Bright Ideas #96 - Website Planning Basics

Before you build a house, you would decide how many bedrooms you want. And whether you want a professional chef’s kitchen, a rec-room for the kids, a guest suite, a formal dining room, an open floor plan, etc.

You’d make these decisions based on your needs. Got a big family with more on the way? You need a six bedroom with three baths. Retired with no kids and a business? A nice two bedroom with an office might be ideal.

Once you have an idea of what you want, you’d hire an architect draw up plans to meet your needs. Finally, you’d hire contractors to build the house from the plans.

Good plan equals good house.

No plan equals a crazy house with weird shaped rooms, a funky layout, and odd, unusable space. And good houses sell a whole lot easier than crazy houses.

The same thing holds true for your Website.

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How do you plan an effective Website?
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First, just like with a house, you have to know what you need. So start by asking yourself…

> What is the purpose of my site?

> What is the purpose of each page on the site?

> What questions or concerns would prospect have when they visit the site?

> What content do I have to put on my site?

> What content do I need to put on my site to answer all the questions,
address all the concerns, and achieve my purpose and goals?

> If I could build the site of my dreams, what would that include? Don’t hold back here. Because you don’t have to build the whole site at once. But you do need to plan your small site for future growth. Otherwise you’ll be in for a costly remodel down the road.

Next, you need to create a site plan (or flowchart) that shows exactly what pages you will have, and how they will be connected. That way you can be sure people are able to find what they want quickly, easily and intuitively.

Start with your home page at the top, then put your main pages below that. Then add the secondary and tertiary pages below those, connecting them with lines to indicate links.

Keep in mind that your site visitors should be able to find what they want within two clicks off the home page. With a site map you can ensure you’re reaching that goal.

Finally, you need to storyboard each of your pages (basically sketch them out) to make sure key links and pieces of information are front and center…And more importantly, that they are visible on screen when someone first opens your site.

Because although people absolutely do scroll if they are interested in what’s there, you can’t count on it. So if something isn’t immediately visible it may never get seen.

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A few final words of Website planning advice
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As you’re planning your Website, always keep in mind one thing…

It’s not all about you, your business, and what you do or offer. It’s about your customer, and what they want and need. Because in order to meet your business goals, you have to give your customers what they need first.

So before you start planning, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Make it easy for them find what they are after quickly. And make sure you give them all the information they need to confidently do business with you.

Do that, and you’ll be well on your way towards Website success—and sales!

©2002-2006 Success Stream. All Rights Reserved. www.success-stream.com

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