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I am looking for guidance in planning a site prior to actual building of the same. Guidelines, principals and general concepts on how to go about properly designing a site to meet the client's needs rather than shooting in the dark and hoping the design fits the need.
Suggestions?
Thanks
By the time the client has filled me in well on their target audience, and I've researched the keywords, looking at the competition, etc., I have a good idea what their niche looks like. That helps me create a look that is appropriate for them, but also distinctive and memorable.
It's funny, but sometimes the keywords themself will trigger both design needs and design creativity.
Nick
I won't claim to be an expert on this subject but this is what I do. First thing is to get a good understanding of what the company does. I usually answer these questions:
What products or services do they offer? - This will give you an idea of the how they operate and what they are offering. You can usually get creative with the subject matter if you know the product well enough.
What is their target market? - just like any other marketing/sales tool a targeted page will return more serious prospective customers. You wouldn't advertise football commerical with light pastels and full orchestra music in the background (unless you are going for a parody).
====intermission (i know, i know, it's long - go grab a drink and then come back)=======
Who are their competitors and what are their websites? - this will give you an idea of the little niches that their market might have. Usually you will find common themes and colors among medical sites or sports sites, etc. You can use this as a guide but not as a template. Your work will probably be compared to them as well, keep that in mind. Find out the weaknesses and strengths and exploit the hell out this info.
What is the goal of the company for the website? - What they want to accomplish is very important. If they want it to be a strict tool for marketing it will be structured completely different than something that is used for presentation of information.
The other thing that I find important to do is make sure you let the owner know that you are in control of this and YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Everyone will want to get there hands on the damn thing. Its important to take in their considerations but if you don't draw this fine line completing it will seem more difficult than doing your own root canal.
I hope this helps. I'm not sure if this is what you were looking for.
[inventory.overture.com...]
(Yes, the page looks weird, it's was designed to pop up)
Analyse the competition. Group averything into a spreadsheet or database program and go back to see the client. No one knows his business like he does. Pick a hanfull of primary keywords and keyphrases with him. Select the one you keep as primary ones, (max 10) some 100 secondary ones. Some of them are better rejected. This will provide you with some theorical redaction plan.
As for content and sections of sites. Some previous discussion here is a gem. 4eyes summed it all up about at middle page.
[webmasterworld.com...]
Discuss sections with client after the keyword selection.
Now you just started on the right foot.
The term 'Keyword' is familiar to me when using a search such as Google... type in what I am looking for, however, I do not understand the use of keywords in the planning process.
Please forgive my ignorance, but here goes a question. Once I create my list of words with the client where do I go from there? Why? I can see the usefullness in stimulating ideas and general brainstorming but how is this information useful otherwise?
Thank you all in advance for your information. Hope I may be able to help another in the future.
A vast majority of web designers do not understand the use of keywords in the planning process. That is why 97 % of sites about "blue widget" cannot be found on search engines when people type "blue widget". If you expect visitors to find the site on search engines you will have to develop your content using the keywords they will most likely use.
Here is a couple of interesting threads you could use.
Themes - What's all the talk about? [webmasterworld.com]
one-size-fits-all SEO [webmasterworld.com]
Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone [webmasterworld.com]
The written content of your site is what search engines use to find site matching a given query. How well you developped your content to match these queries will make the difference between a site that gets visitors and other sites floating on Internet like bottles throwned at the sea.
For me it’s like building the house and a year later coming back and asking the builder to add the support and foundation. It’s a real problem.
So here you are asking for help with the planning and that’s a great first step. My thoughts are you can’t go wrong with research. It’s already been suggested here so I’ll simply recap my position.
Research the client –project, needs, services, products – you have to know it all. I also try to figure them out a bit, what their style of operation is, how they respond and communicate.
Research the market – This is the industry or niche or target that fits what the project is about.
Research the competition – You won’t believe what information and data you’ll get from this exercise.
Research the audience – I like the client to write up a list of what makes up their perfect client or customer.
During all this research phase I usually have a document page or two open and several spreadsheets. I’m collecting keywords (you can go back later and run them through a link suggestion tool) and url’s for sites to link up with. These linking sites fall into a few categories including general portals, themed (to the industry) portals, places to submit articles, and link partnership possibilities. I also have a random notes page where I list advertising ideas that come up and other promotional ideas.
During the research phase I like to gather as much material from the client as possible. Get them thinking in terms of content. You have to have content. We also have to determine how the site is going to be set up, what features we’ll need to include, how we’ll analyze the stats.
Once I get through all of this (and these are only the highlights) I evaluate the information I’ve gathered and develop a strategy. So much of it is a given based on my past experiences but each client or project is new and they have different needs so all that must be considered.
After all of this I start mapping it out. Here is where I stay a bit flexible because connecting a site together takes a lot of work and planning. It helps to take it a section at a time. There’s always what I term the housekeeping pages – privacy, about, contact. There are the basic pages of the site including the homepage and content pages. I like article sections so there is often that whole portion to develop. Once you know for sure your main sections you can then break them down into the subsections.
Then I figure out how they are best connected. Read up on crosslinking and navigation to understand best how to connect your site. I don’t’ think people put enough thought or planning into this and it comes back to bite them later. We’ve discussed it a lot so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding the information.
While I’m doing this I’m of course planning for the promotion. Where I’m going to place the site, which categories at ODP and Yahoo, if I’m jumpstarting with some PPC, what portals I’ll advertise on or pay for listings with, and the plan for getting articles placed.
I hope some of this helps EdwardH. There is so much to what needs to go on behind the scenes, the backend. Not to mention then working with the designer and design elements, the copywriter who you want to both be able to write content that is interesting, draws attention and sells but utilizes the keywords in the right format. There’s the programmer and technical folk, the graphic artists – geez! It takes a great project manager or developer and when folks ask where SEO is going I think that’s the direction we’re moving in. A well optimized site is a well planned and developed site.
A powerful observation. I liked it so much that I began a new thread [webmasterworld.com] to discuss it.
