Website Planning Structure For Non-Tecky Exposed
How To Plan A Business Web Site That Works – A Cost-Saving Blueprint For Business Owners
Having a plan for your website is considered by web experts as being the most important piece of building a successful web site. In this blog post we explain the importance of planning your web site and how to save money getting a website.
This is Part 1 of a three-part series of articles designed to help you understand the website planning process.
Are you thinking about starting a website or a blog for your business?
One of the most important decisions you have to make is if you should build your web site yourself, or get someone else to help create your site.
Both choices have pros and cons. Whatever option you select will depend on many factors such as:
- Your budget
- How much time you have available
- Your priorities
- Level of urgency
- Your level of technical skill
- Your level of commitment to supervise and manage the project
- etc …
If your budget is limited and you want to save money, you could decide to develop the web site yourself, but it goes without saying that you will then need to invest some time figuring out how to put things together.
Website Planning Structure – What You Need To Know First
Whether you decide to build a website yourself or get someone to build it for you, the first crucial step is to plan your website. In this article we explain why planning your website is important and what to do before you spend your money getting a website built for your small business.
The planning is regarded by many online marketing experts as being the most important step of the entire process of getting your website for your business. Careful planning in the early stages of your business development process helps to avoid costly mistakes later and results in a better end product.
Below, we have compiled a comprehensive primer for non-technical users aimed at helping you better understand the process of planning a website for your business. We will also cover what to do and what not to do when planning a website or blog, and give you tips on how to brief your website designer to ensure that you end up with a website that will perfectly meet your budget, suit your needs and deliver you the type of results you expect.
Important: Before even thinking of setting up a website or registering a domain name for your digital business, it is absolutely important that you first do a little market research.
Building a successful digital presence requires more than just having a professional web site set up. It requires in addition to many other things, a commitment to develop and implement an ongoing online marketing strategy.
The Website Planning Structure Simplified
So … you have decided that you need a website.
Let’s start, then, with an overview of the website planning process.
Study the process chart below, and let’s work step-by-step through the information on this page together.
Once you have downloaded and printed out the flowchart, grab some paper and a pen, or whatever you use to take notes, so you can write down your thoughts and ideas as we take you through the process. Also, make sure that you will not have any distractions over the next 30-35 minutes.
Step 1 – Website Goals
Regardless of the kind of website you are planning to build, the first step is to define clear goals for your web site and make these goals as specific as possible.
Ask the following questions:
- What kind of web site am I planning to build? Will it be a professional services website, a portfolio site, a personal blog, or some other kind of website?
- What specific objectives do you want to achieve with the website?
For example, your goal could be to:
- Sell products or services online – you might want an e-commerce site. Depending on your needs, this could also include the addition of a private product download area that only customers can access.
- Build a list of subscribers – you may need a simple site built with a “squeeze” page (landing page), or a direct sales letter where all online visitors get directed towards,
- Have a services site that will help build credibility and trust for your professional services or brand, post news, announcements and updates, etc.
- Get more exposure online for your existing business – you might need to build a blog built on a separate domain, or added to your existing website to provide tips or training information to existing and potential customers, or help grow your authority and expertise in your target market.
- Or something else …
Record whatever goals you want your web site to help you achieve on your worksheet, a blank sheet of paper, or wherever you are recording this information.
Once your goals have been written down, go through your list and pick the goal that is most important to you.
Write this goal down in your planning sheet (in “Your Website Goals” section) as “Goal 1“.
Now, review your list and repeat this process to find two more goals and write these down in your process chart as “Goal 2” and “Goal 3“.
You’ve probably heard the old business saying “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.”
But, what if you already can’t manage?
Building a website is going to pile on a ton of extra responsibilities on your plate.
Your website planning process is an integral aspect of your business marketing planning processes. It’s important, therefore, that you continually refer to your marketing plan to make sure that you have the resources and capabilities available to implement the strategies to help you achieve your goals.
