How
to Plan 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 website.
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?
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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 "Thousands of name brand accessories
for your car...the largest selection on the Net...with
fast online ordering." Readers instantly know what
the site has to offer them.
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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.
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Support
You 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 particularly 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.
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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 many
slow loading graphics. Keep your pages lean and mean.
Slow loaders mean lost customers.
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