An extensive guide to planning your website (For ANY niche)
Updated: May 22, 2022
Creating a website is hard, it took me a month to establish my blog and another three to four moths of constant editing of pages, themes, colors, stock photos, etc. Over the past year, I've changed my logo at least 12 times! And I've changed my layout six times, lets not forget that I've been changing my color theme from grey to brown to pink, back to brown again and finally settles for white😞. It was a tough process, I wanted my website to give value to my readers, be aesthetically appealing and minimalistic (still working on that one.) But I'm here to tell you that it isn't impossible, if you're deciding to create a website, or a blog, this post is just for you!
Make Your Website a Success By Planning It First
What makes a website successful? Is it the content or the layout and colors? Is it the product being sold? Is it the user friendliness of the website? Different websites are successful for different reasons. It all depends on your target audience and what their needs are.
Planning your website will put you more in touch with your target audience and even your competition. This will not only make your website better but your business too. You have to first understand your target audience’s pain points and how you can best help them before you design a website for them.
If your target market includes senior citizens then making your website as simple and easy to read as possible is a must. If your target market is moms, then presenting an organized and relaxed website is needed. Do some research and see how your competitors are presenting and organizing their website and take notes. What seems to be working and what doesn’t?
While you are researching your competitors, pay attention to what content they are publishing as well. Can you create a better, more in-depth article on the topic? Can you create a more informative and easy to use product? You can even use several types of SEO tools to check which pages your competition is ranking on search engines for certain keywords. Just remember, don’t copy their ideas, but use them to brainstorm content and product ideas for yourself.
Once you have an idea on how your website needs to look, the layout, and content needed, you next need to create a to-do list. List every task you can think of that would be needed to make your website the best it can be. This includes a backup system, favicon, category hierarchy, navigation menu options, colors, branding, and so much more. You can always remove a task later if you find it unnecessary.
Please keep in mind that just because you put up a website, you will not instantly get traffic and sales. You have to connect with people and drive traffic to your website, where it will be your website’s job to convert them to paying customers. Taking the time to plan your website will help make it a success.
Plan Your Website With These Simple Tools
You’ve started a business and need a website. You realize that before rushing and just throwing up any old website, you should take the time to plan what all the website will need and look like. You could download a free website planner and work through it. You could just jot notes down in a notebook with sketches of a design. You could also use one of these online website planners.
Slickplan is a four-in-one website planning tool. The four tools include sitemap builder, content planner, diagram maker, and design mockups.
● The sitemap builder allows you to plan your website’s page architecture including page and linking infrastructure.
● The content planner makes it easy to plan and organize all the content needed for your website and then share it with any team members needed.
● The diagram maker makes it easy to create user flow diagrams. This helps you to visualize the paths your customers will take on your website including links clicked and call to actions.
● The design mockups allows you to create a visual concept of your website, including wireframes and graphics.
WebPlanner is an online project management system for planning websites. The planning wizard when you first begin a project in WebPlanner helps you to create a list of everything that needs to be done and will even make suggestions if you forget something. Once your website project is filled with tasks, you can create a timeline for completion. Assign due dates and invite team members to work on the project with you. The only downside to using WebPlanner.com is that there is not yet a mobile version of the app.
While Milanote is not specially designed to be a website planner, it is a project manager that can be easily adapted to plan a website. Milanote allows you to plan a website visually by allowing you to collect all your ideas in one place. This includes any images, logos, videos, color palettes, content, or more you may want to use on your website. Once you have all your ideas in one place, you can easily create a task list based on those ideas and link them all together.
Another option would be to create a user journey using Milanote. You can plot the path a customer will take and what options they will encounter. This will allow you to identify any pain points and make sure the customer’s path to purchase is hassle free.
Regardless of which system you use to plan your website, remember the most important part of the plan is your customers' journey. Without customers, your business website is just another forgotten website among the vast eternity of the internet.
Practical Steps to Planning Your Website
Planning a website might sound silly, since you can throw a website up in less than 5 minutes these days. It’s tempting to put up a site immediately and make changes as you go. While sometimes that does work out, it is usually better if you plan ahead. This way you can avoid disappointment and get started on promoting your business.
Determine The Purpose of Your Website
What is the goal of your website? Do you want to generate leads, make sales, get clicks to an affiliate offer? You can’t create a successful website if you don’t first have a goal and purpose in mind. If you try to go without one, you will find yourself moving in multiple directions all at once and getting nowhere.
Determine What Content Is Needed
A website without useful content is just blank space. Plan out the content your customers will find useful. Do some research and determine their pain points and how you can help them. Once you know that, creating content should be easy. However, don’t forget about the basic pages every website should have such as an about, contact, and privacy policy page.
Design a Mockup
Once you know what content you will need on your website, the next step is to decide on how you are going to display that content. Design a mockup of your website. Include your logo and branding elements. Also add in navigation menus and social media integration. Keep in mind that different pages may need to have a different layout. For instance, your shopping cart will look different from your about page. While designing a mockup, be sure to keep your customers’ journey in mind.
