How to Plan your Website

How to Plan your Website

Do you know why you want a website and what that website is going to do for you/your business?

The first stage in building your site is deciding What do you want the Website to Do?

This may seem a pretty obvious question but it is often a question that most website owners never seem to ask themselves. It is also probably the main reason why many website owners are unhappy with their website performance.

So before you begin make sure you ask yourself these questions.

• Why do I want a website?
  
• Will I need to update the site frequently?
  
• Will I sell products from the website?
  
• Will I use the website to attract new customers?
  
• Will the website simply be a brochure for the company?
  
• What will my website visitors expect to see?
  
• Will I have private parts of the site?
  
• Will I publish a newsletter?
  
• How much am I prepared to pay?
  
• Will I be doing it myself?
   
  

Website Research

For business Websites it is important to target the right keywords. You need to to be aware of what search terms searchers will use to find the service/product that your site offers.

Building it Yourself or Outsourcing

Once you have a general idea of what you want from your website you can then move on to the second stage of deciding who will be doing what.

As with any project you can either:

Do it Yourself or Have someone do it for you or a mixture of the two.

Generally speaking outsourcing will mainly be considered by business website owners but is an option regardless of website type- business or personal.

 Outsourcing doesn't necessary just mean getting someone to do some work for you. It can, and often does, mean buying a package/service that does the work.

This is very common and even very experienced webmasters do this. As an example if you want a to establish a newsletter and your host doesn't provide one or the one it provides is inadequate you can either write one your self or use an existing autoresponder service.

Your level of expertise and how much time you are willing to commit will determine to a great extent how much you will outsource. Generally the more technically capable you are and the more time you can devote then the more you can do yourself.

Website Types

In general there are three site types:

• Business Websites (includes non profit/charity sites)- For existing businesses wanting a website
  
• Website businesses- For new website owners wanting to build a website as a business (i.e. to make money from). Although the technical details are much the same as for other site types there is an additional level of research involved in the site planning. This is covered in more detail in Building an online business with niche websites
  
• Personal Websites- For individuals/clubs who want a site