Posts Tagged ‘website development’

Charleston area Realtor® Jason Ogden is a tech savvy real estate agent. He uses social media to engage with current and potential buyers. He regularly posts items to his blog and to his Facebook page, so the design of a new website was to be built with full social media integration.

CBS Web Designs designed and coded a custom WordPress based website, based on Ogden’s established brand’s look and feel. The site features a  theme with four templates that provide the features Ogden needed in his new website.

The site features a section that displays Ogden’s real estate listings as a separate menu, an area which creates dynamic content for specific location pages through the use of Custom Fields and a page which incorporates  Ogden’s personal MLS IDX search window.

The site initially incorporated a blog, but Ogden later installed a separate blog with a unique theme. This is offered as a sub-domain and is not part of the project designed by CBS Web Designs.

At CBS Web Designs we’ve found ways manage website development costs. You can categorize website development much as one does at size classifications for cars:  Economy; Mid size; Full size. Knowing which size fits your business will help you get exactly what you need.

Our website design and development options allow for shared responsibility that helps control costs.

Our three levels are:

Fully Developed Solution: A website that includes

• Custom graphic site design supportive of your brand identity
• Search engine keyword rich site copy written for your site
• Professionally produced photography to illustrate your site
• Registration or listing in all major search engines
• Content management system

Collaboratively Developed Solution: A website that includes

• Custom graphic site design supportive of your brand identity
• Client supplied copy minimally edited by CBS
• Professional stock images to illustrate your site
• Registration or listing in all major search engines
• Content management system

Basic Solution: A website that includes

• Semi-custom graphic design built upon a commercially available template or framework; The template colors are coded to support your brand and your logo is added to the theme.
• Client provided website copy
• Client supplied photography
• Registration or listing in all major search engines
• Content management system

Our website design firm wishes to provide you with the greatest number of features at a reasonable cost. Understanding what you can afford and what will work well takes planning and preparation. We can help guide you through this “pre-design” work so that the design and installation of your site goes seamlessly.

**For more about how we work, please download this overview document.

“What does a website cost?” is the first question we often hear from someone in need of a new site for their business. Frequently the people who ask this question are those who are just starting their business and fear spending more than they can afford.

Our response is most always, “What do you want to accomplish?” This key question is the foundation of the development of a website for your business. As the business owner, you need to answer these basic questions:

• Who will be the primary audience for your website?
• What experience do you want your site’s users to have?
• What actions do you want your users to take?
• What level of interactivity you wish for your site? Will you provide them opportunity for feedback? Customer Service Chat? Downloading of white papers or instruction manuals?
• Who will produce the site’s copy / content?
• Where will the images come from to illustrate your site?
• How often will the site content be updated and who will do those updates?
• Who will maintain the site?

We use this questionnaire to help our clients in the development of their website. We find it focuses everyone’s thinking during the critical planning process.

Website templates abound, and while cheap and quick, they may not be the right tool for your business. You may spend far more time trying to cause one of them to fit your corporate identity than if you’d started from scratch.

But the bottom line is that you as a business owner must know is what resources you can allocate to the development of your web presence;  not only the dollars you allocate to pay for services, but the time you have available to be involved. Will you write copy? If so, expect to spend a very significant amount of time writing it. This takes time away from your business and may not be the best use of your resources. Do you want to take all the photos of your products or facility? If you want to do this, do you have the right equipment to produce the finest quality images that will represent your business well?

As with most designers and developers, CBS Web Designs works with you to provide as much of what you need and stay within your budget. However, you also must have realistic expectations. Ask other business owners whose websites you admire what they spent. Ask your CPA or business advisor or banker what they’ve seen as a typical expenditure for a business with your projections.