How to Plan
for your New Website
Why you must
have a detailed plan even if someone else is
designing your site.
There are many
fine designers who are ready to build your new
web site. They offer a quick quote on the price
of pages, good deals on graphics, maybe even
search engine registration. But all these
goodies don't do a thing to get you started.
Before anyone can begin building your new
Internet palace, you must have a detailed plan
for what will be on your web site.
Starting a web
site is a lot like getting your taxes done. The
real work comes BEFORE you go to the preparer.
Unless you've already got your box of organized
receipts, the preparer can't fill in the forms.
Start your web site plan by pinning down exactly
what you want your site to accomplish. Draw a
diagram on paper. List the pages you will
have. Create some phrases to center copy
around. You will save time, expense, and will
get a much more effective site.
Will your
pages sell your products and services online or
serve as a detailed brochure to support your
offline sales effort? Do you have one to two
big products you will center your pages around
or do you plan a big supermarket of products
that need to be tied together under a prominent
store image?
Focus
Your Pages
Narrow, more
focused web sites tend to do better on search
engines. Their computers can easily figure what
search terms to classify your site under. It
pays to plan your site to be search engine
friendly. Write down six to ten words and
phrases that customers will use to search for
you. Build a page around each of those. The
title (that line in the box at the top or bottom
of your browser), the meta tag (code in the
page's html) and the text should mention your
search phrase several times with copy that
relates closely to the phrase.
Most web site
owners put up their new pages, THEN think about
tailoring them for search engines. That means
you end up redoing most of your pages with
greater expense and poorer results.
Your opening
page should clearly tell visitors what your site
is about. You may only have a few seconds to
make your point before people click away. They
should understand the most important benefit you
provide. Use a headline and a related graphic
to give people an instant image of what your
site and organization can do for them.
CarAccessories.com opens their first page with a
graphic of car covers, mirrors, and fancy
hubcaps along with the headline "Car Saving
Secrets for a Car Cruel World"
Standard
Pages That Build Customer Trust
Most sites
have an "about our company" page and a "contact
us" page. You can use these pages to build
customer trust, one of the most important
factors in getting sales online. Prospects
trust you when they feel like they know you.
Your "about us" page can feature a photo of you,
your employees, your building, or anything else
that gives a visual sense of who you are. You
don't necessarily have to display a studio
quality portrait. One man had a photo of his
hand pitching a ball. Lots of successful home
biz folks show themselves working behind a
computer in a small, cluttered office. It is a
scene their readers can identify with.
Tell people
why you do what you do, your company philosophy,
and how you got started. Your "contact us" page
should list the people in your company and
provide several ways to contact them. Tell
people why they should reach you and what they
can expect when they do.
Support
Your Main Theme With Secondary Pages
If you have a
central product or service, introduce it with
flair on your opening page. Save less important
or secondary products for inner pages. If your
site will have more than a dozen pages, gather
similar pages into groups. Give each group its
own gateway page that introduces the section and
displays links to the related pages with a short
description of what people will get when they
click the link.
One particular
organized client gave me a diagram of what pages
he would have and how they would be grouped.
Then he provided information on what each page
should cover. He didn't write the copy, but he
did give me a solid idea of what he wanted on
pages. It cut in half the time needed to build
his big web site.
Simple,
Clear Order Page
Keep your
order page or pages as clear and simple as
possible. You won't need a full-blown shopping
cart if you offer five or fewer products. Make
sure prices and descriptions are easy to
understand. Anything that frustrates or
confuses customers will make you lose sales. It
is not unusual for a site to clean up its order
pages and see an immediate surge in sales.
Finally,
resist the temptation to load down your pages
with too large graphics. Corporations often
feel their site doesn't look "big time" without
them. Keep your pages lean and mean. Slow
loaders mean lost customers.
SK Kor
Internet Marketing Consultant
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