As a future website owner, your thoughtful feedback is essential in order to develop a website that beautifully represents your business.

When I sit down with clients to discuss a new project, there are topics and questions I return to again and again. If you’re considering a new or revised website, I hope you’ll read through all the articles below before you talk seriously with your web developer. (Simply click on each topic in the pink boxes to read the articles.) If you’re new to this process, you might want to read them in the order they’re presented; they’ll be a step-by-step primer on starting your project.

Here’s to a great website!

Here’s a helpful YouTube video produced by Bluehost on “How Websites Work.”  It’s a great introduction to understanding domains, hosting, servers…and all that technical language surrounding website development:

Clients, you need to spend time thinking about — and identifying — your business brand.

Without a brand, your business simply looks and feels like every other related business out there. And looking just like everyone else probably means you don’t stand out in any significant way. A brand helps your potential customer find you.

During the “discovery” phase of working together, your designer will need to understand your brand personality. This understanding will ultimately drive the creation of your logo, marketing materials, and website. “Brand personality” represents the visual look of your materials — colors, fonts, layout, amount of white space, stock photo choices, graphic style, etc. — and includes the tone of the words on the page (your content).

If you haven’t done so before, you’ll want to establish your brand personality.

Is your business rustic, stylish, playful, accomplished, earthy, elegant, eclectic, upscale, charming, honest, youthful, simple…or something else?

Every business owner or marketing director needs to be able to define their company’s brand. Once you’ve done so, all marketing efforts should reflect that defined brand for consistency and brand-building.

CMH prides itself on offering high-quality, independent healthcare options in a small-town, rural setting—a place where the natural environment is a big reason people choose to live and work in Cloquet. Their brand always keeps it “real,” and never feels corporate or impersonal.

Use the links/resources below to help identify your brand personality. Spend some time brainstorming with your partners or staff while you work through these exercises. Whether the exercises focus on words, archetypes or a style spectrum, they’ll all help you communicate your product or business.

Print these out, make your own notes, and share with your designer.  You’ll want to be able to articulate your brand when you talk about your new marketing project with any designer. And you’ll always want to create future marketing pieces that reflect and fit into your brand’s style.

Spend 30 minutes and hone your brand with these fun exercises:

• If your company were a couch…or, which couch feels most like your company?
  Take the couch test from designer Karen Barranco.
• Uncover your Brand Personality Quiz.
• Every brand needs a personality. Take the brand quiz and discover your archetype.

A new website offers a really big addition to your business marketing mix. Now that you’re a website owner, you’ll need to plan for the cost of owning a site. These are very small advertising costs, especially given how your site functions as your online office, your 24/7 service center, and potentially the very best salesperson you’ve ever had.

There are three yearly costs for owning most basic websites. Your site can’t exist without two of them, and the third one is highly recommended:

#1. Domain renewal.

Every website address needs a domain name — a unique string of letters and numbers making up your internet address. Usually this name starts with www and ends with com or org. You can read all about how to buy your domain in this post: Buy your domain now. Build your site later. I use Domain.com for domain purchase and renewal, and typically renew my domains for 2-3 years at a time. Given renewal is so inexpensive, I find that renewing for two or three years saves me the hassle of renewing annually. And if I later decide I no longer need or want the domain, I’m only out $10 or so, which is peanuts. Additionally, once you’re in the Domain.com system, you’ll receive promotional emails which sometimes offer 15%, 20% or even 30% off domain purchases, so I save my renewal purchase for when I receive one of these email offers.

#2. Hosting.

Your website needs to “live” somewhere and your hosting service is where your site lives. You’ll choose a monthly or yearly (recommended) fee for a server to host your site. Businesses have different hosting needs (from basic brochure sites to e-commerce shopping functions, for periods of high or spiked user traffic, for large file storage, for WordPress specific functions, etc.), so there isn’t a “one size fits all” here, but generally hosting will run $75-$250 per year. Your web designer should be able to recommend a web hosting vendor based on your needs.

#3. Site maintenance (or “Don’t leave your website untouched for 2 years”).

Your website is often your biggest marketing asset and the centerpiece of all your marketing activities. It’s the first place people go when looking for more information on your products or services. It’s the place that should drive all of your marketing efforts. It’s the first place prospects come looking for information about you.

Keep your website content updated and fresh. Perhaps you need to include new photos of products, staff or your facility, maybe you add new team member bios regularly, perhaps your contact information has changed, or you might decide to blog but need help with creating graphics that wow.

Businesses change, and your website content should reflect these changes. Maybe you’ll want to add a targeted landing page or start collecting emails to build a prospective customer list. Plan to grow your web content and functionality!

