We created this post to enable you to think in advance and help you to submit to us your website planning checklist.
Marketing Objectives For Your Website
Which of the following items below is your primary objective for your website?
- to establish the credibility of your company
- to describe your products and/or services
- to complete sales
- offering service and support
- communicating the company
What are the secondary objectives for your website?
- to be search search engine friendly
- to generate repeat traffic
- encourage recommendations and repeat visitors
- create a community online or to gather emails
- increase your customer loyalty
- to encourage more visits and see new parts of the business otherwise not known about
How do you expect to use the site?
How do you expect people to find you online?
Target audience for your website
- who is the target audience for your business?
- what are they looking for in particular?
- what questions are you always being asked by your customers?
- what would wow your customers and make them think you are the best company around?
Website design and operation
- have you seen any websites you like or hate?
- what is it that you like about them?
- what colours do you wish to use?
- what is the image you want to convey through your website?
- home page – think about how you would wish to greet customers
- do you want printable pages?
- vertical or horizontal navigation, do you have a preference?
- do you have a need for graphics, photos or both?
- do you want animation (this doesn’t help your credibility)?
- do you need photos taken of staff, services, products or completed projects?
- do you have supplied photos or graphics that you are authorised to use?
Logo
- do you have a proper logo or need an entirely new creation?
- do you have a tag line for the business or how would you best describe your company in one sentence?
Website content
- do you have content we can use electronically or is it to be created on your behalf?
- think about the menu structure and what you would like to see, below are some suggestions for pages
Home page
Services (how many)
Products
Customers
Testimonials
FAQS
Forms
Articles
Pdfs or distributed content
Links to relevant trade bodies or handy organisations relevant to your industry
About us
Contact us
Blogs - how much would you like social media to play a part in your plan?
Search engine optimisation
- what search terms would you expect your customers use to find you?
- what search engines will they use?
- any there any organisations we can link to establish credibility in your field?
- what organisations would be valuable to your customers?
English: The three biggest web search engines (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Website technical details
- have you registered a domain name
- do you have secure hosting already (access information)
Maintenance
- how often do you want to update the site with new information or photographs?
- how much of the content will need changing and what in particular needs to change?
- what will your backup and restore plan be together with servicing of the site?
Time frames
- what are your time frames to begin and complete the site, bear in mind that work cannot be undertaken with out the copy?
