Tips for planning your new website

Setting up your website really isn't as simple as getting a few nice pictures and throwing a bit of text together - the content needs to be considered and carefully put together - after all the aim of your website is to develop your image and get you more business. So what are the very basics of a well thought out website and what determines how well it will work?

Firstly you should consider taking the time to write a short brief for your website project. This is potentially important so you (and your web designer/developer) have a very clear idea of what your are aiming to achieve with your website. It will help you to gather the information for your website and plan out the key aspects of the project/site.

The website brief should:

Identify the objectives of your website - be it attracting new customers, developing your brand, promoting services or selling online. Without a clear strategy your website is not going to add value to your business.

Identify your target market - this will help tailor the look and feature set to best match your customers needs and ensure you get the right message across.

Identify your position in the market - Look at how you compare with competitors and how you can differentiate your product or service, your unique selling point (USP).

Set out your business proposition - Refine your message to a clear and concise sentence that sums up what you do in simple language. This can be used as a starting point for the design and copy-writing and is also important for achieving a good search engine ranking and getting users to click your link.

Outline your branding needs - Do you have existing branding or is a new identity required? Include any style preferences and examples of other sites you like.

Outline technical requirements - It's important that you decide what features the site will need early in the project. Decide whether you require a straightforward promotional "brochure" website or a more advanced "dynamic" site with bespoke features built to meet your business needs such as newsletter signup, shopping cart, product database, or a news blog. You should only add features that improve your site and consider what resources will be required to support them going forward. E.g. will you need to updated the site frequently requiring a content management system (CMS)?

Provide well considered content -The content is the most important part of your website, it is what your customers want to see and will influence their impression of your company more than design or features. Well formatted text which contains key words and phrases relevant to your business are also very important in achieving a high ranking in a search engine like Google. Gather all the relevant images, text, documents and website links that will be needed for the design and content.

Consider website promotion - Your website will only succeed in attracting customers if they get to see it! Consider how you will promote the new website at launch and drive customers to your site.

Just remember it's YOUR website, and not an off the shelf product, so the more thought and planning you put in to the content at the start the more successful the website will be!

If you need any more help in deciding where best to start don't hesitate to give us a call on 094 93 82000.