Episode 13 – Website Build Process

In this episode Ed and Brendan talk about the process for building a website and the several steps involved.

If you’re considering getting online or redeveloping your website this is one to listen to.

Listen to this week’s show and learn:

• the common trap many businesses fall into with the “website redesign loop”
• the discrete 6 step process for building a more effective website

Highlights, Notes and Action Items from this episode:

1. Define the Website Purpose & Target Market

• who is your target market?
• what the is specific purpose your website serves?
• what is the main problem you’re solving for the customer?
• what’s the offer?
• what is the action you want the visitor to take
• what is your USP or unique selling proposition

2. Content writing & sitemap creation

• in most cases using a professional copywriter is better than DIY-ing it as you’re often too close to the business
• the step is often ignored in favour of focussing on design -> bad idea

3. Imagery and photography

• the era of stock photography is over
• make sure people are in your photos
• photos are about feeling, stock photos feel fake, is that how you want people to feel when they visit your website
• stock photos should only be used for “things”, Ed uses dollarphotoclub.com for stock photos
• some excellent examples of different types of website photography: http://www.photographyproject.com.au/portfolio/website-photography/

4. Web design

• this is the step that usually gets the most focus but is actually optional – a predesigned template can be used instead of a custom design where budgets are tight
• a web designer does design and not sales and marketing, don’t be confused about that

5. Web development

• a website developer is a programmer who takes design files created by a designer and turns that into a fully functioning website

6. Online Marketing

• if coming from an existing website, three core SEO considerations you need to make to ensure your traffic and rankings don’t drop:
  • redirect old pages to the relevant page on the new site
  • make sure your Google Analytics is transferred across to the new site so you can properly track performance
  • make sure page titles and meta descriptions are set correctly

Listening options:

Click here to listen on iTunes or click the Play button below to play from your web browser.