FIVE STEPS TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL WEB SITE

1) Make A Plan
Successful web sites begin with a well-defined plan, and that plan begins first by understanding your industry, your competitive edge within that industry, and your business goals. So, the whole process begins by asking some questions that will help us:

• understand your industry as well as your audience
• determine the goals you have for your web site
• determine your site's technical needs
• determine an appropriate maintenance plan to keep the site updated

We will then create and send you a Job Description listing the various needs of your web site (as we understand them) for approval. This is an invaluable tool, because it either confirms what we have discussed, or it presents us with changes that are necessary to the plan before we can put it into action. Basically, this step just confirms our understanding of your needs from the start, which can save us a great deal of time later. Once the Job Description is approved, we can formulate a quote, a projected schedule, set up a staging area (where you can view your site without launching it on your future domain), and begin the creative process!

2) Develop The Structure
The next step is to organize the information and imagery that your site will contain and determine its structure (how viewers will navigate through your site). At this point we will:

• Decide a plan for who is supplying the content of your site
(whether it will be us or you or a combination of both of us) and when.
• Develop a site map and navigation
• Create layouts and samples (for complex sites) for your approval

3) Design The Site
Next comes the all-important design phase. The very first thing that a viewer will see when coming to your site is the design, and this will most definitely be one of the things that will make the greatest impression and impact on them. They will either remember you, or they won't. Design is one of the strongest factors in creating a memorable experience for those visiting your web site, so we put a great deal of value in that. Our designs are based on the information you give us during the planning stage, and we include one, two, or three (depending on your request) preliminary layouts of the home page and/or the first level page design. Entire sites are generally developed from the starting point of the home page and first level pages, so once they are approved our designers will have the design elements necessary to give your site a consistent look.

4) Build The Site
Once the structure and design is decided, it's time to start putting it all together. At this stage in the project, it is very important that all content (copy, photos, illustrations, etc.) is ready to use. It is also very important that the content we have obtained is final, as any changes to the content after this point could compromise your deadline and also the budget. After we input the content, we run a series of tests and go through the vital process of "debugging" which insures that everything in the site is running as planned. Once that is finished, we launch your site!

5) Beyond The Launch
The final step is to think about the future, and thinking about the future includes making sure that your wonderful new web site is search engine optimized (SEO) to give you the best possible placement on the search engines' indexing list. Along with registering your site with the search engines, it's at this time that the maintenance plan for your site kicks in. Your site will most likely require some changes as time goes on. During the planning stage, we will have discussed and decided an appropriate maintenance plan for your site (be it weekly, monthly, yearly, or bi-yearly), and this is when we will begin scheduling whatever changes and/or updates are required to keep your site fresh. Search engines tend to favor sites that update their content regularly, so there is good reason to have a sound maintenance plan in place.

These are the steps that we will be taking while working with you on your project. As you can see, there is a great deal involved with creating a successful web site, but don't be overwhelmed! We will be walking you through it step by step, and in the end, you and your company will possess one of the most powerful marketing tools that exits today... a web site that can be accessed by the entire world.