Planning your Web Site - Web Design Ireland, Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Galway, web sites graphic design

Whether you are building a web site for a B&B in Mayo or an international manufacturing organisation, before you dive into the details of creating your Web site, you need to develop a sound plan that encompasses your objectives and your target audience - you should consider the following:

Identify the aims of your web site

It's one thing to realise you need a web site, but do you know why you need one? Before you start designing your site, you need to have a clear set of aims in mind. Create a list of objectives (stepping stones enabling you to achieve your aims) that define your web site plans - they might read as follows:

• Provide core information about my business
• Provide in-depth, pre-sales information about my products or services
• Reinforce my branding messages
• Help my customers find and contact me
• Function as a landing page for e-marketing
• Enable my customers to purchase via telephone or mail-order
• Allow my customers to purchase directly online
• Help new customers find me via search engines or other online directories

Once you have mapped out everything you want your site to accomplish, you can begin thinking about how your design and content will support these objectives. At this point, you should also decide whether or not you will be engaging in actual e-commerce  - selling your products on your Web site. If you do plan to build an e-commerce site, you'll have an additional set of tasks outside of planning and building the site itself. Be prepared to figure out pricing, taxes, shipping logistics, credit card or other payment capabilities, inventory communication, and other merchandising issues before you begin creating the e-commerce site. Many web site hosting providers can help you resolve these logistics.

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