The Phases of Website Planning

TLDR

• Website planning begins and ends with your audience
• Determine the goals of your website and outline the content needs
• Further develop your site concepts by mapping out the structure of the site and drafting all your written content
• Consider working with web developers and designers to build a well-thought-out website

Your website is really for the customer — not you.

If your brand doesn’t have a website, it doesn’t exist. Okay, that’s a little extreme. It’s more akin to a person who lives off the grid and sells their home-baked goods at a roadside stand. They’re around, but people only know about their goods through word of mouth or if they happen to drive by.

Without a website, your brand is kind of like that — a hidden gem in town. Customers looking for products or services like yours are much less likely to find you if you don’t have a website. In order to truly thrive as a brand, quickly throwing together a website won’t cut it, either. Your website should be well-planned and deliver value to your audience.

How do you begin such a monumental project? One word should stay at the top of your mind: audience.

Know Your Audience and Goals for the Website

When you’re starting to plan out your website, first consider what you’re trying to do and who you’re trying to reach.

As marketers, when we ask clients who their target audience base is we often hear something like this: “Well, everyone and anyone who might want to buy our product!” While the idea of casting a wide net sounds appealing, in reality, it’s not effective. If you strive to reach everybody, you’ll end up resonating with nobody.

Don’t take an “everyone’s my target audience” approach.

Break down your audience profiles by who’s most wanting and most likely to seek your product or service. Your website is really for the customer — not you. What are their needs? What problems do they need solved? What’s in it for them? It’s also important to consider who they are, where they are, and what drives them to buy or NOT buy. It’s also essential to think about why they are using your website in the first place, their tendencies while using the internet to research and shop, and where they think they will find your most valuable resources on your site.

Outline the goals of your website.

Defining your website goals will include detailing the solutions and value your brand can offer to prospective and current customers, with thoughtful content to support your claims. Overall your site should be easy to navigate, providing clear paths for information, support, and purchases. The site should reflect the feel of your brand experience and prioritize what matters most to the audience.

And, just like you can’t target all audiences, your website can’t accomplish all things. Choose your top two or three business goals and develop your site architecture around those. Try to achieve any more than that, and you will end up with a murky site that lacks clarity or direction, resulting in confused users, and ultimately, failure to achieve anything important.

If you strive to reach everybody, you’ll end up resonating with nobody.

Example: A Tale of Two Websites

Brands within the same family of services or products will have some similarities and differences in how they approach their websites. Take restaurants, for example. Regardless of the type of restaurant, just about any restaurant’s website will show photos of their food front and center, along with their menu. However, the website for a top-tier, Michelin-star restaurant will have different considerations and features from that of a fast food restaurant. A high-end restaurant’s site may emphasize the accolades they have received and the quality of their dishes. It may be largely focused on the luxury dining experience as a whole, setting the tone for what guests can expect when dining there and getting them excited about the unique offerings from the chefs. It also has prominently placed and clear information about how to set up a reservation to ensure guests can secure a table. On the other hand, a fast food restaurant’s site may have a more casual tone, typically highlighting all the options and deals they offer. The site likely shows exactly what is included in every meal, often with detailed nutritional information and pricing. The site may include a tool to easily order food online for delivery or take-out, along with outlining drive-through and dine-in options if available. The point is both websites are for dining establishments, but they have different set-ups and vibes based on what they offer and who their audience is. Determine your niche and let your website design follow accordingly!

Choose Domain Name, CMS, and Hosting Service

You’ll need to choose a domain name for your site. Your domain name should be memorable and reflective of your brand and its offerings. That can help your site rank higher in search results. Beyond that, it will simply be easier for customers to remember your site for their next visit if the domain name isn’t complicated.

Your site needs to live somewhere, which means you also need to choose a content management system (CMS) and hosting service. The “right” option depends on the goals of your website, but you’ll want to look for a CMS that allows for flexibility and scalability, and a web host that will support the functions of your website.

Remember that content is king, and it’s driven by your audience’s needs. We recommend staying away from pre-set website templates. The content you include on your site shouldn't be limited by the confines of a pre-set template you had no say in creating. When you work to build a custom site, you can also focus on designing it to be mobile-friendly — which is absolutely essential today.

Map the Structure and Content of the Site

Once you have a strong understanding of your audience and the ultimate goals of your website, you can work on figuring out the pages and content needed on the site.

Develop the Site Structure

Once you’ve determined the types of content and resources your website needs, ask yourself what specific pages are necessary to help a customer have an informed and easy buyer’s journey.

