Planning To Create A Website

Strangely, whilst there are lots of web design companies and tons of documentation detailing the technical aspects of building a website there is little in the way of documents detailing what needs to be done to plan a successful website (maybe why so many fail) and the planning information that is out there tends to be targeted towards web site designers rather than the website owners.

Website Planning Guide

Consider this document as an overview of the steps involved in planning a website. This document does not cover the technical steps involved in building a site, rather we look at the non technical aspects (the important bits) and decide what content you need and how it will be structured on the site.

We will cover the following:

1. Domain Names

The very first job is to choose a domain name. If you have an existing business then you will want something as close as possible to your business name to ensure that existing customers who search for you will find your site.

1.1. Choosing a Domain Name

If you are a new set up then it is prudent to look for a domain name that features some of the primary keywords associated with your business. For example, if you were a Birmingham web design company you could go for something like www. web design company. co.uk (without the spaces). That is a bit of a long example but it is a clear, descriptive name and having the primary keywords in your domain name will help your site rank for those terms in the search engines. *

* this is a simplified look at SEO but for every link that uses your URL, then you get a point, if that link or the anchor text features your keywords then you get another point helping you rank for that specific term. As many people will link to your site with the URL then having the keywords in the URL can provide quite a boost.

Registering Your Domain Name:

There are a good few unscrupulous domain name registration companies out there so make sure you go with a big established player. You will want the ability to control the domain name through the company you register so look for features such as DNS Control, Ability to Change Name Servers and Web Forwarding.

Alternatively, if you have relationship with a web design company then it is likely they can provide this service for you. Just be sure to insist that the domain name is registered in your name with your contact details else come time to move on from this company you may find that you don't own your domain name.

You can check ownership details of a domain name by using one of the many internet whois services.

2. Site Pages and Structure

This is really the most important job you will do as the website owner. Your web developer does not understand your clients and prospects, he has no idea what information is useful to them and subsequently can give only the most generic advice as to the pages required (home, about us, contact us anyone?).

2.1. Check out the Competition

One of the first things you can do is check out the competition. Don't copy them, but be sure to take a look at what they are doing and the kind of content they have on their site.

For starters, at the bare minimum, you will want to list the various products and services you offer. Maybe these will be divided into categories to allow for structured growth. You will also want to ensure that your customers have a way to contact you and if necessary some kind of company history. Try to avoid about us page can be something a little more interesting, maybe Experience is a better as a page title as it illustrates your suitability for the job rather than just being a boring page that no one will read.

Lets consider a graphic design company as an example and say they provide a range of graphic design and printing services. It makes sense to break the graphic design and printing services into their own categories so we allow for future growth.

The following structure provides a homepage, contact us page, experience page and an overview page for graphic design services and printing services. It also breaks the graphic design and printing services down into four individual product pages for each.

1 - Home Page

2 - Graphic Design Services

3 -----> Business Cards

4 ----->Brochures

5 -----> Leaflets

6 -----> Websites

7 - Printing Services

8 -----> Business Cards

9 ----->Brochures

10 -----> Leaflets

11 -----> Websites

12 - Experience

13 - Contact Us

This provides a good basic starting point for

2.2. Why Choose You

The other important aspect to consider when planning site pages is just why your prospect is going to choose you over the competition? Most web browsers will look at several providers so you need to stand out from the crowd and give the client a way to choose you.

Using the graphic design company as a further example it may be prudent to add a further two sections to the site structure. You will want to list previous work and possibly break this down to show work examples for each type of service you provide. You may also want to list your existing clients.

We would expand the above site structure as follows:

1 - Home Page

2 - Graphic Design Services

3 -----> Business Cards

4 ----->Brochures

5 -----> Leaflets

6 -----> Websites

7 - Printing Services

8 -----> Business Cards

9 ----->Brochures

10 -----> Leaflets

11 -----> Websites

12 - Experience

13 - Our Clients

14 - Portfolio

15 -----> Business Cards

16 -----> Brochures

17 -----> Leaflets

18 -----> Websites

19 - Contact Us

The site now lists the services you offer and provides, establishes your history and credibility (experience, clients) and provides examples of all work types to help you stand out from the crowd. This site model will now convince a much higher proportion of site visitors to get in touch and will generate business.

