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North Vancouver Website Design — Our Web Design Process
MW Web Design, a North Vancouver website design company, has helped many business owners develop or expand their web presence in the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada since the year 2000. We offer web design in Vancouver and also welcome enquiries from anywhere else in Canada. Aside from designing websites, we provide a number of other services including search engine optimization (SEO), link building, graphic design, copywriting, digital photography and much more. This page outlines our design process and also serves as a "questionnaire" for clients who are ready to move forward with the design of their website.
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Our Web Design Process Is All About Detail — Trusted By Many Clients
At MW Web Design, we realize that you have a business to run and may not have a tremendous amount of time to deal with all of the details. But designing a new website is all about detail. About getting it right. The clients we have worked with, and continue to work with, know just how much focus our company places on detail. There are a number of questions we need to ask you — questions which help us to identify your ideas and needs in order to rapidly prototype them into a fully-functional web design for you. Building a new home without dealing with all of the details would only produce a second-class result. Building a website is no different. For the convenience of our new clients, we have outlined the entire design process very clearly and precisely on one page. The section headings below will provide a good indication of the information we require when quoting on your project. Please feel free to browse through the explanations under each heading and print this page out as a reference for when we speak with you.
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 Web Design Budget
 It is very difficult to quote a "one size fits all" price for a website since no two website designs are ever the same. Providing us with an indication of the budget you need to work within is a good starting point. All of the websites we design are unique — MW Web Design does not not work from pre-designed templates. We offer three, completely original website packages on our web design packages page but due to the many factors which determine the overall cost of a website, we will require quite a bit of information from you first before we can provide you with a quote. Most of the information we need from you is included right here on our design process page. Once we have obtained the necessary information from you and have determined what your budget is, we will then be able to choose which package will work best for you and provide you with a final quote. When budgeting for your website, be sure to allow room in your budget for domain name registration and web hosting as well as any additional logo design services and image licensing which may be required.
Timeframe
 Knowing just how quickly you need your new website designed is very important information for us. We only take on one project at a time and fully complete that project before starting another one. This ensures that every last detail goes into the design of your website without interruption. Every now and again, however, a website will become delayed. For example, a client may take more time than anticipated to complete the writing of their content or a client may use a third-party photographer which can result in a scheduling delay. When this happens, we will then take on another project in the meantime which sometimes results in an "overlap" of projects. When projects overlap, priority is always given on a first-come, first-served basis. Considering these factors — if you can give us an indication of when you need your new website up and running, we will be able to provide you with a reasonably accurate, estimated completion date.
Domain Name Registration And Web Hosting
 Once you've registered your company name (British Columbia residents can visit this link for business registration information), you will need to choose a suitable domain name for your company and register your domain name with a domain name registration service. You will also need a web hosting package (your web host will store your website files on a web server and "serve" them to the Internet once your website is complete). It is best to get started on these two aspects of the web design process as soon as possible in order to avoid any delays. Domain name registration and web hosting packages are renewable services — you have to renew (and pay for) your domain name registration at specified intervals — usually once every one or two years. And most clients usually renew (and pay for) their web hosting packages on a monthly basis. We do not provide these services directly and do not include the cost of these services in our quoted pricing. We highly recommend using Vancouver Island's affordable and reliable dotcanuck.ca for these services and will certainly be happy to assist you with initiating and configuring them (view dotcanuck's web hosting prices and domain name registration prices online).
Number Of Pages And Page Names
 We will need to know how many pages your website will consist of. Almost all websites have a specific "framework" — areas of the website are broken down into individual sections with page names such as Home, Company Profile or About Us, Products, Services, Rates, Links, Photo Gallery, News and Contact Us (providing us with a flowchart can be very helpful — view an example flowchart in PDF format which requires Adobe Reader). Be sure to include a Links page which can often help to improve your search engine positioning (visit our web design tips page for more information on the importance of links). You should also consider including a Privacy Statement page to conform with Canada's new privacy law. We will need to determine the total number of pages and what each individual page will be named before starting your project. There may be a lot of differences between each of the pages on your website. In other cases, each of the pages may look much the same with the exception of different textual content on each page. Aside from the graphical design aspect and the actual textual content of your website, this overall page count and the differences between each page (for example, a Photo Gallery page which would function much differently than your other pages) will determine the overall quoted price of your project.
Favorite Websites To Use As Examples
 We always ask you for a list of links to your favorite websites — websites that you like the "look and feel" of. Websites that you would like your own website to resemble in terms of colors, style and layout (not that you want to "copy" someone else's website!). It is very helpful when you provide us with these links as they give us a really good idea of what you are looking for in a website. When we begin designing a prototype for you, your favorite websites help us to create the correct "atmosphere" for you. It is the style of what you are after that we are interested in — you may want a very "corporate-looking" website, a "fun" website or perhaps a very "soothing" website. There are many different possibilities. This is one of the single, most important steps in beginning the entire design process. If you can provide us with a really good selection of links, we can then gain an excellent idea of exactly how you want your finished website to appear on the Internet.
