Website Design Guide
These Decisions Need To Be Made For Us To Create A Website Quote For You:
Before we can create blueprints, prepare a quote, or start construction, we need to know what you want us to build for you. We need to understand your vision and expectations so we can produce something that meets or exceeds your expectations. Here’s a guideline for that process:
Budget:
We can create websites for all budgets, but we can save you a lot of time here. If you have a set budget, that can greatly steer this process. We don’t want to waste time exploring design elements, decisions and costs associated with building something that is not aligned with your budget.
Questions that you’ll need to answer:
How many pages will your website have? (and what will they be called?). Always start with Home, Products (or services), and Contact Us (Think “Who We Are, What We Do, and How To Contact Us). From here, consider adding About Us, detailed information about your products (or services), and pages for any other information you may want online.
Once you have determined the number of pages, (remember, you can start small and add on at any time), you need to determine how much content you have (or will develop soon) for each page. Let’s start with your home page.
Common Home Page Layouts:
Home pages can vary from being a simple “Splash page” (Landing page with photo and logo) to a long, scrolling, highly-designed and stylized page with tons of content and messaging.
Splash Page
Here’s a sample of a simple splash page for a custom home builder:
It’s simply a photo, a logo and the site’s navigation.
Basic Home Page: (Below)
Hero Image, welcome message, and a call to action.
Medium Home Page: (Below)
Hero Image, welcome message, photo with a summary of services, icons calling out benefits, testimonials, and a lead capture form.
Large Home Page: (Below)
Hero Image, welcome message, 3 “panels” (photos with a caption) icons calling out benefits, a photo gallery feature, testimonials, and a lead form.
What do you have for content?
Your home pages can be as basic or elaborate as you want, it depends on the content you have.
Pricing:
Pricing is based on time, so the more complex your pages or design are, the more a page typically costs.
They sky is the limit!
These are just a few examples, let us know what you have in mind (or show us a website that you like) and we can use that for inspiration!
Want Something More Custom? No Problem!
The above examples are cost effective home page designs. They’re clean and professional. They’re designed to work on phones and tablets (which the majority of your site visitors will be using). If you have the inspiration, the content, and the budget, we’ll build whatever you can envision. To effectively convey your vision, we’ll need a sample site or drawing to create something tangible for our team to build. (We do need “blueprints!” to go from)
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Websites can start as low as $695 and go up from there. Each site is quoted on an individual basis and pricing is based on the forecasted time needed to design and develop your website.
In addition to design and development time, project management time, custom graphic design, and the amount of content (photos and written) and other factors impact pricing as well.
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Getting a client’s vision “on paper” is usually the bottleneck. There is usually much more back and forth between the client and our designers to outline and document the specifications.
To put us in a situation to win (meet or exceed your expectations), we need to spend the time at the beginning or the process to identify, agree upon and document what we are going to build for you.
Once the specifications are agreed upon, we put it into production.
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Each site is quoted individually after the specifications for the site are outlined and agreed upon. ZDigital’s pricing for website redesigns varies depending on multiple factors, including:
The number of pages
Design elements (logo creation, graphics, etc.)
Any special requirements you may have for your website
The overall amount of content that you have
The project management time involved for your project
Monthly hosting, support and ongoing site management cost varies depending on website size and complexity
Generally, the minimum for custom websites is $2995. and go up from there, depending on the above-mentioned factors. We quote each website on an individual basis, and our design team will evaluate your needs and put together a proposal for you.
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When we build it completely from scratch and it is a true “one off.” This means that the site architecture, engineering, design and layout will be built from the ground up, which involves a lot of time.
The alternative is to use one of ZDigital’s designs, which are very flexible, but the foundation and architecture is already established. The designs were created to be flexible and allow for a lot of customization. Using existing designs is much more economical due to the time savings built in.
Services Pages Options (Or Products)
Some websites have one page summarizing their services and others have several detailed individual “services” pages. What do you have the content for? (If you’re selling a tangible product, you will need high quality photos of your products.)
Your main choice here is how many pages do you want to show what you do, we can create as many services pages as you want!
The most common layout options:
List Of Services (Below)
This is great for a client on a budget that wants to keep the page count low, or for someone that doesn’t have written content or photos of their products or services. The page lists services offered which can, over time, be expended into separate pages later.
Detailed Services Pages (Below)
This page style can have an unlimited amount of content. If you have the content, (photos and written), this is the best option - your clients want to be able to research what you provide. This can include detailed information on each service you offer.
Photos & Captions(Below)
You can have a photo and include 50-100 words or a few bullet points describing each product or service. This is more economical than dedicated pages for each product or service and it is much easier for you since this requires less content.
A Website Is A Work In Progress!
You can always add on to your website. Start small and add pages as you have the time, budget or get new content.
Contact Us Page Options:
Contact Us pages include as much contact information on your business as you want to provide (If you have a home-based business, you may not want to publish your address), and can include photos, a map and/or your hours. Inquiry forms (also know as lead forms) are usually included and you can request (or require) as much information as you want.
The most common layout options:
Large(Below)
This one includes all their contact information, a lead capture form with 6 fields, a couple photos to decorate the page, and a footer at the bottom to fill out the page.
Small (Below)
This client is a home-based business os their contact us page doesn’t have an office so they simply include their phone number and email. Notice there is no lead capture form or map.
Medium (Below)
This version includes all their contact information, their business hours and a lead basic capture form, and their logo. The lead form has 4 fields and can include more.
About Us Page Options:
Regardless of your content, our designers will make your About Us page look great. Below are a few examples of great looking About Us pages that our designers created.
Short Bio With Photo (Below)
This page features a photo, which can really personalize your business, and a short bio explaining the owners credentials. Simple and elegant.
Short Bio No Photo (Below)
Some clients don’t want a photo, but they do want a bio. Here is an example of how our designers can work with a small amount of content - less than 100 words!
Team And Process (Below)
This client combined a “meet the leadership” type profile with information about their process and their company’s approach to business.
Next Steps:
To conclude, for us to develop your website’s specs and costs, we need to go from concepts to specifics, starting with:
How many pages (and names of the pages) do you want to start with?
What photos and written content you want on each page ?
We need “Look and feel” / Style direction. What website designs do you like? It will help to have a website for inspiration and borrow some design direction from
# 1 Above should be easy. (If you’re not sure, less is more - start basic and add on later)
# 2 Above is essential for us to develop a quote. (We need to know what materials we are working with)
# 3 Above is challenging for some clients - but if you have #1 and #2 complete, we can suggest design layouts that will work with the content you have.
LET’S DISCUSS YOUR PROJECT!
An initial call gives us the opportunity to see if we’re a fit for each other. We’ll discuss your goals and answer your questions.
Complete the form to set up a call or reach us at (760) 983-2844.