Making Time for Web Development

MAKING TIME FOR WEB DEVELOPMENT

After talking with previous clients, the main problem they faced when creating their websites was finding time to dedicate to their website. If you’re like them, you’re super busy all the time. After all, you didn’t get successful by sitting around waiting for the phone to ring. You’re out there being busy. You’re working your business from all angless. So, how do you make time for building your website? Knowing what to expect can help you in your planning. I know you’ll figure out what you need to do in your life to make it happen. So, here is some helpful information to get you started.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO CREATE A WEBSITE?

Well, I know you may not want to hear this, but there are a lot of factors that influence how long a website will take. It all starts with you. Do you have your content written for each page? Do you have images you’d like to use? (Don’t worry too much if you don’t. We can help with that.) Do you have time to review the website and send us edits in a timely manner? Have you purchased hosting and a domain for your site? Most often, the website gets hung up waiting for the client to get back to us about what they like/don’t like about the website we have presented. Sometimes, we wait for weeks for clients to get back to us. Obviously, this slows down the production time.

There are also factors on our end that will impact how long it takes to get done. There are often times when we are really busy and can’t get to your edits immediately. While we don’t try to build up a big client base, (most of our clients are referred by other happy clients) we do have a lot of referrals and things can get a little backed up from time to time. We appreciate your patience when things are piling up.

So, how long does it take to build a website? Well, with all things considered, the average time to build is 2-4 weeks. But, sometimes websites can drag on for months if we’re waiting for your feedback, so be sure to carve out some time for website reviews and content preparation. If you’ve got a tight deadline that needs to be met, just let us know. Many times we can work with you to make it happen.

WHAT INFORMATION WILL I NEED?

I’ve put together a simple checklist of items you will need to have together when you are ready to build your site. Remember that if any of these things seem daunting or overwhelming, we can help you through it. Don’t hesitate to call and ask for help with any of these items.

* Write down what you want each page of your website to say. Look at similar websites and find out what they’re putting on their pages. While you can’t copy and paste from another website, you can put the same thing in your own words and look for ideas and inspiration. Most of our websites contain a Start Here, About Me, Contact, and Services page. But, you can have what feels right to you. And nobody can tell your story the way you can. So, take a little while and sit down to write a few pages of content.
* Look for images that will tell your story the way you want. Many people really like this step. Others find it overwhelming. If you find it overwhelming, just leave it to us to find your images. You can find great stock photos for a reasonable price at sites like 123rf.com, which happens to be my favorite place for purchasing images for websites. While we’ll provide the images (you don’t need to purchase them yourself) you can write down the numbers of the ones you like to help us with finding them again.
* Purchase your domain name and hosting. We recommend siteground for your hosting and domain purchase because we’ve had great luck with them for other clients. They’re fast and reliable and they don’t cost an arm and a leg. If you prefer a different hosting company or domain registrar, you are welcome to use them. If you want to replace an existing site, we will build the website on our own test servers and move the files to your server when you’re happy with how things look and function. Either way, we’ll need the login information to get into your hosting account to set it all up. This includes the link that we need to visit to get to your control panel. If you don’t know this information, you can call your hosting company and find out.
* If you’re planning on taking payments online, you will need to have a paypal business account or other merchant account. This takes a few days to set up and verify your bank information, so it’s good to get going on this right away.
* If you want to be able to respond to people in their emails automatically, you need to set up an email marketing account. This can be mailchimp, aweber, or another service. We recommend mailchimp or aweber, but if you already have another service, we will work with you. We will need your login information to set this part of your website up. We will add optin forms to your site where people can be added to your mailing list.

HOW MUCH DO I NEED TO WRITE?

If you want to do well in searches, we recommend at least 350 words per page. If you plan on marketing your website through other means (which we highly recommend) you can just leave it to whatever looks and feels right to you. Look at other websites to see what they’re doing.

DO YOU HAVE ANYONE WHO CAN HELP ME?

Yes! We have copy writers who can help with writing the content for your page. Our team can also help with the image research and find just the right images for your website. We can walk you through the hosting purchasing and also help you if you get stuck with your paypal and mailchimp setup. Just give us a call and we’ll walk you through any of the steps above. There are occasionally times when we have a lull in our workload that allows us to fast-track all website work. Give us a call and find out what the current work load is like.