We live in a digital world that has constantly changing technology, so the technology that makes your website look good is also changing. Web browsers are updated, WordPress is updated, plugins are updated, text links get broken as other websites migrate, backup systems need attention…the list could go on. It’s inevitable that your new website will need some tweaks down the road to keep functioning. It’s almost impossible to build a website today that won’t need attention in 1 or 2 years.

Your website needs attention just like any other advertising strategy you employ needs to evolve and adapt over time. Website maintenance doesn’t have to cost a lot (maybe it’s a few hours per year of professional time), but don’t fail to budget for it.

Don’t ignore your biggest marketing asset! I encourage clients to seek advice on site improvements and to grow their online possibilities as they become more experienced website owners.

Are you a thought leader? Are you an expert in your field? Do you have a perspective on your particular expertise that is unique? Do you have information you’d like to share with others?

Maybe you simply have stories or insights you’d like to share — whether recipes, special techniques, artistic images, or musings on various subjects. Maybe you’re a poet and want to share your poetry to a wider audience.

More and more, we’re being told that “content is king” in digital marketing. That having more content on your website is much better than having less.

Keven Kelleher brings a wealth of experience to his role as FTO trainer. He’s passionate about staying on top of trends in educational approaches as well as the challenges facing law enforcement agencies, university security departments, and private security firms. He keeps FTO professionals informed about important trends in his blog, “News from the Field.”

Including a blog function on your site is an easy way to beef up your online content and useful for positioning yourself as an expert in what you know or do.

If you’re a personal injury lawyer, you could provide stories about cases where you’ve had success, or helped potential clients understand typical outcomes with common auto injuries. If you’re a B2B consultant, you might provide professional and helpful tips for your typical client. If you’ve been published or regularly give presentations, you could provide your published articles or recent Powerpoint presentations online. There are many ways to provide fresh content on your website, whether for purely business reasons or for your creative writing pleasure.

If you want to create updated and fresh content on your website, you’ll want a blog.

If having current content is important, then you might consider including a blog on your new site. You’ll need to commit to writing something roughly once a month, have basic writing and grammar skills, and be willing to learn some simple WordPress login and posting skills (or be willing to pay for someone else to write and post your content).

A stagnant blog is not a “blog”—it’s just another page on your website. If you want a blog on your new site, make sure you really want to write regularly, or hire someone who will write fresh content for you.

But let me give you fair warning: there is nothing more unprofessional than starting a blog and two or three years later, having no additional content added to that blog. Without fresh ideas there is no reason for a reader to return. Outdated content has the opposite effect of positioning you as an expert or thought leader — it dings your credibility. So don’t let your blog sit untouched. Make sure you really want to write regularly — or hire someone who will write for you — if you want this function on your website.

Some people have a ton of fun with blogging, and some feel overwhelmed at the mere thought of having to write anything. Know where you fall on that spectrum.

Then tell your designer if you want this function included on your new website. If you do, brainstorm with your designer and staff and get a feel for what kind of content you might write. Remember, you want to provide information that will position yourself favorably to your potential customers and that will enhance your overall website content.

Helpful resources if you decide to blog regularly on your website:

If you’ve decided to write a blog, you won’t have to pay attention to the information about hosts and servers, blog design, or even the technicalities of setting up a blog in the following links (this will be taken care of by your website developer). Instead, focus on the idea of blogging with these links and start developing what your customers want to read about:

15 Reasons I Think You Should Blog, from Becoming Minimalist, a lifestyle blogger

How to Turn One Content Idea into a Fascinating Four-Part Series, online resources from Copyblogger

A Guide on How To Create a Guide That’ll Drive You 361,494 Visitors, and other tips and ideas for “expert” how-to blogging at Quicksprout

It’s easy to spot when a website is not mobile friendly: you open the website using your phone or tablet and much of the site, navigation, images or information is unreadable without excessive scrolling. The first glance at a website like this gives you very little to react to…and probably means you leave the site pronto.

People now spend a lot of time using mobile media to view websites.

Mobile digital media time in the US is now at 51% compared to desktop at 42% (sometimes referred to as the biggest shift since the internet began). The implications of these numbers are clear: if you’re not able to reach your audience through mobile search or display, and you’re not providing a satisfactory mobile experience, you will miss out compared to competitors who are.

Have you ever tried to view a non-responsive website on your mobile phone? You’ll quickly be frustrated…and likely leave the site altogether.

