What To Expect When You Are "Expecting" A New Website Part I of III

Part One of a Three Part Series

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It feels good to know what to expect. We expect our mail to be delivered at the same time each day. We expect our favorite television program to air at the same time each week. Frequent airline travelers know to expect delays at the airport; we know which airlines serve the best peanuts, who offers complimentary satellite radio and where to find the best airport hamburger. Knowing what to expect gives us confidence. Not knowing what to expect leads to anxiety and frustration.

If you are an experienced home builderreal estate agent, you know what to expect during the building process. While you may be experienced with home building, many of you are new to web marketing. Would you like insider information on what to expect when you build and launch a new website?

I am often asked: What are the steps in a website development project? What are the webmaster’s responsibilities? What are the client responsibilities? What is a reasonable project timeframe? What happens after the website goes live? Over the next three blog postings, we will look at all of these questions and give you the answers you need to be a successful web marketer.

Expect the unexpected
Even though we expect computers to operate perfectly because they are machines, remember computers and websites are built by human beings. During your website design project remember to remain flexible and stay focused on problem solving rather than finger pointing. Get everything in writing before the project starts and be as clear as possible about your expectations of the webmaster. If you follow the steps below, you can be confident that the project will be a great success.

Step #1 – Define the website project goal
The client and the webmaster need to have a clear understanding of the goal of the project. Potential goals include:
· Driving traffic to model homes and open houses
· Driving phone traffic or eLeads to the sales agent
· Branding the organization in the market
· Revamping eLead processing and workflow
· Updating an outdated graphic design
· Creating a user-friendly customer centric website
· Create an affordable first time web presence
· Take the client’s web presence to a higher level of sophistication

It is webmaster’s job to ask the client to define the website project goal. It is the client’s responsibility to thoughtfully answer the question and create buy in within the client’s organization. Once a clear goal is established, the project can really begin.

Step #2 -- Design the homepage

The second step in a website project is to agree on the homepage design. Before the webmaster can begin designing the homepage, he/she will need three critical components from the client including: 1) master .eps version of the company logo, 2) finalized color(s) scheme for the website and 3) photos and/or renderings for the homepage. If you are building a custom designed website, the webmaster should provide three homepage designs to consider. The client’s responsibility is to give timely and specific feedback on the first three designs. Expect to go back and forth on the homepage designs 3 – 5 times. For more revisions, expect to pay extra. The client should approve the design in writing. Once a design is approved in writing, expect delays and extra costs for additional design changes to the homepage.

Step #2b – Gather the website materials

It is the client’s responsibility to gather all of the raw materials needed to build the website and submit them to the webmaster in a timely manner (within 30 days of signing the website development agreement). Raw materials include:
-Copy for each page of the website
-Images for each page of the website including photographs, floor plans, renderings and virtual tours
-Detailed property and community descriptions
-Client’s contact information
-Questions for the online forms

Just like a homebuilder can’t build a home until the concrete block is delivered to the job site, a webmaster cannot build a website without raw materials. Period. End of story. The biggest delay in most website projects is the client’s failure to submit raw materials. While the webmaster is working on the homepage (Step #2) and interior page designs (Step #3), the client should be diligently gathering materials so by Step #3, all materials have been submitted to the webmaster.

Please note that the higher quality of your raw materials, the better the website will look. Don’t expect digital photos taken from an amateur digital camera to look like professional photography! Your webmaster can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear…or something like that!

Step #3 – Create the navigational map

Once the homepage is finalized, the webmaster will create the website navigational map. The navigational map determines how users will “click” their way through the website. It is the webmaster’s responsibility to create the navigational map and give it to the client for review. The client should thoughtfully visualize the navigation path and imagine how the website buttons will work. Also, the client should take this opportunity to make sure every section of the website is on the map. Speak now or forever hold your peace! If a section is missing from the navigational map, it won’t be in the website. Think of the navigational map as the blueprint of the website. It the blueprint doesn’t show a third bedroom, the third bedroom does not exist. The client should approve the navigational map in writing. Changes to the navigational map after approval will result in additional fees and time delays.

Tune in next month as we tackle the next steps towards a FANTASTIC website project delivered on time and on budget!