As web developers we immediately get asked: 1. can you do what I need? and 2. how much is it going to cost? The first question is easy to answer. The second is not. Why? The cost of a website depends on what’s going to go in it and what it’s going to do. And there are a lot of variables involved in finding this out. We have to ask a lot of questions from each prospect in order to put an accurate estimate together.

We prefer to turn this question around and ask the prospect: what is your budget? We …

The days of the online brochures should really be gone now. Websites should be functional and even transactional. Visitors get more and more technically savvy and their expectations keep getting higher. So, what should your website do?

It helps to think in terms of three key audiences a website has.

1. Your existing customers.
How can your existing customers benefit from visiting your website and from coming back again and again? If your existing customers like your site and feel it makes their working with you–or even their lives–easier, they will spread the word. You can:

• Have a password protected area where they can …
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At MB/I we present our clients with two different home page designs to start with. The idea is that one of them will be picked, and after 1-2 rounds of revisions on the chosen concept, we will have an approved design and be able to move forward.

The key to evaluating a new design properly is to look at it from the user’s perspective. The website is not for the CEO or the Marketing Director. It’s for the user. When evaluating a new design, consider the following:

1. Does it look like what your users think it should look?
Users will have expectations …

The need for a professional writer becomes apparent when we start considering search engine optimization. After all, having a website no one finds does no good at all.

Writing for the web is different than writing for print. We need to make sure the content on all pages is consistent, speaks of benefits and not features, is readable (per web standards), and has a specific call to action. This is just for the human reader. Now we need to tweak this content for the search engines, mainly Google since it is used in approximately 70% of all web searches.

Here are a …

Writing for the web is very different from writing for print. At MB/I we include at least a “content polish” by our professional writer on every proposal. We take the client’s draft and work on making the following adjustments.

Consistency
It’s important that all pages of a website read like they are coming from the same voice. On large websites, different sections and pages are typically assigned to different writers. If an effort to keep the content consistent is not made, the site can end up feeling disjointed to the end user. If the site is too large to have one person …

What makes visitors prefer one online store over another? Its simplicity and ease of use. A lot of planning goes on behind the scenes to make a checkout process user-friendly and inviting. Such planning starts with answering key questions about usage and management requirements.

How will you organize your products?
Organizing your products into categories is key. You should consider having products show up in several categories. For example, a book can show up under “fiction”, “mystery”, “bestsellers”, “gifts”, and even “books under $20″. The key is to put yourself in the shoes …

Many clients come to us having had a bad experience when trying to develop their site. When trying to choose the right web developer for your website, make sure you do your homework.

Hire professionals.
Yes, it’s true that sometimes friends or family members can create a simple website, or even a complicated one. But when it comes to your business, hire professionals. Your friends and family have the best intentions, but do they know the tricks, trends, usability guidelines, browser compatibility fixes, or search engine friendly rules needed to develop an effective website (just to name a few)? And, even if …

Developing a new website is a big project, both for the site owner and for the web developer. When planned well, it goes smoothly and becomes an enjoyable experience. The site owner gets new insight about the web or even his or her business, and the web developer gets challenged to provide a new set of solutions.

Here are 10 key questions to jump-start the planning process.

1. What is the basic goal for this website?
Does it need to generate leads? Increase sales? Support existing customers? Support partners? Reduce costs? Different goals lead to different solutions. The more specific this answer is, …