Before We Can Build Your Website
In today’s digital world, your online presence is more important than ever. Having a fully-functional, professional website can make a huge difference between an average business and a highly successful one. We know creating a website can be daunting, but here at Wheelhouse Creative we take the guesswork out for you. Let us handle all the nitty-gritty details and we’ll walk you through the process step-by-step.
In order to streamline things, there’s a lot of ground work, or homework, that needs to be done. This preparation ensures you understand your goals and that we have all of the things we need in order to start designing your website.
Items we need from you:
Domain & Hosting
Your domain is the URL or address that people will use to access your website. For example, the domain for Wheelhouse Creative is www.wheelhousecreativellc.com. You will also need a hosting service, which is where your website will be housed online. If you aren’t sure where to start, no problem. We can help you acquire a domain and a hosting service for your website. If you already have both of these – great! We will simply need access to them so that we can link them to your new site.
Purpose
Having a clear idea about who you are and what you do as a business is important for the success of your website. Is your goal to educate, to promote services, to sell products, to produce leads, to recruit? It’s crucial you understand your purpose before you start a website. If you don’t, your website won’t help you reach your goals and you’ll waste a lot of time and resources figuring out why.
Branding
When it comes to branding, consistency is key. Having your company’s logos, colors, and fonts allows us to style your website so it is consistent with your branding across all platforms. This ensures your viewers recognize that your website belongs to your company.
Site Inspiration
What websites have you visited that you liked? What really stood out to you? Was is the layout, the use of color, the functionality? We obviously don’t want to copy your favorite sites exactly, but knowing what you like or dislike about certain sites really helps us understand what you want in a final product. We recommend giving at least 3 sites as inspiration and indicating what you like and dislike about them. Be specific! Simply saying “I just like it” doesn’t help us understand what attributes we should apply to your website.
Navigation
Consider your navigation to be your website blueprint. It adds structure and gives us a plan to follow when building your website. What information will be most prominent and what can be a little more hidden? Navigation is crucial because you want your viewers to easily find information on your website. It also helps guide your audience to content you want them to see first, second, and so on. Navigation is traditionally located at the top of most websites, in a bar with links listed side-by-side, in a dropdown menu, or a combination of the two.
Content
If your navigation is the blueprint, then your content is the materials you need to build the house. Content makes up the body of your website — your text, images, videos, etc. Your content will influence how your layout will look and how many pages your site will ultimately have. It’s important to have a rough draft of your content ready before building.
Functionality
What are your expectations when it comes to functionality? Do you want online forms, image galleries, image sliders, an ecommerce shop, social media feeds, a blog? We need to know all of this before we can start because it allows us to properly understand the scope of work and how long it may take to complete your website. Functionality also plays a huge roll in how the final product will look. It’s much easier to know what functionality you expect so we can build it in from the start, rather than incorporating it later to find it doesn’t work the way you expected.
We at Wheelhouse specialize in website design and development and can help you with all things web – from planning, design and development to securing domains and hosting services. We can also help you with site animations, custom site programming, site launch, and website maintenance. Let us help you build your online presence by building a professional website for your business. Visit www.wheelhousecreativellc.com to learn more.
