While it seems pretty obvious that planning a web site is vital to its future development, I'm positive that a lot of web designers, programmers, etc. miss this step or don't give it the importance it deserves.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO PLAN YOUR WEB SITE?

• Prevention is better than cure: There are few things more annoying than changing plans in the middle of a process. Of course you will always be exposed to mischances, but by planning ahead you will avoid potential problems that would require major modifications along the way.

• Faster development: When I worked as a web designer there were essentially two different types of clients: those who had a clear idea of what they wanted, and those who wanted "just to be on the Internet". At first it could seem that the second type would be more permissive, making the development smoother. But on the contrary, those clients came up with a bunch of objections, additions, modifications... slowing down the process.

  If you have not a clear idea at first, you will only know exactly what you want when you see it. And trial-and-error isn't a wise method for developing anything.

• Better performance: By aiming to an objective through all the steps of the web development process, the final result will be more consistent with your original idea. The efficiency of your web site to achieve your main goals will rely mainly on your initial planning.

HOW TO PLAN YOUR WEB SITE

• Determine your objectives:

  • Why are you developing the web site? If you don't know the answer to this question, stop reading this and try to do something more productive.

  • Set your expectations, specific and realistic. Don't try to be the next Google. Not even if you work at Microsoft. Specially if you work at Microsoft.

  • If possible, set also a way to measure those expectations so you can find out later your level of success. It can be a certain amount of visitors, sales...

• Define your target audience:

  • Who are you developing the site for? Your grandma and your aunt don't count.

  • Analyze your potential visitors and what they are looking for. Focus on their needs, not yours.

  • Find a reason why they would choose your site from among the available alternatives. This is the Internet, there are millions of web sites. Depending on the niche there will be hundreds or thusands competing with yours... Does it really worth the effort?

• Research your competitors:

  • Identify and study the competition in your field. Basically competition is any site within your niche that you would like to make disappear (or even better, that you would like tu run).

  • Check web sites related to yours in any way and find their strengths and weaknesses. Why do you like them? Why do you dislike them? (besides they are the damn competition, of course).

  • Use that information so you can determine a way to beat your competitors. Can't you find that way? Then you should go back to the target audience study.

• Outline your web site:

  • Think of the proper structure to make the relevant information easily accessible. Try to balance the information relevant for your visitors and the information you want to make relevant.

  • Determine how to merge different aspects of the development like content management, design, programming, usability, search engine optimization... and how to merge the people in charge of those areas (it uses to be way more difficult).

  • Try to make all scalable, so future additions or redesigns can be accomplished quickly and easily.