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Every design shop has their own take on how to move a client’s website dreams and desires into a realistic online presence. At Left Shore Designs, we’re believers in keeping things simple.

As a rule, we won’t try to go into an existing website and try to figure out someone else’s "wiring job". It’s been our experience that, in most cases (and there’s an exception to every rule), trying to muck through someone else’s design coding will ultimately cost the client more money than if a fresh, new site had been created. To this extent, here are the “stem to stern” steps we will be following to create your website:

Step One: Gathering The Info

Your Internet presence should reflect the feel, function and heart of what you’ve worked so hard to grow. But it’s your business, not ours, and you’re going to know the ins and outs of it a lot better than we will. What are your business goals and dreams? How, in your mind, can the web be utilized to help you achieve those goals? Consider the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a service or sell a product? What do you hope to accomplish by building this web site (make money, share information, something else)? Is there a specific group of people who the site will help you reach? What kind of information will that target audience be looking for on your site? These are the kinds of things we'll need to know from you before we can proceed to step two.

Step Two: The Plan

Once the information is garnered, it’s time to pull together a plan for your web site. There’s an old carpenter’s term, “measure twice, cut once”. Left Shore Designs will build and present a straightforward navigational sketch – a rough site map if you will – that gives you a feel for planned web page layout. There will also be a mood and graphical mock up that represents your branding and calls to action. Of course, this presentation is all tied directly to your espoused goals for your website.

Step Three: Send the Plan to the Internet Art Studio

Sticking with our carpentry analogy, building a website is a lot like building a house – you can see charts, blueprints and artist’s renderings, but it’s never the same as viewing the actual house sitting on the plot of land. This is the point where the website itself is created. In this phase, communication between both you and Left Shore Designs is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. You will be able to view your project throughout the design and development stages. This will allow you to express your likes and dislikes on the site design.

Typically, we start by developing the home page, followed by a “shell” for the interior pages. The shell serves as a template for the content pages of your site and provides continuity throughout your entire Internet presence. Once the shell has been created, Left Shore Designs will take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.

Step Four: Setting Your Website Free

Setting Your Website Free With Left Shore Designs

Setting Your Website Free With Left Shore Designs

At this point, if we’ve done our job right, the entire swirl of XHTML, Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) coding and Java scripting should look like a beautiful website to you (sorry, we haven’t figured out how to add the “new car smell” to a website yet). Before we hand the finished files over to you, Left Shore Designs tests the site code to assure that it meets the current web development standards. This effort also assures that any applicable “bells and whistles” (forms or other scripts) work and and that there are no issues in cross-browser compatibility (Internet Explorer, Foxfire, etc.).

Once you give your final approval, it is time to deliver the site (web design services fees start as low as $499). An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program is used to upload the website files to your server. Left Shore Designs does not offer domain name registration or web hosting services, but we can work with the hosting company of your choice and even make recommendations in this area.

The Final Step: Promote It!

Just because you have a website doesn’t mean the world knows that. While part of the proper construction of any website should include the addition of appropriate descriptive and key word “Meta tags”, that’s not enough to get you recognized.

Many web designers fail in this area due a fundamental misunderstanding of website promotion at its most basic level. However, Left Shore Designs, in one form or another, has been riding the website promotion wave since the beginning.

As a result, through its sister company, ATTRACTHITS.com, there are a number of turn-key methods to promote all ready for your use.

If you do nothing else, make sure your subscribe to the Search Site Submission service (read more and subscribe now).

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