We want to help you answer this question — what do you need — before you sign a contract for website development. Understanding the goals, tasks, and processes of development will help you be the perfect client that all web studios dream of.

Let’s agree: we start with a blank slate. You have a business offline, you are going to create a website to solve some pressing tasks.

So let’s start.

It’s trite, clichéd, but still, it’s rare to find a site that meets the needs of a business. Mostly it follows the latest trends on the Internet or becomes a platform for experiments by a designer or programmer.

Goal: why you need a website

The goal is the first and most important step in a company’s journey on the Internet. Having a specific and achievable business goal will make it easier to set tasks, evaluate the result and see the dynamics of business development on the Internet.

It is important to understand that the goal of the site and the needs of the business may change in the future. So, don’t invest all your future, all thoughts and directions of business in the first step. Micro-goals are a good solution.

You are not required to know the architecture and technologies of website development. But you should understand what architectural solutions are needed to achieve the goal you set for the site.

What kind of site do you need?

The general concept of «website on the Internet» hides many architectures and technologies. The right choice of architecture will allow you to achieve the goal you set for the site with minimal costs.

A business card website is perfect to declare yourself on the Internet, share your company’s achievements, build brand recognition. This is a simple solution — the site can contain a small number of static web pages with information about your business, company/brand, services and prices. A more complex solution for a business card website is a SPA (Single Page Application, a one-page web application).

A product catalog will help tell about your goods/services, attract attention to your products, new items and promotions. Here you can’t do without a more complex architecture and thinking about the convenience of using the catalog. A common mistake of catalogs is the desire to save on catalog navigation. The site catalog should be intuitively understandable in structure and should necessarily have a good product search technology. Only the optimal balance between the catalog structure and search will give maximum effect for visitors to your site.

Promo site, unlike a business card site and product catalog, serves the purpose of «instant» attracting visitors or deep concentration on a product/service. A good example can be the launch of a unique trade offer, promotion, «reconnaissance» or search for a new niche. Architecturally, it can be represented as a variant of SPA — landing pages (Landing Pages).

Online store — a symbiosis of product catalog and promo site. The main goal of the site is to sell goods/services. The visitor who comes to the online store is less interested in a colorful description of the company (although in some cases a branded store is an additional trust factor). He wants to buy, you want to sell. But, like in an offline store, a potential buyer wants unobtrusive attention and care. Your goal is not just to sell the product once. It’s important to make the visitor buy the product/service (even if not immediately), return to you again, recommend your store, while an important point for you is to spend a minimum of time on the visitor.

Loyalty programs, work with negativity, related services (delivery, help in setting up) will become factors that will make you come back to you more than once. Unfortunately, many neglect this important moment, the price of the user’s transition from your online store to another online store (your competitor) is minimal, although for you it can be much more significant. A good online store is a complex, thoughtful and technological solution.

Corporate site — on the one hand, it can be a development of a business card site, where more detailed information about the company’s life, photo gallery, event calendar, achievements, awards will be presented. On the other hand, it can be a solution that simplifies the task of doing business. CRM (customer relationship management systems), ERP (enterprise management systems), accounting systems, dealer relationship systems, warehouse and accounting systems.

The above solutions will help you decide if you want your own site. However, it should be noted that it is not difficult to find rental solutions on the Internet, which can help you in the development of business at the initial stages. These can be:

Catalogs (aggregators) — having registered in them, you can enter information about your company, business, goods and services. You will have your own page, almost a business card site. But not everything is so ideal, catalogs work on the principle of competition, you will not be able to fully capture the attention of the visitor. It’s good if the catalog has the ability to personalize the page about your company, product/service, but most often registration and use of such a variant can be an additional solution to your site.

Online store rental. Rich functionality, many tools and technologies (convenient catalog structure, shopping carts, choice of payment methods) — this is just a small part of a large list of what can be offered on the market. Quite possibly, for many this will be the perfect solution.

If you have decided to develop your own site: design, layout, programming

Well, we have defined the goal, chosen the architecture and technologies and are starting — no, not to choose colors and pictures — to create a site.

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