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What are the most important questions to ask when commissioning a new website?

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Commissioning a new website is an important decision for any business or organisation. A website is often the first point of contact for potential customers or clients, and it can make a big impact on your brand image and online presence. Before commissioning a new website, it’s important to ask the right questions to ensure that you get a website that meets your needs and achieves your goals. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the most important questions to ask when commissioning a new website.

  1. What is the goal of the website? Before you start designing your website, it’s important to define your goals and objectives. What do you want your website to achieve? Do you want to increase online sales, generate leads, provide information, or build brand awareness? Understanding your goals will help you create a website that meets your needs and helps you achieve your objectives.

  2. Who is your target audience? Knowing your target audience is crucial for designing a website that resonates with them. Who are your ideal customers or clients? What are their interests, needs, and preferences? Understanding your target audience will help you create a website that appeals to them and meets their expectations.

  3. What is your budget? Your budget will play a big role in the design and development of your website. Be clear about your budget from the beginning, and make sure you understand what is included in the price. A good web designer should be able to provide you with a detailed quote that outlines all the costs involved.

  4. What is your timeline? A website can take weeks or even months to design and develop, depending on its complexity and the scope of the project. Make sure you have a clear timeline for your project and communicate it with your web designer. This will help you manage your expectations and ensure that your project stays on track.

  5. What features do you need? Consider the features and functionality that you need for your website. Do you need e-commerce capabilities, a blog, a contact form, or social media integration? Make a list of the features that are essential for your website and discuss them with your web designer. They can help you determine the best way to incorporate them into your website design.


In conclusion, commissioning a new website requires careful consideration of several important factors. By asking the right questions and working closely with your web designer, you can create a website that meets your needs, achieves your goals, and helps you succeed online.

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FROM THE BLOG

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CILKA

Mischief Manager

Born in rural Belgium, Cilka moved to sunny Milton Keynes aged 4 months, where she developed a keen interest working as a pest scarer – keeping the house safely guarded against pigeons,  postmen, and people she didn’t recognise.

However we soon discovered she was a born natural for causing mischief… two swallowed tennis balls, multiple chewed-up socks and one torn-up duvet later, we decided to offer her the job of Chief Mischief Manager.

Cilka takes her duties very seriously around the office, and will regularly go from person-to-person and present her favourite squeaky toy, to ensure they’re awake, engaged and feeling loved. 

Her hobbies and interests include chasing squirrels, staring contests with the neighbour’s cat, foraging for food, and long walks in nature. 

Ali Bhinder

PPC SPECIALIST

Ali is a highly motivated and results-driven PPC Specialist with over 6 years of International Market experience. He loves to take on new challenges, and comes up with unique marketing ideas all the time!
Ali is responsible for managing and optimizing all kinds of PPC campaigns, and he is tasked with creating, updating, and monitoring ad copy, keywords, bids, and other elements of marketing strategies.
Ali is well versed in how to effectively manage the budget of our clients so that they can maximize ROI on every £ they spend. His mission is to enable business owners and top executives to take their businesses to the next level with his unique marketing plans, business strategies and growth hacking techniques.
His interests outside of work include Book Reading, Playing Chess, and Football.

Aasim Adeeb

SEO MANAGER

Asim is a highly motivated and results-oriented technical SEO specialist, with 10 years of professional experience. Asim is responsible for planning, implementing and managing the company’s overall SEO strategy.
Asim has deep expertise in conducting keyword research, assisting content teams to create indexable content, and keeping track of keyword density that helps users, Google bots and crawlers to get indexed and listed quickly in search engines.
As an analyst, Asim reviews and troubleshoots all technical SEO issues using Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Screaming Frog, Ahref and SEM Rush tools.
His interests outside of work include skating, hiking, travelling and going to the gym.

Sian Morgan

Digital Copywriter

Providing creative text for websites and blog posts, Sian crafts compelling copy that converts. Her attention to detail and passion for words has led her to work for some top household brands.

She’s written everything from punchy headlines to lengthy articles. Her portfolio is packed with copy from brochures, product descriptions, SEO blogs, social media, video scripts… if words are required, Sian has been involved!

She has been the voice for many of Red Giraffe’s clients, creating copy for everything from the financial sector to the leisure industry. She works closely with clients to ensure their key messages are conveyed in just the right tone of voice to turn website visitors into customers.

Sian’s interests include running, reading and days out with the family.

Lauren Dunkley

Junior Website Developer

Lauren is a self-driven developer with a passion for creating design that delivers results.
Lauren is our trainee web developer with an eye for detail. She has applied her design talents to many of our client projects. She enjoys coming up with original concepts that bridge the gap between brand and consumer.
Lauren works across the board to support our creative teams, covering graphic design and social media to websites and SEO.
Outside of work, Lauren enjoys spending time with her cats (and friends), reading and the occasional pub quiz.

Carmel White

Operations Manager

Carmel looks after the team and all customer Website Projects from Onboarding to Completion and beyond.

