Website Design & Maintenance
A website is not intended to take the place of basic Business Development but it is certainly a valuable tool. A professional website, tastefully designed, properly implemented and consistently maintained is fast becoming a necessity for providing instant information to firms searching for sources to fulfill their needs.
The first step in developing a Website is defining the basic objectives and results desired. Additional objectives will be identified and considered as the website is developed and designed. The following are some basic objectives to be considered when developing a website:
- Expanding the Client Base by generating inquires from new market areas.
- Advertising successful projects and pro-bono contributions to maximize their effect on future business
- Quickly conveying and downloading Qualifications and Experience to potential Clients.
- Providing free information of value to potential Clients to keep them coming back to the website.
- Assist current Clients by: (Password Protected)
- Posting Progress Photos, Status Reports, etc.
- Quickly providing answers to questions.
- Easy access to project records
The success and impact that establishing a Website has on a company will not be immediately apparent. As with any advertising tool, its effectiveness usually does not become clear until it has become a integral part of the overall marketing plan for an extended period of time.
The following are typical activities required to design, develop, and maintain an effective website:
- Basic Design and Development
- Registering a Website name
- Conducting and in-depth review and evaluation of competitor’s websites.
- Meeting with Client management to confirm current internal hardware/networking capabilities, objectives and schedules.
- Determine the basic structure of the website:
- Number of Brochure (Static) pages required to provide overall information such as qualifications, project successes, achievements, contact information, civic activities, employment opportunities, etc.
- Number of Extranet (Password Protected) pages required for providing selected information to Clients and management concerning ongoing projects.
- Number of E-Commerce pages required to provide downloading of information to selected parties and accepting electronic payments.
- Gathering and organizing all existing photos, brochures, and other relevant information.
- Writing narratives that sell Client’s services to the right Customers using an appealing professional approach.
- Developing and submitting basic designs and layouts for approval.
- Making revisions as required to obtain client management approval of designs and layouts.
- Coordinating between Client, designers, and others as required to complete development, debugging, and implementation.
- Start-up assistance and group training as required to make the website accessible and useful to Client employees.
- Programming and Setup
- Transforming all data (both electronic and hardcopy) to an electronic website compatible format.
- Submitting working electronic drafts of the website to Client Management for review and acceptance.
- Maintaining technical responsibility for operation of the website for a mutually agreed upon period after implementation.
- Website Implementation and Hosting
- Review Web Hosting requirements
Establish basic requirements for:
o Monthly Bandwidth usage in GB
o Required Disk Space in MB
o Number of Email Accounts required
- Researching and selecting a suitable hosting firm
- Coordination as required to ensure completion of all activities necessary to make the Website operational.
- Develop “Key Words” for Search Engine use.
- Submitting the Website to all major Search Engines to ensure maximum exposure. How often a Search Engine cycles and their method of listing results determines when a website should be resubmitted to the Search Engine.
- On-going Monitoring, Development, Updating and Maintenance
- Once a Website is up and running, its usefulness will be greatly maximized if it is properly monitored. The main reason people use websites is their need for immediate information and fast responses.
- An operations check should be accomplished at least daily to ensure consistent access. Web Hosts make sure readers can get to a site but do not monitor internal operations of the site.
- Inquiries must be acknowledged immediately.
- All inquiries should be routed to the appropriate Client personnel for immediate follow-up.
- Current events effecting Client accomplishments, projects and personnel should be updated as required to maintain the interest of prospective customers and users.
