Are you looking to start a new business this year? If so, I’m sure you’re excited about getting your website up and running. You may have a website, but you’re in the process of updating it, as we are. If you’re dealing with either situation, here’s some advice to help you along the way:

Please understand that a webdesigner is not always a webdeveloper. Both are essential; however, a good webdesign is created by someone who has focused on the creative art of designing for years. They may or may not know a bit of code and shouldn’t be expected to code your website for you. The same is true of your webdevelopment. The webdeveloper is someone who is very proficient in coding, however, they may not have the creative “chops” needed to design your website. Perform due diligence and get real and recent references for any freelancer who claims to do both well.

Come to the designer prepared. It’s a great idea to think about the layout of your website and the color scheme as well as the overall feel you want visitors to have before you elect to create or update a website. If you leave everything up to the webdeisgner and the webdeveloper, you may wind up spending more time than needed to make changes. It’s a good idea to have examples of sites you like, so at least your designer has an idea of the direction you’d like to go in when it comes to layout.

Your webdesign and webdevelopment includes not just the home page, but what are called inner pages and you need to be able to verbalize how these inner pages (i.e. about us, etc.) will differ from the home page in design and function.

Taking time out to be prepare before hiring a webdesigner and/or webdeveloper, will help the process of creating a new website or updating an old one go much more smoothly. We can help; schedule your website consultation here. Have a tip you’d like to share? Please do so in the comments. Thanks!

This is Shilonda Downing, signing out for Virtual Work Team LLC!