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WEB DESIGN: PROCESS
Additional Steps to Launching your Website and finding a good web designer
1. Locate a reputable web design firm
2. Make sure that at a minimum they fully understand your unique business needs, your marketing strategy, your customer demographics and your challenges. It's also important to make sure they have the marketing and design experience to produce the type of site you need.
3. Find an available domain name www.limsdomains.com is a nice tool to let you brainstorm your domain name ideas and see what possible domain name combinations are available. Hopefully, your favorite domain name is still available. If you are finding it difficult to locate a suitable domain name and would like some suggestions, please feel free to contact us at (516) 731-5467. We can help and offer you some friendly tips. Register the Domain Name It's important that you register the site in your name, so that you will always have control over the site. Do not allow a web design company to register a site in their own name. You lose control.
4. Setup a web hosting account You can do this through www.limsdomains.com or any web hosting service you choose. If you need our help in registering your domain, please call us at (516) 731-5467
5. Modify the host server information
Your domain name and web hosting should point to each other. Your web designer should do this for you.
6. Setup email accounts Your web designer should also do this for you. Send them a list of email accounts you would like set up. Let them know if you would like a "catch all" account and which is the master e-mail address.
7. Design a logo (if you do not have one already) Work with a web design firm or graphic artist for this.
8. Conceptualize and design the homepage layout Work with the web design firm to get the look, feel and identity that you want for your business
9. Setup a temporary homepage Use your logo, or just use text to put a "coming soon" page up with your email address so people can still contact you while your site is being worked on. 10. Design the rest of the website pages These will be structured around the look, feel and functionality of the site and should match or complement the homepage colors and layout
11. Develop any databases and programming required for the site. This is where the web designers skills will shine, although some sites do not require this set of skills.
12. Identify keyword phrases for the website. Brainstorm. Think single words and groupings of words. This is an important part of the process. A good web design company will have the tools to implement a keyword strategy. This is important for marketing your site and getting a good page ranking on the search engines..
13. Write content (text) using keyword phrases. The content should describe your company, its products & services and should be clear, compelling and descriptive showing your company in the best possible light.. Copywriters can dramatically reduce the amount of work that you will have to do.
14. Gather all the images you will need for your website. If you require stock images a good web designer such as LIMS Web Design will have images appropriate for your company. Alternatively learn where to buy images.
15. At this stage the web design company will design the site and develop the programs and scripts. After the site is complete the web design company should test extensively and make the site available for you to view.
16. Officially Launch the site
After the testing is complete and you are satisfied with the result make the site public. Then promote, promote, promote. LIMS Web Design offers its clients MANY ways of promoting their website for free or at low cost. Get the word out there about your site and have it start making money.
Continue to add more content to your website
Continue to refresh and add more content to your website. Use it as a 24/7 marketing tool to gather lead, provide your clients and potentials with information and sell your services. Give your clients a reason to revisit your site.
Submit your website to the search engines and directories.
Your web designer can perform this task for you. It's important that it is done correctly so that the directories and "spiders" will find and list your site. Your website should be submitted individually to the major search engines.
Consider a reciprocal link exchange. It's not advised for every site but works great for many. Your web designer can advise you if it is advisable for your site and how to best implement. You've invested time and money in setting up your website. No make it work for you. Develop an online marketing strategy and realize how your website can provide a fabulous return on investment
Give us a call at (516) 731-5467 if you have any questions and would like us to help you.
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