How to get the best value for money when developing your website

Everyone who is anyone has a website.  Indeed, if your business does not have its own website, it is something of an embarrassment these days.  So, what's the best way to get a slick website that is an asset to your business without wasting a whole lot of time and money?

My number one tip is to know what you want. You probably think you already do, but it is almost certain that--no matter how detailed your vision is, it embodies uncertainties that will cost you serious time and money to get sorted--unless you do it yourself now.  To begin with, write down a one paragraph description of your business, and a one paragraph description of the purpose of the website.  Think about, and note down, who you want visiting your site, and what you want their experience to be.  This is a really great start, after which, you can start to think about, and write down, what pages you want, and what content you want on each page.  As you do this, keep referring back to your paragraphs about the purpose of the website, and the experience of site users, and ensure the content of the pages reflects these ideals.

It can also be invaluable to build-up a list of significant web sites.  This is a list of websites that are important either because they are relevant to your business (for example, competitors websites) or because of style/content/design considerations.  Your list should clearly indicate what you like and don't like about each site. 

Before you get deeply into this, I'll tell you what you want.  You want a site that gives visitors a particular experience (such as a tour of your products).  You want your visitors to have a good experience.  You want the experience to be focused, not to frustrate or distract.  You want each visitor to be taken on a short and enjoyable journey directly to the product you have, which is of interest to them.  You want the product to be presented in its best light, to appear desirable, and you want it to be just as easy as pie for the visitor to order the product. 

Now, I'll tell you what you don't want.  You don't want to distract your visitor with irrelevant information, or confuse them with complex navigation menus.  Perhaps most importantly, you don't want to waste their time.

Fantastic!  Now, believe it or not, you are practically a website design guru.  The next step is perhaps the most difficult one however.  You have a range of choices, from developing the website yourself with the aid of some software package or other (there are a great many available now days), right the way through to commissioning a web developer to build the site for you. 

If you decide to take on the challenge of putting the site together yourself, you will most likely end-up deciding to call in the professionals, but not before sinking, without trace, a huge amount of your own time into the project.

If you decide to commission a web developer, you will find yourself suddenly adrift in a vast sea of unknown outcomes, unforeseen complications  and unexpected costs.  This sea is crawling with pirates.  It is precisely the place where you are quite likely to be taken for large sums of money.

I strongly advocate talking a middle path: commission a low cost web developer who specializes in templated web development, such as magic business cards.  By using templates, limiting the custom work required, the developer simplifies their job hugely.  Another advantage is that, because you can view the templates, you get a good idea of what your site will look like from the very beginning.  This is good for both you and the developer because it eliminates a lot of the uncertainly in the project.

Because the whole cost framework is scaled down when templated web development is used, cost overruns tend to be on a similarly smaller scale compared to standard web development.  Finally, because you are employing a web professional, certain things--that would be either impossible or at least exceedingly complex for you to achieve on your own--become possible and easy.  A win-win situation.