Decide If You Need Help
Some people have the skills to create all the content and graphics needed and possess the technological know how to set up a website. If you are that person, congratulations. You can do all the hard work yourself. If you are not that person, then you need to break down the tasks you can do and which ones you will need to outsource. Keep in mind that you may need to outsource all of it to different people, such as a designer, copywriter, graphic artist, etc.
Create a Timeline For Tasks
Once you have a list of tasks that need to be completed to create your website and a plan for doing the work yourself or outsourcing it, you can create a timeline for completion. Estimate how long each task will take and set a due date. One all tasks have a due task assigned, you can then set a launch date. Be sure to allow for unexpected delays and emergencies, holidays, and vacations.
Test
One of the most important aspects of planning your website is to plan some time to test your website before launching it to the public. Check your website in all the major browsers and across all mobile devices. Proofread your content. Check that all links and buttons are working and point to the correct place. Confirm your shopping cart is working properly. The last thing you want to do is present a broken website to your customers.
Launch
The last task to plan is the launch. And yes, you should plan it. Decide on the day to launch and how you will promote the launch. Will you advertise it? Will you talk about it on social media? Maybe offer a free product or discount for customers on launch day. Think about how you want to attract customers on that important day to help you celebrate your launch!
By creating a plan for your website in the beginning, you will have less mistakes to correct and tweaks to make once launched. You will also see better results since customers will see a professional and well put together branded website. Best of all, you will have a website that you can be proud to be a part of and promote.
What to Consider When Planning a Website
When creating a website for your business there are certain considerations that should be taken into account. Your website is a reflection of your business and, as such, should represent it well. In many instances, your website is the first interaction you will have with any potential customer.
B r a n d i n g
Your website should match your brand. If you sell physical products, your packaging, labels, logo, etc are all part of your brand. If you sell digital products, your logo, the way you present your products, social media graphics, graphics included in your emails, are all part of your brand. Your website should be an extension of your brand. No reason to confuse a potential customer with inconsistent branding.
U s e r F r i e n d l y
Every website should be user friendly. If your potential customers cannot find the information they need, they will look elsewhere. This includes having clear call to actions, a navigation system that actually makes sense, and a hassle free way for your customers to make a purchase.
C o n t e n t
Content is King! That’s what some online marketers like to say. While content is important, what is also important is how that content is presented. If you just place blobs of text on a page, no one is going to take the time to read it. People like to skim information and then move on. The fast pace of technology has made it so that attention spans only last a few seconds, so make sure your main points stand out.
E - C o m m e r c e
If you are building a website, I assume you want to sell something. Whether you are selling physical products or digital downloads, you need to know how you are going to make the sale process work. What type of payments will you accept? What shopping cart software will you use? How will the customer access their product after payment? There is a lot to think about when it comes to e-commerce and this just the tip of the iceberg.
M o b i l e F r i e n d l y
Everyone has a tablet or smartphone these days so it’s important that your website will work on those devices just as good or better than it would on a regular desktop or laptop computer. Your pages should adjust size accordingly and you should have an easy way for your customers to navigate through the website even though they are using a smaller screen. Most importantly, make sure your shopping cart is mobile friendly as well. You don’t want to lose out on sales just because someone is on a mobile device.
As evidenced above, you shouldn’t just throw a website together. To get the best results possible, planning is needed. If you plan it, create it, and send traffic to it, then people will turn into customers.
Why You Must Plan Your Website
Many aspiring entrepreneurs are so excited about an idea that they dive head first into the business. Often they throw up a website to sell their product or service without taking the time needed to adequately plan. Making a plan for your website before it is even built is an important part of your business strategy.
By creating a plan for your business’ website you not only save time but you also save money in the long run. With a plan you will know exactly what the website will need, look like, and how it will work. This means less changes at the last minute costing you more money and time and allows you to get your website up sooner rather than later to start making money.
To get started you can download a website planner or simply take a look online at other websites. Look at what other websites offer and have in common. If you are selling physical products you need to consider your e-commerce options, product descriptions, images sizes and more. If you aim to make money through affiliate marketing, then you need to consider what content is important to put on the front page. Regardless of the type of business you are building, you need to consider what your website will be selling and what content it will need to do that.
Other aspects of a website to consider are branding, navigation, list building, social media integration, and what actual platform you will use to run your website. You have to think about web hosting, email marketing integration, email hosting, domain registration, analytics, and so much more.
Creating a website plan will help you decide which action steps you can do yourself and which ones you will need to outsource. If you are unfamiliar with websites, you may want to consider outsourcing the technical setup - setting up the website platform, setting nameservers, etc. If you are a tech geek but don’t like to write, maybe you need to outsource your content. Do the tasks you enjoy and outsource the rest.
Once you know what needs to be done and who is going to do it, you can create a timeline for your website launch. Having a website launch date is exciting and you can use that as an excuse for a celebration on your social media platforms.
Website planning isn’t always fun but it is a way to achieve better results and avoid disappointment. While your website may never be perfect, no website is, you can continue to make little tweaks here and there and find out what works best for your market.
If you're planning to create a website, tell me which tip you felt was the most important! If you already have one, don't forget to share links!
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