Transcript Blue Print for Planning a Website

BLUEPRINT FOR PLANNING A WEBSITE
A well-organized website
doesn’t just happen.
-----A detailed blueprint will guide
the decision-making
process.
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PLAN!
PLAN!
PLAN!
1. DEFINE THE PURPOSE
• Define the purpose of the website.
– Why do you need a web presence?
– What are you hoping to accomplish?
2. IDENTIFY YOUR AUDIENCE
• Identify your target audience and focus on
it. The website isn’t about YOU?
• Ask questions:
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How old are they?
Men, women, children?
What are their expectations?
What is their level of education?
Where do they live?
Are they web savvy?
3. DOMAIN NAME
• Choose your domain name and register it with a
domain name registrar
– You can pay extra for private registration, which will keep
your name and contact information private—otherwise it is
public knowledge
• An exact name match with your company is the
best choice
• Avoid hyphens
• Keep it short, easy to remember and easy to type
• Remember the copyright law
Some use the “radio” test.
How will your website name sound in a radio ad?
4. BUDGET
• Set a budget and plan accordingly.
– It isn’t just about how much it will cost to build it.
– You also have to consider the time it takes to build
it PLUS what it will cost to maintain it
• Web hosting fees and domain registration
5. GOALS
• Prioritize your goals. Determine what
needs to go on the website first—and what
can be added as time and money allow.
– Draw a simple diagram of all the pages you want
and how they will connect to each other
• Plan the navigational structure
6. DESIGN THE LAYOUT
• Design the layout of the website
– Research other websites and make note of the
things that you like
– Decide on the color scheme
• There are 216 web-safe colors that are guaranteed
to display properly on both Windows and Mac
operating systems.
6. DESIGN THE LAYOUT
• Determine screen resolution
– Designing web sites to fit all resolutions is very
important, but it is difficult to create a site that
will look exactly the same at different resolutions.
– The most common resolutions are:
800 x 600, 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024
• The most commonly used in the U.S. now is
1024x768
7. FILE NAMING CONVENTIONS
• Use a simple naming convention for all files
to improve search engine optimization
(increasing the number of visitors to your site by ranking high in
the search results of a search engine)
– Only using letters, numbers and dashes (or hyphens);
do not use spaces or special characters
– Names should be logical, clear and to the point.
– Examples:
• Poor: 11-Aug_lowres.pdf
• Better: Wilson-Newsletter-2011.pdf
8. CREATE THE SITE
• Create navigational structure
– Include a link back to home on every page in a
consistent location
• Use menus (navigation bars) or tabs
• Create a site map
– Keep it clean—not cluttered and cramped; include
plenty of white space
– Use small blocks of text
9. PLAN ACCESSIBILITY
• Accessibility means that your site can be
viewed by all, regardless of the device used
or the abilities of the visitor.
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Color blind? Other vision problems?
Assistive technologies?
Navigate without a mouse?
Mobile device?
10. TEST THE SITE
• Test the site to make sure everything
works properly before you go live:
– Spelling/grammar check, hyperlinks, browser
compatibility, etc.
11. PUBLISH THE SITE
• Publish your website through your web
hosting service
• Check to see if your service automatically
registers your site with the major search
engines like Google, Yahoo, etc.
– If not, register it yourself. Registration is free and
improves search engine optimization (SEO).
12. MONITOR AND EVALUATE
• Monitor and evaluate your site over time.
– Some web hosting services provide analysis to help
you know if you are meeting your goals.
RADIO TEST
http://www.authormedia.com/does-yourwebsite-pass-the-radio-test/