The principle of creating a website can be compared to building a house or building according to their needs. It takes careful planning & knowledge as well as budget allocations that are appropriate & relevant to the desired design concept or architecture so that it is right on target. So it doesn’t necessarily mean that a well-designed website is easily created, even if it’s a website that doesn’t require a lot of features and has a lot of web pages in it.
For those of you business people or business owners or institutional representatives who plan to build a structured system/software or website, of course, in-depth knowledge is needed to understand the features & functions of a website which is quite complex, quite complicated and requires a lot of time and money when studying alone. but if you hand over all the tasks above to expert staff or to website service providers like us, of course there are still a number of questions in your head.
And you are wondering how exactly the flow of the website can be created properly that runs according to its function, is easily understood & easily accessed by your website visitors & doesn’t make your visitors confused when accessing your site. Especially if you don’t know anything at all or don’t have basic knowledge about the process of how the website is created according to the specifications needed.
On this occasion, we will share important things that are basic knowledge in a language that you can easily understand as a guide/instruction for you to decide to make a website that suits your company/institution. So that both as a business owner or whoever you are planning to make a website can know what things might be needed and prepared so that the website will be made right on target with a simple & attractive appearance.
Okay, no need to linger, let’s review it together, namely, there are 5 important pillars before you create a website/software in order:
The Website Has A Clear Purpose
A good & structured website that has a focused goal certainly has a different result when compared to making a random website without a clear concept & purpose. Therefore, as a business owner or institutional representative, what is your mindset goal when you already have a website? If you have a website only to complement your business, then the website won’t function optimally, even worse, the mindset out there is only for business prestige, so you’re just wasting your budget on creating a website.
It’s different if the mindset is for example the website is enabled for business & enables web email for interactions with your clients, for example to send & receive emails for correspondence activities, send business proposals, and offers. Or your website’s goal is to collect data, for example you open an online store whose ultimate goal is to collect your customer database, so the function on the website requires a transaction system, product management features, customer management, discounts and promotional features. Or it could be that your goal is to create your own articles with the aim of getting rupiah coffers from monetizing your articles. So first determine your goal in making the website/software functioned as what?
Recognize the Right Type of Website
There are also types of websites or applications. Get to know what site you are going to make according to your goals earlier. From the goals you have set, you can easily find what kind of website you really need. Since there are so many different types of websites that you can create, you need to decide which type of website design your potential website visitors will be looking for & using your services.
There are e-commerce sites designed to sell products or services such as Tokopedia, Shopee, Amazon, Ebay, etc. There are also Blog sites allowing individuals and brands to publish articles on unique insights directly to their audience. There are types of news and media websites focused on conveying information about current world events to the public. They use textual and visual content such as Kompas, Detik, BBC, CNBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, etc. There is also an educational website serving as a portal for new admissions & online courses/ online tryouts. This type of website aims to enhance people’s learning experiences both inside and outside the classroom.
Looking for References Through Other/Similar Websites
Sometimes to start something, we don’t know where to start, but actually there are many ways to make it easier, one of which is to look for references from other people’s sites/applications. We can also get ideas for creating websites through references from sites that have been created & scattered on the internet that are similar to the services you have. You can search on Google with keywords or keywords that match the website you want to create, do a broad & specific search.
For example, if you want to create an online perfume shop, type the keyword “perfume” on Google, and look at the list of websites that appear in the search field. You can note the link & concept so you don’t forget and learn from it. However, the point emphasized here is not to copy other people’s sites, but to study the features or functions contained in these sites that can be implemented on our site.
The key is to collect website links from other people’s up to 7 websites that you find interesting as reference examples for your website later. For example, you like the front view of the website from site A, but other pages, for example your gallery page matches site B and your product pages match from site C. Then convey your plan to the expert staff or to us for us to explore, the initial guideline remains the goal your website and also what type of website is suitable for your service/business.
