Site Design for Better Search Engine
Positioning Part VI - Complete Site Design From The Ground Up, A
Professional Perspective Case Study
Many new would be webmasters and website designers wake up on a
daily basis to work and generate a comfortable living with website
design. There are still many more professional design shops that
do the same thing, and make good livings providing their design
services online. Maybe you want to do the same thing? Maybe you
are looking for the answers to make it possible for you to do the
same as they have? Are you looking for the secret that will help
you to accomplish financial freedom and independence in the life
of a website designer or webmaster? Then this updating article might
hold the secrets to the questions you need answered.
I make no guarantees here. This article will give you a detailed
view of website design from the ground up. We will walk you through
the design process from the customer acquisition to the final site
upload. This article starts after the initial negotiation to acquire
professional design services, not before. At this point, the customer
has already been acquired, and services have already been arranged.
The difference on this article; I'm going to give you a step by
step process from the professional designer's side.
By the time this article is completed, you will have walked through
every part of Sanders Consultation Group Plus' professional design
process. I've never seen anything like this on the net. We're going
to make this a "no holds barred", "pull no punches",
"complete disclosure" kind of article. Just think of this
article as the internet's answer to reality TV for webmasters and
website designers.
This article is a case study on SCGP design principles and practices.
We chose a client that has recently contracted with us to provide
them with our website design services. Pegasus Sound Systems is
a mobile DJ entertainment service located in the Pittsburgh PA area.
They are also a new start-up with past DJ experience. They provide
sound system services for bars, nightclubs, wedding receptions,
birthday parties, and just about any other party requiring music
entertainment or PA announcing service ability. Let's get started
on the study.
Initial Client Contact - Negotiating The Service And Outlining
What They Want
We were approached by Pegasus Sound Systems to create a site for
them that will market their services and entertainment abilities.
During the initial contact, we asked them a few questions about
their site, and their expectations. We need to know what a potential
customer wants their site to accomplish. Do they want a simple informative
site that will effectively market their products or services, or
do they want a site that will draw in repeat visitors for other
purposes?
Sites designed to draw back repeat visitors are designed differently
than sites intended for informational purposes only. A site to draw
back repeat visitors will require updating content and maintenance
costs. Beyond the maintenance costs are the content costs. Costs
for content production, copy-writing, editing, additional page creation
and more, are things to keep in mind. Those costs can snowball quickly
if proper decisions and planning are not outlined before hand. Further
considerations for dynamic updating content need to be considered,
along with the drawbacks they propose when dealing with server abilities
and search engines.
Informational sites are designed to do one thing, and one thing
only. They supply the potential customer with information, and might
accomplish potential customer information gathering tasks. They
usually do not update, and once the information is delivered, have
no further function. This kind of site requires a competent designer
to design the site effectively so it accomplishes the desired customer
action. That action could be as simple as gathering potential customer
information for later sales team follow-up, or as complex as motivating
the visitor to make a purchase. This kind of site is a one shot
deal. It both delivers the potential customer information and accomplishes
the desired potential customer action, or it doesn't. People usually
do not return to these types of sites unless they were motivated
to complete the desired action. They only come back after they have
done their window-shopping and settled on the original site as their
provider.
After discussing these facts with Pegasus Sound Systems, they decided
that financial circumstances are going to dictate an informational
type of site for now. They require a main page, contact information
page, individual pages for each of their services, and a professional
resume page outlining their experience. We also suggested that they
use some form pages to gather potential customer information, and
a "refer a friend" page to take advantage of word of mouth
advertising. Because of their information gathering, they will also
need a privacy policy page. They are still evaluating the possibility
of a service price page. They are undecided if they want to provide
that information, or entice potential customers to call them for
that information. We have also established that all copy-write will
be completed by SCGP, and site optimization for search engines will
be an integral part of the site design. Optimization is an integral
part of every site design done by SCGP BTW :o)
The over all site intent will be to deliver relevant information
to potential customers while enticing them to buy Pegasus Sound
System services. The minimal site intent will be to gather potential
customer information to enable a Pegasus Sound Systems sales team
to complete follow up marketing efforts with potential clients who
visited the site. SCGP has some leeway with this. We will design
the site to maximize the over all site intent, but will build secondary
fallback links to catch customers not motivated to complete the
over all site intent requirements.
They also require business logo design. They want a realistic looking
pegasus that can be used for web applications and print media marketing.
They have requested that we also design their business forms, letterhead,
and all other print media marketing for their company including
business cards and brochures. They will eventually use the business
logo for wearables like staff shirts and promotional wearables like
t-shirts and ball caps. SCGP will keep this in mind during the logo
design process. Our graphic artist has been instructed to keep the
image quality high, and resolution high to facilitate logo resizing.
No sense designing multiple images if you can design large and then
shrink it to desired proportions while still maintaining image quality.
This is sizing up to be a big job.
Back
to Table of Contents
The Initial Research (Article Continues)
Related E-Book Downloads
By James R. Sanders
February 9, 2004
If you have any suggestions to add to this article,
or have ideas for articles you would like to read, please feel free to contact
us and let us know. You can also feel free to contact us about questions you
might have when it comes to practical webmaster or website design issues in
today's online market. We welcome constructive criticism and want to know what
our visitors think of our site and services. You can either contact
us here, or click the contact link at the bottom of the page. Thanks in
advance, and we look forward to hearing from you.
About the Author
James R. Sanders is the owner of Sanders
Consultation Group Plus. He has been a webmaster and website designer since
1997. He has also been involved in self employment ventures since 1992. He is
presently a contributing author of NewbieHangout,
and has been published through WebProNews
and 4Rankings.com.
His writing is targeted to webmasters, would be webmasters, website designers,
would be website designers, self employed, or those researching information
looking for solutions to questions associated with design, business operations,
and promotion today. His goal is to provide practical information based upon
his years of experience to help webmasters, website designers, and self employed
people achieve their goals in today's competitive global market. You can subscribe
to his free newsletters at SCGP
- Newsletter and become a member of the SCGP Portal. If you like SCGP content
and would like to use it on your site, then check out our content
agreement and terms of use. Use our articles on your site without the hassles
of writing your own content. Get back to the things you could use your time
better for, like site promotion.
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This page last updated:
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 11:14 AM
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