T he Site Design Process

You can have as much control over this process as you like. After all, it is YOUR site. Never hesitate to make suggestions, offer up ideas, or ask about something.

1.Plan Design
2.Collect Content
3.Structure Content
4.Design Site
5.Design Graphics
6.Promote and Maintain

1. Plan Design

Define the Site

What type of site are you looking for? What is the purpose of your site? To sell, entertain, inform, express… To sell your product, fundraise, or elicit donations? Advertising your company and building name recognition? Advertising your services or products? Gaining new customers? Helping others in some way, like providing useful information? Your site can have many purposes, but there must be one main focus.

Determine Your Audience

Use demographics to determine your target market. Define by age, sex, location, and financial situation. What secondary markets and peripheral markets may you be aiming for? Designing a site with your target market in mind can ensure a better return on your investment.

Set Your Goals

What are your short term goals for your site? What are your long term goals? What services may you want to add in the future?

The Look

Do you have a look in mind? We will work with your established media to incorporate your site into your established visual identity. If you don't have a logo, slogan, or other identifying items then we can work together to create them.

Do you want to convey warmth, community, and wholeness? Order, containment, and solidity? Power, balance, and energy?

Do you have a logo (a graphic that represents your organization)?

Do you have a slogan (A one-sentence phrase that describes your organization or makes people interested in it)?

2. Collect Content/Brainstorm

"Content is king." This is the most important step of the site building process and the results vary widely. Useful content is crucial to designing a good site. People want to know why your work is important.

Most sites will have the same key content pages: About, Contact, Home Page, Services and/or Products, and Links. We need content for all of these pages.

Gather what content you already have from print media, including articles, newsletters, press releases, and interviews. Determine what content you want to use, and what still needs to be obtained.

The web is like water. Keep it circulating and you will get eddies of traffic. Cut off your site with no reciprocal links, and your site will stagnate with no new visitors. We recommend that you do the research for your links page yourself, to get a feel for what your competition is doing on the net and what resources are available to you. You can also note features on other sites that you liked and would like to see on your own. If necessary we will do this research but we can provide you with resources and tips on how to find this information and we strongly suggest someone from your company do it.

Other suggestions for content: events calendar, press releases, and articles from newsletters and other publications. Any past “success stories”? Frequently Asked Questions? What will your visitors want to know? What can your visitors do online to make their dealings with you easier?

3. Structure Content/Prepare Navigation

We will format your content to be web-appropriate. We will arrange your content so that visitors can proceed through your site in a logical manner and easily find information they are looking for.

4. Design Site

We will design your site to be attractive, informative, and easy to navigate. The depth and width of a site are determined by the amount of content provided. Small sites with the bare minimum of content will take less time than a more extensive site.

5. Design Graphics

Your logo, the navigation, and a page set will all be designed to harmonize. Suggestions are encouraged, revisions are expected, and the finished product will be both attractive and appropriate.

6. Promote and Maintain

Once your site meets with your approval we will submit your site to the various search engines, forums, and other promotion media. We will also update your site as you require.

Your part of this step will be providing press releases and content for updates. Never underestimate the power of exposure in local media. Contact your local radio station, newspaper and television station. Ask them to feature you in an interview . Tell them why you are special and worth note.

Always remember to promote your site. Anything that has your street address should have your URL. Anything with your phone number should also have your email address.

Collect email addresses of customers for a mailing list and send out announcements of events and articles.

A Note on Domain Names

Domain names can be registered at any time. Domain names are recommended as an easily recognizable URL and because some search engines are no longer registering sites without one. Therefore it is necessary to have a domain name to be included in these databases, unless you are hosted on Tripod, which gives you a URL like yourname.tripod.com. To determine domain name availability, go to the InterNic site and click on Whois. Enter your first choice for a domain name and you will get a report of its status. It may take several tries to find an available name so have a list ready. Or, you can use the web host Doteasy.com, which offers 20 MB free bannerless space when you register a domain name with them for $25.

You can send us information by email at . We can use files with the extensions .txt, .doc, .gif, .bmp, .gif, .htm, and .html, among others. If you have a file with a different extension let us know and we'll see if we can use it.

You can also send us information by regular mail. Our address is as follows. We will mail back anything you need after we scan it.

NetCastles
Melissa French
PO Box 1308
Milton NH 03851
USA