Essential Planning For Your Website To Be A Success
To succeed online you need to not only know what needs to be done but more importantly exactly how to do it.
You need to plan for the creation, management and maintenance of your website.
Here we take a look at some of the crucial issues you must address in your website plan.
Website Creation What are your website's goals? You must state the goals of your website that will be used as reference throughout the project.
Who is your target audience? Your target audience will also dictate project decisions, so you need to clear about these as well.
Your website should be built around their needs and expectations.
What features will your site need to have? Why do you need these features? For your site to support your organisation's goals it needs interactive functionality beyond basic informational pages.
In choosing these features ask yourself, "What business processes do we currently handle in person that can be handled online in an automated fashion?" Web Hosting Who will host your website? What server features will your website need? How will ensure that your site is secure? You need to specify the server configuration settings that will make your website more secure as well as other security software to be used.
Content You must specify the information needed to fill out your site and meet visitor expectations.
What depth and breadth of information is appropriate? You must plan for the creation and formatting of your content.
Where is the content coming from? Do you already have it or it needs to be created? Will you create it yourself or outsource the work? What keywords and phrases will you optimize your content for? Promotion How will people know about your site? How will you attract visitors? How will you promote your website on the internet? How will you promote it offline? For starters you should include your website address on all your printed material - stationary, brochures and business cards.
You could use email newsletters, paid links or ads on other websites or search engines.
Visitor Engagement How do you plan to engage your visitor's interest and participation once they reach the website? Visitors to your website will always ask,"What's in it for me?" So you must offer them something of value.
How do you plan to entice visitors to visit your site again? You need to give visitors a strong incentive to come back, for example new content, promotions or free downloads.
Integration How will the site integrate with the operation of your organisation? How will online enquiries and orders be handled? Who will be responsible for this? Management & Maintenance A website needs constant monitoring to prevent any problems escalating to disasters.
Who will manage and monitor your website on a day-to-day basis? What technical support will be required? Who is responsible for reviewing, editing and approving new content? What moderation guidelines will be used in this process? Who will maintain the website and how often will it need maintenance? Will you do it in-house or outsource? Testing What tests must the website pass before going live? You need to ensure everything works exactly the way you want it to before launching your website.
Project Management What is the scope of the project? You need to specify exactly what falls within the scope of the project and what does not.
What are the risks and key success factors of the website project? You must know the components that can make or break your project and have back up alternatives.
Who will constitute your project team? What role will each one of them play? How can the rest of your staff support the project and the project team to ensure that it succeeds? Timelines What is the timeframe for having the website up and running? What is your target launch date? Why was this date chosen? Is it fixed or it can be changed? You must craft a project schedule and state the expected deliverables at each stage.
Success Metrics How will you monitor the performance of the site? How will you measure its success? Which tools will you use? You will need data to do before-and-after comparison of the website's impact on your business in terms of leads, referrals, revenue and testimonials.
Budget What is the budget for the website project? For maintenance? Is that a flexible or fixed budget? Your budget should account for all expenses: content creation, initial site design, domain registration, web hosting, promotion, and ongoing management and maintenance.
Long Term Plans What are your long-term plans for the website? How will it grow and evolve? What features might you want to look into in the future? To sum it up your website plan is the action plan you will follow to ensure that your website is a success.
You need to plan for the creation, management and maintenance of your website.
Here we take a look at some of the crucial issues you must address in your website plan.
Website Creation What are your website's goals? You must state the goals of your website that will be used as reference throughout the project.
Who is your target audience? Your target audience will also dictate project decisions, so you need to clear about these as well.
Your website should be built around their needs and expectations.
What features will your site need to have? Why do you need these features? For your site to support your organisation's goals it needs interactive functionality beyond basic informational pages.
In choosing these features ask yourself, "What business processes do we currently handle in person that can be handled online in an automated fashion?" Web Hosting Who will host your website? What server features will your website need? How will ensure that your site is secure? You need to specify the server configuration settings that will make your website more secure as well as other security software to be used.
Content You must specify the information needed to fill out your site and meet visitor expectations.
What depth and breadth of information is appropriate? You must plan for the creation and formatting of your content.
Where is the content coming from? Do you already have it or it needs to be created? Will you create it yourself or outsource the work? What keywords and phrases will you optimize your content for? Promotion How will people know about your site? How will you attract visitors? How will you promote your website on the internet? How will you promote it offline? For starters you should include your website address on all your printed material - stationary, brochures and business cards.
You could use email newsletters, paid links or ads on other websites or search engines.
Visitor Engagement How do you plan to engage your visitor's interest and participation once they reach the website? Visitors to your website will always ask,"What's in it for me?" So you must offer them something of value.
How do you plan to entice visitors to visit your site again? You need to give visitors a strong incentive to come back, for example new content, promotions or free downloads.
Integration How will the site integrate with the operation of your organisation? How will online enquiries and orders be handled? Who will be responsible for this? Management & Maintenance A website needs constant monitoring to prevent any problems escalating to disasters.
Who will manage and monitor your website on a day-to-day basis? What technical support will be required? Who is responsible for reviewing, editing and approving new content? What moderation guidelines will be used in this process? Who will maintain the website and how often will it need maintenance? Will you do it in-house or outsource? Testing What tests must the website pass before going live? You need to ensure everything works exactly the way you want it to before launching your website.
Project Management What is the scope of the project? You need to specify exactly what falls within the scope of the project and what does not.
What are the risks and key success factors of the website project? You must know the components that can make or break your project and have back up alternatives.
Who will constitute your project team? What role will each one of them play? How can the rest of your staff support the project and the project team to ensure that it succeeds? Timelines What is the timeframe for having the website up and running? What is your target launch date? Why was this date chosen? Is it fixed or it can be changed? You must craft a project schedule and state the expected deliverables at each stage.
Success Metrics How will you monitor the performance of the site? How will you measure its success? Which tools will you use? You will need data to do before-and-after comparison of the website's impact on your business in terms of leads, referrals, revenue and testimonials.
Budget What is the budget for the website project? For maintenance? Is that a flexible or fixed budget? Your budget should account for all expenses: content creation, initial site design, domain registration, web hosting, promotion, and ongoing management and maintenance.
Long Term Plans What are your long-term plans for the website? How will it grow and evolve? What features might you want to look into in the future? To sum it up your website plan is the action plan you will follow to ensure that your website is a success.