Planning your Website

Before even thinking of building a website you need to have a clear vision and purpose for what you need your website to do, and a plan of action to achieve this. The more prepared you are the more chances your website has of being successful. Research your industry, competitors and the potential need for your product or services online. The web is a powerful medium so why not make sure you understand the capabilities.

 What is the purpose of your website? –
Before launching your website you need to decide what type of website you require and what you want the website to achieve. We find websites fall into 3 categories. 

• Sell online - online shop allowing customers to purchase/order/enquire about your products or services 24/7.
• Generate leads – to entice your customers to contact you for more information about your products or services.
• An online brochure – an information website about your business and what you offer. This would be part of your overall marketing strategy.

Web design planning brief -
Once you have made your decision you will need to put a design brief together. Your design brief will determine what pages you want and the functionality you would like. Part of your design brief will be putting together a sitemap. Your site map is usually a wire frame drawing showing your page structure.

If you would like a copy of a web design planning brief please contact us.

HINT: If you’re not sure about the structure of your website take a look at other websites to see what they do and what you like. How do you browse? How do your friends and customers browse? 

Website content -
The next step is to put together the content for each page – this should include written text in digital format with an emphasis on keywords and keyword phrases that your customers would use when searching for your services. Images, graphs and any other associated documents such as PDF etc should be included. Your content needs to be well written and written for the web.

If you require someone to write your website copy please contact us. 

Website design -
The design and structure of your website is very important. Not only should your website look appealing and be easy to use and navigate around, it also needs to be written with search engine optimisation in mind. There are many techniques and secrets to search engine optimisation and the success of your website will depend on it. By using a professional web designer you can be assured that your website will be designed using the latest techniques. 

The Web Designer uses the latest techniques and technology when building websites with a strong emphasis on search engine optimisation. We understand how important it is to be found. 

Website testing –
Before going live it is important to make sure that you test your website thoroughly.

• are all your links working?
• spell check every page
• are all your images viewable?
• does your website look the same across all web browsers? (IE6, IE7, Mozilla, Safari)
• are all your contact forms working?
• are all your emails working?
• are all your browser titles, headings and URLs correct for each page and appropriate for the content, in other words SEO.

PART - 0.2 - Website marketing and promotional strategies coming soon.