I have been developing sites for SMBs for over 17 years. I am very fortunate to be able to incorporate my business experiences into my website builds. This has given me a significant advantage in the level of service that I can provide my clients. One client’s business model approach will be different from another, even if it is based on the same service and industry type.
UNDERSTANDING THE BUSINESS MODEL:
The first step in building a viable website is to understand and properly define the client’s business model. Questions need to be asked to determine the client’s vision to implement the business and development plan best. This phase is mission-critical because web development requires a solid plan and a clear direction to work. While you’re deciding on the new path for your site, think about the following:
- – What is your main objective for furthering your site’s development?
- – Who is your ideal audience?
- – What type of content does your audience need?
- – What is the ideal site organization to meet your audience’s needs?
- – What are the technical requirements of any new upgrades?
- – Does your site need to meet certain compliance standards?
- – What should your site’s design look like?
- – How can you measure the success of the redesign or redevelopment?
- – What is presently working well on your site? What isn’t?
DETERMINING THE BUDGET:
I can deliver a final product based on the number of hours I put into the project. The budget will determine the effort and time that can be allotted in the evaluation, creation, and marketing of a website. I try to find the best possible solution based on the clients’ needs, factor in the budget, then make my recommendations accordingly.
A large chunk of a user’s judgment of a website depends on the design and how it was developed to be as useful and relevant as possible. The costs of web development and web design typically include the following:
- Refreshing important visual elements on your site, including your existing visual resources like your site’s color palette, typography, graphic sets, etc.
- Developing and improving your site’s current theme and the associated stylesheets, as well as the many page templates used across the online real estate. Systems like WordPress and Squarespace can be vastly improved by the right web designer and web developer to make a huge impact on people when they open the link.
- Integrating the best practices in search engine optimization (SEO), like employing a schema for structured data, improving visibility with the correct use of targeted keywords, optimizing your site’s meta information, and creating a powerful yet friendly interface that works 100% on mobile. If your site looks lopsided on mobile, it has to be adjusted ASAP because most web traffic now comes from mobile devices. The era where laptops and PCs dominated web traffic is far behind us now.
- Web development also tackles security standards and installing the right plugins and then configuring them afterward.
- Don’t forget today’s accessibility standards for visually impaired individuals. Greater accessibility features mean better SEO, and if you hit the optimization goldmine, your site would be surfaced more by all search engines, not just Google.
- Another essential step is optimizing how different browsers render your site. It is possible to arrive at a fairly consistent look for your site across regular browsers, mobile browsers, and app mini browsers.
- And finally, your site has to function perfectly on mobile devices while looking good. This is non-negotiable for obvious reasons.
RECOMMENDING THE TECHNOLOGIES USED:
Once I understand the business model and the budget has been defined, I can make my recommendations based on the best technology that matches both. There is no such thing as a “one size fits all” model. Each client will have different needs based on backgrounds and levels of experience.
My job is to ensure that the client’s site works optimally, so it performs as designed and meets the business model’s requirements. Creating a site that is both engaging and aesthetically pleasing is one of the main goals. Various web technologies come together with each project, giving shape to desirable site architecture and effective UX planning.
There are always new technologies being developed for web businesses. These new technologies are made to make the web more convenient and more open. Accessibility is a huge factor on the web, in more ways than one. How are you thinking about your site nowadays? What direction are you interested in going?
I bring my years of wisdom and experience into the planning and execution of your site’s design and development. Hence, it becomes robust, and it gains the longevity needed to be competitive in trying times. We live in the time of the Internet of Things, and everything is being transformed digitally.
How you plan and execute your site build now will influence your business’s path for the next three to five years. How mobile-ready is your site? Are you ready for an entirely new generation of web users who are curious, smart, and always online?
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE:
Building a website is no different from planning out a physical structure for a “brick and mortar” location. How the business owner or client sees the business evolving over the next 3, 5, to 10 years is important in determining the best planning strategy during the initial development phase.
I believe my multi-faceted approach to development has served to the benefit of my client’s needs. Understanding the business model is always the first step in web development. This determines the design and technologies used as well as the building process in general. The first step in this process is listening to the client’s needs in order to put forth a recommendation that will suit their needs. This is what differentiates a “coder” from a web business marketing consultant.
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