{"id":1935,"date":"2022-07-06T16:58:53","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T20:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/?p=1935"},"modified":"2023-08-07T19:27:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T23:27:36","slug":"7-things-you-need-to-do-before-starting-your-website-design-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/7-things-you-need-to-do-before-starting-your-website-design-project\/","title":{"rendered":"7 things you NEED to do BEFORE starting your website design project."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>All website projects are different.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Different scope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Size of budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Range of features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unique goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Successful web projects should all start in the same place\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, here are 7 planning essentials before starting up a new website design project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Research your competition.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You don\u2019t want to launch your project and realise you aimed too low to compete in your market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>What are they doing on their site?<\/li><li>How good is their design?<\/li><li>How much content do they have?<\/li><li>What features have they added?<\/li><li>What are their calls to action?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It sets your benchmark to be competitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Focus on your target audience<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Without a clear understanding of your ideal visitor, your design and content will be too general to make an impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>What location defines them?<\/li><li>What are their pain-points?<\/li><li>What do they value?<\/li><li>What are their associated interests?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Marketing success will depend on how well you know your audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Establish your goal.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>What should your website do for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>How will it create value in your business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Generate leads?&nbsp;<\/li><li>Process orders?&nbsp;<\/li><li>Rank in search?<\/li><li>Members portal?<\/li><li>Improve your reputation?<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Clarify how your website should perform and how it should be measured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Plan your content.&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t think about design until you have clarity on your content topics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Organize your topics into categories: products, about, work examples, resources, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Content building often takes more time than building the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start planning to fill the gaps in your content ASAP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Find inspiration.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll need to convey your design ideas to a creative-type person. That isn\u2019t easy for most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find inspiration in other websites and marketing materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Focus on shapes, colours, styles, and features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>List brands that you like and why you like them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Describe what you want in your words. Let the designer translate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6. Set realistic timelines.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Quality work takes time, and is worth the investment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Give yourself enough time to properly review the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think \u2018months\u2019 not \u2018weeks\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Be clear about your expectations, but give space for adjustment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">7. Set a realistic budget range.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Your budget should be a clear range that you\u2019re comfortable paying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Underpaying is more problematic than overpaying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Focus on your goal and the added value over the next 12 months.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The added value should be 10x the cost of the website budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All website projects are different.&nbsp; Different scope. Size of budget. Range of features. Unique goals. Successful web projects should all start in the same place\u2026 Planning. So, here are 7 planning essentials before starting up a new website design project. 1. Research your competition. You don\u2019t want to launch your project and realise you aimed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,27],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/business-executives-discussing-with-their-colleagues-whiteboa.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1935"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2328,"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1935\/revisions\/2328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webtechagency.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}