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	Before You Start, Own Your Domain Name It is critical that you own your domain name (www.YourOrganization.com) and your website hosting so you can change website designers or hosting easily. Many website designers are resellers of domain names and hosting and collect a fee for each domain name/hosting account that is renewed every year. The majority of organizations that contact me for a redesign do not own their domain name—their old website design firm has it bundled with other domain names. What you can do: If you are purchasing a domain name for the first time, you can purchase it at a reputable site like GoDaddy.com (or any national registrar). You don’t need all the extras they try to sell you. Make sure you have a permanent reliable email address to register the name with because you will get yearly notices. If your current website designer owns or controls your domain name, you can initiate a transfer of the domain name to GoDaddy.com and use your own permanent email address for the Admin email. The email address for the Admin email is the person who will control the domain name. There are several steps in this process and it can be blocked by whoever controls the Admin email address. Sometimes you can work with your current website designer and continue to host with them for a while in return for transfer of your domain name to a new registrar. Overview Website design is an unregulated business. Anyone can set up shop and call themselves a web designer. That means that you are at risk for getting a website that is not professional, does not meet your expectations or long term needs. Often these sites are template sites or auto generated from software. Rather than choosing a web design firm based on sales pitch and price alone—we recommend selecting a web designer based on the quality of their work. Look for a firm that has built at least 20 professional sites. Ask if they built the whole website or just part of the site (graphics or technology). Check the websites to see if they look professional (compare with examples on our portfolio page »). Can you find information and complete tasks on the sites quickly and easily? Are the sites user-friendly and do they reflect what is unique about each business, their marketing message? Check the website designer’s company site to see if they list personnel names and stand behind their work or if they are anonymous. Do they list credentials on their about page? Be wary of websites that use a lot of Flash—Flash is not being used as much because it can interfere with the search engines finding your website it takes too long to load and visitors don’t want to wait it is not user friendly it distracts visitors from reading the page text and finding information Flash should be used only sparingly and for a reason e.g. a product slideshow. John Alexander Cautions Search engine expert John Alexander cautions about individuals or companies that do not offer good value for the money. They may have excellent "marketing" skills in terms of writing a convincing pitch or have a great story to tell but they are mostly thinking about how much money they think they can make. read article » Team Approach with a Variety of Skillsets Many small website development firms are founded by either a programmer with technical skills, an advertiser with marketing skills, or a graphic artist with artistic skills. A well built website requires a team approach with technical, artistic, and marketing skills in addition to expertise in the organization of information, content, search engine strategy, user friendly layout and navigation, and required accessibility. Template or Custom Site? You will need to decide whether you want a template site which is typically less expensive or a custom site that incorporates your exact needs and provides more flexibility over the long term. There are many free or low cost templates on the web. Ask the firm if they use templates in their sites (it may not be easy to find out). A custom website has high quality custom graphics developed specifically for your organization with quality hand written code. A template site may be an option for you if you are going to stay with the same website design firm for a long time; typically it requires a complete redesign if you move a site from templates to a more flexible HTML site the company passes along the lower cost of using a template to you your content consists of simple paragraphs that do not need layout or formatting you want a content management system CMS which enables you to update simple paragraph text you don’t plan on adding new kinds of content (videos etc) A custom built site is a better option if you want a flexible site that can be changed as your needs change over time or to incorporate new web technology you have complicated content that you want to have more control over 3 examples of different content layouts on one website content with product categories » complex content with descriptions, images, sketches, tables, and CAD files » content with product images » you have content that needs to be formatted for easy scanning—the way people read on the web you want to be able to change the layout of pages (moving images, text, videos, podcasts) you want to have the option of updating parts of the "look and feel" of your website you need quality To Update Your Own Site (CMS) or Not (HTML)? Blogging, Facebook, and Twitter have enabled users to update their own content (text and images) easily. Those websites actually have complex software, CMS content management systems, that work in the back end making everything look easy and seamless. It has taken them years to perfect their software. There are plenty of cheap CMS template websites that offer easy updates. However, typically it is difficult to make any changes other than very simple text changes and frequently they do not look professional (one person said a "coloring book" would be better than their template site). A poorly designed website can hurt your business and your credibility on the web. It is possible to have custom CMS on a custom website—we build an app for you. The benefit of custom software is that you get exactly what you want. One example of a small CMS is this list of doctors page with each doctor linking to their own profile page ». Should you update your own content using a CMS or should you have an experienced web professional/website editor update your site? It depends on your needs. A CMS site might be a good option if you plan to use the same website company for many years you don’t need flexiblity on your site your content is just plain paragraphs of text and you don’t need it formatted to be user friendly the cost of the CMS site is not much more than the HTML site you have a large shopping cart or you need a powerful CMS and you want to use free Drupal, Joomla, WordPress or Ruby on Rails CMS An HTML website updated by an experienced content professional is your best option if you want total control to be able to change website designers, hosting companies etc. you need a flexible website that changes as your organization changes you need professional content that follows information architecture standards, is prioritized, and formatted for visitors to scan easily you want to be able to add new kinds of media as technology changes e.g. video, podcasts, whatever the future holds you have a limited budget and it is less expensive to pay for maintenance by the hour than to build a complex CMS website One last note, Oprah recently redesigned her website—her new site consists of HTML pages which allow her the most flexibility for future changes and content layout and updates. What is the Development Process? document website requirements develop art or graphics; revisions to artwork; sign off by client on artwork organize content develop intuitive navigation that follows content; sign off by client build first HTML page; test the page on several browsers, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari if project includes a database, build and test the database; build dynamic pages; sign off by client prioritize content; insert content, following web standards testing; review and sign off by client launch website update your content to keep your visitors coming back Website Maintenance Avoid maintenance plans of $XXX/month. You will get more value by paying someone hourly to update your site.