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How to Save Time and Money Building Your New Website
The Sprocket Report
This article has been updated on 1/31/2023 with the article entitled “Save Yourself Both Time and Money When Building Your New Website.”
Whether you hire a big company to build your new website, do it yourself or find a solution in between, you will cut costs and launch quicker if you prepare before getting starting. Gather your thoughts and content with the Website Checklist below.
Your web developer (or you, if you’re the DIY-type) will need three main categories of materials: Access, Content and Objective.
What you need Access to:
- Your domain provider (to point your domain name to the new site)
- Your social media accounts (for linking from the website)
- Login information for your team (if they will be updating your pages)
The Content you need:
- Your business logo (vector format is best, but a large jpg is acceptable)
- Your official color palette (by Pantone, RGB or Hex Color Number)
- Graphic images and photographs (no less than 1,200 to 1,400 pixels wide and proportional)
- Permission and attribution information (for copyrighted images)
- Name of business or organization (the name you go by, not necessarily the registered name)
- Official address of business or organization (if you are a brick and mortar location)
- Mailing address, phone number and email address (so clients can contact you)
- Names, bios and headshots of staff (people buy from people)
- Open and close times (to set expectations)
- A short business/organization description (for meta tags, etc.)
- A longer business/organization description (for page content)
- A history of the business/organization (for page content)
- Certifications, partnerships, memberships and affiliations (to inspire confidence)
- Logos for certifications, memberships and other trust marks (for at-a-glance identification)
- News, articles and blog entries (to provide searchable content)
- Lists and descriptions of services or products (to provide searchable content)
- Samples of previous marketing material (to show what you want to continue using and what you don’t)
- Samples of websites you like (to show styles, designs or functions you’d like to incorporate)
Objectives to determine:
- What your new site should “feel” like (decide if you want folksy, high tech or another first impression)
- What the goal of your website is (think about what a “successful” website is to you)
- What your call-to-action is (decide what action you want your visitor to do once they get to your page)
Having a plan before you and your web developer get to work makes the whole process smoother. Certainly there will be changes – which are much easier to make on a website than with printed marketing projects! – but thinking through your project will eliminate a world of off-target guesswork and get your new site online more quickly. If you’ve been thinking of building a new website this year, give us a call to talk through the options. We’d be happy to help!
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Kate Gingold
I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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I have been writing a blog with web marketing tips and techniques every other week since 2003. In addition to blogging and client content writing, I write books and a blog on local history.
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