WHERE TO BEGIN . . .
You've decided you'd like to have a website for your club or business or products, but don't know where to begin. These are all items to think about, to work on, and make notes on before you meet with a designer.
Goals.
What is the main focus of the website? Is it going to be strictly informational or are you trying to sell products? What do you want to achieve with the site? Make some plans. Write some notes.
Target Audience.
Think about your visitors and their demographics. Do you have a current customer base you're creating this for? Are you trying to appeal to potential customers, employees or investors?
Categories for Content.
Divide your content into similar categories. If the content doesn't seem cohesive in your mind, write chucks of data on index cards, lay them all out and then look for similarities and items that could be grouped under a particular page title.
Number of Pages.
Once your content is somewhat organized, you should have a good estimate of the number of pages needed for your site. Do some web surfing to similar or competitors' sites to see what all they've included. There may be pages you hadn't thought of, like a disclaimer, or privacy policy, or a site map.
Number of Products.
If your site involves e-commerce and a shopping cart, it's helpful to know the approximate number of products you'll be selling by category.
Look and Feel.
No doubt you've seen websites you really like, either for layout or colors, and some you absolutely dislike. Jot down some URLs of designs that appeal to you and either sketch or think about your site's overall design and how you want it to look. Are you going for a strictly professional design, or does your site call for a fun or artistic look? |
Navigation.
Websites, unlike books, do not have a table of contents and visitors may enter your site at any given page from search engine results. Navigation should be clear, concise, easy to use and consistent from page to page and is an extremely important element of the site. The dynamic, drop menu is being used widely now.
Text Content.
Existing information, whether it is in the form of printed documents or brochures, needs to be transferred to a digital format for the web. Check to see if you have or can get the document electronically so that you, or your designer, do not have to type in all the information.
Photos.
Beautiful and relevant photos help to make your website more interesting. A travel site could show images of exotic destinations. A real estate site should include photos showing off homes for sale. A spa site would benefit from soothing, zen-like photos. Great stock photography can be used to help convey your ideas and add appeal. Many sites offer free or low-cost solutions. See our Providers page for photography links.
Branding. - LogoYes
 The right logo for your business or organization is one key to success and can make you instantly recognizable. The proper logo should resize well, work in color or black and white and be simple and not over-drawn. LogoYes covers all three of those aspects with a fun, innovative do-it-yourself logo creator with 20,000+ built in symbols to choose from..
Easy and fun logo creationDomain Name.
Try to choose a domain name that gives the visitor an idea of the website's content. Shorter domain names are good, and if they're clever, easy to spell and easy to pronounce, they're even better. Try to avoid a domain name with dashes as most people will forget to type the dash when visiting your site.
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