Create Sitemaps & Wireframes
After the references have been collected, a web programmer will first create a sitemap/site framework. A sitemap is a design drawing that contains a draft and function panels in the form of a website chart or map such as a website hierarchy or flow. The goal is to make it easier for a web designer to work on a website that will be made in managing the composition and placement of elements and features as well as the content on the website.
This sitemap is really very important because there are many incidents out there of misunderstandings between the website builder and the client, the expectations of each are different, causing misunderstandings & problems such as the website not being made according to the budget that has been spent. For this reason, with the sitemap, both of them have the same picture visualization. The sitemap is also useful if, for example, you want to develop additional features at a later date, besides that if, for example, there is an error or trouble on the website, then the location of the error can be tracked from the existing sitemap.
Sitemap Example
The sitemap and wireframes that are created can extend to the content or contents of your website. For example, you need pictures of the products you sell, or for example your website needs to display a photo/video of your company image. Then you also need to prepare photo documentation with sufficient resolution so that your visitors know about your service images.
Don’t even think about taking picture/video documentation at will from the internet if you don’t want to get into trouble like copyright from the owner of the work whose lawsuits can cost billions of rupiah, there have been many such incidents, unless you also display the source who owns the digital image/work on the website. You even though it’s limited. Taking pictures from the internet can also reduce the credibility of your service, even if your website visitors know that you took pictures from the internet, then these potential visitors will look for other services with original photos of their own work. For that you should use your own documentation.
To make a sitemap there are several things that can be done, namely by making a draft sitemap design using software such as MS. Word or Power Point to make it neater to make a website page design draft in the form of a wireframe or like a pencil sketch or you can also do it manually. On the internet, you can use Balsamiq Mockup or, which is more popular now, use Figma.
After the draft/sitemap framework has been completed, you can ask for approval between you as the decision-making client and the web programmer as the executor of making the website. This approval can be in the form of a revision or final approval of which design will be selected and used for guidelines for making the website/application.
Budgetting / Budget Preparation
Just like making a house earlier, to make a website also requires some costs, the main costs in making a house such as bricks, sand, cement, etc. So in making a website there is also a basic budget like making a house earlier. The benchmark is from the sitemap earlier, you can ask your expert staff or us for the budgeting of the website/application concept based on the sitemap guidelines that have been approved to be worked on with the relevant budget according to the complexity of the sitemap, functions & features on the website. That’s why when you ask how much does it actually cost to make a website? Then the price difference is based on:
- How many pages on your site, how complex and detailed are the functions/features in it?
- Including the price of domain & hosting as well or not? What hosting capacity matches your site specifications? Is web email usage high enough? If so, do you need your own dedicated email server?
- Does that include Digital Marketing (SEO & SEM) research too or not? This is so that your website can compete with competitors in search such as Google, Yandex, Bing. Because prospective visitors will psychologically choose services that are easy to click at the very top of the search list
- Does that include maintenance costs as well or not? Maintenance can be in the form of web maintenance, it can be the same as the hosting server maintenance, it can also be web repair if an error is necessary or not?
For this reason, you still need to have an in-depth discussion with your expert staff regarding the website/software that you are going to make. For example, if there is an error, how to fix it, for example adding features in the future, what is the picture & cost. For this reason, when budgeting for a website/application, you cannot immediately know the costs if you don’t fix the concept & also the clear sitemap and other things that we mentioned above first. You can also reduce costs by summarizing sitemaps or features that haven’t been used first, then further development can be budgeted for again. But what is certain is that the MANDATORY budget is the domain hosting + website development. Think of it like a basic need. Just like making the house earlier, you need mandatory materials such as bricks, cement & sand, the quantity depends on the area & scale.
And there are no definite references/rules either in Indonesia or in the world in the nominal form of determining the fee for working on each sitemap or its features. Moreover, for certain features on the website, some need to be subscribed every month/year, some don’t need to, of course it needs to be investigated which parts/features require a subscription fee and which don’t. So it’s not absolute like a product that you can buy, the price is written on the packaging and then you just have to pay at the cashier, because here we are talking about the nature of services/remuneration for skills that are owned by a process of learning for years. So the budget calculation is based on what we mentioned above.
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