How to Prepare Your Website Development Plan

You have just had a brainstorm for a new website and it’s going to be a new concept that could potentially be bigger than Face book! Preparing a well defined list of what you want your website to do will help you find the best web development company that meets all your needs and your budget.

One of the most important aspects of your Website Development Plan is that it will help you determine the development cost. Without a well-defined plan, and knowing key questions to ask, you fall into the trap of having your web vendor over-promise and under deliver.

Here are some steps you can take to create a solid Website Development Plan and ensure your web designer has a clear picture of what to do.

Summarize Your Concept
Describe what purpose your website serves.

• Is it ecommerce, social networking, web directory, Blog or other type of website?

• For example: This new ecommerce website will serve to market designer diapers to parents looking for cool diapers for their babies. My demographic will be women 20 something and up.

• Before you get too carried away, create a MUST HAVE LIST and a WISH LIST. Your Must Have List is the nuts and bolts or bare minimum requirements for your new website. Your Wish List consists of all the bells and whistles you would like to have as your budget allows, or down the road as your website grows.

Describe How It Works
Describe how your website works. Using the faux web site designerdiapers.com, you should outline the functions of your website from a user's perspective. Describe the flow as if someone is visiting your website for the first time.

• Shoppers will browse our website’s main categories for newborns, infants and toddlers. Under each category we plan to initially have 10 different designer patterns. I will provide photos for each. For the detailed product page, users may select different packs. A typical details page will look like this:
(Photo here)
Name
Description
Select: 1 pack / 4 pack / 12 pack
Cost
Custom Comment Area

• A customer will hover or click on a photo to see a larger view.

• After a customer has purchased our products they may comment on products much like a Blog. Customers will also receive emails for sales or new products.

• As part of my extra WISH LIST, I would like to have extra features/costs listed ala cart for the following:

° Auto submitting my products to Google Products and Overstock. Please let me know if there are others.

° I would also like separate pricing for a CRM or email system where I can send template newsletters and emails for customer sign-ups.

It's All in the Details
If it is an online coupon site, then explain how it works in detail.

• Is it a digital coupon?
• Can it be printed?
• Who creates the coupon art?
• Can you or the client change the coupon value?
• When does it expire?
• Who uploads the coupon?
• How is your website categorized for the coupons?
• What cities, regions or states will you serve?

If it is an online video sharing site, then explain how it works in detail.

• Who can upload a video?
• Does video need to be converted on Flash when uploaded, like with You Tube?
• What is your maximum file size allowed?
• Do you have a video streaming web hosting server?
• Can people comment on videos?
• Can members upload videos or embed videos from 3rd party websites such as You Tube?

If is a social networking site, then explain how it works in detail. List out all the things you want to incorporate.

• Instant chat, public chat rooms, private chat rooms?
• Instant Messaging connections and integration into Face Book, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail and so on?
• Can members upload photos or can users embed slide shows from Google Picasa?
• Can members send each other private messages?
• Can members upload videos or embed videos from 3rd party websites such as You Tube?

If it is a real estate agent website, explain how it works in detail.

• Do you want to have an advanced search function for properties?
• Will you want to show Google maps or other maps?
• Will you want an application for Black Berry, I-Phone or Android that sends listing alerts to subscribed users?
• Do you want to integrate your local MLS feed?
• Do you have the developer information for your MLS data feed?

If it is a large association web site, explain how it works in detail.

• Do you want to have an advanced planning calendar?
• Do you want to have sharing, posting and notification features for your calendar?
• Will you want to have event sign-ups?
• Will you take payments for events?
• What will the event form look like?
• Do you want to post surveys or posts online tests for certifications?
• Can a user stop in the middle of the testing application then log back in and resume where they left off?
• Will you want to track testing results?
• Will you offer any printable certificate if they complete the testing?

NOTE: It would be helpful for you to create a box diagram or Power Point for each individual function, or at least outline this in detail. This helps to tightly define the functions you expect your website to have in your final list of deliverables.

Navigation
Think about the other pages you want in your website and provide a rough outline for these.

For example: Our Company, Customer Inquiries, Shipping & Returns, Terms of Use. Take a look at other websites for ideas for pages or navigation that you might want to include in your new website. If you have sub-pages or sub-navigation that are part of your global or main navigation then create a bulleted list as follows:

Our Company
* Meet the Executive Team
* Our Core Values
* Professional Certifications
* Our Associates

Ecommerce, Advertising and other Monetary Concerns
If you have an ecommerce website you will make your profit from products sold. But you should also ask yourself these questions:

• Will you offer advertising, or display other ads such as Google Ad Words?
• If you have advertising will you manage the advertising sign-ups manually or will you want to automate this process?
• If you automate an advertising sign-up, how in-depth a sign-up and management process will you want to offer?
• Where will you want to display the ads on your website -- on the top, on the side, or on the bottom?

