To the average business owner, who is usually busy beyond the levels that a normal human being can handle, the idea of having to plan an entire website seems daunting to say the least. Where do you even start?

The best place to start is with an unfocused concept. Think about what the purpose of your website will be. What do you want it to accomplish? Once you know what you want it to do, that’s when you can start thinking about what the best way to do it will be. Once you have a general idea of “why”, and “how”, you then need to get a pretty clear idea of “who” your website is for. Who is your target audience? You are not building this website for yourself. You are building it for your customers.

When you know who your customers are, it will very deeply impact the “what” of your site. How your website should look, and what kinds of content you need will be a lot easier to determine when you understand the type of customer you are creating your website for. Every little detail can be impacted by the perception of what your intended audience is. What are your colors going to be? Is this a playful or a serious website? What kind of logo should you use? Should you have a mascot?

A lot of these questions are already decided in a company’s existing branding, but that doesn’t mean it’s not time to re-examine each of those elements to make sure they are exactly how you want them before they’re out there for the world to see. Once you have your branding nailed down, then you want to decide on how to deliver your content. Do you need lots of great photos everywhere? Are you going to have lots of pages of useful text? Are you going to deliver information to your customers through engaging videos? These are all important questions to ask (and these days, the correct answer would be “yes” to all of the above).

Finally, once you’ve created, decorated, and filled your site with content, you have to tackle the biggest question of all: How do you get your customers to your website? Search Engine Optimization is crucial to the success of your website. That’s why when we create a website for our clients; we usually follow up by offering some kind of marketing plan. Yes, a new and improved website will be huge for increasing your success online, but what if it’s not found easily? It takes hours and hours of work every few weeks to make sure your site is optimized and re-optimized to make sure you reach your goals. It’s a lot to think about, but luckily you’re not on your own.

A lot of these questions we will ask you, or figure out for you. But the better idea you have going in, the better we will be able to realize your dream website.