Human gestation lasts approximately 9 months. This gives the baby plenty of time to get ready to make its appearance into the world. A web site uses its gestation period to get ready to make its appearance on the World Wide Web. This can be anywhere from a few days to several months depending on the type and complexity of your site and who you have selected as your web design company.

Regardless of how long it lasts, you need to accomplish many tasks during the gestation period.

• Have a consultation meeting with your designer to express exactly what you want. This can be accomplished either on the telephone or in person. If you have any, give the designer URL’s (web site addresses) of some sites you have seen that you really like.
• Decide on a specific web site design.
• Agree to a price that your total site will cost.
• More than likely, your designer will have you sign a contract and give partial payment before any work is started so be sure to get this done in a timely manner.
• If you are going with a custom-designed site, ask to approve all graphics.
• Decide on a domain name and register it. Your web designer will likely take care of this for you if you ask.
• Set up a web host. Again, the designer will help you here.
• Make every effort to get all of your information to your designer as requested. This will include text, photos, links, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses, mailing addresses, and more. Your designer can’t complete your pages if he doesn’t have all of the information from you that he needs.
• TEST, TEST, TEST! Make sure everything on your site works before you "go live." This includes making sure there are no broken links, links go to the proper place, e-mail addresses are correct, there are no spelling errors, forms work properly, etc.
• Approve your final site

CONGRATULATIONS! Your web site is born! Either you or your web designer uploads your site to the World Wide Web. Just like any baby, your web site is filled with possibilities. How will it develop? When will it take its first steps (towards increasing your sales)? What will it be like as it matures?