Planning Your Website


Let's answer some of your questions.

While version2 can (and has) created amazing and exotic websites, we find that most of our clients just want a clean, professional, reliable website that works for their business without being a huge drain on their time, budget, or sanity.

Content is king—but it's also a killer.

In our experience, projects are determined by three things:
Required Features:
eCommerce, interactivity, protected areas, custom programming, etc.
 
Budget:
You get what you pay for, but we like to stretch it as much as possible.
 
Content:
The quality of text and photos as well as the presentation of ideas determine the success of a website more than anything else.


What are your concerns at this point?

Consider an Elevator Site.
If money is a huge object and you don’t need frequent changes to content the $600 price tag for a website is pretty compelling. Best of all, if you already have your text and photography, creating an Elevator Site only takes a few days.
 
Pro Tip: The best thing you can do is get to work on your content and organization. The more work that you get done, the less we have to do and the faster your site will launch.

Consider Copywriting Services
Nothing grinds a web project to a halt like the absence of content. If you plan on using version2 copywriting services or a dedicated copywriter, you can ensure that your project won’t stretch out for months when it doesn’t have to. The sooner the content is ready, the sooner your site will launch.
 
Pro Tip: Even if you need some help getting organized, start writing a few paragraphs on core topics. It goes a long way. Create an outline of what you want to cover, then give us a call. We can assist with any or all of the copywriting to help you launch your new site faster.

Message and the presentation matter...a lot. To look professional, you’ve got to have quality photography, content, and visuals. But to really excel, having good content isn’t enough. Your content needs to be organized into a compelling presentation that reinforces your core marketing message. Finding that core message and organizing what your company does in a way to support that message is part of what we offer in our Agency Services. We can help you define a clear message and presentation that will communicate what your company does to the world in a compelling way.

There are no silver bullet solutions in online marketing. Social, SEO(search engine optimization), PPC; all of these require long-term commitments (think years) and have significant costs associated with them. These efforts are about maintaining a significant online presence in your industry. If you want to be a consistently recognized name online, it takes effort. Long term SEO and Social media campaigns are all about generating content. That takes a significant amount of time from someone in your organization, or from someone hired to do it for you. While SEM(search engine marketing) does have some content creation, it’s more about crunching numbers...then creating content. SEM is about analyzing data and then experimenting with content to fine-tune individual campaigns. This experimentation is often called A|B testing and results in improved campaigns results in more quality sales.

The platform we use is dependent on your desired strategy. But to compete in online advertising in any meaningful way, you need to have a minimum budget of $2,000/month with a 2-year commitment.

I’ve been making websites professionally for 25 years. Some of my clients I’ve had for a very long time. At version2, we don’t crank out generic websites. We do bespoke design work on top of established low-to-no maintenance platforms, and reliable hosting.

We believe that you shouldn’t be paying for “maintenance” unless you're actually making changes. And when you do want to make changes, you shouldn’t have to wait weeks to get it done. We complete most simple updates in a day or two. But if you want a guarantee that you’ll be at the front of the line, consider putting version2 on retainer. It’s a great way to ensure timely updates and get a good deal on regular updates to keep your site relevant.

A Full Agency Retainer Program is also available. If you're serious about the success of your website but don’t want to hire a $100k employee, we have a solution. Our Agency Retainer Program allows you to purchase a recurring chunk of expert time to monitor and improve your website every month. Think of it as either having an expert at a big agency working for you, or having a part-time expert employee to handle your business for you. Send us an email or or call to learn more about this exclusive program.

We don’t EVER want to sell anyone a lemon. That’s why we refuse to work with WordPress. It’s a sketchy mess that is only used by criminals.

We generally create projects on one of our four-favorite platforms:

  • Elevator Site: A clean, single-page framework of our own design that is ideal for both low budget and quick turnaround projects.
  • 2D Site: An ultra-light flat-file CMS with minimal updates and super clean architecture to optimize SEO.
  • Squarespace: An incredibly easy to use platform that is also extremely reliable and customizable (if you know how to inject the right code).
  • Custom Code: For some projects, there’s just no substitution for rolling up your sleeves and building it from scratch.

Each of these platforms has their advantages, but we keep all of them around for a single reason. They keep our clients happy. That’s what version2 is all about.

Pulling this off usually depends on the industry you’re in, but generally speaking all businesses should be mobile friendly (usually through responsive web design), SSL encryption (the little padlock in the address bar of your browser), and basic SEO optimization. We wouldn’t consider building a website for you that didn't have these basic features.

The next thing to consider is your content. Are your photos as good as they can be? Does your text read easily and concisely? We can help you write new copy and present your brand in a way that gets your message across. We can also help you find great photographers/videographers that can capture the high-quality images that make you look your best.

If want to really take things to the next level, we offer full Agency Services where we help craft your message and organize how you present content throughout your website.

If you need to punch up the wow-factor, we can talk about custom videos, interactive presentations, virtual 3D environments, and other cutting-edge web technology.