Website Design

Probably the easiest way is to look at your competitors websites and see what you like and don't like about their websites.

Take a look  around the web and find any old sites that you like. Make a list of these sites and a note of what you like about them - layout, colour, font or anything else that catches your attention.

Think about your audience

Ease of use should be your highest priority. There's no point having a website that looks hot, err, terrific, if no one can find the information they need on it.

Ask yourself what type of people will be using your website.

Don't over complicate it with flash movies or images, these often require people to have the latest updates on their computers, not everyone does and they are often slow to load and people are impatient.

They often go somewhere else if a page doesn't load in a few seconds.

Don't have too much information.

If you have lots of services and products, think about the groupings for menu's to make it simpler to navigate and whether you really want all of your capabilities listed.

Contact details

Sounds dumb, but if you put your email address on your website, make sure that you actually check the email box! If you don't, then just put your phone number and address details.

News

If you really want a “Latest News” section, make sure you update it at least every month, otherwise your website looks out of date and unprofessional very quickly.

What if you have no idea what you want

Join the queue!

Tell us about your business and we can come up with the ideas.

Can I do My Own Website

Hell why not, we did!

Just be aware that like anything, there are lots of tricks and traps.

If you want to save money, make sure you have typed all the text you want into Word or Notepad and have thought about the layout, gathered your pictures etc.

Keep it as short and simple as possible. Websites are a form of advertising and like any other form of advertising, need to be as straight to the point as possible.

Don't have much content that requires short term updating as this will be an ongoing cost. You only really want to update your website a couple of times a year or less, but don't fall in to the trap of never updating or it will look tired and stale after a while.

If you don't want to save money, do the above anyway and just pay us double!

After your website is up and running

A website isn't magic! Which is a shame really!

It needs to be promoted wherever you can and updated from time to time as if it was a shopfront.

If you haven't had a website before make sure you add its details to your flyers, brochures and stationery and anywhere else that's relevant.

If you change some products or services or introduce something new make sure you update your website.