Whether you already have a website and are considering updating it, or if this is a new venture, then you will have your own ideas about what you want.

Some of the areas you should consider are:

• What is the function of the site?
• Who are the users likely to be?
• Do you want to maintain the site yourself?
• Is the content going to change regularly and if so how much?
• Do I want to take payments from the site?
• What volume of visitors am I looking for?

Other areas to consider include:

• How the site is hosted
• The number of email accounts required
• Who will update the site when required
• Search engine optimisation

The more complex a website the more it costs to make changes once it has been produced, so time spent now in planning and producing a design brief is a good investment. For a business a good site should be part of the marketing mix and so link in with all your marketing efforts.

Think about what you want the website to do for you. If you are a business then you will probably want to showcase your products and services and maybe take payment online. A good starting point is trying to view the site from the end users point of view. When you hit a home page you will want to see straight away what the company does, and navigate in as few a steps as possible to the information you want. Complex graphics that take a long time to load will drives traffic away. As part of my service all the sites I I create are optimised to make them accessible and visible to search engines. The front page is also important for the search engines. Search engines give higher rankings to relevent text on the opening page than images, so allow for text that says what you do and this should include key words that the user might search for. Do you want password protected areas for key clients or sensitive documents? All of this and more needs to be considered to save wasted time later.

It is not possible to cover everything you need to think about in a few sentences as many books have been written on the subject. Part of my service is to help you with this process. I am happy to sit down with you and look at your specific needs, then produce ideas which will help you to your goals.

Just give me a call.