The significance of website planning may appear to be low on the priority list at first. Creating a competitive and successful website, on the other hand, is no easy task. By planning a new website, you ensure that you will not overlook a critical step that could make or break your online presence.
1ST Step: Define Your Objectives
If you've decided to build a website, you should already understand why.
Some people create a website to give their business an online presence, while others simply want a place to share their ideas or creativity with the rest of the world. In any case, to achieve your desired outcome, you must first define a specific goal.
The first question to ask yourselves is what the website's intention is. Here are a few examples of website objectives you can be included in your strategy.
· Increasing your business profit – ideal if you're planning e-commerce or online business website.
· Lead generation – suitable for small businesses or affiliate websites
· Readers are informed – this is appropriate for personal websites or those looking to profit from advertisements.
Increasing your sales, for example, sounds great, but how are you going to do it? You'll need to increase website traffic and raise brand awareness. To monetize your personal blog, you will need to drive traffic as well as build a community of people who will follow you regularly.
Setting SMART goals is another simple way to track your progress. The acronym SMART stands for:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
In other phrases, these are relatively small achievable goals related to your main goal that is set in a specific time frame. They are also simple to track because they are not abstract, such as "drive traffic."
Before you begin designing, it is critical to write down all of your goals because they will have a significant impact on the final look and feel of your website.
2nd Step: Conduct research
Photo by Pixabay from PexelsPlanning a new website also entails understanding your target audience and what your competitors are doing to capture their attention.
Creating a user persona is a popular way to define your target audience. This allows you to see how your company can help your customers from their perspective. A user persona is a mythical character who represents a larger customer group. Giving raw user information a face and a name makes it easier to understand and follow.
A persona adds a more personal feel to the general age, location, and stage of life by taking into account the user's personality, interests, dislikes, goals, motivating factors, corporate information, or role in the company.
Once you've determined your target audience, you should investigate the competition. No, we don't mean replicating what they already have. But whatever you intend to do, there is a good chance that someone else is already doing it successfully online.
There are several things you should look for when inspecting your competitors' websites:
· What do you believe is working well for them?
· What else could be done better?
· How frequently do they add new content or items for sale?
· Are there any trends you've noticed on different websites related to your industry?
· Are there any excellent ways you haven't considered?
· Are there any shortfalls that you might be able to fill?
Contrast what you had in mind with what you discovered. Understanding current industry trends will assist you in creating a website that is more useful and appealing to your visitors.
It's also a great place to get some extra ideas.
3rd Step: Establish a budget
Setting a reasonable budget is an essential part of developing a new website. Consider not only the costs associated with the creation and launch of the website but also the ongoing costs, at least for the first couple of years, when preparing your budget.
You should budget for the following initial costs:
· Domain name and hosting
· Design and development of websites
· Designing graphics
· Marketing investigation
· Writing content
The following are some of the ongoing costs associated with website maintenance:
· Domain name and hosting
· Advertising and marketing
· Writing content
· Updating and maintaining
(budget photo)
Photo by linusb4 from FreeImages
4th Step: Choose a domain name and a hosting company
Choosing the right domain name may be one of the most difficult aspects of creating a new website. Particularly if you're on a tight budget.
You'll need a name that is memorable, relevant to your industry, and, most importantly, still available. If you already have a well-known brand, you should be able to incorporate it into your domain.
If the name you want to use is available, that's fantastic. If not, here are some suggestions for coming up with another great name.
· To find out what other people are looking for, conduct a keyword search relevant to what you offer.
· Brainstorm ideas and keywords you like and experiment with different combinations to see how they sound.
· Use a domain name search to see if any of the names you're thinking about are available.
There are a few things you should avoid as well:
· Domain names with more than three or four words are difficult to remember.
· Unless they are part of your brand's name, avoid using numbers and special symbols.
· Unless you are looking for a specific effect, avoid settling for a domain like.co, .live, .online, and so on.
Take your time choosing the best name because it is quite difficult to change it after your website has been established without interfering with your followers' experience (and your SEO).
Once you've decided on a name for your website, you'll need to select a hosting provider.
There are numerous hosting providers available, so you must carefully select the provider and plan that will best meet your needs. If you hire a professional team to design and develop your website, they can offer valuable advice on the best options for you.
Still, if you're going to make the decision yourself, here are a few pointers to help you sort through the options.
What is the plan's capacity for traffic? You may not get a lot of traffic at first, but the strategy should be capable of handling your traffic and leads easily.
Is the plan appropriate for the architecture you have in mind? Your website could have ten pages or ten thousand pages. The storage space provided by the plan should be adequate for the density of pages, product lines, or content you intend to create.
Will you market your products online? There are plans designed specifically for e-commerce websites that include a secure payment system.