Color Scheme And Company Logo
 Do you already have a company logo you wish to use on your website? We can easily integrate a professionally-designed logo into your web design. If not, MW Web Design can provide you with logo design services — helping to create an "identity" for your business. You will be able to include this logo on all of your printed matter. Do you have a specific color scheme which you already use for your company's "branding"? It is very helpful for us to know what colors you wish to use on your website so we can design your prototype around these colors. If your company identity does not already use specific colors, we always ask you to let us know what your favorite colors are — colors which you would like us to use in the design of your website.
Images And Digital Photography
 Many people do not realize that you cannot just simply "take" an image off the Internet and use it on your own website. This is due to copyright reasons. MW Web Design provides local digital photography services with some of the web design packages we offer*. If you require photos of your business, of your surroundings or even "portraits" of yourself, we can certainly help. MW Web Design also has a catalog of original digital photography and a collection of over ten-thousand royalty-free stock images and clip art from which you can select. If you do not already have your own images, one of the best ways to obtain the ideal images you want to place on your website is to use a service such as iStockphoto. You have to license (and pay for) these images in order to use them on your website but the overall result is well worth it. We will need to know the specifics of how many (and what type of) images are going to be involved in the design of your website before providing you with a quoted price — particularly if you have printed photos which will need to be scanned and enhanced with Adobe PhotoShop.
Will You Be Selling Products Directly From Your Website?
 Many of our clients use the services of PayPal since their e-commerce budgets have been restricted and their e-commerce needs have been simple. PayPal is a very effective and secure way of selling products online and is one of the most popular options available for helping you to reduce the overall cost of setting up your website in order to offer product sales over the Internet. Even large corporations like the Dell Computer Corporation accept payment using PayPal. If you do not have a lot of products to sell, this is definitely the best way to go. If you do intend to use PayPal, please let us know before we provide you with any quoted pricing as there will be a small amount of configuration involved in setting up the purchasing links and the related graphics.
Will You Require Forms On Your Website?
 Forms are not quite as simple as they appear to be on the Internet. This is because, in most cases, forms require special programming using a miniature computer program called a CGI (common gateway interface). The CGI resides on your web server and checks for errors, processes the form and provides a "playback" message to your customers. Some clients may require a form for processing a quotation request or for other specific reasons and sometimes, clients may wish to use a form for sending e-mail. From our experience over the past ten years, we have found that the fewer forms, the better. End users may not like filling out forms — especially when trying to get in touch with you by e-mail. Instead, they may prefer to simply click on an e-mail link and type out a message in their own e-mail program on their computer so that they can retain a copy of the e-mail message on their computer. Sometimes, however, forms are an absolute necessity — particularly in cases where spam has become a real problem for a client. Think carefully about the use of forms on your website and let us know if you require any forms before we provide you with a quoted price.
Will You Require Animation On Your Website?
 We can certainly design and incorporate flash-based elements into your website. Depending upon the complexity of the flash animations you require, the flash design process may increase the costs of your overall website design. It may be more cost-effective to consider other animation and special-effects options which we will certainly be happy to recommend. Also note that flash animations can often take a long time to load which can be particularly annoying for your customers. Remember that there are still many older, slower computers in use today and contrary to popular belief, not everyone has a high-speed Internet connection just yet (particularly in rural areas and in many other countries around the world). When your customer has to stare at a loading "progress bar" for 30 to 60 seconds while a flash-based website prepares its presentation, they will often end up clicking over to one of your competitor's websites rather than waiting. Regardless of this fact, we will need to know if you require any animation on your website along with the type of animation required before we can provide you with a quoted price.
The Prototype
 Once we have received the necessary information from you, we will quote you a finalized price. If you accept the quoted price, we will then begin designing a prototype for you. A prototype is a "mock up" of how your website design will look (our prototypes are actually a "snapshot" of your website design, created in Adobe PhotoShop and saved as a jpeg file). It can take anywhere from a few days to a week to assemble your prototype depending upon the complexity of the design (our prototyping process is fast and never takes longer than a maximum of 10 days). The completed prototype will then be sent to you by e-mail for your review. There will be a lot of communication back and forth between us by phone and by e-mail during this stage of the web design process. Most of the time, our clients are very happy with the final design just the way it is sent to them without making any adjustments. In some cases, you may wish to make some minor adjustments to the colors, positioning of graphics or the overall layout. Once you accept the finalized prototype, we will then "sign off" on the design and we will ask you for a 50% deposit payable by VISA, Direct Debit or Company Cheque** (the remaining 50% of the quoted price plus taxes along with any extras, additions or changes that have accumulated during the course of the project will be due at upload time). Once your deposit has been received, we begin slicing up the graphics for your website and we begin building the individual webpages. We set up a temporary location for your website on the Internet which allows you to view the progress as it is being built.
