They say fail to prepare, prepare to fail; that is absolutely the case if you don’t take project planning seriously when setting up your brand new website. If there’s no clear vision and plan, then you’re not entirely sure what you’re after – which really increases the chances that you won’t be happy with the end product. Read on for some top tips around what you should be thinking about to avoid a website nightmare.
How to start the planning process
The first step is to plan your plan! You need to know exactly what you should be planning out before ironing over the details – get together with everyone involved and come up with the core functions of your website.
You need to think about what you want from your site, and how you’ll target the people you want to use it – get a rough idea of the SEO involved, start planning for content, and research how your target audience interacts online. This will be the foundation of the planning process.
Creating a detailed project plan throughout a discovery phase
Once you’ve considered the wider purposes of your site as above; it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty of how you’re actually going to execute the building of your site. You’ll need to plan this process meticulously, and expect to learn a lot while undertaking it, this will avoid the website nightmare that everyone dreads.
We like to call this stage the discovery phase, as this is where you will begin to shape a realistic plan for your site through the findings of each step:
Creating a wireframe
What components will your site need, where will they go, and what will they look like?
Tasks involved
What will need to be done, and who will do it?
Budget
How much money can be allotted to each task?
Timeline
How much time will you have to complete each step?
Assigning roles
Who will take on each task – will you outsource, or assign in house roles?
Design and navigation
What will the site look like, and how will it work across a spectrum of devices?
When designing and setting up a website, there’s plenty of room for little problems and unexpected decisions to crop up – a project plan will alert you to issues before you get started, making the whole process easier when it comes to execution. For more information about website project planning, get in touch with a member of our team.
