- Decide Exactly What You Want from Your Web Site
- Decide on a Structure for Your Site and Develop a Rough Site Plan
- Decide What Interactive Elements You Need
- Decide What Graphics You Want to Include
- Write the Text for Each Page in Your Site
- Determine Your Budget and Timeframe for the Project
- Establish Your Web Infrastructure
- Collect Your Toolkit
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Decide on a Structure for Your Site and Develop a Rough Site Plan
Yes, you—and not your Web developer—should decide on the structure of your Web site. I will tell you a little secret: most Web developers don't know beans about marketing. Many think they do because Web site customers are primarily interested in getting a Web site for marketing purposes. In marketing your business, however, you are the expert. No matter how much computer programming and Web knowledge Web developers have, all most of them know is how to build a Web site. They cannot hold a candle to you when it comes to what needs to be done on your Web site to meet your goals and your customers' needs. Take advantage of your Web developer's skills to help build your site, but you decide what elements go into it and why.
Your rough site plan can be very rough, as suggested by my sketch in Figure 1. The point of sketching your site plan is to help you first conceptualize what your site will contain and then communicate your ideas to your Web developer. Once the site plan is on paper, you can discuss it with your staff, your friends, and your developer-candidates. Get their ideas and make refinements until you are satisfied.
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Figure 1 Rough Web site plans help you conceptualize the final site and provide guidance during development.