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Website Checklist

Michael Henderson

March 17, 2008

Whether you are starting a brand new website or just remodeling an old one, some key pointers should be kept in mind. The following checklist would prompt you to analyze the purpose of the website and ensure that it is an ideal one

Aim Of The Site
Assign the purpose of the web site. It can be a brochure site that offers a short introduction about a company or a firm or an informational site providing information about any topic or the company. It could be an entertaining site that attracts visitors through entertainment topics and indirectly informs about the company or a community site that builds a community and links people with similar interests. It could also be an E-commerce site that sells items directly or through affiliate links.

Mission Of The Site
It is necessary to identify the reasons of creating the website. It caters to a multi-dimensional market. It provides information about a particular product and impresses target audiences and prompts them to purchase it. It also strengthens customer loyalty and builds up brand name of the company in the market. Both the short term and long term goals of the website should be determined at the starting.

Content
The website should present a description of the business that provides information about the services offered by the company, the clients that it caters to and features that make it a distinct player in the market. It should also inform about the products on offer and the areas that specifically appeal to it.

Marketing Strategy
The target market and the marketing strategy should be pre-determined. All the visions for the website over a period of time should be outlined and worked upon.

E-Commerce
There are several types of e-commerce solutions on offer. A non-interactive flat file page requires visitors to print and fax in or phone in orders. The single page secure order form sends out each order as a separate e-mail. The multi page secure order form with shopping carts enables visitors to pick products while continuing to browse through the site. They can even change their orders, preview it and submit it online. The order is sent as e-mail or downloaded via FTP from the server.

Contact Address
The website should carry a valid postal address or contact point like a mail order catalog. This is necessary in case of offline business workings.

Competitiors
The competitors should be well identified previously and their websites should be scrutinized for any feature that is lacking at your end. A constant surveillance should be maintained over those sites to look out for any possible insights.

Domain Names
The domain name should consist of the most important keyword in the URL. It should be identified easily and should be easy to explain over the phone and to print on a business card.

Logo
A logo is important for branding purposes. It should speak volumes about the company and go well with the company’s motive. It should ideally have the company colors and should be in sync with the website and the brand.

Links
The website should have about 6 to 8 topic links that direct visitors to interior pages from the homepage and vice versa.

Feedback
There should be a feedback centre where visitors can submit in their comments and suggestions. Also a questionnaire can be drafted to carry out a survey that would determine consumer behavior and demands

Domain Registration
The domain registration and an ISP to host the site should be determined along with the level of hosting required. The budget for the completion of the web site and yearly maintenance needs to be established as well.

Security Status
Also assign the security level required by the website. Whether it will have sensitive files that demands protection or if there would be a password protected area for dealers and members. The digital delivery system should also be assessed to password protect each consumers download individually.

After all these steps to assign and assess the website and target consumers, draft out a list of top 10 keywords and your top 10 keyword phrases that could be use by the search engines to locate the site in response to an inquiry. To rank well with search engines, the site should have quality content that contains the actual words and phrases the consumers are searching with. These keywords will need to be inculcated within the text of the website pages.

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Really a good tips for a new website. Thank you for sharing.