Goal: What is the point of your site? What do you want to accomplish? The answers will
help focus your website content and design.

Lay out your website on paper. Group the main sections such as “Home Page,” “Contact
Us,” “Product Intro,” etc. Arranging your web pages on paper will help to identify
resources and images you will need. Write down ideas for the pages and the actual
development will move quickly.

Audience: Who is your audience? Targeting the visitor will help you create a message
that appeals to them. You should design your site to appeal to a specific customer group.
Market the site to your customer. Think of your customer. What is important to them?
Write down a few characteristics of your typical customer. Once you’ve completed this
step it will be much easier to compose your site to appeal to those customers who actually
buy your product or service.

Layout: Important elements of you site should be at the top of the page. Viewers read top
to bottom, left to right, and always look at the upper-left corner first.

Always make sure your ‘call to action’ comes sooner than later. Many people make the
mistake of telling people every detail about their products or service when most
customers really only need or want to know the bare minimum.

Content: Content is the most important website element. People are most likely to
bookmark, revisit, and recommend your site if the content is rich and helps them
efficiently find the information they need.

A little extra time on content preparation goes a long way. Remember that your website
is a living thing. It is never really done growing and changing as your site remains online.
Remember that visitors to your site are there to read the content – update it often.

Active Site Designs can make your website planning process easier.