Planning your Web Site
Step 1: Determining Your Web Site Goals

Define Your Goals
• What you would like your site to accomplish?
Understand Your Customers
• Who are your customers and what are their needs?
Determine What to Place on Your Site
• What can you put on your site to meet these needs?

Example #1: Is the goal of your Web site targeting new customers?
• Use customer quotes and photos of your work to demonstrate that your
business is trustworthy.
• Provide information about what makes your business unique.
• Include a map on your site to help local visitors find your office or store.
Example #2: Is the goal of your site to manage your customer relations more efficiently?
• Post extensive FAQs and information specifically for your current customers
• Create an online form so new clients can easily send you information
Step 2: Structuring Your Site
Structure your site to help people find the information they need.
Want to provide your visitors with information about your business and values?
• Include an 'About Us' page.
Want to streamline communications with your customers?
• Include an FAQ page where customers find answers to common questions.
Want customers to e-mail you?
• Add a link to your e-mail address on every page in your site.
Step 3: Looking for Further Ideas and Advice
Here are some tips for finding additional ideas and features for your site:
• Ask some of your customers or clients what information they would like to see on
your site.
(Note: After your site is up, it is also a good idea to have people look at it and offer advice on
what is working well and what could be improved!)
• View other Web sites to see what you what you like and what doesn’t work.
To see other Homestead sites, visit our Featured Sites.
Step 4: Designing and Building Your Site
When you.re ready to design and build your site, the choice of building tool is up to
you. Use an application that allows you to start quickly, learn easily, and work
efficiently.
• start quickly—you should be able to get results quickly without comprising your
design by being forced to choose between a few cookie-cutter templates.
• learn easily—you should be able to use the application initially with ease,
gradually becoming an advanced user.
• work efficiently—you should be able to accomplish your work (creating new
pages, editing existing pages, etc) quickly and at your convenience.