Planning
What do you want from your website?
As the old adage goes “Fail to plan and you plan to fail!” so spending time planning what you want your site to do, what you’d like it to look like and where you might want to take it in the future is time well spent.
What you want your site to achieve for you is important in many ways:
- You can plan how to assess that achievement’s success (ROI – Return on Investment).
- From there you will have tangible milestones or goals for the site that are measurable.
- It will help you focus on and more fully understand the visitors you are targeting.
- That understanding will help us design with your visitor or client base in mind.
Defining your USP (Unique Selling Points)
Once you have a deeper understanding of what your prospective or existing clients or visitors want from you, it is easier to assess what makes you stand out from the competition in their minds. In other words, why they would choose you over others in the same marketplace.
Refining your Keyword Strategy
Those aspects of your business that make you attractive to customers will probably be the keywords or phrases they will using when searching for a business like yours. These words, such as ‘reliable’, ‘trustworthy’, ‘affordable’, ‘licensed’, ‘registered’ are as important to your Keyword Strategy as more obvious terms such as your postcode, geographical area covered, your trade, goods or services, qualifications and affiliations.
Developing your USP
Now that you have refined your understanding of your visitors, it is time to combine that with your Keyword Strategy and putting yourself in their shoes.
- What information would help them make the decision to choose you or your business?
- How can you provide that information on your site?
- Who are your competitors?
- What can your site offer that there’s does not?
- Are you able to identify influencers who might refer the right kind of visitors to your site?
- How can you add value to your offering?
Reflecting Your Personality
How can your website reflect your personality or that of your business?
Many people hate having their photo taken, but if people are trading with you in some way it helps if they feel they already know you from your web site.
If your personality, or that of your business, align with their values you stand a better chance of them choosing to work with you.
The About page, where you outline who and what you are as an individual or a business, can be a deal-maker or a deal-breaker when there is not much to choose from between you and the local competition.
Futureproof
If you have plans to develop aspects of your site in the future it is important to mention this at the outset so those plans can be taken into consideration even in the initial stages.
It is a lot easier to build in provision for future expansion from the outset than it is to rebuild the entire site to accommodate something at a later date.
See our Functionality document.
Design and Desire
Your site should appeal to your visitor’s aspirations as well as their expectations. Think about which other web sites they are likely to visit and what they have come to expect from them.
If you have regular articles of interest, you may want to build in a regular newsletter to keep your clients or customers in the loop.
Spend time creating, or searching for, interesting and attractive images for your site.
Managing Your Site
Once your site is built, consider who will manage the site content, backup, security, orders, emails and social media.
The chances are that you want a web site in order to achieve a particular goal. If that goal is simply to have an online brochure with a contact form then you need do very little other than apply updates as soon as they become available.
If your plan involves increasing the number of products you sell or clients you attract then you may have to be more active in terms of content management, stock management and visitor engagement.
What if Your Site is Too Successful?
Yes, that can happen. If you have to turn away clients or orders, how can you still keep them happy? This is especially important when those customers may have helped you build your business by promoting you to others, only to find you are no longer available to work for them or process their order.
