The fact is that most websites fail or never get to see the light of day. The main reason is they lack the direction, planning and drive required to carry them through to going live and beyond. There are no magic buttons and having a website does not generate instant customers. Clear concise direction, budget and how your website fits into your business plan is fundamental when looking at making an investment for internet presence.
1. An unused website is a useless website.
A good first step is to define the purpose of your website and who your audience will be. Write a few concise paragraphs on your proposed site and target audience, this will help convey your goal to others and focus the development path.
2. What's in a name.
A domain name that is relevant to your websites purpose will rank it higher with search engines. You do not have to include your business name within the domain name and there are no limits to the number of domain names you can have leading to your website. The top-level domain (TLD) should also be relevant to the type and geographical location of your business, so if you are concentrating on selling to UK customers “.co.uk” would be appropriate.
3. To SEO or not to SEO.
At the early planning stages consider if you need to market your website and how this will be done. If you will be competing for customers or audience on the internet then give consideration to developing your marketing strategy as part of the design rather than an afterthought. With search engine optimisation (SEO) the trick is to make your website the most relevant to the searches of your intended audience with respect to both content and geographical location.
4. No systems are alone.
Most websites rely on information that already exists. The classic example is with a retail store, where the inventory levels for the on-line store needs to be updated from the store computerised inventory system. Give consideration for the existing data and systems you have and how this is to relate to your website. This not only applies to content such as product descriptions or quantities but equally applies to administration tasks for clubs in handling member details.
5. All that glitters...
There is a tendency to be sold on the packaging and not the product. Flash, JavaScript and other scripting languages are used to generate dynamic pages with animation, changing buttons and pop-up menus. Unfortunately these can be used inappropriately and easily distract from the real purpose of your website. This may even alienate visitors, not just from finding the feature annoying but also if the visitor does not have the ability to view the page. Technologies as Flash and JavaScript only work if the visitors computer has these capabilities installed. Some devices used to access the internet cannot translate these additional scripting languages and unless the website is designed to gracefully accommodate these users then they will go elsewhere.
6. Less is More.
One of the most successful web documents has to be http://www.google.com/. Why? Because it is user friendly; just what is needed where it is needed. So much so it has set a benchmark for keeping it simple, a formula that others have used: http://www.live.com , http://www.ask.com , http://www.searchy.co.uk. In contrast is http://www.yahoo.com, a well proven search engine but with a more cluttered appearance distracting from the task of conducting a search. Each element that on the page needs to be justified for design, position and content. The resolution of a monitor is less than that of print so allow for the reduced quality when selecting content and also consider the layout that the user expects; such as a search option would not belong at the bottom left side of a page.
7. Let the blind man see.
Ensure your website complies to current standards of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). As a provider of a service you have a legal responsibility that your website is accessible by users with a disability. The W3C standards is considered the industry benchmark with detailed guides hosted on their website. You should also include 'privacy policies' and 'content rating' standards to your website. You may think these are not relevant to your site but as filtering systems are becoming more common place you want to ensure your audience get the right information about your site or risk being rejected from their searches.
8. Why reinvent the wheel.
With a plethora of applications offered for sale or free, the development of a web site can become a task of bolting ready made components together. Prior to including any applications ensure you meet license requirements and are fully aware of what support is offered, as well as what is required to get the application set up and if there is any renewal fees. As most existing applications are designed to appeal to the widest customer base they are more complex than what you require and usually full short of some features that you need. The use of an existing and proven application is usually a good basis for your website however the additional costs of implementation and customisation needs to be included when considering your options.
9. Know thy site.
Simply it is your site and as such your responsibility. Have an audit of your site knowing what files should be there as well as ensuring you keep a routine full backup of your site. Sooner or later your site will come under the interest of hackers, or human error in content management, will cause damage to the site. Having a good point of recovery is invaluable.
10. Web cycle.
Once your site is up and running, being marketed, having visitors, then what next? Give consideration for the dynamics and life expectation of your site along with how it will be maintained both in time and cost to keep your users interested.
Finally consider the purpose of your website, the one you wrote down, and how you are going to measure its success.