david lockie at wp-brighton 2011 - planning a successful website
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Planning a Successful Website
David Lockie
Housekeeping • Visitors Marketing •
Content Calls to Action
Design • Workflow Infrastructure Commercials
Housekeeping
CC photo courtesy of blodgett esq.
Can you answer these questions?
• What do you do?• What are your brand & identity?• What are your key messages?• Who are your competitors and what
are they doing online?
How about these?
• What business purpose will your website serve?
• What are the specific objectives you want your website to achieve?
• What actual money value can you put against these objectives?
• What are your targets for the website?
You need to be able to answer these
questions simply and quickly
CC photo courtesy of puuikibeach.
You’ll need:
• A fair bit of time• Staff engagement• Internal alignment• Commitment• Some money
Visitors CC photo courtesy of criminalintent
Who do you want to look at your website?
You don’t want the whole internet to
look at your website
This is the whole internet, it’s weird
You need to know your target audience
CC photo courtesy of sally-aiden
Wally• Single• Young• Male• Likes:
travelling, red stripes, lurking
CC photo courtesy of infomatique
Marketing CC photo courtesy of nechbi
How are you going to tell your potential visitors about your
site?
Traffic Sources
• Natural search (do your keyword research)• Directories• Social media• Existing customer databases• Email marketing• Participate in online communities• PR/marketing/paid search campaigns• Offline/ambient - stationery, email
signatures
Get a plan together, then execute it when the site is ready to launch
Content CC photo courtesy of Verity Cridland
Substance, Structure, Workflow,
Governance
Timely, Interesting,
Relevant.
Content = Marketing
Don’t forget the details
• Terms and Conditions• Privacy Policy• Disclaimer• Accessibility Statement• Audit Trails
A Sitemap
• Home• About• Products– Products for men– Products for women
• News & Blog• Contact Us(excludes legal stuff, sitemap, etc)
Maps and journeysHow does your content link to your goals?
Calls to Action
CC photo courtesy of twicepix
Ask your visitors to do something that adds value to your
business
For example:
• Buy something• Contact you (by form, email or
phone)• Give you their contact details• Create a relationship or conversation
on social media or on your site• Tell other people about you• Spend longer looking at more pages
of your site
Design CC photo courtesy of
How can you express your brand
identity through your website?
How can you make your user journeys
clear and easy?
Avoid choice overload
CC photo courtesy of emilio labrador
Be as lazy as you can
• What’s the easiest way to keep your site updated
• Connect your business systems: make automation work for you
• Syndicate content: publish once, reach many
CC photo courtesy of landscape_leadership
Don’t waste effort
Stay lean through analysis
• Plan to collect data:– Visitor traffic– Enquiries– Sales
• What content works and what doesn’t?
• Which pages do visitors like?
Measure -> Analyse -> Insight -> Change ->
AMRAP
Infrastructure CC photo courtesy oftheplanetdotcom
You’ll need
• Domain name & hosting• Email hosting (and maybe SaaS)• Web hosting• Maintenance & staging hosting• Backups
Commercials CC photo courtesy Images_Of_Money
Key Commercial Decisions
• Do you need professionals, or can you use off-the-shelf options and in-house skills?
• Who might you need? Internal Project Manager, Copywriter, Designer, Developer
• Timeline• Budget• Deliverables• Project Management
Final Thoughts CC photo courtesy jemstone
• Start with the simplest version you can, then learn what works
• A good website is never finished - what does your Phase 2 look like?
• A website should always be an investment, not a cost
• Always build your website for your visitors, not for yourself
Any Questions?
David Lockie@divydovy
www.divydovy.com