Planning your Business Website

With all the hype of the Internet it is easy to understand how every business wants to go online. Before you make this decision though, you should really spend some time thinking if this is best for you business. Will the Internet help your business meet its objective? Are you prepared to spend the extra resource needed to maintain this medium? (There is not point having a website which is outdated, a website needs to have as much up-to-date information as possible.)

This requires hiring a web design or developers to maintain your website, even if you have the expertise to do it yourself it can be time consuming. Read the “Are you ready for a website article” to see if your business is really ready to go into cyber space!

Once you have decided that having your business on the Internet is the way to go you should invest time in developing a plan. You should consider the overall layout of your website. How will the links be grouped? Who will maintain the website and what material do you want to be included on your website?

Website Planning Process

From my experience as both a client and a web designer, planning is the most crucial part of getting your business online. If you can effectively plan your website it will save you money (LOTS). If you decide to choose a designer, it will avoid a halt in the designing/developing process and probably most importantly it will enable your business to work for you quicker.

So spend the time pre-planning your website and before you find a web designer or web developer. I have outlined some of the things you should consider (and take to your designer) below:

Business Identity

• Name of the business
• Company Tagline or Slogan
• Nature of the business
• Who is the target market?

Your Home Page: - Your home page of you website should "engage" the viewer quickly. It should

• Load quickly. Don't place large graphics or heavy amount of texts on the home page of your website.
• Contain your business' contact details.
• Should include a menu that allows your customers to navigate through your website. (It is vital that this menu is compatible with different version of browsers)

Graphics

• Prepare graphics. Ensure that the graphic will effective communicate the concept of you company, service or product.
• At time it is a good idea to create a smaller version of graphics, such as product images. This can save your visitors having to wait a long time while the graphic is being loaded.

Content

• Content should always be up to date
• About Us page - Very Important
• Terms and Conditions
• Only link to outside sources if and only if it is necessary. It is not funny how many times I see people linking to outside sources for not reason in particular. Each and every visitor is important to your business, don’t “lose” them by doing something stupid like having a link to a search engine or the weather.

Look and feel of your website

• It is important that you should have the same look and feel for your website. For example if your home page has the navigation on the left menu, then having it on the bottom of the content for some of the other pages really makes no sense. Your website should have the consistent look and feel, your customer shouldn’t ever have to feel ‘am I still on the same website?’
• What are the color schemes

Related "Wed Design" Articles

• Is Your Business Ready For a Website?
• Choosing a Web Design Company