At FGM Internet Marketing, we’ve designed and developed websites for small businesses, non-profits, and e-commerce sites for over a decade. When we take on a new website project, we walk our clients through a process that helps them understand their customers and the business needs. Then we can design a website that truly meets their goals.
Below, we walk you through that process so you can be prepared for your next website development project. Remember that you should redesign your website every 3-4 years to keep up with ever-changing technology and ensure that your website meets your organization’s goals.
Understanding Your Website
The first step in our process is to ask a client about their current website. What do you like about your current website? What do you dislike? And are there any new functionalities you’d like to include on your new website?
This helps us understand what is already working well and where the deficiencies lie. There’s no point in reinventing the wheel if the new wheel is inferior to the original.
Website Design
“I don’t know what I want it to look like, but I know what I don’t like when I see it.” – not an ideal client.
When starting a new website project, it’s important for us to understand our client’s aesthetic. We’ll ask you to send us a list of websites that you find visually appealing and a list that you dislike. With access to your logo and preferred color scheme, our graphic designers will be ready to go.
Upfront discovery truly saves a lot of frustration, time, and money. While the first design iteration is unlikely to “nail it” in every aspect, we want to create a framework that gets as close as possible to our client’s ideal design in the first round.
Website SEO
While website design and development is an essential service at FGM Internet Marketing, our main focus is digital marketing. A client’s website is a key part of our digital marketing strategy.
We don’t “turn and burn” when it comes to websites. That means we don’t have 3 templates we use and then change up the colors, add your logo, and insert your copy. We DO stick around as your digital marketing partners, consistently monitoring and optimizing your website and digital marketing to hit your organization’s goals.
From the very beginning of the website design project, we include search engine optimization (SEO). We ask you what search terms your current website ranks for, what search terms you would like your website to rank for, and what geographical area your organization serves. SEO is baked in from the beginning; it’s not an afterthought. And that’s how we get big SEO wins for our clients.
Your Organization’s Vision
As part of our website development discovery process, we try to understand your organization as deeply as possible so that we can turn your vision and purpose into a beautiful, well-functioning website that gets results.
We ask about your organization’s vision, your products and/or services and their unique features, your target audience, and how your organization solves a problem for your target audience. We also ask about your revenue and revenue goals, all information that helps us properly scope your brand new website to fit your organization’s needs.
Competitor Research
“The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.”
Competitor research is a key part of FGM Internet Marketing’s process. The goal is not to always one-up your competitors or spend endless energy competing with another business. It’s to learn from their successes AND their mistakes.
When starting a new website design and development project, we ask our new clients to spend some time looking at their competitors’ websites. What are they doing well? What are they doing poorly? What are they missing out on? This sets us up to learn through our own trials and the trials of others. The focus should be your organization, but there’s nothing wrong with taking a look at what’s around you and trying to improve.
This website discovery process was developed during our decade of creating visually stunning and highly effective websites for hundreds of clients. Not all web developers will take the time to understand the depths of your organization, and you’ll find yourself outgrowing your website quickly, or lacking the support you need to reach your goals.
At FGM Internet Marketing, we are your digital marketing partners, along for the ride and translating the valuable work you do into your organization’s digital presence. Contact us today if you’re ready to take your digital marketing to the next level.