And in case you weren’t convinced you needed a responsive website, Google recently announced algorithm updates that will have a “significant impact” on mobile search results worldwide for mobile searchers. This update improves rankings for sites that provide a mobile-friendly experience to searchers on mobile devices, and, by association, demotes sites that do not. This means that if you’re new site is responsive, it’ll pop up on the search page higher than your competitor who doesn’t have a responsive site.

Unless there is some very compelling reason not to, I always choose a responsive design for my clients when building your site in WordPress.

If working with a designer, make sure you request that your new site be responsive.

Test your existing website in smartphone and tablet emulators on mobiletest.me and see how readable your home page is.

The illustration above, “Content is like water,” demonstrates the idea behind responsive design and was created by web and UX designer Stéphanie Walter.

A potential client will call and ask, “I’d like to have a website. How much does it cost? Where do I start?”

Before putting together a comprehensive website estimate, or even meeting with the client, I’ll ask you to answer, or at least consider, the following 7 questions.

1. What are your website goals?

Goals are usually 3-7 items, and they might be something like “to list all our upcoming registration classes” or “to showcase our birthday party packages” or “to look more professional and polished”, etc. When you think about goals, think not only about features of a website, think about functionality. In other words, what do you want viewers to be able to DO on your website beyond reading about your business? View and post Facebook comments…register/pay online for classes….read updated tips and tricks in your professional field, sign up for email marketing messages, etc.?

2. How often will you need to update your website?

Will your website need constant, occasional, or hardly-ever updating of its content? If you want a website that is frequently updated, who will do the updating? Perhaps you want a blog function on your new site, where you’re writing news or article content regularly. Do you or someone in your organization have strong computer skills….and/or are you interested in learning? I’ll guide you through the possibilities and implications of the content management spectrum. I find that clients are consistently over optimistic about their ongoing involvement in updating a new site. It sounds great to be able to update your new site — but in reality you don’t have the time or interest to do so once it’s up.

3. Will you provide all your website content, or do you need help with writing the site?

Generally, I will at least recommend a site structure and outline your new site, even if you provide all the site text. You’ll want creative and compelling home page content and headlines, subheads, etc. throughout the site, and you’ll probably need writing help with this. Some clients come to the table with their complete text ready to go…but more often, they need writing help. Know where you fall in this spectrum and at least have a sense of what content you will include on your new website at our first meeting. Type up a rough page outline or sketch it out on paper.

4. Do you have a logo? Do you have photos and graphics you’ll want on the website?

If so, gather as many materials, or be prepared to discuss what you’ll provide, at the meeting. We’ll talk about your logo and colors, what you might want in terms of photos on your new site, and how we’ll find those images, if you don’t already have them.

5. Have you researched, and can you provide URL addresses, of competitor websites for ideas on your new or updated site?

While I’m not suggesting you would “copy” another company’s layout or text, what I’ll want to know is what you like (and don’t like) in competitors’ websites. Be prepared to talk about what you want in a website…..the colors, layout, look and feel, content, etc. I find the best way to do this is to find websites of other similar organizations, break down what you like in particular about them, and then with your new site improve upon what’s already been done. Especially when clients don’t have a lot of experience creating websites, this is an efficient method of visually discussing possibilities.

6. What is your time frame for this project?

In general, we’ll discuss your schedule expectations and touch on writing, design, hosting, purchasing URLs, and all tasks associated with the job. We’ll then put together a preliminary schedule of tasks with dates so we have a “map” moving forward to guide us.

7. And finally, what is your budget range?

Asking the question “how much will a website cost?” is a lot like asking a contractor “how much does it cost to build a house?” Without discussing specifics, your contractor has no way of knowing if you’ll want 10 windows or 100 windows, 8 rooms or 12 rooms, a huge kitchen or an efficiency kitchen, etc. All these variables greatly affect the pricing of your overall house. But if you were to start a project like building a new house and interviewing contractors, I’m sure you’d have sketched out a range you’re willing to spend before talking to a potential contractor.

It’s the same when pricing a website. The more you can bring to the table in terms of information and discussion, the easier it is for me to put cost range to your project. Getting a website designed and developed by me can start around $1,500 and goes higher, depending on the size, complexity and services needed by you. Once you share the answers to the questions here, I can put together a cost range so you know how to plan your budget. But if you absolutely cannot spend more than, say, $2,500 on your new site, it’s important for you to share that with me because then I can scale your needs with a realistic solution.

Answering these 7 questions is part of the “Discovery” phase of website development.

A website project is a collaborative effort between client and developer. The discovery phase takes a lot of work, but the client’s contribution is essential. Once the process has been done, I’ll be able to provide a cost estimate for the job. It’s typical to request a third of the estimate up front before getting started, a third after the design has been completed, and the final third billed once the working site is finished and before it is launched to the public.

