Get Started

Get Started

Getting Started Guide

I am looking forward to working with you. This Getting Started Guide will help you organize and gather the materials needed to build your website.  We will refer to this document from time to time, so feel free to print it and keep a copy handy, and check off items as they are completed.  This is just my standard guideline, your web or blog project may have needs that are not addressed here.

    1. Initial Consultation: Gather information about your company, services, audience, purpose, website goals and more.  This information is used to help us provide an accurate quote.
    1. Quotes and Proposals: Once your information is evaluated, we will send you a proposal that outlines the work that needs to be done with all associated costs. If you agree with the proposal, we will then send you a formal one requiring a signature. Along with the acceptance of the quote, you will need to pay the first half of the agreed upon website cost.
    1. We have an agreement, so it’s time to start designing! 🙂
  1. Site Content and Collecting Your Materials

Web Hosting and Domain Name): One of the first things you’ll need to have to start building your online presence is your own domain name and web hosting. The web hosting company that I currently use and can recommend is Hostgator.

Keywords: These are the keywords that the search engines will look for. We will place these into the source code of your website. So put together a list of words or combination of words that you think people would type into a search engine in order to find your website.

Text: The next thing we will need from you is text.  This is basically the words you would have in a brochure, ad or flyer.  Feel free to elaborate and tell us about yourself, your business, or product. Please do not send us a draft of your text, send your final version. While we expect to make minor changes here and there after the web pages are prepared, it takes extra time and too many changes may result in an extra charge.  (See the two sections below for more information on text).

Description of Your Company: We will need a brief description of your company. One to two sentences is sufficient. This will show up when a person searches for your company using a search engine.

Drop Down Menus / Navigation Links / Web Content: Please provide the navigation link tabs that you would like (i.e. Home, About Us, Contact Us, Etc.). We ask that you use a separate document for each of your web pages. We prefer Microsoft Word, although we can convert a large variety of file types.  Please do not send everything and then ask us to pick out the relevant information. We do not know what is relevant to your company, and may pick out the wrong information. Start thinking about the names of each of your pages.  And, if your site includes sub pages, please submit the names for those as well (for drop-down menus, sub menus, etc.).

Images / Photos/ Video Clips: If you have a business card, brochure, flyer, or samples of newspaper or magazine articles or advertisements, please send them to us. This will help us better understand what your company is about.  Please send any images or logos that you require on your site to us in digitized form, via e-mail or on a CD and mail to us.

Websites You Like: To assist in the design of your site, please tell us of any websites that you like the style of and which are similar to what you envisioned for you website.  When you email their links to us, let us know what you find appealing about them (i.e. color scheme, layout, etc).

    1. Home Page First: We start building your home page, the main page first.  After this part is completed and approved, we move on to any sub pages.
    1. Web Site Completion and Testing of Site: We will test your site on our test server for optimal performance and get your final approval.
    1. Final payment will be due before the website is launched.
    1. Website or Blog Goes Live! Your site is published to your domain name for the world to see! You can now start advertising your website and telling your business acquaintances and friends about the site. We trust that you have had a wonderful experience and will spread the word about our company to your family and friends.  Thank you!
  1. Minor Adjustments or Changes: Minor adjustments to the website are included at no charge for up to 30 days after the website has launched. Minor changes include changing text, adding or changing a few photos, etc. Any major additional requests not included in the initial quote will require additional discussion and possibly incur an additional fee.

Well, I hope this Getting Starting Guide has helped you understand the website design process a little better. If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

So what are you waiting for?  Let’s get started today! Request your free quote.

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