Website Questionnaire

I get it, sometimes you don’t know where to start. But, getting a “ballpark estimate” to build your website is not a starting point. I can guarantee you the end cost of your website will not be within the range of a ballpark when little to no details of the job are provided. It may come in higher or lower, but it would simply a guess based on limited information. Because of this, I do not provide ballpark web development pricing. So where do you start? The questionnaire below will help you plan your website. Start at a high level and then start breaking down details. Write it all down. Rough draft, revise. Revise some more. When your website plan is complete, you will have documented specifics of your project to then start getting quotes for website development. You will be able to communicate your website needs to me, or any other professional web development services provider.

Website Questionnaire

This web development questionnaire will help me understand who you (and/or your company) are,  and what your website project requirements are. Obviously, the more details you provide to me the more accurate quote I can provide. Even more important is how smoothly the website development process will go.

High Level Questions

1. What is the purpose of the website?
2. Who will be your audience?
3. How much do intend to invest in your website?
4. What is the long term goal?

Tell me about you

1. What’s your name?
2. Are you a company or individual?
3. If a company, what is the nature of your business?
4. Where are you located?

Website Budget

When you develop a website plan, communicate your budget. Like buying a house or car, budget is a major factor in the final result. Depending on your budget, I make different recommendations of how to approach building your website. Having a budget of $3,000 vs $20,000 will have an effect on what I can build and how I will build it.  Sharing your budget enables me to provide an affordable option that meets your needs. My intent of knowing your budget upfront is not to max out what you are willing to spend, but to propose a realistic and affordable estimate to build your website. When I put the effort into writing a website proposal, I don’t ever expect the website cost to be the reason that I do not get a job.  If I know your budget upfront, this factor is removed as a reason not to work together. At this point in my career, I have many more work opportunities than I do hours in my day. I am selective with the projects I take on. There needs to be a level of trust from the beginning that I am looking out for your best interest. I know there are lots of people out there that are unethical. I am not one of them.

Tell me about your project.

Don’t just answer yes/no, clearly communicate your answers where appropriate. What is the purpose of your website?

1. To share information about your products and services
2. To generate new customers
3. To provide information to you users (news ,events, blog)
4. To sell something online
5. To create an online startup

1. Have you registered a domain name, or do you need help with this?
2. Have you purchased web hosting service, or do you need help with this?

Website Design Services

Do you need a new website built? If yes:

1. Do you have a logo designed or do you need one created? Can you provide the original files?
2. Do you have a graphic web design file created already (I will code from this.) Or, do you need graphic design work done?
3. If you need graphic design work, send me example websites that you like – either the overall design or just elements of a page, colors you want to use…
4. What will be the purpose of the website? ie Informational, database website, ecommerce website, WordPress development
5. What type of users will be visiting your site?

Website Redesign Services

Do you want to do a website redesign? If yes:

1. Why do you want to redesign your website? Professional image, outdated technology, security issues, old content…
2. What parts of your website do you like and want to keep?
3. What parts of your website do you want to change or remove?
4. What new elements and/or functionality do you want to add to the redesign?
5. Does your current web hosting provider meet your needs in terms of quality, security and customer service?

Website Content

1. Approximately how many pages will your finished website be?
2. Do you have content written or do you need help with this?
3. Do you have images to use or do you need to use stock photos?

Features and Functionality

Beyond text and images, what will your website do?

1. Will user have to register and log in to do something?
2. Will you want to be able to manage content yourself on the website once it’s built? (Content Management System like WordPress?)
3. Will you need eCommerce integration?
4. Will you need custom web forms like quote request forms or contact forms?
5. Will you need a search engine in your website?
6. Will you need a blog on your website?
7. Will you need a database driven website? If yes, where will your data come from? Will you needs scripts to import it, tools to add/edit it…
8. If you are building a website from scratch with a unique idea, provide as many details of the features and functionality.

eCommerce Website Development

1. What will you be selling? Product – physical products to ship, services, memberships, event tickets, virtual products to download?
2. How many categories and products will you have? How will products get into the database? Will they need to be imported from a source, or data entered manually? Will you do the data entry or will I?
3. How will you accept online payments? Credit card (Do you have a payment gateway yet?), Paypal, Stripe, Check, COD…
4. Will you need to collect tax? (If so, what location are you shipping from?)
5. Will you ship internationally?
6. What shipping carrier will you use? (USPS, Fed Ex, UPS…)
7. How will you calculate shipping charges? Flat rate, free shipping, based on order total, calculate through your shipping carrier API?
8. Do your products have options or requirements to select? i.e. depending on the size they cost should change, or custom message needs added, photo needs uploaded to apply to the product….
9. Do you have any special requirements to the flow of how the shopping cart should work i.e. does the checkout have to be on 1 page vs more than one page?

Web Database Development

1. Do you need a database driven website?
2. Do you need a content management system (CMS) to be able to edit the content without the help of a web developer?
3. Are you open to using open source software (like WordPress if it fits your project’s needs?)
4. How will data get into your database? Do you have electronic data for me to import? Will you data enter the data? Will it be populated by user input?
5. What types of admin tools do you need to manage content?

Website Competitors

If you are building a new startup website, this probably does not apply to you. If you are a company that provides a service that other companies also provide, send me links to your competitor’s websites to help me better understand your industry.

Search Engine Optimization

1. Do you have a plan to market your website?
2. Have you done keyword research already, or do you need help with this?
3. Do you know what SEO is, and do you plan on putting effort into it during the first phase of this project? (Honestly, not addressing SEO is equivalent to a brick and mortar “build it and then will come mentality”. If you don’t optimize your website for keywords, users are not going to find you in the search engines.)

Website Maintenance

1. Do you have a code/backup plan?
2. Will you want ongoing code maintenance for security and updates?
3. Will you want ongoing maintenance like content updates and/or adding new pages?

Long Term

A website is a work in progress. Its always evolving as your business grows. Do you have a long term plan or features or functionally you may want to add “down the road”? Communicating this in the beginning of a project can help to make integration of it later much easier.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of website development questions to consider for successful website planning. Really, this list is the “tip of the iceberg”. The more you think about it, the more complex your ideas will become (and the better your website will be). I will continue to add to this list as time passes. Take these website development questions to come up with a website plan. Then follow up with me to calculate a cost to build your website. (An actual cost, not a ballpark) Are you able to answer these questions? If so, contact me for a website development quote.