So, you need a website.
There are two main scenarios. Either you don’t have a website and need one built or you have an old website that desperately needs to be brought out of the dark ages into the modern era. These tips will apply to both.
1. Figure out the goal/s of your new site.
Why do you want a new site anyway? What are you hoping to accomplish with it? Having concrete goals increases the odds that you will have a good ROI. Many of our clients will have one or several of these broad goals:
- Generate more leads
- Increase conversions/sales
- Improve usability/UX
- Automate Tedious Tasks
2. List your pain points
Along with some of these broad goals, you may have a very specific business problem that you want your website to solve. List out these problems and potential solutions. That way when you start talking with web development companies you can ask them if they have any ideas or know of technologies that can potentially solve those problems.
As an example, we had one client who was tired of manually keeping track of their leads from his site. He asked us if there was a way to automate his process. We took a look and found out that we could connect Gravity Forms to Google Sheets so that whenever someone filled out a form on the site it would be automatically added to the sheet, saving our client’s time.
If you have an e-Commerce business you will have a slew of problems that are unique to e-Commerce. Keep this in mind when you are making this list.
e-Commerce websites have the most to gain from a website upgrade because web design companies can help improve inventory management, invoicing, set up automatic emailing systems, discounts, etc. The amount of time that can be saved by automating your online business as much as possible can add up to hundreds of hours. Your customers will benefit too when you can spend less time on grunge work and more time making your business better.
At Webaholics we don’t just design and build websites. We founded our own e-commerce business in 2017 and it has been going strong since. Many of your pain points are our pain points. As a web design/e-commerce hybrid we are uniquely qualified to help e-Commerce businesses like yours get to the next level.
3. List the key functionalities that you need on your site
Depending on your type of business this list can vary widely. The key to getting every feature that you need on your website is taking a thorough look at what you need your website to achieve. This list will help you get an accurate picture of how much your website will cost right from the start. It will also increase the odds that your new website project will be a success.
To give you some ideas here are some of the functionalities our clients have needed for their sites:
- Reviews
- Calendar/Appointment Management
- Easily Editable Backend
- Fully Responsive
- User Experience Design
- Blog
- Payment System
- Product and Inventory Management
- Membership Management
- Forums
- Job Postings
- Integrations with outside software
- Learning Management System
- Custom Forms
Functionalities that are automatically included on all Webaholics website builds:
- Easily Editable Backend
- Fully Responsive
- UX Design
- Blog
Now you are ready to start looking for a web design agency
Knowing what you are looking for is half the battle. The next half is finding the right web design agency to build/update your site. We recommend reading our article “21 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Web Design Agency” to help you find the best web design agency for your project.
One last tip:
Can you save development time and costs by using templates and content management systems for your web design project? The answer to that is a resounding yes. At Webaholics we use a content management system called WordPress. This allows us to build websites in record times at affordable prices.
Using a CMS like WordPress also has the major pro that it is easy to edit and maintain by our clients, so they do not need to make a support call when editing their site. After we finish your web design-build, you have full control over your website and your online business.
Start your web design agency search here and get in touch with Webaholics! To learn more give us a call at (801) 890-3839 or shoot us an email at info@webaholics.co.
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