What are my goals for the web site?

It’s important to know why you’re building the web site. Is it for sales or marketing? Is it a tool for communication or an online brochure? Do you want to sell products through the web site, or just educate consumers about them? Do you want to increase membership in your organization, or offer Web-based benefits to current members? Do you want visitors to email you? Call you? Subscribe to a newsletter? Knowing your goals will help focus your ideas for the site.

What am I trying to sell or promote?

Even if you don’t like the idea of selling yourself, it’s what we all do, every day, if we want to be successful. Don’t be afraid of sales and marketing. Finding the answer to this question will determine what are the most important themes of the web site, what to name the buttons, and the tone to use when writing the content.

What is our website’s business model and how are we unique?

Even if you have an AWESOME idea - you should develop ideas for an advertising or subscription revenue model or some fundamentals of it.

Who is our target demographic and what will they search for?

To help a web design agency understand your needs, can you describe your target audience in terms of socio-economic profiles;gender;geographical location; Planning for the search in your user’s mind can save you from retrofitting for it later. How would YOU search? How would your mother search? How would your grandmother search?

What will the information architecture be like? What are the important top level keywords?

There needs to be balance between information architecture for usability and keyword information architecture for findability (SEO).

What are the components to getting a website up and running?

Web Design & Development: The architecture of the site needs to be built. An appropriate look and feel must be designed. The copy needs to be written and any additional tools such as online forms, shopping carts and audio clips need to be added.

1. Web Design & Development: The architecture of the site needs to be built. An appropriate look and feel must be designed. The copy needs to be written and any additional tools such as online forms, shopping carts and audio clips need to be added.
2. Hosting: Just as you might rent office space, your web site needs to be hosted somewhere so people can reach it.
3. Upkeep: Once live, a good site continues to post fresh material, giving people a reason to return.

What content do I need to build the site?

First, create an outline around the themes you want to promote. Second, remember that each line of the outline is a page that needs content–text and images that will help educate your visitors. The images may include a logo or photos of people or products. Poor quality photos or bad clip art can make the most attractive site look amateurish; sometimes no photos can be better than poor ones.

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