Overall Site Strategy – Step One
This is step one in our Starting a New Website Checklist - check out that post if you happened upon this one and want to a handy link to all of the steps.
This is the most important step in developing a new web venture and you would be surprised that almost no one does it. This is precisely the reason most websites do not succeed - because of poor overall planning. Without having a good direction for your site, you’ll aimlessly flounder about, tinkering with this and that without having that important 30,000 foot view of where you’re headed and how to get there.
Think about:
• How will your website start - what’s the creation story behind it? Why are you doing it? For what purpose does the world need another website?
• Are there any other websites like it? What is good or bad about them? What can you improve, change, make better, or eliminate and simplify?
• What will your website look like in six months? A year? five years? Don’t make the mistake of trying to add too much too soon, most features on sites like forums and newsletters need substantial traffic that you just won’t have starting out to support. But assuming your site grows, what are some of the evolutions your site will make? Knowing this now will help you to leave room for new sections and buttons, and affect your overall goals and strategy.
Website Strategy Brief Template:
The following is a template for you to fill out and write up a comprehensive strategy - it’s especially an important document to have if working with web developers because it will give you instant credibility in terms of looking like your thoughts are all in order and you have a working plan. There’s nothing that scares web developers away more than the untrained rookie who doesn’t know his HTML from his elbow and can’t make up his mind.
Project Name: What is the website called? “The Guide to the best lobsters in Maine” “The XYC Corp Official Home Page” - this defines how you’ll refer to your project when talking about it. Instead of calling someone and saying “How is that programming coming on my website” it sounds better to say “How is the ZZX website going?”
Website Domain: The domain name of your website
Target Market: Who is the target of the site? Is it oyster lovers? Moms? Customers for XYC widgets? The general public? Sometimes the best thing to do is sit and write a story about who the one ideal person is that you’re targeting? Decribe them, their habits, their hopes, fears, wants, desires. Having a clear understanding of your target beyond hits and clicks is essential. “Bob is 41, lives alone in his basement and smokes Vantage. He’s unemployed, eats junk food and is overweight. He has not had a girlfriend in 17 years. He will come to NakedTeenPics4uandme.com because he cannot control his ravenous urges for naked young ladies.” Th
Desired Result: What is the ONE thing you want your visitors to do? It can’t be ten things, or even two things. Pick the most important result and focus on it. For example:
- An advertising services company wants their user to read the website and call the new business director for more information. Result: Phone call
- A blog might want the result to be clicking on an affiliate ad to generate sales, or just simply return to the blog again
- A magician wants a booking
- A subscription service wants a subscriber
Once you decide on what the desired result is, FOCUS ALL OF YOUR ENERGIES IN DEVELOPING THE SITE TO FULFILLING THIS PURPOSE.
For the advertising services company, this means having a link after every “about us” “check out our work” page to a contact page with a phone number and a “call to action” such as “Call us right now to discuss your needs.” Such sentences might make you gag, but they are proven to work. All you need to do to get people to do something is tell them what you want them to do! It’s really that simple.
Mandatories:
What are the things that have to be on the site? For a photographer it’s their portfolio of images. For a business it’s all their info about services and products, company bios, contact page, etc. The mandatories are the core items that you must not leave out. Everything else takes away from the focus of the site, so examine each item that is not important and decide if it really needs to be there.
If your aim is to generate phone calls, put as little info on your site as possible. Just enough to show that you’re professional, what your point of difference is, what your experience is and how to contact you. Anything more just gives people to eliminate you. Don’t put a laundry list of services down. Let them ask on the phone. If you forget to list the one thing they’re looking for and you’re capable of doing it our finding someone to do it, you just lost a sale! So be vague, let the sale happen on the call. The website generates the lead that leads to the call.
Unique Selling Point:
What is the one thing about your website or what your website is about that’s unique and different than everything else? Defining this will be your mantra to focus on in all things you do to promote it. This is not as important if you’re building a website for an existing company because the company should have it’s own USP that’s reflected in its advertising. But if this is a blog or a website about something or some sort of web service, then having that “The one place to find vintage punk records from 1977″ tag is a great way to get people to quickly understand what your site is and why it’s different. When designing your site it’s vital to make this information as prominent as possible, not only for visitors but for search engines to know what your site is as well.
Finally, keep in mind when writing all of the above that what you want people to do and what they actually do are two different things. Try to put yourself in your user’s shoes and think about what makes them tick. Would they really do what you want them to? What’s in it for them. Many websites fail because they don’t think about the greed factor in reverse: people are there to serve themselves, not your purposes. Understanding that is extremely important when planning your site.
Related articles
- Selecting Good Domain Internet Names (techburgh.com)
- Weekly Tips to Establish Your Online Presence: Your Reputation (lookuppage.com)
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