Website Planning Guide

Download this article Website planning guide

The internet today is everywhere. But is your business online yet? If so…that’s great! But…is it working for you? If not, why not?

Many businesses have not yet shown up on the web simply because the concept of a web site is too intimidating for them. But you can’t continue to let that hold you back. You’re in business, and that means you’re in competition with others, Your competition is probably already online. If they’re not, they soon will be… so you need to be, too… and the longer you wait, the further behind you’ll fall. Done properly, this effort should definitely be worth your time. We can help you every step of the way.

Before you jump in and start organising your website, you need to have a detailed strategic plan. You need to know exactly what the purpose of your site is before you start because this will affect every aspect of your site, from the content to the navigation.

A good strategic plan contains the following:

What are your business objectives? Who is your target market? What makes you stand out from your competitors?

Why do you need a website? How will you achieve your objectives? Budget - how much you can afford to spend?

This is the most important decision you will make throughout the process of getting your business online. If you choose a good web design company the process will be easy and hassle-free and your website will meet all your business needs.

It is extremely important to choose a professional web design company who know what they are doing. Check out there portfolio and even ask to speak with some of their clients to get some feedback on how they work.

Once you have a website, your most valuable business asset will be your domain name, or web address. This is how your website will be found on the Internet, so it is a very important consideration. Check out our article on what is a domain name?

Depending on the purpose of your site, there are particular tools that you will need to have on your website to achieve your outcomes. For example, if you want to:

• Get more customers - you will need tools such as photo gallery, article listing, Flash header and a blog to draw traffic to your site and build your brand.
• Make more money - you will need tools such as a shopping cart to make sales online.

After your website has been thoroughly tested, your website development company will set it live. This means that your business is actually online and your customers can start using your site.

Once your site is live, you need to promote your website so people know where to find it. Here are four ways to market your website:

• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) – many people will find your website through search engines such as Google, so you need to get your site ranked high in their search listings. Check out our article on search engine optimisation
• Email marketing – a great way to promote your website is to send regular email campaigns to your database of contacts. You can give them updates and special offers to encourage them to visit your site and to tell their friends about it. You can also have a sign-up form on your website to add prospects to your database.
• Offline advertising – you need to include your website address in all your offline promotions to ensure that your prospects are aware of it. Mention it in all your print, radio and television advertising and on all your business documents, such as brochures and invoices.
• Pay-per-click advertising – When you do a search using Google, you will see some links on the right-hand side of the screen. These are sponsored links which have been paid for by advertisers. Just like Google’s normal search results, sponsored links will match the keywords you searched for. However, with Adwords you get to choose which keywords your ad should appear for. As well as appearing on Google’s search results page, Adwords ads also appear on relevant websites and blogs.

If you would like help with your website contact us