Assess Your Business Web Site Needs First, and Get Top Results

There are a number of questions that you should answer before having your web site designed or redesigned. The answers to these questions will help to ensure a successful implementation so taking the time to go over them up front and working with your web designer to implement a solution based on the results will help you to achieve your goals.

1. What do you want your web site to do?

   In order for you to ask web design companies to quote on your web site project you will first have to figure out what business goals you would like to achieve with your web site. Are you trying to inform your prospective or current customers about your product or service? Will the site be a way of providing product support? Do you want to sell your product or service on-line to reach a larger market?

   In addition to basing these choices on your own opinions and those of your employees it is often a good idea to ask your existing and/or prospective customers what they would find most beneficial as well. A survey to find out what functionality they would find most useful on your web site can help focus the development on aspects that will bring your company the most benefit.

2. Do you a have a corporate brand in place? Are you happy with the branding you have currently?

   Your business web site should reflect the corporate branding and identity of your business. If you are planning to update your logo and corporate branding or don't have any in place yet, you should work on this before or in conjunction with the web design to ensure that you have a consistent look and feel across all of your marketing materials.

3. What are the future considerations you have for the web site?

   It is a good idea to consider what you may want the site to do in the future. This decision will affect the web site hosting requirements, potential database development and support as well as the ease of web site expandability options when the site is taken to the next level. A long-term plan for a web site could help your business avoid technical difficulties and possible downtime when you are ready to expand your site.

4. What is your budget?

   The budget for a web site project needs to be looked at carefully in terms of what benefits the web site will bring to the company over all. This includes thinking about benefits over the short and long term. A web design company bidding for your project should be able to give you advice as to what complexity of web site would be beneficial to your business right away and work with you to plan a timeline for future expansion when required.

5. What web applications are available to improve the internal processes of the business?

   In addition to web-based applications for your customers, such as online shopping carts, another consideration is that of your internal processes. Taking your employees time and efforts into consideration by implementing an application to assist in the execution of their day-to-day jobs will increase the efficiency of your business. These tools can help eliminate duplicate data entry within your processes, increase employee productivity and accuracy, and allow better tracking of your business processes. Employees will be happier not having to deal with inefficient processes and tedious data re-entry, leading to higher job satisfaction and in turn higher employee retention.

The planning and launch of your on-line presence is an exciting time, with a lot of potential benefits to take advantage of. Taking the time to answer the questions above will help you to achieve a successful web site launch that will contribute to your business objectives now and into the future.

 back

By Tanya Riemann
Tanya is the founder of Platypi Designs, a web design and
development firm in Guelph Ontario.