The Smart Web Center Website Planner

The purpose of this website planner is to help you work out what you hope to accomplish by having a website and what kind of a website system you'll need to achieve your goals.

The questions are designed to help you understand what your website can do for your business and to help you focus on what you'll need to build a solid foundation for your success on the Internet.

You can print out your planner and fill it out by hand or you can edit it in any text editor and save your work as you go. If you decide to edit it, you might want to save your edited copy under a new document name. That way you'll have the original planner saved and can go back to it anytime you want to.

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STEP ONE: OBJECTIVES

What is your reason for having a website?
What do you hope will happen?

Be honest. If you want your website to make money or get leads, say so. You may have to start out small and build up to what you really want, but you still need to keep in mind where you want to eventually get to.

Rate the importance of each of the following reasons for having a website. Be sure to rate every item. Right now they are set to "average" so just click on the button to change them to your rating.

Rating System:
1 = No or Irrelevant
2 = Nice but Not Necessary
3 = Average
4 = Important
5 = Very Important

Overall Objectives:

___ To create a good impression of my company
___ Establish a web presence and credibility
___ To provide contact info and directions

Advertising and Marketing:

___ To supplement my traditional advertising methods
___ Get free advertising from link exchanges
___ So my info is available online all the time
___ To test for potential new market niches
___ Experiment and look for market demand
___To promote my business location

Prospect or Lead Generation:

___ To encourage prospects to request info
___ To promote to possible prospects
___ To develop qualified prospects
___ To develop an opt-in email list

Product or Services Sales:

___ To sell products directly on the Internet
___ To sell services directly on the Internet
___ To increase my customer base
___ Sell a product or service without a middleman

Product or Service Information:

___ To provide an online catalog for customers
___ To provide detailed product or service info
___ To inform customers of product updates
___ To list product and service price lists for employees

Ongoing Promotion:

___ Promote special offers to customers
___ Promote items on sale to customers
___ Send follow-up email to customers
___ Send email newsletters to customers

Customer Service:

___ To improve overall customer service
___ To answer frequently asked questions
___ To provide support info online for customers
___ To provide additional info online for customers

Reduce Costs:

___ To reduce printing costs by putting info online
___ To reduce printing costs by putting forms online
___ To save on postage costs by using email
___ To lower support costs

Other Income Sources:

___ To sell advertising space on my website
___ To sell newsletter subscriptions
___ To sell ad space to others in my newsletters
___ To resell additional product lines

Communications:

___ To put up a calendar of events
___ To provide a forum for customers
___ To improve internal communications
___ To help form relationships with other companies

Community Resources:

___ Provide a community service
___ Build a resource site to attract visitors
___ Provide a portal or a gateway to the Internet

List out any more goals or objectives you can think of:









Of all of the above, which one is most important to you?




Of the above, which ones do you think it would be most important to get going right away?










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STEP TWO: YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE

Who is your target audience?

If there is more than one, list all of them:












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STEP THREE: VISITOR SERVICES

If you were your customer or target audience, why would you visit your website?

This is a really important question. Think about your target audience - when they use the Internet to find information about your product or service, what do they want to know? What are they looking for? What do you want them to do?

For example, a realtor might answer, "My visitors will want to find local listings." A tax practitioner might answer, "My visitors will want to know when the next estimated tax payment comes due or what to do if the IRS sends them a notice that they are being audited."

This list will be your guideline for the kind of content you will place on your website, which will make or break your site.

Look at this question from various angles, such as what makes my product or service attractive, why should they buy from me? What's unique or special about what I have to offer?












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STEP FOUR: YOUR UNIQUE OFFER

What can you offer that your competitors don't?

For example, a legal firm might answer, "Ability to provide in depth answers to legal questions for $20 in 24 hours via online charge form." Or a cookie company might answer, "Ability to get cookies delivered anywhere in a personalized ornamental box in 48 hours."

Make a list of the important reasons for potential customers to choose your business.












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STEP FIVE: ATTRACTING VISITORS

What interests do your customers or prospects have that are related to your business?

For example, a real estate agent might come up with tips for getting your home prepared for sale, home decorating ideas, information about how different mortgages work and so on.

A tax practitioner might have information about payroll, credit repair, how to deal effectively with employees and so on.

This list will give you an idea of what kind of articles or information you can provide on your website that will help to attract visitors to your website.












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STEP SIX: KEY WORDS

If you were your customer, what words would you use to find you?

For example, a training company might answer "teamwork training, management training, executive coaching, communications training, train the trainer, conflict resolution, managing change, training, strategic planning, facilitation skills, meetings, risk and empowerment, personal growth, interpersonal skills, keynote speakers, team assessment, negotiation, delegation, profitability, managing change, employees, customer satisfaction, reaching closure, organizational renewal, team performance, organizational assessment, collaboration, optimizing risk, solutions, performance, leadership."

