Once you have a plan to build a website, you need professional help to develop the site. The range of computing professions is as wide as the range of medical professions. It is just as unreasonable to expect a person to know everything about computers as it is to expect your podiatrist to perform brain surgery.
One decision that will affect your choice of developer is whether your site will be static or dynamic. On a static site, someone builds each page on the site. On a dynamic site, the pages have a basic template and then programming completes the content. For example, there are no developers sitting around Google creating every search page you request. There is a basic template for the search results and the script takes the results from a database, creates the page and sends it back to the viewer. One of the most common types of website programming is a shopping cart. The more your site relies on programming, the more important the role of the programmer becomes.
The following job descriptions will help you find people with the skills you need.
Web designer/developer: A web designer is in charge of the “look and feel”, page flow and ease of use of your site for viewers (user interface). Many designers have experience creating print brochures, which is a very different environment than on the web. Go to the websites that the designer has designed. Check a) how attractive they are, b) how well they fit in your market, c) how comfortable they are to wear.
The web designer can simply produce a design image, instead of a website. In that case, you’ll need a web developer to take the design and turn it into a web page structure. The designer has the graphic design and layout skills and the web developer has the technical skills to turn the design into a website.
If you’re very new to having a website, your designer can also act as a project manager to help you decide what you need to have on your website and manage the project until it’s complete. This can include writing a development plan for your website, looking at your market, what is unique about your business, what pages your site should have, special features for your website, and long-term marketing and maintenance.
Editor: No matter how good the design is, without text about your product or service, the developer can’t finish the site. Development on many sites was abandoned or delayed because the developer was waiting for words to put on the pages.
Writing for web pages is somewhat different from writing for a printed page. It is more difficult to read a computer screen than a printed page. Viewers also have different expectations of websites than they do of printed materials. Paragraphs generally need to be shorter and simpler.
If you don’t already have any written materials, or if you don’t like to write (or don’t write well), you may need to hire a copywriter to create your copy online. Again, read samples of the writer’s work to make sure the writing is well written and interesting.
Graphic Artist/Photographer: Your web designer may not have the skills to create logos, specific icons, and illustrations for your website. In fact, your web designer is more like a layout artist who takes pieces and creates a unified look and overall plan. If your web designer isn’t an illustrator, you may need a graphic artist to create the specific elements the designer needs for the site.
Bad photos make a bad website. You can improve bad photos, but you can never make them great. There is nothing that can replace high-quality photos for your website. Having a professional photographer is the best solution, but if you’re going to take your own photos, take photography courses and learn how lighting and perspective affect how people interpret your photos.
Program: Special website features such as a shopping cart, online gallery, forms, etc. are created with databases and programming. This is a skill beyond static web structure and requires programming skills. There may already be software written to meet your needs, or it may be customized to meet your needs, but it may still take some programming to find or install that software.
If the programming on your website is very extensive, your programmer should also offer to create a software plan. It is very expensive to make major programming changes; so the more essentials you discover ahead of time, the more you’ll save in the long run. Be on the lookout for upcoming articles specifically on web programming.
website manager: this is the person who keeps your site running after it’s built. When you need to add a new page, change a photo, change prices, etc., that’s the webmaster’s job. If your webmaster is a contract worker, rather than an employee, you should be aware that that person has other clients. Your work may be listed and not done for several weeks. The best thing to do is to have someone on staff who has the training to make those urgent changes that can’t wait.
Plan to spend a couple of hours talking with each of the people you are considering. Those conversations will help you understand both the person’s knowledge and more about the process of building your website.