A collection of websites

Planning your website

Start-out in the right way on the Internet and you’ll achieve success much faster.

Here’s a simple tried and tested step-by-step guide to help you plan your website.

A collection of websites

The Basics

Every website is a combination of:

  • content
  • design
  • technology
  • and (much more subtle) credibility

Balance and synergy of these four elements gives your site a head start on the competition.

Know your Audience

Right from the start think about your visitors, your people, your tribe.

Who are they? Ages? Genders? How are you going to offer them something they want?

Have a Clear Theme

Your website needs to flow from your mission. At least it should have a clear theme or subject.

Be Credible

Most websites (yours included) require certain pages in order to be credible. These pages include:

  • home – a welcome message, introduction, links to products and services, call to action
  • about – aims and mission, history, who’s-who, principles and values statements
  • contact – all the ways your customers can contact you; telephone, email, postal mail
  • terms of use – includes the copyright statements and disclaimers notices
  • privacy policy – a statement about your commitment to keeping personal information confidential.

Of course, the above list does not apply to a one-page CV or PR site.

Your products, services, messages, articles, insights, testimonials, picture galleries, video sections, feedback forms, shopping carts etc. will also need pages too.

Talk to Search Engines

Keep on-topic and make your pages relevant to your main subject. Use deep-links to connect articles and pages together.

Search engines like it if you also have a sitemap and special ‘robots.txt’ file.

Think Community

Over recent years ‘Community‘ has become an increasingly important and relevant factor to consider. Particularly this aspect is covered by having a Facebook and Twitter presence.

Keep it Simple!

Remember to follow the 10 principles of online success. The primary one being, ‘keep it simple‘.

Make a Plan

Plan your content, your messages and how you want your visitors, followers, clients, customers, fans and friends to interact with you.

Keep it Fresh

Keep adding and expanding your offering. Don’t let it become stale.

Think Long-term

Maintain a long-term vision for your website. Allow it to grow for at least five to ten years. Longevity is a powerful influence on credibility.

Keep Focused

Remain confident and determined. Just keep building your website and it will grow and develop it’s own character.

Share the Story

Tell others about your website, your services, your blog, your offers. That way they will know to keep checking the site for new content.

Review Regularly

Regularly review your visitor statistics and the pages they are looking at and using. What number of contacts come via the site? Try to create content to increase the traffic, click-throughs, contacts, sales, newsletter sign-ups, etc.

The above is a quick guide to help you in thinking through your site.

Contact Tusler Design to get your website designed and online working for you.