Before even thinking about designing your website there are a number of questions we must ask and answer in order to determine our goal. What do you want out of your website? Look at ourentry page. At the very begining, we're telling you what we want out of this website. It's plain, clear and simple.
First: Decide on your target.
Knowing who you are trying to attract to your website is the key
to success. If you are selling Grandfather Clocks you want to be
able to target the customer that's looking for a Grandfather Clock.
Getting a customer to your website that's interested in
photography isn't going to do you any good. Decide "who" you
want coming to your site.
Remember these words. They are the basis of what we need to create your website.
Who, What, Where, When, How and K.I.S.S.
Second: What do you want your Website to do?
Just sit down a moment and start thinking. We need you to tell us what you are trying to convey to your potential customer or client. Are you looking for direct online sales, are you looking to educate, or are you looking to just put your name out in front of your competition for future sales or service?
Whether it's a blog, a newsletter or point of sale, etc. You must
decide "what" you want. Write down any and all ideas that come
to you regardless of how simple or far fetched they may be. We'll
take this list and by process of elimination, between the both of us,
come up with a realistic number of ideas that we can work with.
If the content is poor and you are not conveying the proper
information to your potential customer or client, then all the rest is
for naught. You can have all the bells and whistles you want and
not be able to convey your message.
Third: Where are we going with this website?
This question is a little more technical. If you're business is interior designing you want your website to pop up when someone is looking for an Interior Designer not necessarily when they are looking for an Electrician.
Therefore "where" in this case means, in what categories
your website will be opening. As an Interior Designer some
categories you may want are: "decorating & interior design",
"residential interior design", "home interior design", "interior
design ideas", etc.
Listing any and all words or topics, that you can think of, that
are related to your business is imperative. These keywords
are just that, one of the "keys" to helping your website open up in any and/or all of those categories. Although "keywords" are not as important, and some search engines don't even use them, they are still being used by some search engines, therefore still important enough to utilize.
Fourth: When do you want to go online?
Set a realistic timetable for yourself. There is a lot of preparation
that needs to be done before we're even ready to start designing
the layout. You are the one that must put the information
together in order for us to take that and write the text for your
pages. If we are including images, whether they be photographs,
drawings, maps, etc. you are the only one that can give us what
we need to prepare for the site.
Fifth: Layout and design.
This is the "how" in our equation. How we put all this together
is the actual layout and design of the website. This part is
mostly up to us. Once we have all of the information that
we need we start the mechanics of putting it all together.
We'll create a rough layout, present it to you and modify it
so that we're both satisfied with the final product.
Which takes us to our next step.
Sixth: K.I.S.S.
Keep it Simple Stupid. Need I say more. Unless your website
is geared to the technically savy viewer, remember that the
average browser has only limited technical expertise.
"It is evidently proven that more people are attracted to simpler built
websites, as opposed to those which are heavily filled with images,
sounds, animations, etc." This according to the
Small Business Bible.
