The Process of Planning a Website

The Process of Planning a Website ITVibes, Inc. Houston, TX.

Probably the most important part of the website building process is the planning that goes into it. No website can be put together without a thorough strategy and idea of an end result. Having a detailed and carefully planned out system is required to ensure a smooth website design and launch. 
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Before your web design team jumps into action, everyone involved in the design and content planning process will need to be clear on what the vision for the website is. This will help everyone to meet deadlines and prevent miscommunication down the road. Let’s take a look at the planning phase and how important it is to the process of planning a website. 

Define the Goals of Your Website

What is the main reason for the start-up of your website? What are you hoping to accomplish for your company with the finished product? Be as detailed as possible when answering these questions. It’s essential to understand the overall goal of your website when you begin planning to know what it is you’re working towards. 
Try refining your target market–who they are, and how you can provide them your products or services. This will help everyone working on building your website to have a general idea of what the end product will need to cater to. 

Optimize for Search Engines

Each page of your site needs to be optimized for mobile and written with strong keywords in order to rank on search engines. Business websites succeed at selling products through organic search results by applying keywords they will rank for throughout their home page and service pages. The writers for your site should have a strong SEO strategy for planning the content through topics, keywords, and competitor research. Website optimization is a crucial step–make sure your website is search engine friendly.
Pro Tip: Do your research on business competitors to see what keywords they’re ranking for. These are the keywords you’ll want to use when writing content for your new website!

Start Outlining Your Content

You can have a solid structure and web design for your website but without strategically planned content, it won’t matter to your site visitors. Successful websites have engaging content that helps to nudge visitors towards its products or services. After defining your target audience, write your content to cater to their wants and needs.
Consider the types of content you’ll be using throughout the website and the value they will add to it. A blog starts building links between your web pages and is good for connecting with your audience. Video and images can be used to add visually appealing and easy to digest content.

Create a Site Map and Design Mockups

You’ll need to know which pages you’ll be writing content for and where those pages will be located on your website. To start, you can grab a piece of paper and a pencil to start outlining your sitemap and how the page menu will look. Eventually, you’ll need to create a PDF file of the sitemap using a tool like SlickPlan which your team can refer to while creating the site.
Design mockups can be created with a third-party tool, graphic design software, or with downloadable templates. The design team will create a few variations of website styles which will consist of the entirety of the home page on an image. Use these mockups to decide what will be the most effective on the finished product.

Time to Plan Your New Website 

There are always new web projects being created for businesses and clients alike. Without the planning process and an SEO strategy, many of these websites would go unnoticed, or be set back due to changes and errors. Once you’ve got a solid plan laid out, web hosting service in place, and the tools to create what you need, you’re ready to turn the dream of a website into a reality. 
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