A post in the series called Build a Web Site from Scratch. In this post our goal is to address the planning and market analysis phase.
The planning phase of a web site is BY FAR the most important. Few do-it-yourselfers take the right time to do it in the beginning and end up doing it after the site is launched when a lot of time and money has already been spent. They then have to redo a bunch of work when they figure out what they want and need. This step will save you a lot of time down the line.
When agents build a site it should be like writing a book. Much before words are ever written the book should be structured and outlined. Sure, a few chapters may be written out of inspiration but at some point the author has to sit down and think, "how am I going to present this?" This is a process agents can take as they start out with a site.
- Site Objective - Believe it or not the first step to web design doesn't involve a computer. It involves a pen, paper, and a quiet space. Just like any successful project the planning phase is important. We are going to assume you understand the costs of building a site somewhat and you are bent on creating one yourself. Spend some time, an hour per day for several days over perhaps several weeks. Write down your web site objective and goals. What are you trying to accomplish? This is important because in web design there is a constant temptation to stray from the goal because of all of the fancy stuff you can add and write. Knowing your objective will keep the site clean, crisp and on point. I imagine most agents want to have, "an informational site that will draw traffic and convert leads." If that is like your objective then we need to design around that objective. Your objective may be different, more focused, or more broad but you do need a main goal to shoot for.
- Market Analysis - Now its time to find out what to write about to accomplish your objective. A web site is like an online, interactive book, right?
- Well, what are people looking for?
- What can you write to draw users into your site and convince search engines you are a valuable site to display?
There are several ways to determine what content is valuable. Imagine you are a potential client looking for real estate help. Do searches for keywords you would want help on.
- What results come up at the top?
- What does the competition offer?
- What content do they have?
Keep in mind if they don't have much content and they still come to the top of the engines they are either paying the search engine for their placement or they are paying someone to do link popularity work for them. We'll talk about this later. Keep in mind, the best converting sites are usually the ones with the best appearance, content, and tools. Just because it comes to the top doesn't mean it is converting.
Another way to find out what keywords to target is to use sites like http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/ or http://inventory.overture.com/ or others you may find. Also, download the Google toolbar and start typing in the search field. See what keywords and phrases come up as you type. They are likely listed by popularity. You won't want to miss this step. Build your site with good SEO from the beginning.
Now, write down the keywords that best fit your site's objective. - Site Theme - Once you have set in your mind what you want to accomplish determine what your scope is. What is your theme? We are writing a book, right? Books have a main title. Published articles have a main theme. Your site should have a main theme. What could the main title of your web site be? Most of your categories and articles will fit under that theme and Google will love you for it! Your theme should include your top key words and phrases.
- Site Chapters - A book is typically broken up into intuitive chapters. On web sites we usually see these chapters called categories. What categories fit your theme? These categories should be broad enough that they would hold 5 to 15 articles in them. If they hold many more you may consider creating another category. If you have categories within categories you likely have a very broad scope and your site will be harder to promote within the search engines. If you have troubles here skip to step 4 and come back to this step. You may need to determine what documents you will be writing and then divide them into categories. The categories you choose will be important for search engine purposes.
Some obvious categories might be, "home buyer information," "home seller information," "[my area] information," etc. You may not have any categories. If you only plan to write 10 distinct articles and promote the site then you may only need to link to your documents with your navigation without any categories. You will certainly want to know this before designing the site or you will be dangerously backtracking later and it will cost you in redesign time and search engine popularity time. A site redesign can be disastrous for your rankings.
Notice we are talking about content only at this point. We don't care about site design, structure, colors, images, etc. yet. The content will drive the design and structure. And, if we get the design and structure wrong because we didn't plan around the content we may have to restructure our site later to keep it organized and that can kill rankings if done after the site is popular with the search engines. We want to get it right the first time so we can add more and more content and not have to restructure the site. - Content - You will be writing to draw users into clienthood. Review the keywords and phrases you have on your paper. Often you will want to write an extensive article about every major keyword you are targeting. Your articles will likely be at least 400 words each (more is often better if well written). You will want to write to convince your readers to stay put and trust in your knowledge and services.
- What documents will you write (you are still planning with a pen and paper)?
- What topics will you be turning into valuable content?
- What do your clients want when they get to your site?
- What tools do your clients expect?
- What niches will you cover?
- Can you write authoritatively enough about the topic that your clients believe the content?
- Do these topics fit your theme and categories? If they don't consider nixing the content or reworking your theme and chapters.
This sounds like a lot of work but just imagine not planning and finding out after months of inactivity on your site that you built the wrong thing. Many of us take the "ready, fire, aim" approach. I'll assure you that building something that doesn't work and then doing it again the right way is much less effective than spending a little extra time up front to build the right thing first. Remember, you will always be adding to this thing and enhancing it. You want a site that is easy to add to so you don't have to redesign later.
- Teammates - As part of your plan you will want to know who your team is.
- Who is building the site?
- Who is hosting it?
- Who is writing content?
- Who is providing the tools?
- Who is doing your SEO?
If "I am" is the overwhelming answer then you need to plan a time frame for rolling out your site. You will need to set realistic expectations regarding the success of the site.
- Time Frames - Your market, competition, skill level, among other factors will determine your time frames. If you have the resources to pay a professional your time frames will likely be shorter, if they truly know what they are doing. If you are doing all of the work yourself it could take a year and several (600-1000) hundred hours of work to compete in a competitive market for top keywords unless you use paid advertisement. It could be much less in a small market or a niche market with few competitors.
This is about as boiled down as you can get for planning a site. We'll get into system analysis next and design later. I'll keep adding and editing this post as needed based on responses I get. Please let me know what you have found in your site planning so we can help out all of the readers.
Build a Web Site from Scratch Table of Contents
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