Ontario business

Establishing the parameters of your website

Prior to being able to assemble a project plan, you need to conduct an analysis to determine the purpose of your website. Begin by answering and documenting the following questions:

• Who are the intended target audiences of your website?
• What information will your audience expect when they visit your website?
• What is your competition offering on their website?
• How does your website support your overall business strategy?
• What business processes can you incorporate into the functionality of your website?
• Will your website be developed internally or outsourced?
• What budget range will you allocate for the launch and for ongoing site maintenance?

Depending on the type of business you operate, a range of other questions may be of equal importance. If you own a small accounting firm, you will have very different requirements for your website than a large online retailer.

Target Audiences

Determining the target audiences of your website is the first step to integrating it with an existing business strategy. Your target audiences may include several different groups, such as customers, employees, suppliers and investors. Make a list of your intended target audiences and then determine what action each audience should take when they visit your site. Who your audience is may determine the type and style of content as well as the level of technology utilized for your website development. For example, if your audience includes a significant number of rural users, broadband capabilities are likely limited. This would suggest that your site be developed with fewer graphics and be designed to display faster.

A successful website will meet the needs of your various target audiences; delivering valuable content, matching technological capability, providing good site design and practical functionality.

Information

The content and services on your website should be tailored to match the knowledge level of your audience. A website intended mostly for subject experts and repeat visitors would be designed differently than one for the general public. If your audience is knowledgeable about your business, its services and subject matter, introductory information can be buried more deeply in the site and the user interface streamlined for faster loading. Similarly, frequent users generally know where they want to go: your website should allow your users to quickly navigate to specific content or services.

• If your website is intended for the general public and many first time visitors, you may require additional navigation tools, introductory information and heavier use of graphics to captivate users' attention and draw them into your site.
• If your website is designed for clients, pay close attention to appearance and presentation effects, as they are the symbolic representations of your business.
• If your website is developed for employees as an Intranet and is fundamentally a business tool, focus your efforts on site functionality over page appearance.
• If your website is designed for business partners, consider functionality and page appearance as equally important.

Competition

The websites of your competitors and other sites within your industry are excellent resources for planning your own. Evaluating how they cater to their site visitors and what types of e-business functionality they offer, can be a very helpful exercise in developing your website to match or exceed competitive initiatives.

Business Strategy

Your business strategy must always be supported by your website, one of many tools you will rely on to help you to achieve your business goals. Clearly state what business goal(s) your website is supporting. A website that aims to reduce shipping expenses by providing documents online will have a very different design and structure than a website that aims to increase online product sales.

Business Processes

If your website is properly constructed and well-managed, it can automate your typical business processes, helping you increase productivity. Your customer service calls can be reduced if your website:

• Provides project status and/or shipping information
• Allows your customers to order and pay for your products and services
• Provides your customers with information and documents related to your products and services

Knowing how your business operates, you can analyze which of your business process can be moved online.

Development

After the goals and parameters of your website have been determined, you need to determine how your site will be built. Decide if your site will be developed internally or if the project will be outsourced. If you plan to develop your site internally, you will need to do a thorough evaluation of the skills of your developer. On the other hand, if you decide to use an external source to develop your site, you can invite proposals from website developers and development firms.

A wide range of website development options exist today. For example, you may decide to:

• Create a custom, database driven website
• Purchase low-cost software and create a simple site internally
• Access online tools that can enable non-technical staff to add and manage content using a content management system

Practically speaking, you may want to give serious consideration to using a content management system. These systems can be very useful if your site will require frequent updates or if several non-technical people will be contributing to your site's content upkeep. Some content management system features include multi-user administration, workflow approval, or "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) text editors for non-technical contributors.

Budget

Your website will require you to plan for two budgets: the "build" and the "maintenance" budgets. The build budget will enable you to develop your site; you will use the maintenance budget for ongoing hosting, promotion, site maintenance and required improvements as customer expectations increase and change. You'll need to consider software, hardware and any additional staffing requirements when developing your website's budget.