Questions to Ask When Starting a Website

I’ll begin with saying ground work to a site should not to be taken lightly. When creating websites in the past I’ve skipped these important questions. It cost me time and money. You should always take the time to prepare yourself because you will learn soon that being a webmaster is not an easy one.

I’m sure right now you could be thinking what color will that cool dinosaur banner could be, or you may be trying to find some neat background for the site. Whatever you’re thinking about, it’s pretty common that right now your mind is racing with tons of ideas and the loads of drive to start your first/another website. While I of course would hate to eat up your time from finding the correct color for the dino banner, I do believe there are some questions that you need to keep in mind before even getting started with the graphics / technical process of site development.

1. What will be the subject/point of your site?

Well what is it? This can sometimes be a tricky question. Some people find themselves so excited about building a website; they never took the time to think about the point of the site. Really a website can be about anything, for some of the first time webmasters you may want to pick a hobby or you may want to make a site for your local bowling team. While more experienced webmasters may want to provide a service or products which would entail much more work than a simple site about hobbies. Whichever it may be you need to define what you would like your website to be about, once you have that understanding you will have a clearer view of your obstacles.

2. What does a visitor expect from coming to or returning to your site?

Why would someone want to come to your site? If your website is a personal site with your hobbies, interest, or photos of your kids and while I’m sure everyone finds that very interesting (sarcasm) mainly the people visiting that site would be friends/family. If you provide a service or product you want visitors to expect what they would from any professional business they may walk into everyday. Another question to ask is what will keep them coming? This is very important, you have to if you play on providing an informational service you need to know what will keep them coming for more. Once you know how to please your visitors they will enjoy coming to your site.

3. Will you have the passion to keep the site going long term?

Go ahead and call me guilty, because I have done this like so many others when it comes to taking on a project. I get so excited about it, even spending hours at a time trying to brainstorm and nothing comes of it. You need to be sure that all your hard work will not go to waste. Of course if you are simply creating your first site I encourage you to keep at it, even if the site you make doesn’t work out you will hopefully learn quite a bit and be more prepared with tackling your next side show attraction.

4. Who will be your target audience?

Trying to target products or services to the wrong target audience can hurt your visitor count. You will need to get an idea about who will be visiting your website for the information or products your providing and then design / word your site around that crowd. This will not only help you build and keep your target audience, it will also make your visitors feel right at home.

5. Do you have the time for maintaining a site?

We all wish we had the skills like “Time Wizard” and could stop time, but sadly we don’t. You will need to determine if you really have the time to work on the site as much as you want. Mostly everyone has a full-time / part-time job that will take up tons of time. So you will need to make sure you set out time to baby your website. Providing updates and changes to the site is what will keep visitors returning. Most people will not keep coming to read the same articles over and over again.

Conclusion

I assume you took the time to think over each one of the questions. I can’t stress enough about not touching on some of these key points can really leave you disappointed in the future. I hope you now have a better general idea of your website and are the obstacles you may face.