For many people, this is one of the first questions they ask. When can we go live? And this question is usually asked by people who want their website to be live tomorrow, or next week at the latest. It's not about the go live date, it's about your business. You can try to answer the following questions: How long did it take to build your business? How long did it take to get the customer base you have? How long did it take to get a decent bank account sorted? How long for your letterheads, business cards and so on? Rome wasn't built in a day: neither should your website. Think twice about website designers who promise to have a website built within a matter of days and who have a go-live date within a week. Depending on your products and services, for some - if not most - of your clients, your website is the first thing they see when they find out about your business. Having your website designed, developed, and taken live within a matter of days - it will probably show! And it will turn away your potential clients - FOREVER! Cheap websites will look cheap. A 25 template website will look like a 25 template website. If that is what you want your customers to see, if that is what you want your first impression to be - fine. There are numerous website designers out there who will give you just that. A cheap and quick job. They don't care if your website is listed in the major search engines, they don't care if the template they have chosen is legal according to the Disability Discrimination Act. They are not interested if the information on your website can be accessed quickly and in a logical way. A cheap website will not do your business any good. If you buy a cheap website just for the sake of it, the website designer will probably not have advised you on the search engine requirements. They will probably not have spent time with you and tried to find out about your products, services, and strengths and what would be the best way to show them off on your website. If you approach a website designer a week before you need a live website, you have left it too late. If you realise that a website is very important for your type of business, chose a web designer who has experience, who can show a sizeable portfolio of websites and different industries for which they have developed websites. Ask them how the website will be optimised for search engines (if they only mention meta tags - they are not that important anymore), if the website will comply with current standards promoted by the W3C, and if it will be legal. A good web designer allows you to be part of the web development process so you can monitor progress during the design and development of your website at all stages, and you can intervene if development does not meet with your standards / requirements. Building your website is like building your house. You don't just go to an architect, sign off the drawings and then come back two months later and move in. You will normally monitor progress during the build of your house. You will want to confirm if sockets are in the right place, if the correct doors have been delivered and if the correct bathroom suite has been installed, for example. You will keep a very firm eye on what is being developed, and installed in your house to make sure it meets with your requirements. If you only arrive two months later, once the house is built and all doors are in place, it is difficult and very time-consuming to change essentials. Give your website the time it deserves. If a web designer is "done" with you after a 15 minute consultation and seems to know what is important about your business in that short time frame, it's not a good sign, and you should probably look elsewhere. How long it takes to build your website - there is no formula you can apply. It depends on what needs to be put in place. Do you want a content management system? Do you want a shopping cart solution? Do you want static content pages? A small business website with only a few static pages can probably be designed, developed, and tested within 2-3 weeks. You should give yourself that time to think over what you want on your website and keep monitoring the development progress. For some companies, the website is THE business. So don't chose what seems to be the cheap option, but an experienced developer who can advise you on business matters as well as web design. This will be much better VALUE for your business. |
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