Building a website is a comprehensive project. You’ll want to hire someone based on more than price alone.

You’ll want someone who can guide you through the process (a process which can often feel overwhelming and require significant amounts of your time), be sensitive to the branding needs of your business, develop a creative and compelling web solution, and build a site that functions within a variety of browsers and devices, from Firefox to Chrome, and from computer screens to mobile phones.

You’ll spend a significant amount of time creating a successful website with your web development partner, so make sure they’re a good fit. Because getting the guidance and you need to create an amazing new website is priceless.

I often tell my clients that your website home page should function like a magazine cover: it should reflect the content contained inside using color, style, and compelling words; it should showcase your company’s “brand personality” and provide the big picture of what you offer; and it should include key details/benefits/features of your products/services. Keep reading, and I’ll explain these how you can define these elements for your own site.

Doesn’t a great magazine cover compel you to open up, look inside, and want to read the magazine?

• A magazine cover often features one strong visual or photo.
• A magazine cover also alludes to other important “stories” inside, using smaller photos and subheads.
• And a magazine cover instantly lets you know whether you want to continue reading more…or not.

You need to have an effective home page if you want people to stay on your site.

If you’ve put together your home page correctly — like a good magazine cover — the viewer stays, clicks further inside your site, and ultimately finds what they’re looking for whether it’s you, your services, or your products. But if you’ve failed to tell the story with your “cover,” (or the viewer can’t find what they came looking for) they click on to other “covers” and that’s the end of your story. You’ve lost the visitor.

Of course there are great home pages that don’t use this magazine cover treatment, but this concept usually works well for me — plus my clients get it. I’ll spend a lot of time thinking and talking about your home page when creating a new website. Once we get all the home elements established, it’s usually easy to roll out the rest of the site.

What information should I include on my home page?

Below is a list of questions and ideas for sketching out your home page content — both for big picture brand “personality” and smaller, key details. We’ll break down this equation:

Presence + Personality + Visitors + Competitors = Your perfect home page solution

Presence. How would you describe your business/organization to an interested reporter? What are you known for? What do you want to be known for in 2-5 years? What is your “elevator speech?” (and make it a brilliant one, not a blah blah blah one).

Personality. What is the voice of your site — first person, third person, sassy, serious, playful, funny, professional, opinionated? Is it a blog with frequently updated content or a more traditional website? Obviously, the personality of your business should be reflected consistently in all you do whether it’s your website, logo, advertisement or Facebook page.

Visitors. Who is your audience? Who do you want to attract to your site? What are the 5 most common keywords or search terms that a potential visitor might use to arrive at your website? What are the 3-5 most important things you want a visitor to see/learn when they arrive at your site? Where are the first three clicks you want that visitor to make after they arrive?

Competitors. What are your competitors doing on their home pages? What jumped out at you when you landed there? And what effect did it have on you: did you click further into the site or did you leave, and why?

Answer the questions above, make a list to share with your website designer/developer, and you’ll be off to a great start on your new site.

In my own situation, I have a difficult name to remember and pronounce. While many writers, photographers, and designers use their own names as their domain names, I knew that wouldn’t be easy for internet users trying to get to my site when trying to spell my difficult last name. I went the clever route instead with “www.sallyiscreative.com.”

A domain name is the first step in planning for your upcoming website project. I recommend you buy now and buy many.

Buy now.

Since domain names are so cheap to purchase (they typically run about $10-$12 per year), do a search now and find the names you might be interested in using, see what’s available, then purchase them. It’ll be a wise and inexpensive investment in your business future. Domain names are getting purchased so quickly in our internet explosion era that the unique combination of letters and/or numbers you want might already be taken. Even if you don’t have your website ready now — or won’t have it ready for another year or so — don’t risk losing the domain you want to someone else. Buy it now and you’ll have it later.

There are many options for purchasing domain names, but I recommend www.domain.com. You’ll find a whole array of other services you’ll be encouraged to purchase when you select your domain name and add it to the shopping cart, but don’t add anything else to your domain purchase when you checkout (for instance, there’s no need to add “Domain privacy” to your domain cost). And make note of the user name and password you create to set up your domain account.

Buy many.

Since they’re such a cheap investment, you might want to buy your company slogan as well as your business name. And your product name(s). And your personal name. And anything else that might be useful to your business marketing. In addition, you might want to purchase the .com, .net, and .org versions of your domains to prevent a competitor from diverting traffic away from your site through address confusion.

