Web Design – How do we create a website for a client?
Introduction
At G Web Design, we design many different types of websites. For simplicity we divide it into 5 simple categories, which is most common.
- Basic Web Design – 3 pages
- Standard Web Design – 5 pages
- Core Web Design – 10 pages
- E-Commerce Web Design
- Custom Web Design
In this post we will delve in a little bit deeper so that it is a little easier to decide and know which type of website would fit your requirements best. As a standard practice we offer a free .co.za domain and hosting for a year. Customers don’t have to host with us, but we do offer the full package in case they need it. For the sake of clarity I will be attaching a keyword list at the end of this post to make sure there are no misunderstandings.
So, let’s dig into it, we will be covering:
- General process & requirements
- Research
- Timelines
- Training
- Support
General Process
The first thing is to understand what a customer wants from their website. This requires us to understand what they do and who their target market is. Also have all the details of their products and services as this will elaborate more on what they do. We supply clients with a broad guideline of what we require, but each business is different and it is important to have the “Business Discussion” with them as the client will quickly let you know what they are looking for. The guidelines also contain basic information to give us so it is not overlooked. Things like, business hours, social media links, business address, etc…
It may be a basic website, if they only want to be able to receive enquiries and have a web presence. It could also be a complex design inline with their business model, so this step is critical to be on the right path in the web design process. We will go a bit deeper in the types of websites and give some examples of what a basic website will have versus what a complex website will have.
Research
Once we have the information above, we can then start doing some research on the customer’s industry and start looking at who the competition is and of course, what their websites look like and how they present their information. This information is key and you can take both good and bad from it and use it to be able to create a website that will be both appealing to the customers target market and that the customer will be happy with.
Above all the website must be functional and easy to navigate and pass on the information that the customer wants their market to see. The reason this is more important than the actual look of the website is because a beautiful website with no information or value means very little. The balance we always look to is to have a beautiful, functional, informative and value giving website.
We then go through the web design process and design it based on the information given by the customer. Once it is completed we present it to the customer for their opinion and feedback, then we make any changes that are required.
Timelines
Depending on the type of website the timelines can vary quite a bit. Anything from 5 business days to 2 months or more. It depends on the complexity and also if the customer adds to their initial web design requirements.
A 3 page basic website design could take between 3 – 5 business days depending on the customer’s requirements and on the urgency of the request. We try as far as possible to accommodate all customers.
A complex website design with added functions and features could easily take 6 – 8 weeks to complete again, it all depends on the customer’s requirements. In longer term projects we may also share a link with the customer to have a look at what has been done so far. This serves two purposes, firstly to see that we are on the right track and secondly the client has a sense of where we are with the project.
To summarize, requirement plus additional requirements equals the final timeline or R + AR = T.
Training
We also offer training to customers on how to use their website. Training will include general web design changes like updating text and images. In the case of an e-commerce website it will include things like adding products, changing prices, adding specials, looking at reports, managing customers and orders, etc…
This part is very important, especially in the case of a dynamic functional website design where frequent changes will be required as part of the operation of the website. Training is generally done over Zoom as it is very practical to follow along and you can record the session for future reference.
Support
We also offer post training and website design support to all customers. We offer a free period, then afterward will charge depending on the customer’s request. So, it does not matter if we have completed your website, we are still available to assist you with any future requirements.
Customers contact us months or even years after projects are completed to upgrade their existing websites.
5 Categories of web design projects
Basic Web Design
Our basic web design package offers 3 pages. The home page, services page and contact page. Your home page will showcase your entire business and is your introduction to all visitors, it covers everything in a nutshell. A beautiful functional nutshell, that is. The services page will focus on your services with more details. Finally the contact page will allow your customer to contact you directly from the website through a contact form. It will also have links to your social media, give your business address, all contact details and business hours.
We make sure that customers can also contact you from any page, not only your contact page. Some customers like to be contacted via WhatsApp, we can also include popup contact forms, so that it is always easier for the customer to make contact with you, so functionality is a key component. Basic only refers to the complexity, it is by no means a basic website
Standard Web Design
Our standard web design package offers 5 pages. The home page, about us page, services page, gallery page and contact page.
This package is like the 3 page but also adds an extra dynamic to your website design. You have an about us page, which gives more details about the origins of the business and can showcase the business owner and even important staff. This gives the website a more personal feel. The gallery page allows you to have lots of images related to your business and projects, giving your potential customers even more insight visually about what you do.
Core Web Design
Our core web design package offers 10 pages. This package is for bigger small business and medium business clients that require more. The 5 pages may not be enough to get their message across and they require more pages.
This allows a customer to have things like a page dedicated to only 1 service only. Instead of having all services on 1 page. It is not only limited to this and will depend on the customer requirements.
The benefit of having more pages means that more pages are indexed by Google and the chances of being found increases.
E-Commerce Web Design
This type of website allows customers to buy your products and services directly from your website. This means you could get paid while you are sleeping. In a lot of cases, customers actually expect you to have an option for them to buy directly from your website.
This also opens you up to other markets where people from different countries can purchase your products or services.
We divide our e-commerce web design packages into 3 categories like our website packages:
- E-Commerce Basic – up to 200 preloaded products
- E-Commerce Standard – up to 500 preloaded products
- E-Commerce Core – up to 500+ preloaded products
All these packages are similar, the main difference is products that we preload for you.
Custom Web Design
Custom web design is exactly that, we tailor the website to your exact requirement as needed in your business.
Examples of this are things like an online learning system where you offer courses and people pay for them online. It is an e-commerce website but with so much more.
Another example can be websites that offer entries to competitions. Where there are judges that need to evaluate entries, provide scores and decide who moves on to the next stage.
Imagine you run a website that is based on membership, you need to be able to manage all the users and their privileges.
The function of your website is only limited to your imagination, the possibilities are endless.
Conclusion
Thank you for reading our onboarding process and a little about our services. Please feel free to contact us via phone, email or whatsapp. We are waiting to answer all of your questions you may have.
Regards,
Graham
Keyword List
| Domain | It’s the name used to easily access your website like “gwebdesign.co.za” also referred to as a domain name. Your domain name is unique across the internet. |
| Hosting | A service that stores and provides resources (computing power) to your business for your website. It’s stores your files on a physical infrastructure, that is secure and normally offers 99.9% availability to keep your website available to your customers anytime of day and night |
