Whattoconsiderbeforemakingawebsite?

Do you want to launch your website or redesign your site?

Before choosing a web agency, to entrust it with the design and development of your showcase site, institutional site or e-commerce site, you must ask yourself a few preliminary questions.

Here are some questions that we advise you to think about and which will allow you to clearly define your expectations and help your service provider to understand your needs in order to respond to them adequately =)

This is perhaps the most important question you can ask yourself: why do you want to launch your website?

Will the future website help you generate sales? To retain your current customers or provide them with support? To publicize your services?

Take the time to clearly define the reasons for which you want to create your website.

From there, you will be able to direct your overall strategy (communication, business, marketing, etc.), but also set up the objectives you wish to achieve.

There are a multitude of types of websites, the main types of which are as follows:

1. showcase site or institutional site: these are sites presenting the products or services of an organization. Most of the time, these sites do not allow you to buy directly from the site.

2. e-commerce site: these are sites that allow you to sell your products or services directly on the Internet

3. functional sites / web apps: these are sites that allow direct use of a service and provide a concrete service to the visitor. This is the case, for example, of social networking sites, consultation and creation of job offers, etc.

4. intranet: these sites allow their users to work together, share information in a private space... these are often sites with restricted access and whose users are company employees

5. blog: these are sites that provide articles for their visitors

6. wiki: these sites are mainly used to aggregate knowledge in an open and collaborative way (example: Wikipedia)

It will be necessary to choose the most suitable type of site according to the needs of your target users and the functionalities they expect!

It is important to think about the tree structure of your website, for this you can schematize the course (even on a simple sheet of paper) by projecting yourself in the place of your target user.

This tree must be logical because it will represent the main pillars of your website.

A clear and simple tree structure will be appreciated by your visitors and it is possible to have a successful website in a few pages, or even to start with a simple "one page website" or "onepager".

The address of your website is very important, because it is what you will communicate to the people invited to visit your site.

It is therefore necessary to choose one (or several with redirections) relevant domain name as well as a good extension (.fr, .com, .studio, .jobs, .paris...)!

Think of :

1. choose an appropriate domain name, which really corresponds to your business, or which is directly related to the keywords typed by your target visitors

2. reserve other strategic domains (for example .fr AND .com)

3. reserve the domain name quickly so as not to risk losing it;)

Anticipate the costs related to the chosen domain name (for example .paris generally cost more than a "classic" .fr)

There are many ways to make a website, and an agency or a web developer will not work the same way depending on your needs, especially if the content of the site is not to move fluently.

If the content of a site is not likely to evolve frequently, one can, for example, save working time (and potentially money) by developing a tailor-made website, but without making it more dynamic, i.e. that is, without linking its content to a CMS.

An economical solution may be to use a CMS like Wordpress offering website themes, which makes it easy to modify the content of the site, or even to completely change the theme a posteriori if desired (while keeping the existing content ).

If the design of your site must be personalized using your graphic identity with your codes and the logo created for you, it is possible to use themes or website templates and then adapt them to your image.

A custom design will create a 100% customizable site, but will be more expensive than a simple theme adaptation.

To inspire you, do not hesitate to list the designs of sites (competitors or not) that you like, those where you like browsing, those with the best user experience, those with the craziest designs...

Design is something personal (tastes and colors...), so it will be useful to have this type of list to better guide the designer or the web agency that will accompany you in the creation of the design of your site. Internet.

Remember to put the user at the center of your thinking, it is sometimes better not to reinvent the wheel with a design and an "already seen" but effective user experience, rather than a "unique" experience with "unusual navigation". common" which risks losing the visitor.

If you do not know how to develop, you can hire a professional to create your website.

Prices may vary depending on:

1. the type of site you need: for example, creating a webapp is generally much more expensive than creating a showcase site

2. the type of technology used: custom-developed site, via a CMS, via a SaaS, etc.

3. design: tailor-made or via the configuration of a theme or template

4. the number of languages available on the site

5. any connections to third-party services (Stripe, Google Maps, Hubspot, etc.)

6. experience, support (only development? design? SEO?) or the location of the service provider who supports you

A website is usually the main representation of your brand or business online, so it's better to think of it as an investment than an expense.

Need help choosing the service provider who will create the site of your dreams? Read our article "10 key points for choosing the right web agency" or contact us directly at partners@blacksmith.studio ;)