the web professional with the following information:

Business objectives
Web site purpose and strategic goals
Target markets
Web site outline, including

Home page (required)
Desired content
Contact information
Site map
About Us page
Privacy policy
Services/products for sale, and whether payment/order form information or shopping cart will be necessary
FAQs
Feedback
Special needs, such as message board, tutorials, surveys, directory, members area
Visual elements—graphics, multimedia, photos, maps, etc.

Web site review—look at several sites (start with direct competitors or sites with similar target markets, but look at other sites as well) and jot down notes, such as

Styles you want to emulate or avoid
Color combinations you find pleasing
Features you want to include in your site

Web site promotion methods—which ones will you want to consider?

Indexing in the top search engines and subject directories
E-mail newsletter
Discussion group e-mail tag
Reciprocal links, i.e., links between your site and complementary sites
Banner
Writing editorial content on another website
Purposeful placement of keywords

Initial plan for site updates

Which elements will need to be updated … and how often?
Will you do site updates or have your web professional do them?
Will you archive any elements of your site?

The list above is long. You aren’t expected to have your mind made up about all the elements before you begin—but the more information you can provide, the easier it will be for your web professional to put together the site you desire.

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