Pinpointing these accurately is VERY important to the success of your site, for they are used in your web pages as key words. People looking for what you have to offer will search for key words on the Internet. If you have good keywords that reflect what you offer, you improve your chances of being found by people who are using search engines.

In priority order, list the 10 most important words from your answer above.












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STEP SEVEN: YOUR IMAGE

What Type of Image Would You Like to Project?

___ Content driven
___ Conservative
___ Corporate
___ Artistic
___ Feminine
___ Friendly
___ Children
___ High technology
___ Family
___ Academic
___ Fun
___ International

If other, describe below

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STEP EIGHT: YOUR WEBSITE PAGES

What type of pages will you include on your website?

This is a list of pages that are found on many websites. The pages that are in italics are a must for any website.

___ Contact Information: phone, address, map
___ Site Map or Index (a must on large websites)
___ Company Introduction
___ About your company or organization.
___ Key Personnel Credentials and Experience.
___ Product Features (one or many on each page.)
___ Service Features (one or many on each page.)
___ Customer Support Info or Help
___ FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
___ What's New Page
___ Special or Limited Time Offers
___ Time Sensitive Pages such as Newsletters
___ Articles, Reports, Writings, Manuals
___ Press Releases
___ Affiliates Page
___ Partners Page
___ Members Page
___ Privacy Policies
___ Tips, Hints or Useful Information Page
___ Contest Page
___ Links to Related Businesses Page
___ Awards You've Won Page
___ Resources Page

List out any additional pages you've thought of that you'd like to include on your website:












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STEP NINE: INTERACTIVE FEATURES

What interactive features would you like to have on your website?

This is a list of interactive features that are found on many websites. As you check these off, you may think of others that you'd like to have on your website.

Many of the following require custom programming or interfaces. Some require specially ordered installation or set up. Some are included with higher-end pre-built website systems or website hosting packages.

Interactive or Dynamic Features

___ Guest Book for Visitors to Record Comments
___ Website Search
___ Search the Web
___ Requests for Information Forms
___ Surveys or Questionnaires of customer preferences
___ Customer Feedback Forms
___ Customer Support Forms
___ Interactive Quotation Forms
___ On-line order forms
___ Order forms which can be printed out and mailed or faxed
___ Secure Order Forms
___ Online Credit Card Processing Forms
___ Online Product Catalogs
___ Email Contact Forms
___ Specialized Calculation Forms (like Mortgage Calculators)
___ Classified Ads
___ Forums/Bulletin Boards
___ Links and/or Banners Page Submissions
___ Live Online Chat Support
___ Art, Photo, Clip Art, Graphics Gallery
___ Interactive Demos
___ eBook or PDF Downloads
___ Automatic News or Articles Feeds

eCommerce Features

___ Shopping Cart
___ Merchant Credit Card Processing
___ Paypal Payment Processing
___ Database Integration for Order Processing
___ Automatic Debit or Credit Processing
___ Recurring Billings Processing
___ Affiliate Tracking System

Database Integration

___ Mailing Lists
___ Memberships
___ Content Management
___ Commission Tracking

Animation and Sound

___ Animation (gif, Flash, Macromedia, etc.)
___ Virtual Tours
___ Audio files
___ RealPlayer (streaming audio & video)
___ VDOLive (streaming video)
___ QTVR (Quick Time Virtual Reality)
___ Quick Time Movies
___ MPEG Movies
___ Shockwave (From Macromedia)

Special Effects or Functions

___ Java Applets
___ JavaScripts
___ Dynamic HTML Programming
___ Special CGI or Perl Scripts
___ Special ASP Scripts

Utilities

___ Email Addresses, such as sales@yourdomain.com (list them below)
___ Autoresponders
___ Site Statistics
___ Page Counters

If you've seen a particular interactive feature that you really like on another website, describe the feature and the website address where you found it:





List any other features that you've thought of while going through this list:













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STEP TEN: YOUR WEBSITE DESIGN

Work out your basic website design concept:

If you are planning to use a website template for your website design, list out the templates that appeal to you.








If you think that you'd like to have a custom website design or you can't find a template that appeals to you, fill out this section:

Specify one or two websites that show color combinations you like.








List one or two websites with a "look and feel" that you want for your site.








List one or two sample websites which have a similar structure and layout to the one you want to develop.








List one or two websites that come closest in functionality to the one you want to develop.

How much do you have budgeted for your website now:








How much do you have budgeted for your website six months from now:








How much do you have budgeted for expanding your website in the next year:








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