It is quite usual these days to think that “everyone” needs to have a web page. I am often asked “can you make a web page for us?” “Sure”, I say, “what is the content going to be?”
This often makes the person go silent and thoughtful. I understand that the message of the web page is not as clear and urgent as the very WISH that the page should merely exist. It is of no use, however, to “have” a webpage if you have not figured out what the page should do for you or what the core message is to be.
Many businesses are still served with a non-digital strategy for getting new customers. They are networking, meeting new customers while working outside their offices/workshops and they prefer personal human contact. Which is perfectly fine. Maybe their web page should only be an extended “telephone directory” where people they have met can go to confirm the impression they already have of the business and to find contact info.
Other types of businesses have completely different requirements for their web pages. Maybe they have a comprehensive message, want to show various product packages and publish content on a running basis, like in a blog?
Hence, “To make a web page” does not start with a visual designer. A web page is a manuscript in the same way a book is. You have the need to communicate something and this message must be created first. Actually written. We never see someone make the cover and the illustrations of a book first and then fill in the pages of it with some “suitable” text? Structuring is funny and challenging. A book has chapters. A website has “Pages”. The message is probably about different fields of one big topic, on which YOU are the expert. Structuring is to tidy up in what you know, to make it as clear to others as it is to you.
Not every little thing can be included and not everything can be on the front page. When I was a child, I sometimes wondered how all the news could fit into the daily newspaper? Later I learned that somebody on the paper chooses what we are to see 🙂 Somebody is editing! The space is limited, especially on the front page, that’s why you don’t see any newspaper that uses the greater space of the front page to say: “Welcome to our newspaper”…
It is important that you get your message out, but it is even more important that the reader/user gets the answer to his questions.
“To make web pages” still sounds to many like some of the most technical complicated stuff you can do. HTML-codes and cryptic scripts pass before your inner eye. The fact is that to make a useful and appropriate web page is something needing very little digital work. Grab a pencil and paper. Decide on what the webpage shall “do” for your business and what content is required for that. Decide on the scope of the content and sort it into suitable chunks according to what it is about, which field or topic.
What categories/menu items/pages do you need? Make a super-simple prototype on landscape format papers. You can download one example here. Print out as many as you need and sketch to your heart’s content (no pun intended).
Important: What you get from this is NOT a visual sketch, it is a sketch that show the structure of your web site.
When the content is ready written and structured, it can be used to build a web site, which will use your visual branding; logo, colors, fonts and images in a certain style.
Do you find all this difficult? I can help you to structure your content, AFTER you as the expert in your field, have decided on and written down what you want to say.
I also love to help you with the visual stuff, that goes without saying 🙂 It is a challenge to know where to start, if you want to work with the visual branding and graphic design for your business. Let’s have a talk on Skype or telephone to see how I can help you, starting at the point you’re at right now. I am curious about what you have to say. There is no cost for this call. Book a call by sending me an e-mail on: hanne@yourbrandvision.com
