This summary is certainly not comprehensive, but offers a generalized perspective of the usual steps involved, and answers some frequently asked questions FAQ.

Many clients prefer to work with a contract that clearly specifies the costs and the responsibilities of both the website architectural firm and the client. We would be happy to send you a such a sample contract that we use for those cleints who prefer this (many do not wish to bother, your choice); this model contract was drawn up by an experienced lawyer & General Counsel for a Fortune 500 corporation, so has stood the test of time and usage.

What Are the Usual Steps in Building A Website?

Once the architect and developer have been chosen and given formal approval to begin work, the usual steps in constructing your website usually comprise the following steps; this list is not comprehensive, but provides a general guideline for the process.

1. Carefully choose your cyberspace domain name. This will commonly have the form of: www.YourCompany.com, or www.YourService.ca or www.YourInstitution.org where company, service or institution is usually some variant of your corporate/institutional name that has not already been taken by someone else. Choice of this name is very important. You want it to be easily remembered and associated with your identity or business, but not cumbersome to use. Generally, shorter is better. Next is to apply to use that name exclusively with the appropriate licensing agency. This involves a fee of $35/year or less, where the first two years may be included in your site setup fee. The name reservation fee for subsequent years will be billed directly to you.

2. Decide the goal to be met by the site. Some common goals include: a) dispensing information, b) serving as a direct eCommerce sales tool, c) acting as an advertising medium, d) providing a support medium for consumers, distributors, or vendors, or e) some combination of these or others. With the goal defined, your target audience will also begin to be defined, but this should nevertheless be stated explicitly. Often the primary goal is simply to provide "general information"; however these types of sites may not be as effective today as in the past since so many competing sites now provide much higher levels of interactively. One technique to clarify your goals for the site is to have you write down the five or ten most commonly asked questions you receive; if appropriate, we may then partially design the website around those questions.

3. Meet, physically or virtually, with the site developer to understand the design process and set the design philosophy. You need to choose what graphics and informational materials you wish to use and their relative emphasis, and then supply these in the best form possible. By best form – we mean of the highest quality possible, and in electronic formats if such are available. You next need to decide the desired “look and feel” or general tone of the site; it is most efficient (i.e., least expensive to you) to establish the desired look and feel from the onset. That is, should the site be formal, sophisticated, breezy, casual, something other, or perhaps something in between any of these? What color schemes are to be followed? Must corporate identifying images and logos be used intact, or may they be stylized to some extent to suit the Web media? What kinds and how many graphics are to be used? How much and what kinds of interactivity with your office should your site visitors have?

4. The developer will then publish a preliminary design mockup for your review and approval. This can be seen at a private website URL address that only you & they will know about, so that you can watch the site develop and interact with us at any point in the construction process. As you provide more of your original materials and content, these will be incorporated for optimal Internet presentation. You should continually monitor the development of the site and provide feedback. It is thus an iterative process requiring active participation on your part to achieve the optimal desired result. Some clients, however, prefer to just give the developer general guidelines and “turn them loose”, but others do require close interactions with us at every step. Most developers can work with either style of oversight or any in between.

5. When the site is published to the point that is considered acceptable for public viewing and use, the site will transferred to your chosen domain name and URL address, registered with the major search engines, and made to “go live”. But early-on and long before this time, you should have planned how you wish to promote the site on your printed business and advertising materials. E.g. most website owners incorporate the domain name in all of their print media (stationery, business cards, brochures, etc.), and many also mention it prominently in their printed, radio and television ads as well.

6. Most sites require continued updating to remain fresh and attract repeat visitors. This maintenance process is accomplished much as indicated above, i.e., new additions are set out in a private area of the site until approved for general public use.

Who owns the site?

You do. You own the copyright, design, and information. You are also responsible, therefore, for any legal ramifications of the contents of the site.

Are there common problems in designing a website?

Yes. Some clients have surprisingly little documentation about their goods or services, so compiling this information by then can be challenging, insightful, and exciting! Some clients further ask us to edit their materials for optimal use on the Web. We can offer this service and this is what sets us apart from many vendors. But, again, don’t forget that you own the site and are thus ultimately responsible for its content.

What kind of content or documentation should I use?

Remember that website visitors can interact with you, regardless of time or their location. The website thus needs to be designed for effective use both by the site visitor whom you may never see or anticipate as well as for those whom you may see in-person. The best content is more than your usual brochures or basic product literature. Indeed, a prime advantage of the web is that it permits you to present information about you or that you otherwise wish to communicate in exciting and compelling new ways that traditional media do not. We will work with you to create the best possible presentation of the content on your site.

Website costs are partially determined by the number of pages generated. What is a "page"?

