Steps in Site Planning and Implementation

The next step that we will discuss in this section is setting your site's specifications. For bigger companies or organizations with other personnel involved, this could turn out to be a big task. However, for individual business owners and small businesses, this can be a straightforward process. Nonetheless, it is something that you should spend time on so as not to waste your time redoing your site.  Good site planning will save you a lot of time and effort in the future.

or simply put.... decide on your contents and how to organize them

Don't let this fancy words intimidate you. When you read books on website design, you would encounter such words as information or system architecture. it simply means, decide what kind of content you are going to put in your site and how you plan to present them to your visitor.

In the next few lessons, you will learn that on the Net, content is king, so plan well what are the things that you need to put in your website. No matter what business you have in mind, there is always something to say about it.  Again, you will need to go back to your site goals to determine which content should find its way in your site.

Research will play a very important part in this phase. While you may be an authority on your field, it is good to see what other people in your field think and talk about.  The Internet is a great place to do research but I would still suggest you find some hard copy books for your reference.

or simply put.... decide which content goes where.

This step is similar to putting together a table of contents. You know what sort of contents you need to put in your site, now you must decide where you will put them so that your visitors can easily find them. You will be using directories to organize your contents.  To make it easier for you, you can draw your directory structure in a piece of paper and list down the contents that will go in each page.  This way, you will also know which one should be linked to which page.

                              image source:  www.webstyleguide.com

	Note: If you have no idea what a directory is, do not worry. When you use an authoring software, you will be told exactly how to create directories.  In EZGenerator, it is just a matter of adding pages and sub-pages and the directory is done automatically.

Your Home Page

The most obvious place to start is your home page. The home page is the most important page of your website.  A good homepage should immediately tell the visitor:

Most marketers talk about USP or unique selling proposition. This principle is just as important in online business as it is offline.  Every business must have a USP for it to have a fair chance at succeeding in business. Unique selling proposition, simply stated, is that quality that makes you different from the others offering the same thing as you. In the Internet world, what does your site have that makes it different from the other sites. Why would people want to visit your site, instead of your competitors' sites?  Once you have decided on your USP, make sure it's communicated well. And the best place to say it is in your home page.

What you include in your home page is entirely up to you as long as it makes people want to explore your site further.  It is not necessary to include all the "important" things in the home page. But, it is a requirement to have the links to be able to visit the pages that you feel are important.

	Note: If you intend to create and sell e-books on your site, I suggest that you look at Your Step-by-Step Guide to Success on the Internet. This e-book is especially designed for aspiring e-book marketers. It has all the information you need and a host of free software and downloads.

Your Secondary Pages

We all accept that the home page is the gateway to your site and is, therefore, the most important. However, you must keep in mind that your visitors do not always land on your home page.  How does this happen?

When a visitor finds your site through the search engine, he will land on the page where the keyword he typed can be found, and there are high chances that this page is not your home page.  Most sites take pains in building up a grand homepage but neglect the secondary pages. 

Ask yourself, if the visitor lands on another page, would he be interested to explore the other pages based on what he sees?  Of course,it is impossible to duplicate what you have on your homepage in each of your secondary pages, but your other pages must have these:

-  A statement of what your business do and what you offer

-  A link to your home page and to your contacts

In other words, create freestanding secondary pages.

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