Get Started

Following is a list of required information to get your CMS website development process started and a sample document with an example of how to package content:

Domain Name - do you have a domain name registered? If yes, provide it to us so we can set up your website hosting account.
If you don't have a domain yet, start brainstorming some ideas for your domain, send us a list and we'll check to see if they are available.

Navigation Button Headings - see the buttons down the left side of this site? This is what we're talking about. These are the buttons users will click on to move around your website. Think about what you would like to see on a website if you were shopping for your type of product or service. Following is a sample of typical website navigation button headings*:

• Home
• Services or Products
• About
• FAQ
• Portfolio or Gallery
• Testimonials
• Links or Resources
• Articles or Case Studies
• Contact
• Media
  
  *keep in mind you can always add new pages, rename existing pages or delete pages.

Content - now that you have a list of pages for your website, you will need to create some content for each of these pages. Content includes text and photos. We recommend at least one image per page, depending on the amount of text you have. Keep in mind, the beauty of our CMS website is you can change this information anytime. So start writing your first draft for each page and we will post it on the appropriate page to get you started. If you don't have any photos, let us know and we'll come up with some low cost ideas for you.

Header Graphic - if you look at the websites in our Portfolio you will notice they all have a horizontal image along the top of the page. This is called a “header graphic” and it typically contains your logo, business name and possibly an image. Included in the cost of your CMS website is the development of a simple header graphic*. Provide us with your logo, business name, corporate colors and an image if required, give us a bit of an idea of what you want and we'll do the rest. The header graphic is NOT part of the CMS.
*Many of the header graphics used in our CMS sites are developed by professional graphic designers and then provided to us to place in the website. If your developing your own header graphic, following are some guidelines:

• For a site suited to a screen res of 800px wide then the image must be 770px wide. It can be any height but we usually max out at about 120px for balance. This suits sites that don't have a lot of content
• For wider sites a width of 990px is required. Any height can be used but 150px should be considered a maximum unless your looking for a specific look
• These are finished sizes as we need to consider the scroll bar.

Hosting services - we host the CMS websites that we build so that we can provide excellent technical and customer support. We support our CMS websites 100%, if there are any technical issues we will deal with it….on our dime. For Standard CMS websites, the Bronze hosting package is usually sufficient and is $10/mo, paid annually.

Email Accounts - let us know what email accounts you would like set up @your new domain and we'll set these up and we can also help you set up this new account in your email program like Outlook or any other program.

Website development timeline & process • once we have everything noted above packaged in a word doc or email, along with the deposit, we will start to work on your new CMS site, not before. This includes: a draft of all website content, your domain name to set up the hosting account, header graphic info, deposit paid etc.

The first draft of a Standard CMS sites can typically be viewed in seven to ten business days, from the date we start working on it. Once we post the first draft, you will have the opportunity to provide some feedback and we can make some slight changes to the site.

Deposit - we require a deposit equivalent to half the total amount quoted to secure a block of time to build your website. We work on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Tips on developing text for your website:

Home page text- this text is VERY important and should contain some/all the words your prospective customers would use when searching for your type of service in a Search Engine like Google.

Meta Data - you can manage the following for each page in your CMS website.

Title - located at the top left of the browser window, NOT your website. It is VERY important. It should contain some of your key words/phrases and can be ~ 150 characters in length including spaces.

Description - this is what Google and other search engines will display in the search results when your website is “indexed”. Again, this is important. Length can be equivalent to one or two short sentences.

Key Words and Phrases - not very important, but useful all the same. Key words represent words your prospective customers would use when searching for your type of product or service in a search engine like Google. Provide us with ~ 25 Key Words & ~ 15 phrases that contain 2-3 Key Words. Make sure to include the geographical area your potential customers might include in their searches.

Additional Features - do you have any special requests or additional features you would like your website to have? Examples: registration, client management, order management, administrative area or anything else you can dream up. Contact us to discuss building a custom CMS website for you.

Samples of Custom Built CMS websites:
www.honeymilkdesigns.com
www.youremploymentservices.com
www.jumpgymnastics.ca
www.cave-employment.com
www.crystalfiles.com