Site mapping and wireframing are helpful tools at this stage. A sitemap shows the flow of the different website pages — how the pages connect, and what navigation will look like. Wireframing is similar, but it focuses on detailing the specific layouts of each page. It shows the structure, content, and interactive elements that will make up each page to guide the user experience. Complex sites may benefit from programs to create sitemaps and wireframes. For simpler sites, good old pen and paper might do the trick.

It will take time to find the best way to deliver information and structure the website. To help determine the layout, ask what the most important thing is to the customer and how to fulfill their needs. You’ll need to set up interfaces that intuitively take your audience where they need to go to have an informed and easy buyer’s journey. The website should include a clear process for purchase, whether that is in-person or through eCommerce.

As you head into your website development project, search engine optimization (SEO) should be top of mind. You can positively impact your site’s SEO simply by focusing on developing quality content that’s relevant to your audience. A clear website structure with good content makes it easier for search engines to “crawl” (sift through) your site to pull out the key takeaways — bumping your site up for customers looking for brands like yours.

Outline and Write the Content Areas for the Site

Break down the types of content you should have on your site based on what you want your site to achieve. This may include informing customers about what you offer, providing valuable supplemental content, and setting up tools for customers to take further action.>

Your content should drive your site. After outlining the basic content structure, write out all the content to populate each web page. The writing phase of website development tends to overlap other parts of the process, as you’ll likely refine the content as you further develop the site structure. The end result should be content that informs and adds value to the customer experience in a concise and engaging way.

Remember that content is king.

Fine-Tune the Details and Plan the Technical Components?

After all that planning, you have a good handle on your site’s setup and have the content to plug into it. Now it’s time to get into the finer details and build the site for real.

While there are many best practices for designing a website , there is not a single “right” way to put together a site. Think about your particular offerings and customers, then marry your content with current web design standards. It will be beautiful website bliss.

You will work with a website developer and graphic designer to build out the website. They can help bring your plans to life, putting together the content and visuals in a way that’s intuitive for users while also looking sharp and grabbing a visitor’s attention. For example, many brands choose to feature an eye-catching “hero image” at the top of the homepage that shows the essence of their business — the product, service, or otherwise who they are as a brand. Graphics should always complement the content.

Consider if you want to wait to roll out the whole completed site at once, or do a “phase one” of the site that just includes the essentials for your audience and brand needs. With the second option, you could then roll out additions in future phases. This may be a helpful option for bigger website projects with long timelines. This “launch pad” approach may also be used when you’d like to take a data-first approach— first testing and learning what features create the best brand experience for users before embarking on a new feature build.

Test, Test, Test, and Prepare for the Future

Once the site is built out, try your darnedest to break it. Make sure all the buttons and modules work and that the page navigations flow correctly. Thoroughly copy edit and proof your content to ensure it’s clear, full of value and brand flavor, and error-free. Does the website look like your brand? Is it cohesive? Does it provide everything customers need and care about? Check every page in every popular website browser and on all the most used devices — don’t forget many users will first see your site on a mobile device but then may switch to a desktop computer later in their journey. This transition should be seamless.

Ensure you have proper tools for site maintenance, as well. You should have access to the back end of the site and the basic know-how to make small edits and additions as needed. However, also maintain a connection with your web developer if larger changes are needed down the road. The site’s structure should allow room for growth — like designated spots for informative blogs you can post yourself.

Go Live

You’ve conceptualized your site, written your heart out to give it depth, and worked tirelessly to strategically build it pixel by pixel. You’ve read every word on the site about 85 times and can confirm there are no typos. You still get goosebumps when you see the gorgeous hero image on your homepage. Could it be? Are you ready to go live?

Once you’ve launched your site, get the word out there to your customers and audience through your digital marketing channels. Be receptive to any feedback you hear, and address any remaining issues that may arise. If everything goes as planned, from here on out you’ll want to perform periodic website maintenance, add-ons, and optimizations regularly.

Want a helping hand to build your site?

If you work with an agency, be sure to talk them through the basics of your business and where you’re trying to go. Agencies like us folks at sōsh will conduct a discovery process to best understand your brand and your audience. Starting with a full understanding also helps prevent surprises down the road and out-of-scope work.?Drop us a line — we’d love to connect and help you build a stellar website!

About Us

Founded in 1999, sōsh is a Milwaukee-based creative marketing and advertising agency specializing in data-driven strategies for small to large brands. Sōsh focuses on a wide range of disciplines such as creative services, social media, digital marketing, web design, advertising, and our trademark events. Sōsh creates meaningful connections between brands and their audience and does so through strategic communication, captivating creative, and thoughtful engagement. We are a collection of strategists - creatives dedicated to adding value to both our client’s brands and their consumers’ lives.