First two decisions when starting a website. (pt 1)

– Robert Kruger 20 April 2010

 

Choose your web development software and choose an agency.

When it’s time to build a new website, there are a lot of questions to be answered. You begin to question everything, from your logo to your understanding of your audience. This can be a great thing. Re-evaluation can uncover new potential in your business. But where do you start?

The first two questions to be answered are, “Who will create my new web site?” and “What system will it be build on?” You can answer either question first, depending on your technical capabilities, but answer these two questions before you start asking the rest.

Choose your agency before setting out on a journey of introspection. Success is tied to experience. I can’t say how many times I have heard, “This is my company. No one can know more about this company than me.” Of course that’s true for all company owners and leaders. But how many times have you analyzed a company with the goal of creating a clear, concise, and targeted message that will cut through the clutter on the internet and convert passers-by into paying customers? For most business owners, the answer is once or twice. Sometimes the answer is never.

Hire a professional to guide you. An experienced creative agency will have been through the process of converting company knowledge into compelling web content many times. That is the experience many business owners lack but fail to recognize its importance.

The other question you need to answer is: what tool will provide the foundation for your website? Choosing the right tool requires an awareness of current internet trends like social network marketing, an understanding of internet technology like search engine optimization (SEO) and content management systems (CMS), plus a forward-thinking plan for how you want to manage your web presence. If you have in-house technical people, get their opinion. If you don’t, consult with your newfound team of internet experts.

Here is the important point: choosing a creative agency and choosing your web development software are two separate decisions. The software needs to be chosen for what it can do and how it matches your goals. It shouldn’t get in the way of what your agency will do for you, but it should first serve your needs, not theirs.

Some agencies will only work in their own, private development software or content management system. If they wrote it themselves, they will be the only people who will be able to maintain your website in the future. If your relationship with the agency doesn’t work out, you will be forced into one of two bad options: keep working with an agency you aren’t satisfied with or build your website again, from the ground up, with a new agency.

The internet has become the single most important pipeline for business. Any business. Every business. Everywhere. Consumers form an opinion about a company based (at least in part) on their opinion of the company’s website. Build a website that taps into that resource, not one that shuts it out.

Our web development software, Dialogs, is commonly recommended by agencies to their website customers, but Dialogs is also chosen by site owners based on our features and reliability, and they request that their creative agencies use Dialogs. Let us show you how Dialogs can improve your business. Or let us show your agency. Either way, we’re confident that Dialogs is the best choice for business.