What do you want your web site to accomplish for your business? Do you want it to generate sales leads and inquiries? Do you want to book reservations? Do you want to sell product online? Are you providing service and sales information for existing and potential customers? Do you want to establish a certain image?

Answers to these type of questions will determine how Lavoie Graphics will create and design your business's web site. We are experts in marketing and graphic design, and we now use these skills to design web sites. For more information about our design skills, be sure to visit our Graphics & Marketing page.

We design web sites for business. Visit a few web sites that we have created and you will see that our web design philosophy is to create polished, professional, no-nonsense sites which will download quickly. As we've done for nearly two decades in creating graphics and marketing pieces for print, we design web pages which are easy to navigate and read, logically organized, and packed with the benefits your business can give its customers.

Budget considerations also need to be addressed for both:

• The design & creation of your initial website.
• The continuing cost to administer your website (website maintenance, website page content updates, monitor site statistics, and search engine promotion).

What steps are involved with creating a new website?

The steps in creating a web site are outlined below into various categories, in case you want to complete any of them yourself.

• Create and Design the Web pages

Like a sales brochure, a web site contains "pages" of information to help prospective buyers make a decision. The "elements" we need to create your web site might include your logo, photos, graphics and text. Cost will vary as to how we obtain your elements. For example, let's say that we have already designed a printed brochure for you. Thus we already know your business, and have all your elements already stored in our computer files. We would reuse your logo, photos, graphics and text, which we had already used for your brochure, and redesign/reformat them for web page specifications. In this case, our production costs would be substantially lower than if we had to start from scratch. The best way for us to address cost is for us to talk about your individual needs and web site requirements. We then can give you a written cost estimate which will be broken out step by step.

• Search & Register your Domain Name

Each Web site must have a unique address for the exact location on the web: your Internet Domain name (ex: www.lavoiegraphics.com). The first step is to search to see if the name you want is available. Then we register your domain name with InterNIC via Network Solutions, and point your new domain name to the appropriate name servers.

• Open a Web Server "hosting" account

You need to have a Unix type "web server", which stores or "hosts" your web site pages for access throughout the Internet, 24 hours a day. Speed, memory size, and cost are the variables to consider when selecting a web server. Many other hosting plans are available depending on your needs.

Note: We are a graphic design studio, and do not have any inhouse computers dedicated to web site hosting (servers). But as a service to our clients who want a "turn key" service, we can act as your agent in establishing and maintaining your web site with a web hosting service such as "Web.com".

• Upload your web pages to your web server

We need to FTP "upload" your web site pages & images from our computer to your web server. Once the pages are uploaded, we then must use a web browser to check your web site and verify that it all works as it should (appearance, links, etc.), and make final alterations as needed to correct any technical bugs.

• Listing (registering) your new web site with "Search Engines" & Directories

Now that your web site is online on the Internet, people need a way to find it. This is a vital step which many web sites are missing. To ignore the search engines and directories would be like printing brochures and ignoring ways to distribute them. No matter how good your web site is, if you don't get it in front of the potential buyers, it is a failure.

There are many "search engines" & directories on the world wide web (www) to help consumers search for websites that are of interest to them: Google, Yahoo, AOL Search, MSN search, Inktomi, Open Directory, Excite, Lycos, AltaVista, Northern Light, Web Crawler, and Netscape. Google is by far the most important accounting for most of search traffic, with Yahoo second, and MSN a distant third.

We need to create key search words and descriptive text that are used by search engines and directories. Attaining the best possible search engine "relevancy" for your web site is both an art and a science. There is a balance in using the right search words within your title, description, index page's body text, & meta tag description. If your website is not properly designed and optimized for Google, then you will be missing a lot of traffic.

The process we follow is:

We use a Professional Search Engine program that helps us analyze your site's index page for optimal search engine results.

Submit a URL registration with Google (partners include: AOL, Netscape, & HotBot).

Submit a URL registration with Yahoo (partners: AltaVista).
Yahoo also offers a guaranteed “Search Submit” for an annual fee of $49.

Open Directory listing (partners: Netscape, AOL, Ask Jeeves, Google)

Internet “pay-per-click” is an important option for generating additional website traffic. GoogleAdWords & Yahoo Search Marketing (Overture) are "pay-per-click" based on keyword bids. Your advertising budget will determine if “pay-per-click” is an option for you. This is also a process we can set-up and manage for you.

We recommend that once your site has been up and running for at least two months, you have us verify your site listing with the "major" search engines. There are no guarantees that your site will be picked up and listed on the major search engines, or that it will remain there when it does get listed. This is something that should be checked now and then.

We can also provide ongoing "webmaster" services for a monthly fee. Website administration, website page content updates, monitor site statistics, and search engine promotion would be completed by us on your behalf.

Besides the major www directories and search engines, it is also important to custom register with local & area directories (chamber of commerce, etc.), plus any custom directories for your industry and membership organizations.

Once the list above is completed, your new web site would be up and running. You will want to print your web site's domain name on all your marketing communication materials (brochures, ads, letterhead, business cards, etc.). Also, your web site will be set up for viewers to contact you immediately via e-mail and/or feedback forms. Therefore, you would need to check your e-mail on a very regular basis to respond to inquiries.

You also must have a way to access the Internet from your own computer. Every city has vendors who are called internet service providers "ISP" that allow you to log onto the Internet with a local phone call (for a dial up 56k modem) or via broadband continuous connection.

If you are interested in the "Do's & Don't's" for website development, click on our: Technical Specs.

Should we talk? Let us give you a customized quote for designing and maintaining your web site!