The importance of website planning

Website planning and Information Architecture (IA) are the most important components of developing/designing any website, no matter how small you may think it is. Compare building a website to building a house. Would you build a house without a plan? Even it a very small house?.. No, you wouldn't because you need to know where to lay the foundation and you need to know where to lay the bricks and where to put the windows and doors, etc...

The same applies to building your website. You need to know why you are building a website and who will be visiting your website and why they are visiting your website... This is very important information, if not the most important information. So, let me start by helping you define your website's goals.

First you need to decide who will be involved in defining the site's goals. If it's just you, then get started and define those goals. What is the mission or purpose of your organization? Why build the site? What is the purpose of the site? What do you hope to achieve with the site? What are the short and long term goals of the site? Ask yourself or your client these types of questions to clarify your website's goals... I cannot emphasize enough the importance of Website Goals!!!

Think about it... question it!

I'll talk about your website audience next week...

Plan your website or blog

I have neglected this blog over the last few months and that is one of the no-no rules if you want a popular blog... But, I am back to share with you new information, important information, information that will help you build a website or blog with meaning and purpose...

But before we get into the issues of website planning, I'll first point out some basic considerations for designing a good website.

- Credible, edited and original content.
- Valuable, Informative and updated regularly.
- Well organised and easy to read.
- Interactive with sticky content to attrack and keep visitors.
- You site has to load Fast.
- Should Not be too Flashy
- Use a secure webhost that allows manual backup and offer usage tracking

These are the key things that you should always consider while planning your website or blog. With my next post I will get into more detail about the planning of your website or blog and the issues that many web site designers don't take into account when they design.