Timeline and Budget
Time and money...
Missed deadlines and budget overruns go together.
Once you have established your goals, make a rough timeline.
It’s easy to underestimate the amount of time you or your team will spend organising and producing content – so be generous with the preparation stage. If you are working with a web design company or an agency on the strategy, be aware that they will need time and input from your team during the process.
Long hold-ups during development result in a loss of focus and enthusiasm and often end up involving costly changes.
You may not be able to estimate the time to build the website yet, but you can update your timeline when you get the estimates. For now bear in mind it can take up to 3 months or more if connections to ERP systems or specialised content need to be developed.
If your timeline doesn’t appear to fit with the date you need your website, the problem can be managed if you know at the start.
A phased approach to development is often the most economical solution, as there are parts of the web development process which take a certain amount of time no matter how much resource you throw at them.
In 12 years of website development I've seen a few deadline overruns. The most common causes have been (from most to least)
- copy still being edited at deadline
- major structural changes during development
- design approval process slow
- branding development or other external visuals incomplete
- URL, Bank, or legal issues
Setting a Budget
Based on your goals for the site, how much of your advertising budget and customer service budget can be spent on the website? If the budget is limited, decide which parts you must have, and which can come later.
If it is important to convey your brand, a unique character, or a sense of quality and style, you will want to spend your budget on design and basic functionality first and add more functionality as you can afford it.
If your branding takes second place to information or online sales you may decide to save money on the design and go for a template option. Many web design companies have templates which can be customised with your logo and colours and adapted to fit your navigation.
Get your priorities clear in your mind and make them clear in your brief. Often your web developer will be able to see a solution for a simplified design or areas which can be extended at a later stage.
Allocate budget for website promotion
Allocate a separate budget for search engine optimisation and online advertising. It is much more cost effective to do SEO as the site is being built than to do it later.
Advertising the site should give immediate results, while SEO normally takes longer to have effect.
Promote the site yourself by displaying your URL on all advertising and printed materials. Make certain you have secured the URL before printing anything!
