Our prospective clients often know they want a website, but don’t have any idea what they want in the site or where they should start. When telling them what to prepare for their initial meeting, we often say to just bring ideas. Often times, they actually need help generating what their ideas actually are.

Here are some quick questions to ask yourself to help bring direction to your ideas for what you want in a website.

• What is the primary purpose of my site, i.e. what is your goal that you hope the website accomplishes? (Remember, this does not necessarily need to be complicated, but you should know what you want to accomplish.)
• What is the most important piece of information I want to convey on my website?
• What are my primary products and services?
• What are my primary branding tools that can be transferred to the web?
• Are there any particular styles of design, or color choices, I prefer?
• What call to action do I want to have in my website?
• Are there any websites, design styles or color choices that I do not like?

You can also bring other marketing materials  (brochures, flyers, business cards, postcards, etc.) to the initial consultation to help illustrate your current branding to the designer, so they have a better idea of how to convey that in your new website design.

Use these questions to get your brain juices flowing and figure out what you want in your website design. The clearer the picture you have, the easier it will be for your designer to accomplish your goals.

A lot of folks crave the ability to self-manage their web site. But, no two content management system applications are equal. When researching software with your web developer, these are some factors to consider:

• You need a CMS software that runs efficiently and won’t bog down the server & site speed.
• You want an administrative interface that is easy for you to use.
• A lot of the nicely coded efficient software have awful looking interfaces.
• A lot of attractively designed systems are incredibly slow and arduous.
• Some software is too new or poorly supported, lacking community resources.
• Some software is widely popular with vast free online resources or paid support options.
• More popular programs often have easy growth options like add-on modules.

When WEBii proposes web site development with a CMS, we take all of these factors into consideration and choose a software or a ground-up custom solution option that best meets the needs of that client.

2009 is proving to be a turning point in the number of small business owners who have asked us about using audio and/or video media in their web sites.  But while awareness of these interactive mediums have grown, it isn’t always advisable to start plastering video and audio files all over your web site. Remember to go back to those standard marketing rules – who is your audience and what do they want?

How large are your files and how will they affect the performance of your site to those visitors? Do they have a fast enough Internet connection?  Will they likely be viewing your site at work when they might need to mute sound from playing?  Is the primary purpose of your web site to entertain, for brand recognition, or for making sales?  Will a video detract from another key call-to-action?

For many businesses, marketing with online videos and audio is a great tool, but it might be better served on a particular web page instead of your home page, or only on third party web sites like blogs, community forums, Google, and YouTube.  SEO and marketing consultants can often make recommendations in this area that are tailored to your campaign.  Ask WEBii about SEO Marketing Services.