Building Algarve web sites: how we work
The first meeting
Once you’ve made the first contact we will arrange a meeting with you, probably at your office (although we are also rather fond of the Algarve’s lovely cafes). At our first meeting, we will talk about:
- your business goals and how a web site can help
- who your main web site visitors will be
- why they will be visiting your site
- what they will want to do there
- how they will do it
Although we know the Algarve, web sites and web design, we never forget that you know your business, and we want to learn all about it – so that between us we can build a web site that will do what you want.
Project plan
After the initial meeting, we will develop a project plan for your website, including things like:
- the structure
- the design
- the content
We like to help our clients with each of these important steps, because it’s important to us that your website is brilliant and does what you need.
Structure, design and content
Structure is important so that people can find what they are looking for on your site. You may just want a single page website or a complex site with dozens of pages and lots of functionality, such as online shopping, property finders or booking forms. We will help you work out what you need and where to place it on your site. If people are more likely to visit your site from a mobile phone or tablet it will also need to have an adaptable, responsive layout so that headers and menus are as accessible on a small screen as they are on a desktop computer.
Design is the look and feel of your site. It needs to appeal to your target customer base so we will help guide you through thinking about who will visit your site and what their needs are. For example, a site for older people will have larger font sizes and an unfussy design, whereas something for younger people will have a more dynamic look and feel. We will help you with a company logo if you don’t already have one, and with choosing suitable pictures for your website to give it a professional look.
Content is vital in driving people to your site. Everybody wants their website to appear towards the top of search engine results pages, and carefully crafted content is the key to good search engine optimisation (SEO). We will talk to you about what you want to say, and use other things you might have like brochures or flyers to get the information and “personality” right. We can review this together until you are happy with the words and we’re happy that it will do the trick with getting your website seen.
Build and launch
We’ll send you a realistic estimate and ask you to agree to our terms and conditions (we have a nice simple contract – you can see an example here) and then get started! The tools and platforms we use vary from site to site. We’ll choose the right tools for the job, depending on your exact requirements. We will build your website as agreed and make sure it all runs smoothly. During the build phase we might make some more tweaks to improve how your website looks and how it works. We’ll keep you in the loop all the way through and you’ll be able to view and monitor our progress on-line. Once you’re happy with your new website, it’s time to launch it! We’ll make sure Google and their friends know all about it, and then it’s time for a party, maybe with cake.
Ongoing support
Our work and support doesn’t stop there. There may be elements that you want to change over time, and we will help you with that. You also need to keep your web site up to date and add new content regularly, very important for SEO. If that sounds daunting, don’t worry we can help with that too. Monthly support packages mean we can stay in touch and we can help your web site to grow and become more effective.
