site planning
- Define the purpose of the site
- Define the target audience
- Plan the contents which will meet the purpose and serve
the target audience
- Define the design principles
- Set priorities
- Review the site
- Market the site
1. Purpose of the Web Site? A web site disseminates
information and invites audience feedback. From a commercial point of
view, a web site can market a company and its products, and provide
valuable customer services. The first task in web planning is to list
what the company hopes to achieve with its site.
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2. Target Audience? Who does the company want to see
the web site? Who else will see it? The target audience helps define
the content and design.
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3. Content? How will the purpose statement be achieved
and the target audience served? You probably want people to visit the
site, be interested enough to browse through the site, and to return
to the site. A good first content aim is therefore to provide useful
information that benefits the reader in some way. Sites benefit from
being easy to navigate with readers quickly being able to find information
they want. Draw a navigation overview: a family tree format often works
well.
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4. Design Principles? The purpose and audience may
impose design constraints. Web pages will appear differently in different
browsers, and different people have different connection speeds. Should,
for example, images be used with restraint to minimise downloading time,
or will my target readers have the latest browsers and high speed links.
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5. Priorities? Find out which pages should be written
first and who is responsible for gathering information.
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6. Review
- re the pages pitched at the target audience?
- Do they alienate anyone - who?
- How do they achieve my web site purpose?
- Do they comply with the design principles?
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7. Marketing
Once the opening pages of the web site are on-line, tell everyone about
them. Here are some techniques for web marketing.
- Submit to Internet search engines. I target the most popular first,
and any specifically aimed at the site's field. For each page submitted
I decide on a few key words which, when searched for, I hope will
return my page. I make sure these key words are in the title, first
heading, first paragraph and in the META keywords tag.
- Announce in What's New sites.
- Announce in one or two relevant newsgroups. Locate sites with lists
of relevant links, suggesting they may like to add my site.
- Announce in Free for All Links pages for a fast, if temporary, surge
in visitors.
- Email relevant magazines on the World Wide Web with details of
the new site.
- Send paper press releases to all other relevant magazines and newspapers
detailing how the new site will be of interest to their readers.
- Suggest the company quote the web address in all adverts and product
literature (manuals, leaflets, newsletters and so on).
Copyright Jill Studholme (http://www.studholme.net). All rights reserved.
You may copy and distribute this article provided this notice is
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