Small Buisness Web Sites

Web development Set Your Objectives

All of the posts on this website are intended for use by business managers and owners of small businesses. The first objective of web development is actually to develop the objectives for your website. What are you trying to accomplish by having a website? Are you providing information to your customers? Is your web site to be interactive? Do you actually complete sales using your website? Can customers contact you through your web site? How often will you need to update this website? Who will keep it current and will you have someone in your company provide this effort or will you contract it out to an IT contractor?

While some of these questions may seem basic, they have a huge impact on the amount of web development that will be undertaken and the overall design. As your company expands and grows so will your website. You may start off with a basic informational website and contact generation website and then later on expand to actually be able to take orders from your customers online.

Finally the answers to your questions will help to determine how large a budget you will need to set aside to support your web development and to also keep it current and up to date.

Define Your Goals for Web Development

Once you have set the objectives for your website, the next step is to set specific goals. These goals should be set in line with the amount of time it will take to develop your website. Factor in the cost of development and your budget. Finally don’t forget to set aside a budget for ongoing support and maintenance. Don’t forget the additional development that you may need from time to time.

An outdated web site can turn customers off. They may just go to another if the information you are providing is not current and up to date.

Web Development

Decide on Degree of Outsourcing for your website. Will you hire resources with the requisite skills in IT and website development? Or will you hire an outsourcing firm to develop your website and maintain and support it over the long-term?

These decisions will depend on the amount of control that you want to have. Web development, budget, and availability of the expertise that you need to maintain your website are factors to consider.

You may also want to have a conversation with someone knowledgeable in the business of developing web sites. Web development can be kept pretty straightforward without a lot of bells and whistles to avoid blowing the budget.

For more on web site design discussions, click here.

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