Planning Your Web Site

To avoid surprises during the design phase and stay within budget, you and the designer must have a clear understanding of what your new website should be like.

Define Goals And Strategy What is the purpose of your new website? Who do you want to reach? What do you want the site visitors to do, and how do we get them to do this?

Set Budgets How much can you spend on the design and implementation? How much can you spend on monthly promotion and site maintenance?

Perform Competitive Analysis And Industry Research What do the websites of competitors have to offer? How are competitors’ sites structured? What do competitors’ sites look like? Are there any industry sites that can be linked to for additional content or news? What trends do websites in the industry follow?

Define Site Structure How many branches and layers should the site structure have? What is the total number of pages? How many product groups and products is the site going to feature?

Review Possible Site Content What copy and graphics are available? What needs to be created? Who will create additional content? Is a product list available electronically (online stores)?

Define Look & Feel Preferences What color scheme(s) do you like? Are there any specific company colors? What fonts is your company using? What style of graphics to you like? What should the navigational interface look like? What should other page elements look like? Which multimedia effects are desired?

Define How We Work Together Who in your organization is the interface to provide the necessary materials and make decisions?

Search for Possible Domain Names What easy-to-remember Domain Names should we search for? If the desired Domain Name is not available, can it be acquired through a broker?

Define Where And How The Site Is Going To Be Hosted What are the requirements for hosting the new site? Do you already have an Internet Service Provider, or web hosting infrastructure in place? (see also “Deploying and Hosting”)

Mossinger Consulting guides you through the process of planning your website, resulting in exact specifications for the design phase.

Our FREE Web Design Planning Worksheet covers all the basics of planning your website. Download it today, fill it out, and fax it to 510-792-9299. We will contact you shortly!