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Intro to Web 2.0 Website Templates

Website Planning:

This is what you have to start thinking of before your web design company can create a web design for you or before you start thinking about what the website is going to look like.

- Pages: How many pages do you think that your website is going to require?

The majority of websites will have enough with 5 or 6 pages. The simpler that you keep your website the easier it will be for your visitors to find the information that they are looking for and the longer they will stay on your website. You want to avoid overly complicated navigation systems and dozens of pages to get to the point. Put yourself in the visitor's shoes.

Here is an example of a simple page structure for your visitors:

Home, About Us, Products, Services, Contact Us

The Pages are self explanatory which is important to guide visitors to the relevant information.

Now that you have defined how many pages your website is going to require, you need to start thinking about content.

- Content: It is critical for the success of your website and to keep visitors interested that you start creating quality content for your pages. Think about how many paragraphs you will show to visitors, perhaps a few pictures, etc...

If you want to have pictures on your website make sure that they are quality pictures and that they are in a high resolution format.

- Artwork: If your company has already some artwork it will be recommended to give this to your web design company. They will use it to create your web design. i.e.: logos, headed paper, complimentary slips, ads in magazines or newspapers, etc... - Keywords: Keywords are the target words for people to find you on the internet. You don't need to have hundreds of them. Just focus on three at the most. i.e.: "Mortgage Company", "Best Mortgages" and "Save Money".

- Domain: This is the famous www dot. It is best to keep it simple and easy for people to remember so that visitors can visit your website again and again without having any trouble finding it.

- Sacrificing Branding: Sometimes people have created over the years a well known and established brand and are not willing to sacrifice their brand for the sake of having a more relevant domain that says more about your business:

Here is an example: www dot jsmith dot com This is your invaluable brand the one that took so many years and so much effort and money to build up. If Mr. J.Smith, whose business is related to mortgages had a domain called www dot mortgages dot com this would be more relevant to the nature of his business and what he does and also this domain is much easier for visitors remember. The majority of good domains have been taken for many years now but consider the possibility of having hyphens within your domain or a word that identifies your business coverage. Here is an example: www dot mortgages-ireland dot com. If your brand was Nike you wouldn't need to think in domains like www dot sportswear dot com as it is recognized enough worldwide.

- But I already bought my www dot jsimth dot com what do I do with that now? Don't worry, keep it. You can have two different domains having very similar information on them or just simply redirect the www dot jsmith dot com domain to your new one www dot mortgages-ireland dot com.

- Cost for running your website: There are two main yearly fees for you to have your website up and running. The first fee will be your domain; this will need to be paid yearly to your Hosting Company. Prices vary depending on the kind of domain that you have. An average price for a .com domain is $7.00. The second fee that you will need to cover yearly is your Hosting fee. Hosting means that you are renting a bit of space on the internet for you to be able to display your website. We strongly recommend that you use a local hosting company as it is much easier to deal with them. The average price for hosting for a year is around $35.

- Market Research and Marketing Study: I would recommend that you do a bit of a market research and to see what are the major players in your industry are offering at the moment. Take a note of what you like and what you don't from their websites. Check on your competitors and do it better than them.

- Pricing Structure: Consider to show a price guide for your products or services if possible. This will truly help your visitors to make a decision. Clarity in what you do and how much you charge customers will be critical for a successful website. Perhaps you can offer discounts for online customers.