Fundamentals – Website scope

We all know that no project should start without a clear set of goals. The hard part is determining which of these goals are absolutely imperative for a successful first phase of a website, and which ones can be saved for later. It helps to think of your website as an ongoing process. It should continue to grow and evolve to meet the needs of your customers and your employees, but should always remain simple in focus.

Once you relax, and embrace the idea of “phase one” your life will be much easier. Giving yourself permission to think simply will allow you to see what you are really doing. Nobody builds a website because they need a website, they build one to solve a problem. The first step of determining scope is to find some focus.

Fundamentals – Website budgeting

Face it, -with an unlimited timeline, and an unlimited budget, you still won’t have a perfect website. However, it generally follows that a larger budget will buy you a more successful product. It will be difficult for you to determine a reasonable budget for a website if you have never tried before.

If you are fortunate enough to have a budget already established for you, or know how to establish one, you can set about determining how to derive value from the given amount. If you are trying to determine a budget, start with a number you will be unwilling to spend, and work down from there. Always stay conscious of return on investment. When you have an idea where your ceiling is, you can start to think about the scope of the project, and your budget will begin to crystallize.

Fundamentals – SEO: Search Engine Optimization

SEO is one of the most confused issues about websites today. There seems to be a mistaken assumption that search engine optimization can answer all of the questions that marketing usually addresses.

It’s important to realize that inherently, SEO’s purpose is to entice a search engine into ranking a site higher within its’ index based upon certain search terms. The art comes when you try to trick a search engine into ranking you higher than you may deserve.

As in any system, there are loopholes that can be found. Search engines try hard to return legitimate results to their users requests. Even if your company is better than your competitors, -if they spend more effort, time, and money on their website than you, they will nearly always rank higher than you in search engines, -regardless of your SEO efforts.

Fundamentals: Cost of Ownership

There are a few features of your website that will be easy to identify as expenses associated with owning your website. Hosting, payment processing, security certificates, etc. These things all require you to pay with cash out of your pocket. However, there are additional expenses that you should consider when developing a website.

Fundamentals: Hosting

A good developer will hold your hand through choosing a hosting provider. Many developers will have hosting partners, or even maintain their own hosting servers. It’s always nice to have an all in one provider, but it’s even nicer to partner with a specialist. If your developer is running servers as a sideline business, you may consider choosing a company that is a dedicated hosting provider.