6 Steps to a Successful Website
1) Vision
A website has to begin with a clear vision about what you're trying to accomplish or convey.
If you can answer just a few simple questions it will dramatically improve the quality of your site.
vision questions:
- why do I want to be on the web?
- who am I trying to reach?
- what am I trying to get across to them?
Pretty quickly you can start to draw a picture of what the perfect web experience would look like for the end-users.
2) Organization & Strategy
From the vision, comes the next question; "how do we actual want to say or get across this message?"
Planning the website on paper before implementing any design is an essential part of the process.
It doesn't have to be an overly technical detailed specification; just a sketch on a napkin with some boxes an arrows. Anything that helps clarify how you see people interacting with and moving around in your site.
3) Design
How does it look? The bar has been raised and today, people expect to be visually, as well as intellectually stimulated. Websites need graphical content and, in most cases, can benefit from audio and video as well.
But (isn't there always a "but"?) because of the graphically intense nature of some of the sites these days, there is a movement toward "cleanliness" in design as well. This philosophy concentrates on structure, white space and typography in order to achieve the intended look and feel.
At the end of the day, the best choice for you will be the one that most accurately moves forward your vision.
4) User Interface (look & feel)
Is it easy to get around? Can you find what you want quickly & intuitively?
Websites need a clean, easy to understand interface that's as simple for the novice user as it is for the expert surfer. You should never feel lost or not know where you are on a site.
Consistent navigation should be available from every page and whenever possible, the navigation should help indicate where you currently are.
5) Content
Is there an underlying theme to what you're saying? Is it consistent with your vision for the site?
Preparing content for web delivery may be as simple as taking information from current flyers or brochures. Or you may take a clean approach and write something new. Either way, the content on your site needs to be optimized for maximum effectiveness . For the most part, people aren't going to spend hours looking over your site. They're coming to get information or to find out something.
Make it easy for them to do that and they'll be back.
types of content include:
- text
- graphic images
- pictures
- audio & video clips
6) SEO
Search Engine Optimization used to be more of a science. Today it's something of a "black art".
The rankings process has become increasingly commercialized. Today, optimizing your ranking has become more about "buying" your way up, rather than optimizing your way to the top.
But there are still best practices when it comes to placement of keywords, meta tags, headings, alt tags and descriptions. Following a few basic guidelines can help ensure a positive outcome when going up against similar sites with similar budgets.
"Successful websites just don't crawl out of the woodwork; they're designed that way."