Web Site Consulting

DigitalTrading.co.uk(DT) has the experience to guide you through to a quick and efficient web-site solution by following our 6 stage ordered process, a successful method developed in co-operation with our past clients.

1) Web Site Goal

What do you want from your web site? There may be many reasons why you want a web site. Recording all the reasons and prioritizing them will help focus on the best solution. It may be helpful to view your competitors' sites or even partners in your chain, suppliers or customers. Be realistic about how much sophistication you should try if it is your first site.

2) Working Together

Digital Trading has great creativity and initiative which enables a new site to be made quickly with very little input from the Client. However we welcome project ownership and active contribution throughout all stages by the client. As a minimum, each stage will be recorded and presented for client sign-off. In many cases there will be special 'copy' that only the client can pen, these key material contributions will be expertly coordinated.

3) The Name

A crucial starting point for any site is the name that end customers will use to find your site. Depending upon your business the web site name may be a critical part of your brand image and part of a much larger strategy. Digital Trading works hard to integrate with other services eg. advertising or public relations. A Brand & Vision statement will be woven into the creative design process. DT has in-depth experience with URL/Domain Name Mind Storming solutions and applying the 'rules' from a practical consumer and legal challenge perspective. Key Word selection is another brand critical and difficult naming arena where DT excels. The essential area of meta tags for search engines will also be covered at this stage.

4) The Look

As an established business you may already have an agency generated 'Style Guide'. This is essential during site design and ensures consistency across your media. A copy of each of your current brochures is also useful. Your industry may dictate a certain style or template solution that is already familiar with customers. There are distinct font and colour issues specific to web solutions that need to be considered. Creating attractive pages that draw visitors into your site is an art, a poster or billboard mindset is required. This is where the creativity of our designers deliver you an elegant result. Simply reproducing your 'print' brochures is unlikely to be successful.

5) Page Making

This is where the web authoring software is used to actually generate the site solution. An overview map of the site is prepared. Each sector of the map will draw upon different client material. There may be a combination of written material, image material and multimedia that has to be prepared. Responsibilities for each piece will be listed and expedited. The Map must accommodate ease of maintenance and update. Critical issues of file size and interactive use are resolved prior to authoring. Hypertext links planned both within and external to the site also have to be recorded. The site can be easily demonstrated prior to web publishing using the software-authoring package. Clients are encouraged to see the development at least once before final sign-off review. The site is bench tested against different brands and versions of web browsers prior to publishing.

6) WWW go-live

Internet Service Providers (ISP's) manage the computer hardware (servers) that are connected to the world-wide-web network. There are thousands of ISP's, each with different performance, services and cost. DT works as an independent agent to secure you the best deal. E-mail accounts are essential for the personalisation of your business. DT can manage the Web Site File transfer, site maintenance and update or can train the client to take ownership. Search Engine Registration is a painful but necessary job to leverage your web site investment. DT offers a range of registration menus, from a short initial automated solution to a calendar repeated intensive manual solution. We also offer advice on other 'free' and priced promotion choices. ISP's offer many value added services that may be of interest such as web statistics; DT can ensure that the client's departmental specialists make full use of these services. DT offers post go-live services such as on-line performance monitoring and benchmarking against other industry sites.

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