HOW TO PLAN A WEBSITE (Step 1)

A Website Development Plan

When you begin to plan a website, you need to first decide on your main theme BEFORE you register a domain name.  

What is the main theme of your site?

Research different website niche ideas you have. Check out keywords for your site to verify they are highly searched.

• Able to use a main keyword as your domain name?
• Have enough information about theme to create many web pages?

Using your main keywords when you register a domain is not necessary but could help with search engine optimization.

Also buying your domain AFTER you have decided on a theme and using your main keywords helps visitors understand what your site is all about.

Plan Website Design

Take a look at your competition, did they do a good job in their site planning?

• Is their website user friendly?
• How would you improve it?
• Are you able to navigate the site easily?
• How is their site design? - is it difficult to read? to many graphics?

Web Design Software

You can use free or paid software to build your web pages. There are so many different programs to use, but one of the best is Site Build It to help you with the planning, design and building a website. Take this SBI quick tour to see how they can help you create a successful.

Website Content

What are you going to write about?

Even though content is king, you need to make sure it is relevant and you have information to be able to create many additional web pages.

If you build a site with limited knowledge on the theme, you need to do a lot of research for content. By building a site around a theme you have a lot of knowledge in, you won't have any problems filling up many pages with relevant content.

Where are you going to host your site?

If you plan to build a site to make money online, using a free service is very unprofessional as visitors won't take you seriously.

• Ads on your web pages
• Not search engine friendly
• Lack of support - since you are not paying they are not concerned
• Very little bandwidth
• Many do not let you sell any advertising space or use Google Adsense
• URL's are long and difficult to remember (http://janesmithshop.freewebs.com)
• The provider could be selling your e-mail address to make money
• Your hard work may disappear quickly
• Web pages to build may be limited

If you would like to look into a free provider, check out www.free-webhosts.com . They have a searchable database with reviews of close to 300 companies.

Paid Web Hosting Plans 

Plans are available to pay monthly, quarterly or yearly. Many times a yearly plan includes a domain name for life as long as you stay with that company. Check out this hosting comparison chart to see which company would be right for you.

Website Launch?

Set a realistic goal and try to stick with it. If you set a goal of 30 days to get your planning and building completed and are getting close to that time, don't publish if still under construction. The traffic that finds you could be lost since your pages are lacking information and many times, won't return.

• How often are you planning on updating? Some information can change quickly, you might want to update it weekly or monthly.

Website Promotion Plan

Once you have built your site and it is live on the internet. Learn all the different ways to get your word out about your new site. Check out these website promotion techniques to start generating traffic.

Plan for website with this in mind:

Every day millions of people are looking for solutions to their problems. Creating a website to give people solutions = money in your pocket.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

See the different web site types to help plan a website.

Check out the site creation steps to plan your website.

How to register a domain name.

Need some website niche ideas?

Found your niche already, but need a keyword research tool?