Just the advertising module portion of your website can be complex. There are some advertising websites that track the clicks and visits for ads for each individual advertiser. Some advertising websites offer different packages for different ad display sizes and positioning -- display on pages as featured ads and display on all or just some pages. As you can see this can become a very detailed feature.

NOTE: For any website where you are processing credit card information or collecting any type of sensitive personal information such as in a loan application website, make sure your web hosting offers an SSL (Secure Socket Layer or https).

Processing Credit Cards
The secure online systems that process credit cards, e-checks and the like are called merchant gateways. Two popular merchant gateways are Authorize.net and Pay Pal Merchant. There are many others as well. The average cost for a merchant gateway is about $30.00 per month and whatever the current percentage cost agreement is with the major credit card companies. Pay Pal also offers a no-monthly cut-and-paste ecommerce solution for simple ecommerce websites for product online purchases.

Email Replies and Communication
You will want to think through the complete process of any sign-up or purchase feature in your planning. Does a customer or member get any confirmation emails? This is often called the user-flow and interfacing of your website. Think how your emails will be worded.

If you have an advertising module will you want to send emails to advertisers 30 days, 15 days, 5 days before their ads expire? Will you offer auto-renewal billed to their credit card?

Super Admin. Control
The administration part of your website is where you manage the different parts of your website. If you are allowing comments, not everyone plays nicely with others. You will want to reserve the right to remove inappropriate language? Think about these types of functionalities you require as the top level administrator of your website.

Search Engine Optimization
You will want to create a list of search phrases for how you want your website to be found on major search engines. If you had a website selling extra large cowboy boots for men you might create a search phrase or 'key word list' as follows:

Extra large cowboy boots for men
X Large cowboy boots for men
Big size cowboy boots for men
Cowboy boots for big men and so on...

If you were selling cakes locally, then you might create a keyword to include your state and city/county as follows:

Wedding cakes, bridal cakes Reno, NV
Wedding shower cakes, Las Vegas, NV and so on...

Logo, Domain Name and Design
• Do you have a logo?
• Have you decided on a website domain name?
• Have you decided on the look and feel of your new website?
• It helps to browse the web and send any websites you like to your designer so they have a creative 'jumping-off-point'.

Web Copy, Photography and Video
Do you have website copy, photos or video?
The most important of these is the website copy. Yes, people actually read copy on websites. And if your copy reads like an 8th grade summer report, it will reflect poorly on your business. Even if you have mastered comma punctuation with conjunctive adverbs in simple sentences you may not be able to capture the breath and scope of your business as much as a professional writer or copy writer can do. A good copy writer who understands websites can write copy that's informative and gets you found in search engines.

Photos and video is just as important. Nothing looks worse than a biography photo that was shot in the office and looks a little better than a mug shot. Same goes for video. Most do-it-yourself videos have that 'bank-security-look'. Ask your web contractor if they can recommend a professional who will provide you quality copy, photos and/or video, but help to keep you on budget.

Buyer Beware
Your contractor should educate you on any existing applications that can be customized to fit your needs. A few of these include: Dot Net Nuke, Joomla, Drupal, Word Press, Magento and many others. In some cases it makes perfect sense to use these 3rd party software applications in your website development versus using a custom programmed application from scratch.

Using and customizing 3rd party applications help to keep costs down depending on your specific programming needs. Original programming and code base is much more expensive.

NOTE: Ask your web designer if they have experience to program in multiple applications. If they sell you on one particular software, then ask if they have the programming experience to modify or customize the software to fit your particular needs.

Case in point. Joomla software has one super admin login. Let’s assume you are a business owner selling computers on your website and you want to give one of your employees login access to website customer inquiries, but not the entire website. This requires special modifications and programming experience. Keep in mind this is only one sample of hundreds of modifications I have had clients ask for during the process of developing their website.

AT ANY POINT IN YOUR DISCUSSION if your web vendor says: 'We can't do that, or the software does not allow this or that', then terminate your contract and run the other way.

I have heard horror stories from clients who chose a web vendor based on promises and pricing, only to find themselves thousands of dollars lighter and a half-completed project.

NOTE: If it can be displayed digitally in a computer browser, then it CAN BE DONE. Period. All it takes is knowledge, the right skill-sets, good programmers and resources.

Ask for references or ask to see other websites that the web vendor has produced that has many moving parts. Call on any references provided by your contractor. Get on Google and Google their name. See if there are any reviews for them on Google local or Super Pages. Do your homework.

Plan, Plan and Plan Some More
At the end of the day, even the best technical plan is going to miss some points. This is where an experienced web developer will help to ask the questions of your requirements to help you to tightly fine-tune your planning.

Once all this is done you can move forward with the confidence you have performed your own digital due diligence!

About the Author
Rick Vidallon is President of Visionefx, a Web design company based in Virginia Beach, Va. They provide services to national companies and small business throughout the United States.
Rick can be reached at (757) 619-6456 or rick@visionefx.net.