Do you own or want to start your own business or organization and have it on the Internet but don't know how or don't have the time?
Do you want a website to get your presence known to the world, but either don't have the time or knowledge? This is normal because over 51% of small businesses in the United States do not have a website. Now you have the chance to be on the other side of the statistic because DigitalPlus Consulting will make your business known to the world. We create business and personal websites as well as hosting them on the Internet. We guarantee that we are the least expensive web designers and hosting providers that you will find.
When potential customers visit your website, you have 30-45 seconds to keep a potential customers’ attention to your site. Essentially you need to make that first Impressions count, in order to keep your potential clients from leaving your site. So partnering with the right Internet marketing firm is paramount. Working with DigitalPlus Consulting for your company’s website development will allow us effectively brand and sell your companies features and benefits. We will use a mix of design, call to action, content and color schemes to make that ever so important first impression. Finally we capture your firms personality in our design so that your customer can "shake your hand" through out designs.
Our Website Design Services
DigitalPlus Consulting is dedicated to bringing you the best when it comes to building your website and providing hosting needs. We build websites and provide hosting with your own privately owned domain name (which are included for free in all of our hosting packages). We build the website either by your vision or using our creative designers, and then if you want hosting, we will take care of it all so you don't have to do a thing. We are The One Stop Tech Shop™ for your website and hosting needs.
Normally, if a business wants a website they are forced to have a designer who doesn’t offer a way to have it hosted on the Internet. We take care of all your needs in one place saving you time and money.
All we need from you is the content and we take care of the rest. We even offer content writing services so all you have to do is give us an idea and write about it.
Why do I need a website?
According to Deloitte Retail & Consumer Spending Survey, 51% of consumers are buying more online in 2011 than 2010 by over 15% based on a survey of over 10,000 participants.
Over 82% of customers and small businesses use search engines first to find information online according to Biz Report. Another statistic illuminated by Webvisible states that 78% of small businesses with website divert 10% or less of their marketing budgets to Internet projects and 61% spend less than three hours a week marketing their website.
Printed marketing has declined due to the new wave of social media and Internet marketing. Over the past two years, 48% of small businesses say they have increased the use of search engines in their marketing efforts. Perhaps as a consequence, their use of traditional media is declining with 23% of small businesses saying they use Yellow Pages less and 42% using local newspapers less.
Benefits of a Website
- Sell more products
- Increase awareness of products & services.
- Reduced distribution cost
- Most cost-efficient way to promote your business
- Harness world wide exposure
- Present unique domain name
- Provide less expensive advertising
- Offer 24 hour a day exposure
- Eliminate delays & printing costs
- No post cost
- Bank more money
- Reduce advertising budget
- Save time and money
- Sell products online
- Expand business
- Promote business
- Harness today's technology
- Become more productive
- Reduce overhead
- Eliminate storefront requirement
- Rub shoulders with the "big guys"
Process
There are numerous steps in the website design and development process. From gathering initial information, to the creation of your website, and finally to maintenance to keep your website up to date and current.
The exact process will vary slightly depending upon your unique website, but the basics are generally the same.
Phase One: Information Gathering
The first step in designing a successful website is to gather information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when the look and feel of your site is created.
This first step is actually the most important one, as it involves a solid understanding of the company it is created for.
It involves a good understanding of you – what your business goals and dreams are, and how the web can be utilized to help you achieve those goals.
It is important that DigitalPlus Consulting starts off by asking a lot of questions to help us understand your business/organization and your needs in a website. Attached to this packet, we have designed a Website Creation Strategy guide to help us understand what you truly want in your website.
Phase Two: Planning
Using the information gathered from the Website Creation Strategy Guide, it is time to put together a plan for your website. This is the point where a site map is developed.
The site map is a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics, if applicable. This serves as a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system. The end-user of the website – aka your customer – must be kept in mind when designing your site. These are, after all, the people who will be learning about your service or buying your product. A good user interface creates an easy to navigate website, and is the basis for this.
During the planning phase, we will also help you decide what technologies should be implemented. Elements such as interactive forms, e-commerce, flash, etc. are discussed when planning your website.
Phase Three: Design
Drawing from the information gathered from the Website Creation Strategy Guide and from the elements in the Sitemap, it’s time to determine the look and feel of your site.
Target audience is one of the key factors taken into consideration. A site aimed at teenagers, for example, will look much different than one meant for a financial institution. As part of the design phase, it is also important to incorporate elements such as the company/organization logo or colors to help strengthen the identity of your company/organization on the website.
