Web Design & Development

The First Step is always to pick up the phone or drop us an email and let us know a little bit about your business. We will answer any questions you have, and then guide you through the process from that point onwards.

If you would like to do a little bit of prep before talking to us, then the following tasks aren’t essential, but they might help to get you thinking about your website or some questions to ask us:

• Ask yourself “Why Does My Business Need a Website?” or “How Can a Website Benefit My Business?”
• Research your competitors. Whether they are a physical “Brick & Mortar” business or an online service/sales provider, have a look at their websites.
• If possible look for an opportunity or “Point of Difference”. Maybe your competitors don’t even have a website, and being the first in your industry to get online is going to give you a great competitive advantage. Perhaps there is a way of providing your products or services online that you can think of, that others aren’t yet doing.
• It may not be possible to identify a “Point of Difference”, so the next step is to look at your competitors and identify those who you think are doing things well. When you contact us we will be able to provide additional insights into your competitor’s websites to determine how many visitors they are getting and how people are finding them.

If you engage our services then we will most likely be doing the above anyway. But you know your business better than anyone, and getting your input is invaluable. It is just the beginning, but that little bit of research is an excellent starting point towards us creating a website for you that will get the results you want.

What you need to provide us in order to get your website built will depend on the potential size of the website, the purpose of the site and the budget allocated.

The most important thing for any website is the content that goes onto each page of your site. Content includes written information as well as images, videos and anything else that may be available to view on your website. So one of the first questions we will ask you is “Who Is Providing the Content ?”

Providing the content yourself can save you a considerable sum in the up-front build costs, however, it is going to be time consuming for you and you may not have the skills that a professional copywriter can provide. Copywriting for the web is a specific discipline that not only involves writing information that is engaging and informative, but also will ensure that Search Engines can find the information and begin ranking your site on specific keywords or phrases.

Unbranded Space provides services where we can assist with content development via a Content Strategy. It may be necessary to budget for copywriting and perhaps even the skills of a professional for photo/videography, but sometimes stock images can be used as a cost saver. A Content Strategy will often take the form of a digital marketing campaign, where the cost is spread out over the length of the campaign and the budget is set according to the goals set for the campaign.

Initially, the only thing you need to provide is some of your time. If you can spare 15 Minutes for a phone call, then we can discuss some realistic ball-park estimates. Based on that conversation you will then know exactly what the next step will be. If a Content Strategy is required then we will organise a time to meet and discuss the requirements in more detail.

Web Design & Development are terms that are most often used to broadly describe the two main aspects of building websites.

Web Design is usually associated with the “Look & Feel” of the website. A Web Designer will work with graphics, images, colour and type to produce layouts that effectively communicate information to the user.

Web Development is best thought of as making the Design of the Web Designer a reality as well as implementing the functionality of the website. It can be as simple as creating the interactivity of a website’s main menu, or a contact form, but also more advanced features such as interacting with a database. The functionality of an e-commerce site is a good example, where users can purchase products and have their own customer accounts on the website. The products and customers of such websites are stored in a database. The Web Developer will ensure that the integration of the product & customer database with the website functions as intended in the most optimal way. A web developer may build an application from the ground up, or work with an existing platform such as WordPress.

Both Web Design & Development are broad terms that could be further broken down into more precise roles, depending on the scope of the project and the size of the production team. Web Design might include a Graphic Designer and a User Interface/Experience Designer. A Web Development team will often have a Front-end Developer for implementing the design & simple interactivity and will sometimes work with simple programming languages. For the more advanced functionality, a Back-End Developer is essential. They will almost always work with more advanced programming languages that interact with a database. Not all websites require a Back-End Developer, usually just those needing advanced features & functionality.

Strictly Speaking, Web Design & Development are not terms that define the entire process of creating a website. Marketing Specialists, SEO & Content Strategists, Copywriters and many more roles can be involved and this is usually determined by the scope and size of the websites. Web Agencies may perform these roles internally or outsource these tasks as needed.

There are many factors that will impact the cost of a website for your business. These might include:

• Whether or not copywriting services are required
• Whether or not digital marketing is to be included
• The number of pages
• What specific functionality, beyond displaying written information & images on your website, is required
• … and more

Web Design costs are primarily calculated on the number of hours estimated to build your website and we will need to talk to you before we can provide an estimate.

If you would like to know more before contacting us, then you can read our article titled: “How Much Does a Business Website Cost?“