By helping navigate through the various stages involved in the Website build, Carmel is the main touchpoint for clients – from initially welcoming on board, to organising meetings, advising on collating content, step managing the amends, checking copy, images and other assets are all in place and are of correct quality, ensuring Launch goes smoothly, organising Training and resolving any post Launch issues. Basically ensuring a smooth journey from start to finish.
With many years experience including Purchasing and a whole swathe of Marketing specialisms including Brand Design, Catalogue and Website production Carmel can offer support and advice at every level.
Her interests outside of work are motorhome travel, cycling, reading and being a slave to a small Yorkshire Terrier who rules the roost.

Lee Houselander

Senior Website Developer

Lee leads our design practice, building a deep understanding of our clients’ needs through human-centred design.

Lee is a specialist in UX and web design, ensuring your website doesn’t just look pretty, it incorporates elements of psychology and consumer behaviour to connect with your customers on a deeper level, improve engagement, and increase conversions. 

Uplifting our UX/UI capability and ensuring our clients are also uplifted by their experience with us. Lee has deep expertise in design and UX/UI, encompassing research, usability, design strategy, information architecture, interaction design, and prototyping.

His interests outside of work include gaming, brewing, badminton and going to the gym.

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PLAN IT OUT

Logo and Branding

Logo design and branding are frequently linked to website design.

Although it is customary to discuss branding and logo design alongside website design, it is crucial to recognise that the two are different and must be produced before a website design can begin. As your Logo design and branding will influence the website design.

The technical requirements and functionality of your website may be more essential to you and your budget than branding and logo design in the context of your project. But for your website, you’ll need a logo and some sort of branding aspect. Even if all you need is a text-based logo, as we can provide, think about this and include it in your specifications.

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PLAN IT OUT

Content

The requirement for content is one important area that is sometimes disregarded, especially in the case of new builds, in our experience project managing hundreds of website builds.

It is simple to become preoccupied with the design of your website or the functionality of your subscription-based services. However, since websites depend on their content, a lot of content must often be created for them.

Start writing your own material as soon as you can if you intend to do so. Well before the website project has started. Due to the wait for content to be produced, more than 60% of website projects are delayed in their development.

Even a small site with only five pages and an average word count of 500 to 700 words = the creation of between 2500 and 3500 words of well-written, proofed content. This quickly adds up.

A professional’s assistance in carefully written, and in the case of our copywriters, SEO-optimised material helps develop a more successful website and also minimises delays in the creation of your website, therefore it is worthwhile to consider copywriting services.

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PLAN IT OUT

The Brief

The specifications and requirements of the site have a significant impact on the cost. The more precise you are in establishing and writing out your needs, the more precise your quotation will be. Consider creating a website brief if your requirements are particularly complicated. Alternately, if your project is in its early stages or is quite simple, you might want to think about bulleting your needs (or use the cost calculator tool at the top of this page).
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YOUR IDENTITY

Domain Name

This is more of a tip than a requirement. If you have determined a name for your website or business.

Do these four things before you decide on it:

It should go without saying, but you should Google your prospective website or brand name to see what comes up. It may seem simple, but over the years we’ve seen dozens of individuals and companies invest a significant amount of money and time in a brand or website name. Then they have a quick Google search and it reveals that there is already a well-established, high-authority website that won’t be shifted from the top spot of Google. Consider the top three results, how closely related your brand name is to theirs, where they are located, and how credible their website is. Moz’s domain authority is a great predictor of this, https://moz.com/learn/seo/domain-authority. Consider adjusting or altering your website’s or brand’s name if a website with a high domain authority, a website that is related to or identical to yours, or both appear for those keywords. Alternatively, take into account the time and money needed to outrank their website.

Check the availability of a domain name – Any domain registrar will let you search for available domains. Utilise this to check for available domain names that are suitable. However, you will need to take into consideration that there may not be a free domain or the only one that is available is a “premium” domain that is already registered and costs hundreds of dollars. Aim for a .co.uk domain if your company is located in the UK and does the majority of its business there (this is slightly better for Googles rankings). However, in addition to your country-specific .co.uk name, you should preferably have a top-level .com domain if your business conducts business abroad.

Check to see if the company name is available if you plan to register as a limited company or LLP. You can do this by visiting Company’s House and entering the name you intend to use.

Trademarks: It’s essential to check if the name you intend to use is already protected by a trademark. They are divided up into several industries, such as restaurants, technology, advertising, finance, and so on. Check to see whether the name you intend to use is already protected by a trademark under your relevant category.

Are you the right fit for Red Giraffe?

cilk

Joe Gilbert

The man behind it all.

Joe started Red Giraffe after several years of working as a Marketing Manager, with the vision of bringing a new approach to web design. 

Having had many dealings with external web agencies, Joe was often frustrated with the levels of quality that were out there, such as over promising and under delivering, dealing with websites that were impossible to edit, and waiting days on end for agencies to respond. 

His vision for Red Giraffe was a digital agency that regards customer service as highly as project delivery, makes the process for clients simple and straightforward, and delivers exceptional quality that’s second-to-none. 

His interests outside of work include hiking, climbing, mountaineering, martial arts, and travel.Â