UA Media Web Design
“I don’t know quite what I want, but I need a quote for a new website.” Is a phrase that we hear almost daily here at UA Media. And of course, it’s reasonable that if you’re looking for a new website and you’re not quite sure what you need, then that’s exactly what you would say.
The thing is, for us, it’s a bit like saying ‘I want to buy a house but I’m not sure where, or how many rooms I want’ – it’s not really possible for us to accurately quote for a web project without knowing in some level of detail what you require from a new website.
What kind of build do you need?
Websites can be complex or simple, small or enormous, e-commerce-based or brochure – and can be built on any number of different platforms with different functionality requirements.
So, we thought that it would be useful to try and come up with the essential questions that we usually ask when we get an enquiry. We hope it will help us to get you a quote much more quickly and accurately and hopefully it might be useful for you to clarify your thoughts before going out to other agencies asking for quotes.
- What do you do?
We often get people calling us who have a brilliant business idea and they don’t really want to share it with us at this stage. Of course, we understand that you may not want to divulge your secrets but we can’t really help unless we understand what the website needs to do. All our enquiries are held in commercial confidence so feel free to speak to us about your idea – we won’t be sharing it.
- What should the website actually do?
Do you want to use your website to offer a service, or to sell products, to provide information or to act as a gallery? What’s the key call to action? (e.g. What do you want the user to do as a result of being on your site?).
- When do you need it?
We can usually build something within a few weeks for you, but only if you are all ready to go with the information that you need to provide. This includes copy, pricing, images, logins to things like Paypal and Facebook and your Google Analytics log ins. We can help you find them, but don’t underestimate how much work you’ll have to undertake to provide what we need.
- What information should be held on your website?
Do you have an idea of how a site map might work and what sections you need? How many pages is it likely to be? Who is going to write all the pages? (We can do it for you if you like but there’s a cost, so let us know if you want us to quote for copywriting). Do you already own a domain name? If so, where is it registered and do you have the details?
- Do you have imagery ready?
We can provide a photographer to help you capture images if you need it, but if not we will need good photography, as it can make or break a site.
- How’s your brand?
Do you have a great logo and a colour palette and approved fonts? If not, we can help you on all of those things, but again, we’ll need to quote to do the work as part of the website build. Remember, if your brand looks dated then it will make your new site look dated too, so be critical with yourself about whether or not you need to update your brand.
- What functionality do you need on the site?
We can create websites that do almost anything you need them to do – but we will need to take a full brief if there is complex functionality on your site.
For example, if you want us to integrate a booking system for a hotel, we can do that, but we need to know how many rooms you have and the details of your current internal booking system so that we can make the right recommendation for you.
Equally, if there are payment pages, product descriptions or enquiry forms required we need to know what they should say and where the information needs to go.
- What about Search Engine Optimisation?
One of the questions we often get asked is ‘Can you get my site to the top of Google?’ Well, we’d love to do that, but it’s not how Google works. We can’t ever guarantee to do that, and any agency promising you that they can is telling fibs!
What we can deliver is really good technical and ongoing SEO, properly carried out in accordance with Google’s standards, which will give you the maximum chance of being found online. The question from us is ‘found for what?’
You’ll have to think about who is searching for you and what kind of search terms they may be using. We’ll need to have a really good understanding of your business in order to carry out decent SEO so prepare for some in-depth questions!
- Now can you give me a price?
Well, if we can capture as much of the information above that we possibly can, it’s going to help us quote really accurately for a website.
We can provide a bit of a ‘shopping list’ of options for you and you can work out what you want to do. The thing that we would always say is that anyone can have a website; it’s what you go on and do with it that will make the difference to your marketing.
After a site is built you need to devise a marketing budget for a minimum of 12 months that you can commit to so that we can help you plan your communications, digital or otherwise. We can work with you as much or as little as you want, but we hope that when you work with UA Media, a new website is just the start.
