Throughout the world, the Internet has become an integral part of day to day life. As a result, more and more individuals and businesses are taking the leap and building their own custom websites. However, before you jump in and start developing your own piece of Internet real estate, there are some important questions that you should address. By taking the time to come up with a clear plan for your site in advance, you'll have the foundation that you need to create a top-quality site that gets noticed.
The first step in creating a memorable site is to have a solid understanding of what you want your website to accomplish. By defining an overall purpose and goal for your site, you can develop a highly focused design that meets the needs of your visitors and delivers your message in a clear, concise manner. The following questions can help clarify your vision and give you a blueprint to follow when building your site.
Will your site be for personal or professional use? What is the most efficient way to deliver your message to your visitors? Do you plan to integrate media such as videos, photos or music into your site, or will it be primarily focused on textual content? Developing a clear image in your mind of how you want the end product to function will allow you to move ahead confidently with the remaining steps of the site design.
The second step is to decide who will be responsible for building your site. Do you plan to handle the website design yourself, or would you be better off outsourcing it to a professional design firm? Be sure to factor in the overall goal of your site when making this decision. If you plan to just share text with your visitors, you may be able to get by with a simple blog or template-based website that you create yourself. However, if you plan to integrate rich media such as videos or if you have a lot of complex data to share, you may want to consider hiring a professional to handle the design instead. Obviously your overall budget will play a role in this decision as well.
The final step is to decide how you plan to market and promote your site once it has been built. By keeping an eye on the future during the design phase, you can integrate search engine friendly features into the design, making it easier for your site to attract organic web traffic when it goes live. This is also a good time to choose a domain name for your site. Be sure to choose a name that is easy to spell, easy to remember and is clearly linked to your brand or message.
Although the planning phase of web design isn't nearly as glamorous and exciting as the actually designing phase, it is a necessary step if you want to develop a site that is both functional and memorable. Taking the time to answer the preceding questions will have you well on your way to building a site that gets noticed.