Plan Your Site

Planning your site involves creating the blueprint for the site; where it will reside, what it is supposed to accomplish, and how it will look.
Determine your approach. Will you create the site or have someone else do it for you?

Creating a site yourself involves several steps:

• Find a company to host the site - there are many companies that offer hosting services; find one that is reliable and efficient. It's no fun to deal with your website being slow or worse, down because of the host.
• Purchase a domain name (the URL address for your site) - remember to keep your name simple, memorable, and descriptive of your company.
• Learn a tool to create your content - There are many tools for creating a website, including Adobe Dreamweaver®, Microsoft® FrontPage®, or Adobe® GoLive®.
• Learn another tool to transfer the site to the Web - Several easy-to-use file transfer programs are available for low or no cost, such as WS_FTP® or CuteFTP®.

If you decide to outsource your site, choose the individual or company carefully. Make sure whomever you choose has experience in creating the type of site you want and will be responsive and patient with questions and issues. Don't be afraid to ask for samples of sites they've created or client references. Also, be sure they provide you with a reasonable way to update your site. You shouldn't be charged a large fee every time you need to update your site; in fact, you should be given the ability to do at least some simple updating yourself. Your website creator will be your partner for a long time, so do your homework before signing someone on.

Define your goals and objectives for the site.
Think in terms of action verbs here: what do you want your site to do for new and existing customers, as well as other visitors? What services - such as e-commerce or scheduling - or interactions - such as forms or Web logs - do you want to include? It helps to take a look at the competition and see what they're providing. For more information on creating content, read the article "Now That You Have a website... What Do You Put On It?"

Determine the look and feel of the site. As you consider this, keep in mind how you are going to establish your online brand. You can read more about branding in the article "Who Are You? Building an Online Brand." Consider who the primary audience for your site will be and how you can best appeal to it.

Create Your Site

As you create your site, make sure it's attractive, readable, efficient, and easy to navigate. Regardless of whether you create a site yourself or have someone do it for you, keep the following best practices in mind:

• Use an attractive, professional-looking design. Your site reflects directly on your business.
• Avoid verbose text. People are turned off by text-heavy sites, so get to the point.
• Use clear, fast-loading pictures. In particular, avoid high-resolution pictures, which take a long time to load.
• Avoid animated introduction pages, such as the ones created with Macromedia Flash (a Web-authoring tool that provides text animation effects). Display your home page as quickly as possible.
• Remember the 3-click rule: it should take visitors no more than three clicks to get to the information they're looking for.
• Don't include a counter on your site. Invite interaction in other ways.
• Test your site on a dial-up line. There are still many people out there using dial-up connections, which are slower.

Create Your Site

Like any project, have your website tested before you publish it.

Creating a site is ongoing:
A process, not a one-time event. The "A website is like a flower" analogy is corny, but appropriate - you really do have to nurture your site and help it grow. You don't have to water it every day, but you should refresh the content regularly to keep customers and clients coming back.

Once you have your site ready to "go live," ask people you trust to review it. You might also ask a customer you trust to try it. Is there anything that confuses them? Can they find what they're looking for? Correct these issues before publishing the site.

If you include a comments form on your site, you might also get some suggestions for improvement to the site itself. Pay close attention to these, and be sure to send appreciative reply emails.

Promote Your Site

Even the best website is useless if people can't find it. Use search engines, your business materials, marketing, and other businesses to promote your site.

Building a website doesn't automatically guarantee anyone will come and look at it. As with other aspects of your business, you must promote it. Here are a few suggestions on getting the word out about your site:

• According to a study by the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center, 85% of users find a site through a search engine. You should optimize your site for search engines, and then submit to the major ones.
• Email marketing is an enormous opportunity for most businesses. Sending such items as newsletters, targeted coupons and special offers, and informational alerts to customers and clients can drive site traffic and sales, enhance the business/customer relationship, and increase brand awareness.
• Put your URL on all business-related materials, including business cards, print advertisements, brochures, appointment-reminder postcards, invoices, coupons, flyers, and promotional materials.
• Exchange links and banners with other businesses. This practice can lead to new business and improves your site's search engine ranking.

The Bottom Line

As with any project, you need a checklist to create a successful website. If you plan it thoughtfully, use best practices to create it, review it carefully and objectively, and promote it as you would any other aspect of your business, you will produce a powerful addition to your company.