1. Why have a website

A website can fulfil many purposes e.g. brand development, sales and marketing material distribution, lead generation or direct sales. Focusing on your reasons will lead to a more coherent website. Do you want your website for new and/or existing customers, to provide product support or another reason? The most important thing to remember is that unless your website is current, it's useless.

2. Who is Your Website For?

When deciding to have a web presence, first work out who your audience will be. The layout and design of the site will naturally follow on from this e.g. an information resource might need a search function, an A to Z Index and a functional appearance. A tradesperson may want a portfolio of work, the ability for potential customers to easily contact them and an aesthetically pleasing appearance. Think carefully about what functions your website will fulfill, and what your site will need to meet these functions.

3. Flashy Sites and Jazzy Graphics

Whilst beautifully animated sites are very appealing, they are inaccessible to a large proportion of web users. Firstly, they take a long time to load on a dial-up connection, and these users will find a quicker alternative i.e. your competitor. Secondly, a lot of internet users are using WebTV, WAP, PDAs and screenreaders to access web content. Content locked in flash and animation is a black hole to these users, as well as the search engines.