If requested, we will create one or more prototype designs for your website. This can be in the form of an image, a drawing, or even an actual website. We offer several options for showing you mocks-ups:
- Secure Website Access
- In Person
- Skype Screen Share
- And potential others upon request
Either way you choose, we allow you to view your project throughout the design and development stages. The most important reason for this is that it gives you the opportunity to express your likes and dislikes on the site design.
In this phase, communication between both you and DigitalPlus Consulting is crucial to ensure that the final website will match your needs and taste. It is important that you work closely with us, exchanging ideas, until you arrive at the final design for your website.
Phase Four: Development
The developmental stage is the point where the website itself is created. At this time, we will take all of the individual graphic elements from the prototype and use them to create the actual, functional site.
This is typically done by first developing the home page, followed by a “shell” for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site, as it contains the main navigational structure for the website. Once the shell has been created, we will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.
Elements such as interactive contact forms, flash animations or e-commerce shopping carts are implemented and made functional during this phase, as well. This entire time, we continue to make your in-progress website available to you for viewing, so that you can suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.
On the technical front, a successful website requires an understanding of front-end web development. This involves writing valid XHTML / CSS code that complies with current web standards, maximizing functionality, as well as accessibility for as large an audience as possible.
Phase Five: Testing & Delivery
At this point, we will attend to the final details and test your website. They will test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, as well last testing for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that your website is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions.
We are well versed in current standards for website design and development. The basic technologies currently used are XHTML and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). As part of testing, we check to be sure that all of the code written for your website validates. Valid code means that your site meets the current web development standards – this is helpful when checking for issues such as cross-browser compatibility as mentioned above.
Once we receive your final approval, then it will be time to deliver the site. An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program is used to upload the website files to your server. DigitalPlus Consulting offers domain name registration and web hosting services as well. Once these accounts have been setup, and your website uploaded to the server, the site should be put through one last run-through. This is just precautionary, to confirm that all files have been uploaded correctly, and that the site continues to be fully functional.
This marks the official launch of your site, as it is now viewable to the public.
Phase Six: Maintenance
The development of your website is not necessarily over, though. One way to bring repeat visitors to your site is to offer new content or products on a regular basis. We will be more than happy to continue working in tandem to update the information on your website. We offer maintenance packages at reduced rates, based on how often you anticipate making changes or additions to your website.
If you prefer to be more hands on, and update your own content, there is something called a CMS (Content Management System) that can be implemented to your website. This is something that would be decided upon during the Planning stage. With a CMS, we will utilize online software to develop a database driven site for you.
A website driven by a CMS gives you the ability to edit the content areas of the website yourself. You are given access to a back-end administrative area, where you can use an online text editor (similar to a mini version of Microsoft Word). You’ll be able to edit existing content this way, or if you are feeling more adventurous, you can even add new pages and content yourself. Some flaws in a CMS is that the text editor can strip formatting which will produce something other than what you originally inserted. This is why it is a good idea to let us provide your maintenance so you have the content look the way you intended.
It’s up to you as far as how comfortable you feel as far as updating your own website. Some people prefer to have all the control so that they can make updates to their own website the minute they decide to do so. Others prefer to hand off the website entirely, as they have enough tasks on-hand that are more important for them to handle directly.
That’s where the help of DigitalPlus Consulting comes in, once again, as we can take over the website maintenance for you – one less thing for you to do is always a good thing in these busy times!
Other maintenance type items include SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SES (Search Engine Submission). This is the optimization of you website with elements such as title, description and keyword tags which help your website achieve higher rankings in the search engines. The previously mentioned code validation is something that plays a vital role in SEO, as well.
Website Planner
After much thought and consideration, you finally took the plunge and decided it was time to have your own website. That’s a great accomplishment in itself. However, now it’s time to actually plan your website. This can be a very tricky process, but don’t worry; we’ve made it easy with this Website Planner Workbook. We will take you step by step by taking your planning to new levels from the beginning to the end. We wrote this planner for you, our clients, because successful websites are built on strategy and planning. Whether you're building a website for your business or your organization, you need to start with a plan. An effective plan starts with quality information, and to get quality information you need the right questions. Use this planner to help nail down your website goals and collect the materials necessary for web development. The more time and effort your organization devotes to this information gathering process, the more likely you are to build an effective, customer-driven, and well-staffed web presence.
Be prepared for a little writing; this is quite a hefty planner. Remember, successful websites are built on strategy and planning.
Download DigitalPlus Consulting's Website Planner Workbook