It has been my experience that many people want to build a web site without thinking about what they really want from a web site. There is a tendency to "just get a site out there" and that can be problematic, as well as just not very smart.

I frequently have clients contact me when they begin thinking about a site to get general information about what is involved, how much it will cost, how long it takes and so on, and then I don't hear from them for a long time. Then, they will call me in a semi-panic because they are about to launch some new campaign or product and they have to have the site in a week. Really. It happens a lot.

This attitude tends to make for a hasty judgment call on what to put on the site. That can lead to a poorly thought out site design and useless content for the end user. With that in mind I wanted to share some thoughts on what every site owner needs to consider BEFORE building a new site or upgrading an old one. I will cover this in a few posts in the near future, but for now I am just going to list some things that should be at the front of your mind when planning a site.

Things to Consider

• Who is my audience? (This is a biggie)
• What information is my target audience most likely to want when they visit my site?
• What is the best way to present this information?
• How can I interact with potential customers who visit my site?
• How large will my site need to be?
• How much traffic do I expect to have?
• How can we integrate our site into our current and future marketing / advertising?
• How will I promote my site?

As I stated above, I will go into more detail on a few of these topics in the near future, but for now, take a little time an think about these questions. It may give you some great ideas to implement into your site now or in the future.