strategy

Each successful Web site development project begins with a goal in mind: for example, to gain exposure, to increase efficiency, or to do something better via the Internet. Coupled with this motivation is a set of perceived needs that the Web site could fulfill.

Our initial task of scenario making is an informal activity specifying goals, functionality, audience, and conditions of use. Then, in a more formal process, we develop the requirements needed and measurable/attainable goals which can be used to track the effectiveness of our work.

EverydayI talk to a handful of people about web development and marketing projects. For the most part, I get quite a few of the same questions and responses. This got me thinking about why I kept getting the same response to a particular question. When asked what our process was for taking on new clients, I always begin with discussing our strategy and planning process.

The End-User Needs Analysis defines the web site requirements and expectations from the customer or audience's perspective. The Internet is the ultimate open market and if you do not effectively meet users growing expectations of what a web site should offer they will find someone who can at the click of a button.

Website strategic planning is the process that determines what form and functionality your website will have.

The website strategic planning process can be divided into two phases, preliminary and core planning. Preliminary planning should be done internally to create the request for proposal. The core strategic planning should be done in conjunction with the web development group, whether internal or working with a outside firm.

When the planning is done you will have provided guidelines for:

• The look of the site
  creative brief, creative spec

Search engine ranking refers to where a page falls in the results returned by a SE for a given keyword phrase. Search engines use a scoring algorithm to rate results based on how often and where a keyword appears on a page. For example, if a keyword appears in the title tags it will rate higher then if the same keyword appears in the header tags which will rate higher then in normal body text. If the keyword appears in all three it will generally be rated higher then if it appeared in each one.

Production processing makes site content 'web ready'. Graphics are compressed into web formats, text are translated into electronic form (if it is not already), and multi-media are processed accordingly. While production processing is a fairly strait-forward process it can be time consuming.

Processing Tips

• Provide your developers source material as web-ready as possible. This will save time, money and lessen translation errors.

Primary research describes information gathered through interaction with other people. Primary research can be gathered through meetings, one-on-one interview, focus groups, and surveys.

Further Reading

Preliminary planning is a process that will start you off in the best direction for moving your web site from idea to reality. Planning refines your vision and goals for your web site then helps you plan the resources you will need to get started. web development is a journey, you must know where your are, where you want to go and how you can get there.

Preliminary Planning Process

• Mission
  Define the vision for your web site
• Objectives
  Determine measurable goals for your site
• Budgeting
  

Pay per impressions is a typical referral link/banner ad arrangement where the site wanting to purchase advertising space pays the hosting site for each time it displays the ad. Typically, prices are set per one thousand exposures. Software is added to the hosting web server to track the number of impressions displayed.

Further Reading

Link Popularity describes the number and quality of referral links that other domains have to yours. Link popularity is important for site promotion as a way to boost traffic to your site.

Link popularity assists in three ways:

• When another site links to yours it is an opportunity for a user to travel from that site to yours.
• Search engine spiders will also use the links to find your site and thus will index it more readily.
• Many search engines will rank the pages on a web site higher if it has a higher link popularity.