Having a good website is one thing, but managing it moving forward needs careful planning and consideration. As we all are aware, a website should never stand still. New content is always good to share, especially as you learn more and grow within your business. Blogging is now accepted as one of the best ways to grow your business, and share knowledge and experience online, which is one of the reasons we have adopted WordPress as the platform of choice for all our websites.
Blogging enables you to build online relationships and reach out to potential customers. But offline relationships are just as important. Most of the work when building a website is offline, so it is important to work with someone that you can not only trust, but who has expert knowledge in web design and all the aspects that go with it.
So when you choose a web designer, look at their expertise, portfolio and history to see how they can help your business grow, and how they can help with your online marketing:
1. They know your web platform – inside out. At the initial discussions of your website build, discussions will have taken place as to which platform your website will be best placed in. If the decision is to use open source, ie: WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc, then it would make sense that your web designer will have expert knowledge of this platform, and all the skills they require in order to build a successful website.
Some clients will know which platform they want to use, in which case it’s paramount that you find a designer specialist within that field. After all, you wouldn’t buy a mansion from a high street estate agent, would you?
2. Continuity. If you are using WordPress, for example, to build your website in, then more than likely you will require changes in the future which may affect the CSS and whole look of the site. Every web designer will have their own style, so to switch part way through means that part of the website might look quite different from the rest.
3. Add-ons. It may be that after the original site has been built, you may think about wanting to add more interactive pages to the site. An expert would be able to advise on best practice to make these changes, that would work with with the existing site. This is also important for Brand continuity.
4. Knowledge of your business. Throughout the whole design and build process, the web designer will have gauged a fair idea about marketing and its importance within your business. This is crucial knowledge that enables us to get your website right, to get your marketing right, to support your whole marketing strategy.
5. SEO. Search engine optimisation is not just about key words, it’s about a combination of many, many different aspects, including website structure. It’s important that this is understood clearly from the start of the build, so that the structure of the website is set with maximum opportunity from the start. There are many web designers who don’t necessarily understand SEO or how it works, or they might outsource to an SEO specialist. It is better to address the SEO at the outset, rather than subsequently as an after thought.
6. Trust, Expertise and Respect. Fundamentally, the relationship between the web designer and client is one to look after and nurture. The web designer can help and support in so many aspects of online marketing, that building and working on this relationship is crucial to the development of the business.
Find someone you trust, who is an expert in their field, and who can work with you to build your online marketing. We are living in the digital age where pretty much everyone is online at some point, so these relationships can be very powerful.
If you’re an expert in WordPress, get in touch.
