WEBSITE CREATION QUESTIONNAIRE Name Business Name Address Phone Email Is there a deadline for this project? Will this be a new website design or redesign of your existing website? If you have a website will you be using existing content? If you will be using existing content will you add more content? Can you describe your business in a few sentences? By distilling your business into a sentence or two, you are essentially giving Grantstreet Creative your “elevator pitch.” This is great information and can be used to quickly describe your business on your homepage for instance. After all, when it comes to writing for the web, brevity is your new best friend, as most of your users will never read as in-depth as you would like them to. You have to capture their attention right away. List the services that your company provides This is your chance to really distinguish your business from the others. If you have something unique to offer, then Grantstreet Creative should know about it, so that it can be played up and specifically called out on your site. It doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering. In fact, it can be something incredibly simple, such as offering a complimentary consultation, for instance. Who are your main competitors? By knowing who you are competing against, Grantstreet Creative can conduct the research needed to see how others in your field handle their websites. We can then determine what seems to be working well for some of them, and not as well for others. The intent here is not to copy what others are doing, but rather to learn from the benefit of their experience, as well as from their mistakes. What sets your business apart from your competitors? This is your chance to really distinguish your business from the others. If you have something unique to offer, then Grantstreet Creative should know about it, so that it can be played up and specifically called out on your site. It doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering. In fact, it can be something incredibly simple, such as offering a complimentary consultation, for instance. How many pages do you anticipate your website will have? Home About Us Products Services Contact Us Portfolio If other pages are needed, please explain. What content do you want on your Home page? What content do you want on your About Us page? What content do you want on your Products page? What content do you want on your Services page? What content do you want on your Contact page? What content do you want on your other pages? What is the core purpose of your website? Check all those that apply. Entertainment Increase corporate, brand, product recognition Reduce customer service calls Increase sales Improve internal communication Increase prospective customer base Can you describe your target customer? (i.e. average age, special interests, income level, education level). Do they have any special needs? Knowing exactly who your main audience is affects almost every aspect of the design. After all, a site that would appeal to teenage boys would not be very visually interesting to women over 60. Other than the visual concerns, these breakdowns would also make a big difference on search engine optimization(SEO) efforts, as well as social media integration. It is very important to be as specific as possible: gender, age, and annual income are major things to be considered in order to design the most appropriate site for your audience. What is the primary message you wish to convey? What specific functionalities would you like included on your site? This is something that you may not have thought very much about. You may not even be fully aware of all the options that are out there. Many of my web design clients know they want a Web presence, but they aren’t always sure about what they want to get out of it. And that’s ok. It is up to your web designer to get to the heart of your business, and suggest new ways to leverage all the technologies that are available and appropriate to your site. For instance, if you run a restaurant, you probably know that you want to have your menu, contact info and directions on your site. But what about adding an option for customers to book their reservation via your website? Do you have any specific design elements in mind? Do you have a company logo? Yes No Do you have a company slogan and/or mission statement? Yes No If yes, please type here? Are you going to be accepting credit cards? Yes No If so do you currently have a merchant account? Yes No List the name of your merchant account if you have one: How many products and/or services do you plan to sell? What are some other sites on the Web that you like and why This is where Grantstreet Creative can get a sense of your own personal tastes. Since personal preferences are so subjective, it really helps me as a designer to know what visual style you respond well to. Again, this question is not designed in order to copy anything that someone else has already done, but it serves as a great jumping-off point. If we doesn’t ask this, then you run the risk of them designing a (possibly) amazing site that just isn’t your cup of tea. Who is going to be responsible for the website’s content? This is a question that often catches clients off guard. It is a bit easier to answer in the case of a redesign, but what if you are a new business starting a website from scratch? Do you plan on writing the copy for your own site? Unless you have experience writing for marketing purposes, I wouldn’t recommend it. The first reason is, good Web copywriting is a skill that can greatly improve user engagement when done right. Secondly, (and I say this in the nicest possible way,) it will probably take a very long time for you to get around to it, if at all. Well written copy sells. What key search phrases would you like to be found for? Search engine optimization (SEO) is your key to being found on the Web. How much time do you want to put into new content creation per week? Another key element to SEO strategy is keeping your content fresh. This means adding brand new content to existing pages, and/or adding new pages altogether on a fairly consistent basis. This can be done any number of ways, including a blog, user generated content if appropriate, or even a podcast. When I ask a client this question, I am looking to find out how I should design their site to make the most use out of the time they are willing to spend. If its only a few hours per week, a blog would be sufficient in most cases. If it is a company that employs someone who can work on content creation full-time, I would start thinking of new areas that would attract users. A video page perhaps? Or maybe a twitter contest? The ideas are endless, but it all comes down to how much time you are willing to spend on such efforts. If you are human, leave this field blank. Submit