A “webpage” is usually equivalent to one to two 8½”x11” normal printed pages, depending on text and graphics. This size division is somewhat flexible and depends largely on the type of content (really, how easy or difficult it is for us to translate the content to a finished webpage). We recommend that a webpage not generally exceed a total (text, graphics, backgrounds, JavaScript, style sheets, Flash or Java components, etc.) of 60-80 kbytes in size - larger sizes are cumbersome and their download times may alienate visitors without a high-speed connection.

What kinds of graphics can I use?

We will use your graphics, including letterhead, logos, and practice- or industry-specific images as a starting point. We will consult with you to ensure these will present well, and then work to optimize their characteristics for usage on the web. We can convert any images desired into backgrounds for a site, and design a logo if you have none. We will also add selected images as appropriate, at no royalty cost to you, from our large supply of stock art packages. We have further established close working alliances with respected local providers of commercial photography, the graphic arts, and copywriting services, all of which are available to our clients. Work with the graphics of a site, in truth, consumes a major share of the site’s construction time. The Web is essentially a visual media so the graphics content and its presentation are extremely important. This aspect of the site architecture is thus in need of considerable attention & efforts. But it is worth it - after all, it is in both of our mutual interests for you to have an outstanding website!

How long will a website design project take?

That largely depends on your schedules and ability to supply us materials. Given ready access to your materials, we guarantee that a preliminary mockup site will be ready for your inspection within two weeks.

How much time will I have to invest in this project?

We will consult with you many times to define and discuss the project. These meetings, either physical or virtual, are scheduled at your convenience, of course, and there are no additional charges for them. You will need to spend time to gather materials and review the draft site. The planning and oversight for some pages of the site will require little or no time on your part. But, in our experience and depending on how much interactivity and oversight you may wish to exercise, other pages may require up to an hour or more of your time.

What about updates?
Once you have accepted the site, 60 days of support for minor modifications are included by some developers (we do) at no additional fee. We are happy to handle major modifications and additions on either an ad hoc, hourly-fee basis or under a retainer, fixed fee contract.

What kind of computer equipment do I need?

You need just enough to have access to the web so that you can interact with us as the project ensues. We otherwise handle the complete design and maintenance of your site from our premises. If you wish, we can also arrange the hosting of your site with one of our preferred hosting providers.

What about the website's security?

Your site can be made secure with most hosters to handle your commercial transactions. Ask us how.

What about e-mail accounts and an autoresponder?

With virtually all hosting providers today, you may have an arbitrary number of independent email accounts, each with its own password. Most today also permit you to configure an “autoresponder” to generate automatic email responses to the email messages of visitors or potential consumers; this can be a great marketing tool and time saver. And most today also permit you to automatically forward email sent in care of your website to a personal email address if that more convenient for you.

How may the site be actively promoted?

A fabulous website is of no value if visitors do not know about it or cannot find it! It must be actively promoted in various media as well as the Internet. You will want to promote it with non-Internet media, e.g., by prominently indicating your domain name on all of your company’s printed materials. We assume responsibility for promotion on the Internet. We will: 1) work with you to develop the keywords and phrases in the title, meta, and comment tags on each page, 2) submit the site to the major search engines, and 3) if you wish, provide you with complete weekly or monthly reports indicating site activity broken down in numerous ways you may specify, but at a minimum by the number of “hits” that each page has had in that reporting period. The number of "hits" on a site is not the only important bit of information, however. A careful analysis of site statistics also examines individual sessions, number of pages searched per session, time spent on the site, maneuvers through the site, type of browser, type of domain, and location of the user. A reasonable goal is that, on average, a minimum of 2-5% of all individual visits to the site should result in a contact from a consumer.

Once the site has been established, can I do some of the maintenance myself?

Yes. If you have technically competent personnel on your staff, we can optionally train them to do so. However, this should be specified initially so that we can develop the site to specifically permit this. One example of this would be a page of employment opportunities at your company, i.e., where job opportunities open and close with some frequency. Other examples would include the routine changing of sales promotions, or maintenance of a catalog of items for sale, etc. We can design such a page so that you may safely update these postings at will without our involvement.

I’ve heard a lot about “HTML” and websites, what is that?

It is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language. It is the lingua franca of the Web … and permits the webpage author to simply specify how a webpage is to appear when you view it with a “browser”. HTML coding is neither rocket science nor brain surgery – some elementary school students can do it! However, it takes considerable skill and experience beyond routine HTML coding to build a compelling, efficient and effective website. Further, truly effective websites additionally offer content that changes to meet the needs of individual site visitors, i.e., as opposed to presenting exactly the same static content to all visitors. This requires a working knowledge of java, JavaScript, dynamic HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and ASP/PHP technology. So this is exactly where a professional touch, such as that we offer, is needed.