After a couple of years and a small $10-$30 investment, if you decide you don’t need the domains, then don’t renew them. Having the domain you want, when you’re ready to build a site, is incredibly inexpensive marketing…as long as you buy now. Companies can pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars to acquire the perfect domain when it’s already been snatched up by someone else.

Your domain name should be all about you and your business. Act now and you just might secure the domain name of your dreams.

In reality, your website content will be a big challenge to pull together.

You’ll need home page text, professionally written bios, product descriptions, services offered, calls to action, blog posts or feature articles, compelling messages, etc.—and you’ll need it written well.

Your website is your online branch office, your 24/7 service center, and it needs to be the very best salesperson you’ve ever had.

Have you spent time yet at your computer sketching out your site outline (page names) in a Word document? Have you drafted some sample page text? If not, and you’re ready to start on your new website project, you need to start now.

One of the things that stalls (or even derails) a new website project most easily is when the client doesn’t make content a priority.

Before starting your website design, I’ll need your content.

Even if I sketch out or design the home page based on our discussions, or know the page names that will be used in your main navigation area, or have images from you to use on the site, your new website still needs actual page text.

Words inspire design! And when content is delivered first, a web project is more likely to launch on schedule. (The most common delay I experience for getting a new website live is lack of page content provided by clients.) We may completely map out your site and even start the design, but the project will go nowhere without descriptive text written for each page.

Start by outlining the pages you’ll want on your site.

At the very least you’ll probably need the following pages:

• Home page—the entry point to your website where it’s essential to grab your visitor and inspire them to stay on your site by clicking further. Help them learn more about you and what you offer and make sure viewers know they are in the right place. The Hibu blog has a great schematic that helps you understand what your web visitors should see when they land on your home page. Make sure you include these elements on your home page. Click over and read about home pages in detail on How to develop an effective home page on your website.
• About page—where you share your uniqueness with the world. What makes you different? Why are your services the best? What inspired you to create your widget? The content on this page should really be more about engaging the potential customer than about you. Confused? Read 3 Core Reasons Why the “About Us” Page Matters on the Psychotactics.com blog.
• Services page—lists what you do, who you work with, and how a visitor can engage with your services. Rather than including a laundry list of everything you could do, focus on your specialty, your niche. What services do customers most commonly come to you to solve…what problems do you best solve…and what do you most love to do?
• Work/Portfolio page—examples of what you do in either a descriptive or visual format. It also might include rave reviews or testimonials to your great work.
• Contact page—A viewer is interested in you; how can they most easily get in touch? If you’re not around a phone much, then use your email address for business. And if you’re never at a computer, list your phone number instead. If you offer free consultations to potential customers, remind people here and describe this service. You could provide links to your professional Facebook page,  your LinkedIn profile, or a Flickr gallery of product images and viewers can learn more about you. Be as thorough as possible on this page and make it easy for potential clients/customers to reach out and connect with you.

There might be dozens of pages you’ll potentially want on your site. Do you want to write and update a blog or news articles regularly? Do you want a gallery of photos?

Do your thinking early and sketch out what these pages might be for your designer. Then, get busy writing them.

You’ll want to write your text with a clear set of goals.

Writing for websites calls for a special kind of writing: clear, concise headlines followed by targeted, shorter paragraphs. You’ll want the reader to be able to skim the page and find the answers they’re looking for without having to spend too much time on the page. In other words, if visitors immediately see they’ll find answers on your website, they’ll stay there. If you make them work too hard, they’ll leave and look somewhere else.

Make sure you consider these points when writing your content:

• Who’s visiting this site?
• What does she want to know?
• What does he want to do?
• How do I want to make this user feel?
• How would I carry on a face-to-face conversation with him?

And if this is all too overwhelming and you aren’t able to generate website content yourself, I can suggest a great writer for the job.

If writing every word on your new website is a daunting task—one that might even prevent you from developing a site altogether—consider hiring writing and/or editing help. Good website writing is a great investment. When done you’ll have great headlines, a useful tagline, a killer professional bio, and effective descriptions of your products and services that can sell. It’ll be easy to transfer web text to a new brochure, your business’ Facebook posts, LinkedIn descriptions, and all other professional promotional venues. Writer Gail Trowbridge shares an office with me and is available to transform your rough or specific ideas into effective, targeted web text.

We usually work on websites together, integrating the writing and the design, and vice versa, to create a site that tells your story.

Your website is only as good as your written content. And the world doesn’t need any more slick and shiny-looking websites that fail to deliver on good content.

By developing a “content first” approach, you won’t underestimate how much time and effort it will take you to prepare good website content…and you won’t stall your new site.