Website Design

Your website is a reflection of your business and yourself. You may already have brochures, flyers and handouts that advertise your business. Think of the website as fulfilling the same role, but also having the added functionality of being interactive and dynamic.

You will be able to interact with your customers via feedback and booking forms and you will be able to easily change your site to reflect the changes in your business and services offered. This dynamic feature of your web site provides a very cost effective advertising medium, 24 hours a day 7 days a week with no printing costs.

You're new website design, where to start?

Chances are you have plenty of material already - brochures, pamphlets, flyers etc. This is the best starting place. Set up a WEB-SITE file and start using it by collecting all of your promotional material.

Look at your competitors web sites; also look at sites within your industry, local and worldwide. Note the URL's (Internet web-site addresses), also print out the sites you like and note the attributes you would like to see on your web-site.

Now document just what you would like to see on your web site and the basic layout design you would prefer. Remember; print out the web pages you like.

Think about your customer, what works well with your marketing methods now? What services can you provide your customer or prospective customer?

To achieve a quick loading smart professional web-site, "keep it simple". Remember, the more flamboyant your site, the longer it will take to load and the more expensive it will be. If you feel your customer will appreciate a high level of pizzazz, then go for it!

First things first - be careful not to register your domain name or pay for hosting space until you talk to your web developer. They will generally achieve a better deal, and in our case will carry out domain name registration and host establishment work as part of our brief at no extra charge.

Ready to go? Then contact us for a free consultation.

Typical Website Pages

• The Home Page: This is the first page seen by your customers. Welcome them and instil interest. Remember 'keep it simple'.
• Details: Promotional Material Pages: Your brochures will assist here, but generally a series of pages promoting the various aspects and features of your goods and services.
• About Us Page: Tell your customer about your business, some history, quality aspects of your business, why they should do business with you?
• Portfolio: Show and tell; provide a demonstration of your products and services in words and pictures.
• Publications: Present your publications and make sure you promote yourself and your business expertise.
• Photo/image gallery: Promote your products and your services.
• Site Map Page: If your site has a lot of pages, you can make navigation easier for your customer by providing a map navigation page that segments all areas of your site using heading hyperlinks to jump to relevant areas.
• Meet the Staff: Put a human face to your web-site and business, let your customers see how proud you are of your people and tell them about the skills and experience they possess.
• Contact Us Page: Provide your business and postal addresses, your telephone and facsimile numbers and your email address. Make it easy for your customer to find you and contact you.
• Enquiry and Booking Forms: This is where you can provide interactive communication for your customer. Allow them to request information, purchase a product and/or book a service. On-line transaction process via secure pages.
• Links Page: The links page is an opportunity for you to add value to your customers visit. This page will contain links to other sites relevant to your industry and of interest to you customer. Don't link competitors unless you have a reciprocal agreement. Keep this page well maintained, a broken link does not look good.

What Components Constitute a Website?

• Company logo
• Company details
• Navigation menu system and site map
• Header and background images and image melds
• Email hyperlink(s)
• Hyperlink(s) to other web site(s)
• Photographic quality pictures and drawings
• Documentation
• JavaScript control and animation
• Flash control and animation
• Static images with hyperlink(s)
• Buttons, bullets and banners
• Web (hit) counter
• Interactive enquiry and booking forms
• Database storage and website control