What Is the Main Purpose of the Website?
Every website has it's own purpose and reason for existing. It's important to define the objective behind yours before you start building so the website's layout can be created in a strategic manner.
Informational
Establish authority
Lead generation | Drive Traffic
E-commerce
Portfolio/Personal
Educational
What Specific Actions Do You Want Visitors to Take?
Download a resource
Fill out a form to collect information or leads
Purchase something
Request a quote for a service being offered
Sign up for a newsletter
Do You Have a Brand Style Guide?
It's important to create a sense of consistency for your customers. The more we are consistent the more we gain trust. Brand Guidelines give us a roadmap to how we will present ourselves ensuring we stay true to our mission and true to our identity. We have a specific logo to represent us as well as a chosen color scheme and type fonts. It may seem trivial but the importance of this cannot be overlooked.
How Many Pages Will You Need?
Every website is different. The most basic of websites usually has around 5-10 pages. If you are an e-commerce shop though, it's not out of the question to clear 500 pages when each product needs it's own page. Examples of pages would be "Home", "About", "Contact", "Services", "Terms and Conditions". It's nice to have a general idea of how many pages you will need to create a realistic timeline around the build of your website.
Do You Have Content For Your Site?
Content. Content Content. I'm sure we're all sick of hearing the word content by now, BUT it's extremely important. Websites don't just exist with nothing on them, right? They are filled up with words, images, and videos. The content of your website is just as important as the identity behind it. In fact, it's no more than an extension of your brand identity. The content should be consistent and have a cohesiveness to it in order to create a connected experience for the user. If you are going to be selling products, consider doing a photoshoot where you capture all of your products in the same lighting and setting. Sure you can do them separately but it's crucial to have high quality photos and videos that represent you in the best possible light. We go to a website and see a product in poor lighting and some old crappy basement, chances are we aren't going to click the purchase button. Content is king. Wireframes and layouts can be sketched before all the content is captured but eventually those frames will need to be filled with the good stuff. It's always a good idea to start thinking about this ahead of time rather than trying to force it later.
Do You Need a Blog Or News Section?
Not entirely necessary but when trying to drive traffic to our site we can publish articles (like the one you're reading now) to help drive potential customers to our website. A blog consisting of relevant articles or a news section is a great way to do just that.
