Website Development Outline

Are you thinking about creating your own website? Much of the work of creating a website happens long before you touch your computer! The best websites are well thought out in advance. Below is a list of items you need to consider before you create your website whether you decided to do it yourself or hire someone to do it for you.

The Basics

What name do you want for the website?

What domain name do you want for your website? (ex. www.mysite.com)

Do you want .org or .com or other?

How do you want to host your site? On a free ISP or reserving your own? (note: if you are having a professional site you must reserve your own. It just doesn't look professional otherwise.)

Reserving your own ISP costs between $67 - $88 per year to maintain.

Audience

Who is your website targeted at?
Do they access the web from home or at work?
Do they want content (text) or visuals?
What are they going to get out of visiting your site?
What message do you want your audience to hear?
What information will you provide and what will they get out of it?

Web Design

Determine what you want your website to look like
1) Find website that are examples of what you like
2) Make a rough sketch on paper how you would like your site to be
3) Do you want lots of images or graphics?
4) Do you want to focus on content and text?
5) Do you want to have blog, survey, newsletter, calendar or other features?
6) What sections or headers do you want?

Web Content

How frequently do you want to update your content?
Are there professional associations or organizations that you want to link to from your site?
Who is going to write your content?

Plan Ahead

Your website may be small when you first create it. But try to think ahead and anticipate what you will need in a year or two. If you can plan ahead for growth you will be able to make changes much easier in the future rather than having to redo your entire site. For instance, leave enough room on your navigation/menu bar to allow for future menu items. Not doing so could cause you to undertake a major overhaul of your site.