So, with this in mind, do the following right now:
After deciding on at least 1-3 goals and written these down in your planning chart, return to “Goal 1” and ask yourself this question: “how will I measure this goal?”
In other words, how are you going to quantify and review your results? How will you know if your site is helping you achieve your objectives?
For example, your website’s goal could be getting a certain number of leads every week through your site’s contact form, or signing up “X” numbers of opt-in subscribers per campaign, etc …
Also, think about the resources and costs associated with managing the process of monitoring your goals. If you need to, revise your business plan to accommodate your findings.
Note: Keep your goals as flexible as possible at this stage, so you can adjust these as more feedback is collected from your website.
Step 2 – Naming Your Site
Once you have clearly identified your site’s goals, the next step is to come up with an appropriate name for your website.
This is an important step of the website planning process, so take your time and think carefully about coming up with a good name for your site.
Brainstorm your ideas or mastermind with others. Contact a few customers (or potential customers if you haven’t launched your business yet) and get their input.
Try to think beyond just the name of your company, especially if your business name isn’t something that immediately brings up your products or services to mind. Remember, most online users have probably never heard about you.
Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer. Who would be searching online for the very thing your company sells? What would they be typing into a search engine or browser to find you? Once you know this, try to come up with a name that would entice your potential clients.
Note: You can be creative and clever with the name, but try to avoid being “too creative”. the same can be said about choosing a catchy, memorable or a stand out name. You can have a fun or quirky name, but it’s best to try and avoid web site names that may sound offensive (and definitely stay away from trademarked or registered names or phrases – you’ll just be inviting trouble!)
If you go online, you can easily find out what other companies in your industry or niche are naming their sites. Study your competitors, especially sites that occupy the search results that you would like your site to come up in.
For example, if you are thinking of starting a cooking blog, a quick online search for “cooking blog” reveals a number of great site names like: “Smitten Kitchen”, “Cooking With Amy”, “A Chef’s Daughter”, “Worth The Whisk” and more …
So … this is the time to get inspired. Make a big list of names and then start narrowing the list down.
Once you have narrowed your list of names down to the best contenders, repeat the same process as above to create a description, tagline or unique value proposition for your website.
Make your description concise and inform the reader with as few words as possible what the site is all about. For example, in one of the food blogs we came across while searching online, the site description was “Fast, Fresh, and Simple Recipes Easy Enough for Tonight’s dinner.”
Including keywords in your website’s name and description can also be useful.
Once you have completed this step, the next step is to look at your domain name. If you plan to add a blog to your existing web site and decide that this blog should have its own domain name, then register a new domain name for your site.
There are different strategies you can use to register domains for your web site. For example, you can register keyword-rich domain names (i.e. domains that contain the keyword phrase you would like to rank well for in the search engines), expired domain names (domains that the previous owner has decided not to renew and that can be registered again, other top level domain names and domain name extensions, etc.)
Tip: Subscribe to our site for cost-effective strategies on registering domains and tips on developing and implementing a successful digital marketing strategy.
Step 3 – Managing Your Web Technology
Once you have settled on a name and description for your website, the next step is to create a clear plan to manage the technology that is going to host, support and drive your online business vehicle.
We strongly encourage you to consider getting your website built with WordPress.
WordPress is not only a robust platform to build a website with, but it is also easy-to-manage and great for non-technical users.
WordPress is also the world’s most popular CMS platform, and, as you can see below, WordPress powers almost 50% of the world’s CMS-driven websites.
A WordPress website is ideal for publishing your content and communicating with users and potential clients.
A website or blog built using the WordPress platform allows you to better interact with site visitors, and makes things like posting content, special offers, promotions, news and announcements about your product or services, company or industry very easy, even if you have little to no technical web skills. No coding is, in fact, required to publish content on a WordPress site, and managing essential tasks like backups and software upgrades can easily be automated.
