You know your business model front and back, and you are ready to set your plans in motion with a shiny new website. You may think you are ready to get started with building your e-commerce site, but before the construction gets going, you have to do a fair amount of website design planning.

The fact is, building a website is comparable to building a physical structure in that a good blueprint is an all-out must. Here are a few questions you need to know the answers to during website design planning to ensure you achieve a perfectly put together end product for your business.

What should the website accomplish in general?

What is the primary reason you are building your website? This question could also be posed as: What would you consider to be a successful website? Of course, your primary reason for building a new website will likely be to gain new revenue for your business, but there are several ways that this is achieved with a website, which is what you need to be thinking about during your website design planning phase.

Some of the most common answers to this question would be:

  • To generate brand awareness
  • To generate new sales leads in a specific area
  • To sell your product or merchandise
  • To make it easy for prospects to find your physical company or business location

Whatever your intentions are, know them clearly from the start. This way, your website will be catered around the whole idea of what you have in mind. So for example, if your primary purpose with the new website is to generate brand awareness, the design process should focus more on perhaps the blog or informational areas of the site.

Who are your planned visitors and how should that affect your website design planning?

According to Chron.com, a good business plan should always include in-depth market analysis to tell you exactly who you are marketing to. The same ideas should be used when you are creating a website for your business.

You need to know who will be looking for your site during website design planning so you can cater to them in specific ways. For example, knowing what your target consumers are looking for and their pain points will help you better utilize SEO to get your website noticed in search engine results when a consumer searches for something.

What websites would be considered your website's competitors?

Depending on your business niche or market, it is always important to know who your primary online competitors will be. If your website does not compete with these other sites in design or function, chances are, your intended audience will be heading in their direction and not yours. Knowing exactly who you are competing with and what type of websites they have up will give you a proverbial bar that must be reached with your own website design.

All in all, building a website the proper way is not just about the building process. Proper planning first is what helps you achieve the most desirable and effective end result for your e-commerce or business website. If you need help with website design planning, contact us at Brandgy.