Anatomy Of A Website

Anatomy Of A Website

Many people take for granted the creation and deployment of a website. They often think of it as a purely a technical thing and that its content comes from some mystical place such as the webmaster’s or web designer’s mind or worse "The Website Fairy".

It is very very far from that and in fact, contains many elements both in its formation and continuing operation over time.

Think of a website much as you would a home or a building in which you plan to live or work. 

Approach the creation of your website as you would the building of your home or workplace. After all, your website is your virtual “home” or “residence” on the World Wide Web.

If you think of it this way, you will begin to see the
estimation of thought and work required to properly create, deploy and manage a
website. 

Let us take say, a restaurant as an example. If you were building a restaurant you would ask yourself a variety of questions (hopefully) before you began construction. Questions such as:

1. What kind of customers do I want to cater to?
2. What impression do I want to make on them when they enter the establishment?
3. What kind of food do I want to serve?
4. What kind of equipment do I require to adequately prepare and serve this food?
5. How do I want the food to be presented to the customers?
6. How many customers do I want to be able to serve simultaneously?
7. Do I want to serve alcohol? What types? Do I need a wine cellar since I plan to have a large wine selection?
8. Do I want televisions to display sporting events?
9. Do I want to provide WiFi internet to my patrons?
10. What type of wiring do I need? Lighting?
         Music?
11. Do I want a maître di?
12. How will phone calls be handled? Will I take reservations?
13. How will the restaurant be decorated?
14. How will I promote it to get people in the door?
15. What do I want them to be able to do when they get there?
16. What are your personnel requirements to stay in business and service your customers?
17. What will those personnel need to do their jobs?
18. Etc., Etc., Etc. 

In other words, you would make a fairly complete assessment of your needs, desires and those of your potential customers and employees BEFORE you began to invest the time and money to build your restaurant.

Well the same degree of thought and planning should go into the creation of your website. 

In fact, most of the highly successful websites and internet companies that you see employ this degree of planning, forethought and management, and then some. 

Below are the key overview points that should go into the successful planning and creation of any website.

The more sophisticated the site, the more users you plan to have, the more work and time is involved on each of the steps below.

Simple brochure type sites of only a few static web pages take less time, BUT, each of the steps below still applies. 

1. Purpose & Function Planning
2. Content Planning
3. Content Creation
4. Copywriting
5. Design Planning
6. Design Implementation & Execution
7. Functionality & Programming Execution
8. Hosting Planning & Set-Up
9. Promotion & Marketing
10. Sales & Lead Management
11. Content Updating
12. Content Management
13. Hosting Management
14. Site Performance Management (Technical)
15. Site Performance Management (Marketing & Sales)

Use these key 15 steps to successful website planning and development and your next website will be more likely to perform the way you envisioned. 

The next article in this series will discuss and define each of the above points in some detail. You will learn what each means and what is involved in each stage.

Comments

[Aiden Carns]

People would appreciate the outline you made, and despite its simplicity, these basic knowledge could mean the success of any website. Websites are about content and visual design. Fail in one and your site could drown.