That Part Is Done, Now What? - Page 3

Once the pages are all designed, and the content (including all text and graphics) is in place, now is a good time to post it all somewhere on your site to let the client review it. Often, they can spot things that may be incorrect, either because you misunderstood them or because they simply gave you bogus information.

This also allows them to see it and begin taking ownership of the site, an important factor in their liking or disliking it. Further, they may see things they wish to have omitted or added.

While the client is looking at the site online, it allows the designer to begin working on the more mundane — but equally important — tasks of creating proper meta tags and fine tuning the site for the search engines.

Various search engines search for various things to determine how they will handle an entry. Some strongly favor titles, some seek out meta tags, others seek key phrases in the content, still others rely on the home page more than others. Regardless, it is important to cover all those factors.

The site's name, description (25 words or less), keywords (50 words or less), and robot instructions are all important parts of the meta tags, and these items should not be taken lightly. Submitting a site to search engines without considering all of these factors is akin to throwing the child out with the bath water. It makes no sense.

In addition to submitting the site to search engines, it helps promote the site if the site owner (or the designer for an extra cost) sends announcements to newsgroups, buys advertising on highly visited sites (if its affordable), mounts an e-mail campaign to a selected audience (please, no spamming), and makes a few phone calls to your better customers to let them know of the site's existence.

In Conclusion

There are obviously many variations for the steps described here, many simply depending on how large the design company and how large the client company. The bottom line is that it is important to make sure the client is getting what he or she wants at a price agreed upon and to see to it that the name is spelled correctly on the check. That said, it never hurts to keep an extra shirt in the desk drawer, just in case.

Additional Resources:

Legal Tips for Web Developers: Protecting Your Interests Without Losing the Deal

The Fun Begins - Figuring Out How Much To Charge - Page 2
Building Web Sites From Start to Finish