Blog

Preparing For A New Website

Phillip Kingston
29/01/2009

These days it is very common for regular website changes and even complete overhauls. It is also common for managers and small business owners to be disappointed (or not entirely satisfied) with their final website. It is therefore critical to be prepared when engaging a web development company. If you can engage the firm completely ready - having thought through the marketing, business case and functional requirements - you will be able to better brief the firm, have more informed and realistic expectations, and maximise the likelihood of an excellent product.

In thinking about what kind of website you want for your business. It is imperative to ask yourself why you want a website. Is it:

• To help people that already know you to find you?
• To help people that don't know you to find you?
• To educate people about your products or services?
• To link them onto another site?
• To impregnate a marketing message into their minds?
• To ask for direct action?
• To build your personal or business brand?
• To compete with your competition?

It isn't an easy journey and it's very important to be clear about what your needs are and who your target market is. The following 9 questions will help you (and us!) get a better idea of what you want out of your website:

Q1. What do you want your website to do for your business?

What are your key business aims? In an ideal world, what would the website do for you?

Q2. Who do you want to visit your website (your target market)?

Your content, language, use of animations/special effects, font size, etc should all be appropriate for your intended audience. It's critical that you work out who will be visiting your site so that you can tailor the site to their needs and internet usage patterns.

Profession:	Age Range:	Location:
Lawyer	40-55	Melbourne

Q3. What should your target market do as a result of visiting your website?

Should they buy something? Fill in a form? Join up to something? What is the ideal action invoked?

Q4. How do you think your target market should find your website?

If we asked visitors how they found out about your site, what do you think they would say?

Q5. What websites are your target market currently visiting?

What customer audience are you fighting for? What are the market expectations? What is your value-add?

Q6. What websites do you know about that are similar to what you want?

Have a look at what other people have done and learn from their mistakes (and their good ideas!). What are other people doing right? or wrong?

Q7. Do you think the website is going to be a small/medium/large contributor to sales?

What are your expectations of the website? It's important to match budgets with expectations. If you are planning for your website to contribute significantly to sales then it should be high on your spending list. If it is more of a business card or informational website then you can cut corners.

Q8. Do you wish to consider search advertising to bring clients to your site from search engines?

If you would like to drive direct sales from your website, it is usually important to capture valuable search engine traffic. Have a think about your maximum advertising spend.

Q9. What search keywords do you imagine your current/prospective clients would search for to find your site?

Have a think about what sorts of keywords you, your friends and family would use to find a product or service similar to yours. Think outside of the box here. People may be searching for product function or a product's associated benefits.

-

Careful thought about these kinds of questions will ensure that you are ready to provide a detailed brief to your firm of choice. The better the brief, the faster and cheaper the development.