If you are planning to launch a new web site, or upgrade your existing one, there are certain questions you need to find the answers to. The answers to these questions will determine a significant amount of what your site will do, what it will look like, and how much it will cost. They will shape your plan,  Way too often, very little time is spent on this phase of a project, resulting in too many time-consuming, costly changes as the project develops. Although we believe in flexibility and the ability to take advantage of opportunities when they appear, we also strongly advocate a well thought out plan before starting any web site project. In this section, we’ll examine some of the issues and concerns to consider when developing a plan for your web site.
 

Considerations Prior to Developing Your Site

The very first step in developing a web site is to step back a bit and think about what you really want from it and why.

• What domain name would you like? Is it available? If not, what alternative names are available? If you find one you like that is available, register it.
• What type of site do you have in mind?
• What purpose will your web site serve?
• What benefits do you expect to get from it?
• What design considerations should be incorporated?
• What functions do you want it to be able to perform?
• What options would you like to see, cost permitting?
• What steps are involved in development?
• By when does it need to be done?
• What long term plans do you have for this site?
   

Planning Your Site’s Structure

The structure of your site refers to its main sections and the sub sections within each main section. This organization should be logical and intuitive so visitors understand where they are and where to go when looking for information contained on your site.

1. List the main sections
2. Make a tree diagram with each main section as a spoke from the home page hub
3. Fill in the sub sections for each main section. Note that several subsections can be combined into one page if needed.
4. Convert the tree diagram into an outline.
    

It’s all About Content

Content is king. The Web is all about content. Your web site’s content must provide the information you want to convey, yet be interesting and to the point so your visitors don’t get bored and leave. Select your content based on your purpose. The medium you select to deliver the content should be based on the desired effect. Media choices include text, graphics, photos, animations, video, and audio. Sites will contain most types of media.

Content can be derived from:

• Converting existing marketing materials for web use
• Brochures
• Product Catalogs
• Promotional or Instructional videotapes
• Press Releases
• Radio or TV ads
• Creating new materials optimized for the web
• Verbal sales pitches
• Customer feedback quotes
• Before/After photos
• Digital photos of staff, office, product line

Regardless of the media selected to deliver content, keep it short and to the point. Web surfers preferences are not the same as those of newspaper readers. Recent studies indicate web surfers want their content short, concise, and to the point. The average time they spend on a web page is 20 seconds. You need to get to the high points quickly and attract their interest with precise, high-quality, interesting photos and graphics. The accompanying text should be short and to the point.
 

Prioritizing

Much as we would like, we can’t have everything. The same is true with web sites. It is important to get into the habit of prioritizing site section and features. You should designate the web site features in your plan as must-have, desired, optional if pricing is right, or future feature to be considered as part of an upgrade. This allows you to structure the web site in a way that fits both your needs and your budget.
 

Once it’s on the Internet

Even during the planning stage, questions need to be addressed involving what happens with the site once it has been published and is running properly. You’ll need to consider the following post-deployment status questions when planning your site:

• What is involved in maintaining your web site?
• How do you plan to market your site?
• What methods and media?
• At what cost?
• What results are you looking for?
• What new features do you eventually plan to add to the site? Create a tentative expansion list and timetable
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Long Term Thinking

Remember to simultaneously develop a long term plan that takes into consideration changes in your business that need to be reflected in your web site (New products, staff, location, product line, shift to onlline ordering, etc.) Doing a long term plan at this stage allows for more flexible design that can better accommodate future expansion and effectively minimize additional costs. Your plan should also include long term ideas, featuring even a wish list. Although these may not be incorporated into the original site, knowing about them will help the design team adjust to make their future inclusion in subsequent phases smoother, seamless, and less costly.
 

Web Site Planning Checklist

To assist you in thinking about your web site in terms that translate well into a working plan, we have included a Site Planning Checklist on this site. Though not definitive, it should provide you with a road map for planning that can help facilitate the process and allow you to better anticipate and accommodate the problems that may arise during the development and deployment of your new web site.