Keywords And Company Description
 Buried deep inside of the "code" of each of the webpages on your website are a series of Meta tags — tags you cannot see but tags which the search engines can see. Two very important Meta tags are your company description and your keywords. We will ask you to provide us with a company description which is usually a sentence or two long, describing briefly who you are, what you do and where you are located. We will also ask you to provide us with a list of keywords that apply to your business. When choosing keywords, try to put yourself in the "driver's seat" as if you were a potential customer searching for your services. What words would you type into a search engine to look for your services? These words are the keywords we need from you. Use as many keywords as you want and try to include common mis-spellings of keywords as well. It is best if you can provide us with your company description and keywords as soon as possible after the prototype has been accepted so that we can begin "coding" them into your webpages as we build them. We will help you to expand on your Meta tag information since this is such an integral part of the whole search engine optimization process.
Your Content
 For a week or two, we will be busy putting the entire framework of your website together — designing and slicing up the graphics, writing all of the underlying HTML code, building each individual webpage, placing images on the webpages and lots more. You will be equally as busy writing the content for your website. As you complete the content for each webpage, you will send it to us via e-mail in text format (ie: in a Microsoft Word document — almost any other text format should work just fine). We will then take the content from your documents, format the content and place the content into the framework of the corresponding webpages. We will then upload the webpages to the temporary location of your website on the Internet so you can have a look at each webpage as it is completed. Once again, there is usually lots of communication back and forth between us by phone and by e-mail during this stage of the web design process. If you think you may have trouble writing your own content for each of the pages on your website, note that we offer professional web copywriting as an additional service. Please feel free to contact us for more information on this service.
Website Uploading
 When your website is complete, we test it using the latest version of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera. The HTML "syntax" and "markup" is tested and validated. A final spellcheck is performed. When your website passes the final test, it is then uploaded to your web server (or, web host) on the Internet. At this point, we consider your website project to be fully completed (please note that any changes you wish to make after the upload may result in additional charges). One of the reasons we ask you to get started on your domain name registration and web hosting package as soon as possible — in the very beginning stage of the web design process — is because of the specific FTP (file transfer protocol) and DNS (domain name system) server settings we need at this point in order to upload your finished website to your web server. We will require your FTP user id, server location and password in order to configure everything properly — important information which is always sent to you by e-mail from the service provider you choose to use for these services. Quite often, this information gets "lost in the shuffle" if it is not tended to quickly enough.
Search Engine Submissions
 After your upload is complete, we create an XML Sitemap (a "hidden" file) for you which is uploaded to your web server and we then begin submitting your website to the search engines (note that this is a non-guaranteed submission service). XML Sitemaps help the search engines to find your webpages on the Internet. There are actually a number of factors which determine your overall search engine positioning — things like the proper balance between your title tags, content and other elements of your website, how competitive your market is, how many other websites link to your website and many other specifics that are far too detailed to go into here on our design process page. It may take some time before you start showing up in the search engines so please be patient especially when your website first goes "live". Give it some time and after a few months, if you do not seem to be getting the search engine results you want, we can make some recommendations in order to improve your search engine positioning.
Website Maintenance And Updating
 After your website has been completed and uploaded to the Internet, you will most likely wish to make changes to your website at some point in the future — in fact, you should update your website on a regular basis in order to encourage your customers to keep coming back to visit your website. You may wish to add new photos to a photo gallery, update news items on a news page, change the wording on a particular page, update your rates or even add completely new pages to your website. For many clients, it is quite overwhelming to learn how to do this on their own. Other clients seem to have no problem in performing their own updates and making changes to their website. CuteFTP is a simple solution which we highly recommend for those who wish to do their own editing. MW Web Design offers website maintenance and updating services by the hour or by yearly contract. Please feel free to contact MW Web Design for more information and rates on our maintenance and updating services.
Search Engine Optimization And Link Building
 MW Web Design also offers link building and search engine optimization services in addition to our web design services. For an additional fee, we will assist you in promoting your website on the Internet, providing you with the best possible chance of increasing your search engine visibility. Many different techniques are used in this process — you will find lots of information about search engine optimization and link building on our search engine optimization page. Please feel free to contact MW Web Design for more information and rates on these services.
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* Some restrictions may apply. Travel charges may apply for certain Lower Mainland communities of the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada.
** Deposits are non-refundable and are payable by VISA, Direct Debit or Company Cheque. Our payment procedures for search engine optimization packages work differently than the payment procedures outlined above for web design packages — please contact MW Web Design for details.
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