How to get your business website in a few easy steps
When you order a website from Web Design Specialist there are three (or possibly four) main stages involved. All of them fast. All of them easy (for you anyway !)
STEP 0: Once you have filled in the inquiry form and we have spoken and established what it is you require I will send you an invoice. a 50% deposit is required before starting
STEP 1: Set Up: First I start with an established, well tested and reliable content management software ( or CMS ) called Website baker. This application forms the backbone of your site - this is what allows you to log in and edit the site. This is uploaded onto a specially created server space, which is mapped to your domain name for you. You don't need to worry too much about this - I do it all.
STEP 2: Design: Now I will have an idea by this time of what you require. Unless I am creating a unique custom design for you, I will ask you to send your header graphic and/ or logo to me. Typically we will be working with either a horizontal menu (with drop down menu boxes), a left hand nav column or a right hand nav column. As illustrated by the diagram below.
Note: Site can be a fixed width - typically 980px wide. This means people with larger monitors or higher
resolution settings will see a background behind the site, which will be centered in their screen
Or it can be fluid width - which means site expands to fit full width of the monitor. Whilst this sounds better it can cause some issues with the header graphic and content layout position. Particularly with sites that have a lot of graphics and images in their content area. We will discuss which option is best for you.If you'd like to see a demo of what the admin area looks like then there is one set up here: admin demo. The username is admin , passsword demo 123.
Note this area is a demo site only and is reset every 2 hours.
Colours, fonts and exact layout will be modified to suit what you are looking for. I may present you with a few possible designs to pick from. Don't be put off by the apparent simplicity of this design. Simple is good ( it means easy to navigate) and the majority of successful websites adhere to this structure anyway. By the time I add in your graphics, set up the colours schemes and finalise the menu style your site will look unique and professional. Have a look at the portfolio to see what I mean.
STEP 3: Finalised and hand-over: Once we have it all looking to your satisfaction then that is my web design part complete. I now hand it over to you ready for you to add in the text and images that belong in the content area. As you do this and create new pages in the admin area they area automatically added to the nav menu. At this stage balance of payment is required. ( Your site will have an under-construction cover page in place which you can remove when you have added the desired content. )
STEP 4: OPTIONAL Content Added: You can chose to do this yourself or allow me to do it. If you have chosen for me to do it, then hand-over is delayed whilst I populate your site content for you. This means creation of menu, pages, optimising and putting in images, setting up forms etc. I will structure it in a search engine friendly fashion so the site gets as high a ranking as possible as early as possible. All you need to do is supply me with the content in a word document and whatever images you want included. Once this is done to your satisfaction, balance of payment is due and site is handed over, live and ready for visitors.
If you have chosen this optional extra your site will also be submitted to the various search engines for indexing and listing.
Note: No further web design maintenance or hosting fees would then be due for 12 months. After which it is typically $150/year.
If you a haven't done step 0 yet then you should return to the business websites page, scroll to the bottom of the page and fill in the form. Or give me a call on (Melbourne) 03 9005 0943 / 0409 148 366 to discuss what you require.