There is no substitute for good planning when it comes to web development. As a client you should plan out your needs and requirements in detail prior to finding a developer to bring your ideas to reality. Have a vision and put it on paper. You must carefully consider the audience and target market as well as completely define the purpose of your site. Those who are new to the web always overlook the importance of having content on your website. These days search engines predominantly rate your importance as a website based on the content in it. Once the idea has been fully developed and you have a good amount of content, you may then take the next step and look for a development company to help you materialize it.

Here are some guidelines to follow in the planning process.

Purpose

Defining your site’s purpose is the first step is your site planning process. This must contain details on what the site is to accomplish as well as what it will provide the user. For instance, is your website’s purpose to be an:

1. Online brochure; a small extension of your already existing marketing tools.
2. Online marketplace (e-commerce); a venue to offer your products and services directly online.
3. Community site; a venue for people on the web to come and share information.
4. Personal site / Blog; a venue for you to share your thoughts with people online.

These are some of the most common reason for building a website.

Clearly set your long term as well as short term goals for your website at this point so you may clearly track its success along the development and post-production phases. In order to determine the success of your online venture you should spend the time planning its every step and have a clear vision of where you want to be.

Audience

Properly defining your audience is the second step in your planning process. The audience can be defined as the users who will visit your website, your potential clients or market. Your site has to be developed according to your audience. A commonly made mistake is developing a site that would appeal to you as an individual and not to your audience.

For instance if your target market is people between the ages of 45-65 years of age, the design and User Interface of your site will be very different compared to a site targeted towards teenagers.

Once the audience has been identified you must then put yourself in their shoes and think of the general characteristics of such an individual. For instance, pay close attention to the following: your target audiences’:

1. age
2. what information they prefer to see
3. what are the typical computer specifications that he/she might have
4. web experience
5. disposable income

The main idea is to deliver your content successfully to your target audience and the first step in this process is to carefully identify who they are.

Content

Once the purpose has been successfully defined, you must begin gathering the content that will appear on your website. Collecting good content and organizing it according to your market’s needs and wants is the key element in this step of the planning process.  During this step you must always keep in mind the purpose and the audience, and any content that does not strictly fit within those guidelines should be removed.

Content is the key for success when it comes to the WEB. Put yourself in your users’ shoes and ask yourself, “why would I visit this site?” or “why would I use these products/services?” If you are unable to fully answer those questions then you must rethink your reasons for building a website. Web users are extremely fickle and once they leave your website unhappy, they will never return.
 
Once the content has been gathered it has to be organized properly into categories. These categories will then translate into sub-sections and links on your website.

At this point you are ready to find a web developer who can help you materialize your idea. The first step your developer must take is to consult with you and develop a storyboard for your website. This can be done through flowcharts and will solidify the structure of your site as it would appear online.