Before You Build Your Website

Your website is a representation of you, your company, your products or your thoughts. Therefore, your website must reflect the way you do business or the point you need to get across. It is designed to present to your audience, the products, services or ideas you have, and be a resource for your customers or potential customers.

The following are the major points to consider before building your website, or hiring someone to do it:

• Audience
  Who is your target audience? Are you appealing to existing customers, potential new customers or just the general public? Your audience determines the priority of the content on your website – whether it’s design or function, or a balance of both.
  
  
• Purpose
  What is the purpose of your website? Do you want to present information, sell products, share ideas or something else? The purpose of your website determines the features you will need to implement.
  
  
• Competition
  Take time to research the competition online. Find other businesses or sites that are selling or talking about your topic, product or service. The competition determines what you may need to add to your website to be a healthy competitor in the market.
  
  
• Budget
  This is usually the first consideration when building a website. Many things to consider when looking at your budget are applications & programming, marketing and updates. Your budget determines which elements can be added now or need to wait until a later date.
  
  
• Maintenance
  Maintenance is a very important consideration when building your website. You need to decide before hand whether you want to maintain the site yourself, hire someone to do it for you, or build a site that requires no maintenance at all. Sometimes it costs more money up front to build a site that is self-maintaining or can be done easily by you. Your maintenance needs help determine your initial budget and your need for future growth.