Do they offer 24/7 support? You must keep your website operational. If any problems arise, the hosting provider should be able to assist you right away to minimize website outages.
5th Step: Create a Brand Identity
Every website should have its own distinct brand identity. Even if you don't have a physical location, your visitors will need to associate your name with a logo or image.
The brand identity encompasses all assets used to ensure consistency across your website, social media pages, and marketing campaigns. In general, it consists of:
· Logo
· Typography
· Design/template for email and stationary
· Color scheme
· Design of business cards
· Packaging for products
A brand style guide typically compiles conventions for using these elements and others. Working with a graphic designer to create your brand identity will help you stand out, be discovered, and be immediately recognized.
6th Step: Create a Content Strategy
Every website necessitates content. Content is what you express to the world, whether that's a business website or a personal blog.
There is a widespread misconception that content equates to blog posts. However, numerous other types of content can be included on a website:
- Blog posts and articles
- How-and to's guides
- Sales copy
- Inspirational content
- Interviews
- Reviews
- Exemplifications
- Pages dedicated to products
- Updates
- Question and Response
- Images
- Infographics
- Slideshows
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Pages Concerning
- Pages of utility
If you decide to do the work yourself, it's a good idea to create a wireframe to help you stay on track. Select the font style and size that you want to use. Choose a color scheme and image style that you will stick to.
It is desirable to have at least a few examples of content ready before beginning work on the actual design so that they can be used in the design to get an actual feel of the end product.
You would also need to prepare some content ahead of time during the design stage. When launching a website, a month or two's worth of ready-to-publish content is usually a good starting point.
7th Step: Select a Web Designer
When you've finished with the fundamentals, it's time to start thinking about the actual website. When it comes to who will actually create the website, there are several options to consider:
· A large corporation
· A small company
· A self-employed person (Freelancer)
· Yourself
If you want to build the website yourself, there are numerous tutorials available on the internet. WordPress also offers a plethora of free and paid templates to choose from.
However, if you intend to run a business website or one that you intend to monetize, it is best to hire someone to design and set it up. Who you will work with is determined by your personal preferences and budget.
A large agency will be more expensive, but you will be able to rely on a team of professionals to design and develop your website. A small agency, on the other hand, will typically be less expensive, but you should expect a longer design and development process. A small agency, on the other hand, will give you the most attention to detail and a much more personalized experience.
If you decide to work with a freelancer, make sure to look at examples of their prior projects as well as client reference materials.
8th step: Choose a Content Management System (CMS)
The platform on which your website will be built is known as a content management system or CMS. A content management system (CMS) allows you to create, manage, and update your website's content without having to write code.
There are several popular options from which to choose.
· WordPress
· Joomla
· Magento
· Drupal
· Wix
· Squarespace
WordPress is a content management option, and it's almost a requirement if you've decided to build the website yourself. With a market share of 35% of all websites and 62% of all CMS-based websites, it is only natural that it will complement any design concept you may have. Furthermore, most hosting providers provide WordPress support, along with free installation and auto-update.
If you choose another content management system, the developer or designer who is creating the website will be able to walk you through the benefits and drawbacks of each one so you can select the one that best meets your needs.
You can also add many drag-and-drop page builders to WordPress to help you style your content:
9th Step: Floorplan Your Website
When you finally start wondering about website layout, the significance of website arranging will become clear to you. You should have a good idea of what goals you want to achieve by now, and you should have started planning (and ideally prepared) some of your content. You know who your target users are, what your competitors offer them, and what they don't.
With all of this in mind, designing a new website layout becomes much easier.
To make a truly successful website, proper organization is required, allowing for easy and intuitive transformation from one page to the next. To do this, sit down and brainstorm all of the web pages you want with your website. Meanwhile, consider the following:
How many pages are you willing to have in total? A simple website with only a few pages will be simple to create, but if you intend to have a large number of pages, consider organizing them into categories and subcategories.
Which of your pages and/or categories are the most important to you? They should be in your main menu and accessible from every other page.
Conducting a card sorting session is a common method for arranging all pages into place. In essence, write the names of all pages on separate cards and begin grouping them into groups that make sense to your users. These groups could then be transformed into categories and subcategories.
10th step: Plan Your Marketing Approach
There is a good chance that very few people will ever find your website if you do not have a good marketing strategy. SEO is the first step in promoting your website, but it is far from sufficient in today's competitive web environment.
There are three primary methods for marketing a new website:
· Marketing on social media
· Paid to advertise
· Marketing through content
To reach your target audience, the channels that will be used to advertise the website should indeed be carefully chosen. This demonstrates the importance of website planning, as you already know who your user personas are and how much money you have set aside for marketing purposes.
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