HERE IS WHAT WE WILL NEED TO BEGIN DESIGNING YOUR SHINY NEW WEBSITE

• #1- ACCOUNT CREDENTIALS
• #2- LOGO
• #3- FONTS & COLORS
• #4- USP
• #5- OFFER
• #6- CONTENT FOR PAGES
• #7- PHOTOS

#1- ACCOUNT CREDENTIALS

The first thing we will need is admin Username/Passwords for your Domain Name Registrar and Host.

REGISTRAR
The registrar is the company whom you purchased the domain name from (yoursite.com). This typically costs $20/year if you want to look for a past bill or email.

HOST
Your host is the company that holds all the files, pages, photos, etc of your website. This typically costs around $200/ year if you want to look for a past bill or email.

This is the 1st question that we have to ask all of our clients and we have found that most businesses fall into 1 of 3 categories:

1- You are launching a fresh new website and don’t have anything yet.

If you are starting from scratch, this is going to be easy! We recommend purchasing your new domain name from NameCheap.com. Simply create a free account, choose your domain name, and purchase it. Don’t pay for any extras. Just order the domain name. We’ll take it from there.

2- You had a site built years ago and don’t know where you bought all that stuff

Many small businesses we work with don’t have the foggiest clue about where to begin getting this information. We can help. Google actually knows who is hosting your website and where your domain name was purchased.

First, let’s do a simple “who is” search here: http://whois.domaintools.com/

Search your website’s domain name and note 2 things:

1. 1. Name Servers: this tells you who is hosting your site
   2. Registrar: this tells you where you bought your name

Does that jog your memory or ring any bells? Now that you know who your host and registrar are, you can start looking for credentials or you can call them and try to retrieve a new password. Sometimes your domain registrar and host will be the same. For instance, you may have bought your domain name at GoDaddy and then hosted your site there too. That’s very common.

3- You have the credentials on file

Awesome. Good Job. This is going to be easy. Once you share that info with us we will take it from there.

#2- LOGO

Please email a high-quality image of your logo (greater than 800px). A png is preferred. if you do not have a logo or a high-quality file we can help.

#3- FONTS & COLORS

Fonts: We mostly need to know if you prefer serif or sans-serif fonts. A serif is a slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter. A sans-serif font does not have the serifs (sans means “no” as in no slight projections).

If you want, you can browse common fonts here: https://fonts.google.com/

Colors: Most businesses have 1 or 2 main colors. They are typically revealed in your logo. If you have a logo we can take the colors straight from your logo. However, if you don’t have a logo you can choose at least one main theme color with an RGB color picker tool below. Just give us the HEX CODE. It is not recommended to have more than 2 colors.

https://www.google.com/search?q=color+picker

#4- WHAT IS YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION?

A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a clear statement that communicates how you or your product is different and better than your competition. The best USP’s explain how you will benefit your customers in a brief memorable sentence or motto. Here are some examples:

• The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand. (M&Ms)
• When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight. (FedEx)
• You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it’s free. (Domino’s Pizza)

As you brainstorm about your USP think about what pain point people typically have that you will solve. Address that pain point by stating how you are the best at solving it. Example: Dominos solves the typical problem that most pizza deliveries take 45min to 1hr. Fedex solves 2 problems, slow and unreliable delivery.

Ask yourself:

• What problems do you solve?
• What are the strengths & weaknesses of your competitors?
• Why do repeat clients and customers like you?

The answers to these questions are the makings of a great USP.

#5- OFFER

You want to have a complexing offer to entice people to fill out your form. Try to offer more than just a free estimate or an invitation to contact you. Say something like “Get $500 Off Simply By Filling Out This Form!” Think of a unique and compelling offer or coupon that will get your website visitors to take action before they hit that back button.

#6- CONTENT FOR PAGES

A basic website will begin with a HOME PAGE, which we believe should be simple, clean, compelling, and easy to navigate on a mobile device. Most websites will also have an ABOUT US page – where you can say all those things you want about your history, your awards, your team, etc… All websites should have a clear CONTACT US page. Finally, you will have several SERVICE pages. As an example, a concrete contractor’s service pages might be:

• Concrete Driveways
• Concrete Patios
• Concrete Sidewalks
• & Commercial Flatwork.

A church might have the following:

• Children
• Youth
• Women
• Missions

A mortgage lender might have:

• FHA Loans
• VA loans
• Jumbo…

….you get the idea.

What are the 3+ most important services that you want to feature on your shiny new website?

#7- PHOTOS

We prefer to use your original photos. If you do not have some good photos of your work, team, office, etc then you could elect to use some stock images (although we suggest this be a short term solution). Ultimately, your site will perform better with real images of real people. Here are a few free royalty-free sites where you can download photos. Some of these photos are less “stocky” than your typical shutterstock type photos.

• unsplash
• pexels
• pixabay

FINISHING THOUGHTS

You will receive an email with 2 links. (LINK 1) a dropbox folder for us to share images, (LINK 2) a google doc for content. This google doc is just like a word document where you can type (or paste) your content for each page.

I hope this wasn’t too overwhelming.

This is really the hardest part.

Once we collect and organize all the information, we will be ready to quickly and effectively design an awesome website for your business.