Tips to create your best Web site

Create a great Web site by doing your research and building a plan. These tips will help you get started in your planning process and stimulate your thinking about your new Web-site or Web site re-design.

Do your research.

Goals. Write down your Web site goals in order of importance. Your goals might include: “provide a way for people to contact me”, “sell my book online”, “educate people about an initiative in my community”, “subscription to my online magazine” or many other ideas.

Competitive Analysis. Check out your competition. If you know who your competitors are, go to their web site, see what they’re doing and figure out how you can position yourself better. If you don’t know if you have competition, do a web search for your product or service. Review the results to compare yourself and make sure your offering will be distinct.

Target Audience. Know who you are creating your web site for. Are they computer-savvy? How old are they? Are they business people, artists, stay-at-home moms, students, entrepenuers? Keep your target audience in mind the entire time you’re picking your domain name, writing product reviews, taking photographs or adding new content.

Unique selling proposition. How is your product or service is special? Be more specific than “great customer service” or “high quality”. Try something more like “We design beautiful green residences for budget-conscious home owners. Your green home will lower your electric bills and be better for the planet”. Make sure your unique selling proposition is emphasized in your Web site contents. It sets you apart and makes you memorable!

Great Vendors. Do your research for a well-priced, reliable hosting company, a merchant if you are selling products or services through your web site, web design/development firm. Try calling the businesses you pick out. See if they answer the phone and if you like their customer service.

Design and implementation plan.

Domain Name. You web site needs a good domain name. It should be memorable, easy to spell, and descriptive of your business. If it’s available, try to select a .com extension. Best not to use dashes unless it’s part of your company’s name.

Flowchart or Outline. Make a diagram of how someone will use your web site, keep organizing, connecting pages and refining until it’s right. Is it easy to get from one section to another? Are the pages well-connected to each other? If you prefer working with words, write up an outline. The idea is to make sure all the pertinent information is recorded and prioritized.

Calls to action. What do you want your web site visitors to do when they go to your web site? Take a look at your goals for some reference. Remember the KISS maxim: keep it simple, stupid. Make it easy for a visitor to know what to read, how to buy or where to find you.

Visual Presentation. Refer to your target audience and see if this fits. It’s important that you like your web site, however, if you’d like to appeal to your potential customers, make sure to design what they’ll like. Will they be appropriately wowed by flashy and colorful pages, or do they need the straightforward approach of content-rich, minimally designed pages? Allocate prominent places for your calls to action.

Develop and maintain your visibility

Marketing Plan. Your customers or visitors need to be able to find your web site. Ideas on how to achieve visibility might include: announcing your new web site by emailing your contacts, buying online advertising, or simply handing out your business card with your new web site address on it. See the article Easy ways to drive traffic to your web site for details on implementing these and other marketing ideas.

Contents. Your web site visitors need a reason to go to your site. And if you want them to keep coming back to your site, they need something to come back for. Give them great content and fresh content!