3. Website Content

We have established the content required we now have to go about putting it together. Most sites do not need long (boring) articles (like this one) but you do need to precisely describe your services if you want them to be found.

The exact content required varies for each and every site but if you already have existing company literature then this can usually be adapted to be suitable. Your competitors can usually provide inspiration but it is important to resist the urge to lift and copy their text. Firstly, this is illegal, and secondly, you will not get a page to rank in the search engines unless you have unique content so, make sure it is your own work.

If you absolutely can't do this bit, then there are many reasonable and professional copywriters out there who can help you out. After all, time is money so if you are agonizing over this, then maybe your time is better spent elsewhere and you can get someone in.

4. Building and Managing Your Site

A good website requires a blend of many skills - graphic design, web development, copywriting and photography can all feature heavily. You can of course, learn the skills to do this yourself but whether you do this again is a question of time.

4.1. Website Plan

The best option here is to have a firm grasp of what you require so you can approach a number of web design firms and freelancers to secure the best offer. Before you do this, make sure you have planned the required pages, have written the basic content and have all the supporting images and any other media (portfolio work, pdf price lists etc). You can then supply a document to your web designer detailing the structure

4.2. Website Management

The final option to consider here is site management. Now, with traditional static websites you have no ability to manage the pages or add any additional content. If your content is not subject to frequent changes then maybe this is okay but if you do want to add new pages (services, portfolio, news etc) then you will want to ensure you have the means to do so.

4.3. Content Management

A website which you control is known as a content management system (CMS) and in 2010 there are many affordable options that you can utilise. This can be another sticky area as your web designer many try to massage your requirements into a system that they have experience with.

Some of the more well known web CMS systems are as follows:

• Wordpress - a blogging and content management platform. Easy to use and perfect for smaller sites
• Joomla - a fully fledged content management system. Very flexible and can be used for large sites and portals but has a fairly steep learning curve.

For most sites Wordpress is perfect, it is simple to learn and use and has the added benefit of being free so it should provide cost effective solution.

5. Promoting your Site

Any solid website plan should also consider how the site is going to generate traffic. There are many options available to you and for them to be truly successful you should consider these options whilst planning your site as they may require additional site pages and content.

5.1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Search engine optimisation is the process of improving and promoting your site so that it generates additional website traffic. There is much information available on the internet but the three primary areas are keyword research, content optimisation and link building.

Keyword Research: If you want clients to come to your site, you need to know what they are searching for and to make sure that content is on your site. The Google Keywords Tool provides an easy way to research the keywords associated with your products and services and the number of searches performed for these terms each week.

Content Optimisation: Once you have a list of search terms you will want to optimise your site content to include these phrases where possible. Your page titles (HTML title tag) will need to include the most important terms and the other terms should be sprinkled throughout the text. The primary audience for your text is the potential customers browsing the site so never (never, never, never) write for search engines over people.

Link Building: A website has to meet two criteria to rank well in the search engines. Firstly it must be relevant and secondly it must have an associated value. The relevance and value of your site and its pages is in part determined by the links that point to it.

You should also consider the geographical area you serve. It is much easier to rank for your product or service name when it is combined with the area in which you operate so always factor this in if possible.

5.2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

In addition to SEO we have SEM which primarily covers the process of buying adverts on the search engines. The big schemes to look at here are Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft Adcentre and Google AdWords.

5.3. Offline Marketing

It is all too easy to focus on the search engines to promote your site when there are lots of things you can do to drive traffic to the website that don't include the internet in any way. Look at all opportunities to promote your URL: business cards, advertisements, stationery, business vehicles - the only limit here is your imagination.

6. Summary

I hope that this has opened your eyes a little to some of the aspects involved in planning a website. All to often the focus is on the design and construction when really, that is just a vehicle for the website content and this is what should be considered first and foremost.

With this website planning guide you can identify the pages you need, organise the content in a meaningful way and give some thought to how your content will work to generate you traffic to the website and also how your content will also convince these visitors to pick up the phone and get in touch.

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