In fact, many businesses no longer use a traditional website built using traditional website building applications. More sites are now being powered with “blogging” software like WordPress, which can provide businesses and their users with all of the functions and capabilities of a regular website.
If you would like to have better management and control of your business online and don’t have the time, need or desire to learn technical “web coding” languages such as HTML, then we recommend that you consider using a WordPress-powered business website or blog.
Website Hosting & Website Management
In addition to using to build your website or blog using the WordPress CMS platform, you should also plan how you are going to host your site, and if you are going to outsource your website or blog management to someone else, or manage your own website or blog.
We use and recommend WordPress for most business applications, and we provide more information about the benefits of using WordPress and information on areas like domain name registration, finding a good host and website management in other articles on this site.
Step 4 – Your Target Audience
Once you have completed the initial planning steps above, then it’s time to define who your target audience will be.
Key information about your target audience includes the following:
- Demographics
- Needs and wants
- What kind of problems your target audience is facing, or will experience in the future
- How they like to consume information
- How they view themselves
- What they may expect from you or your business
It’s important to try and create as accurate a profile of your target website visitors as possible. Try to picture the actual person that you will be communicating directly with and presenting your information to.
Begin this process by asking important questions, like:
- Who is your ideal reader for your website?
- What kind of information will users be looking for on your website?
- What problems and difficulties are your users going to experience that you will help them solve online? What types of solutions are people searching online for these issues?
- Is your target audience technology-savvy? How does your audience consume digital information? Does your audience prefer videos to images and text? Do they need downloadable content (e.g. price lists, schedules, timetables)? Do you need to create visual, audio or multimedia content regularly in order to engage your target audience?
- Where are they located? Do geographic location and factors like education, religion or income level affect the success of your business? If so, what segments of the population will your website or blog be marketing to and how will you find these demographics online?
- How does your target audience see themselves? Who do your target users interact online with? What magazines and books are they reading? What else do they buy, or consume online?
- What will your visitors expect from your site? What kind of information are you willing to provide online for free or for a fee? What kind of information will you not be providing to them for free?
Having the ability to define your website’s key target audience is an important step in the website planning process and it will help you communicate better with your web developer and everyone else assisting you in developing your website, and ensure that you get the exact type of website that you want.
If you don’t have access to accurate research information about your target audience, then start with your “best guess” based on your experience and research.
Also, try not to narrow your criteria too much. You could be going after a niche that is just too small, or an online opportunity that may not be sustainable.
Finally, unless you plan to build a portal website and have the resources to do so, avoid trying to make your website or blog appeal to an audience that is just too broad, or you’ll just end up putting yourself in an untenable position when it comes to developing and implementing an effective content strategy for your site, as you will see when we continue exploring the website planning process in another section.
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This is the end of Part 1
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WordPress is huge and can sometimes be overwhelming about where to start. As you move on to the next Page, you will have a clearer picture of how to design a website planning structure to build a professional website
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Typically, most websites have a home page that acts as the virtual “reception desk” of your business and greets all visitors who arrive on your site via the front door.
There are loads of great things about using the WordPress web publishing tool to build and manage your digital presence. One of these is that you can easily add content, expand your site’s functionality and rearrange your site’s layout with no coding skills and knowledge required.
For the types of content you can add into your Post, see the “Types Of Content You Can Add To WordPress Posts” section above.
You can add new tags to your posts by typing in your comma separated tags into the “Tags” box and clicking the Add button …
If you link other WordPress blogs, they’ll be notified automatically using pingbacks. For blogs that don’t recognize pingbacks, you can send a trackback to the blog by entering the website address(es) in this box, and separating each address with a space.
Custom Fields are normally used in conjunction with WordPress plugins, but you can manually edit the information added by plugins to your post in this section.
The post slug is a user-friendly post URL address created from the post title …
Note: This section only displays on your post if you have multiple registered users on your site with authoring rights. For a detailed tutorials on managing WordPress users, go here: 
