Planning your website

Planning all aspects of a website, from design to functionality to content is essential to its success.

When planning a website for the first time, it is quite easy to get carried away and only think of the design aspect of the website, your personal tastes and all the cool functionalities you have seen on other websites, without thinking of the most important aspect: your users and the goal you want to achieve with your website.

For example, you may decide you absolutely need a visually striking Flash website with a lot of visual effects, a fancy navigation system, and your favourite music playing in the background.

If you are an artist or a photographer, or a nightclub owner then this might well be a great choice, and will provide your visitors with a great user experience.

However if you are a health therapist and your intended client base is mostly elderly people with limited internet knowledge, they may well be confused within a few seconds of visiting your site and leave to never return.

Some things to think about when planning a website:

What is your goal with the website?

Having a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your website is the foundation of a successful site.

Example of goals:

• To sell your line of designer dresses to people in the uk
• To get more clients to consult you for hypnotherapy sessions
• To educate people on the benefits of healthy living
• To get more people to book your villa in Spain

Once you have a goal set for your website, it is important to always focus on this goal when making decisions about the design, the content and the functionalities of the website, and choose the options that are most likely to help you achieve that goal.

Your target Audience

This is one of the most important things to think about when planning your website. You need to identify the type of people that you want to visit your site, or to use your services, and keep their needs in mind when you plan the design and the content of the website with your web designer, in order to appeal to that audience. This will ensure your visitors stay on your site, and do not leave straight away within a few seconds of visiting your website for the first time.

Think about a typical visitor to your site (or a typical client/customer):

• How old are they?
• What is their gender?
• What are their interests?
• What type of job do they have, how much do they earn?
• Where do they live?
• How good are they with computers?
• What to they want to do when visiting your site?

Different user groups have different tastes, and having a clear idea of who typical visitors to your site are will help your web designer come up with a design that your visitors will like.

It will also help you plan the content of your website to be interesting and appealing to your target audience, and help you achieve your goal.

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