subject: Planning a Website in 4 Steps [print this page] Just as a novel has a jacket cover and pages of story, a website has a design and pages of content. Before starting to build, it's important to develop a plan for your website, including defining your audience and how you are going to meet their needs. Here are 4 useful steps to help you get started.1.PurposeWhile our current digital age makes it tempting to throw up any old website, it's critical that you first think about why you're creating one. Some questions you might want to ask yourself are, what you hope the website will achieve and what readers will get out of visiting it. By answering these two questions you will be able to better define who your audience are.2.AudienceOnce the purpose of your site is clear and people are starting to visit, you can engage them by asking questions about who they are and what they're interested in. Moreover, why they like your site and how they feel it can be improved. By interacting with your audience and responding to their suggestions, you can improve your site and expand your readership.3.AnalysisWhile deciding on the purpose of your site, forecast your long and short term goals. Set measurable objectives that can track the site's progress. Similarly, analyse your audience. Not only is it important to know what their interests are, but also how comfortable they are on the web, what type of computers they use, and how they like to receive information. Are they a visual audience who respond to pictures, are they interactive and enjoy real-time conversations, or are they literary and prefer text-heavy web pages.4.ContentCreating content isn't as simple as stringing together sentences of information you think your audience will enjoy (although there is nothing simple about that). It is about designing information architecture. First put together a list of necessary content and organize it according to your audience's needs. Then test the content. Do people respond to it? How should it be organized? Creating categories for that content is the next step. Name them, describe them, and create links for them.So often people rush through the preliminary steps of a project because they're anxious to have a finished product, and in doing so they forget to ask themselves why they are doing it in the first place. If you consider the steps listed above and then execute a solid plan to implement them, you'll be well on your way to developing a solid website with an affective reach.
