Planning Your Website Content

Plan your website content before you start creating your website. When planning your website, keep the goal of your site in mind. Consider how your target audience will navigate through your site and not how you would navigate through your site. Take a look at competitors or other successful online retailers to learn how they structured their websites.

Although each website is unique, there are certain essential elements that make up a winning website:

• Persuasive home page: Your home page should include your logo, toplevel category navigation menu, unique selling position, featured products, special offers, and new items.

• Navigation menu: How will your customers move from one page to another? They will need to know where they are at all times. Keep your toplevel navigation menu consistent throughout all your pages.

• Section pages: Group related products. Creating categories help organize your products, especially if you have a large number of items.

• Item pages: Your item pages need to provide vital detailed information about the product. Provide a clear picture of your product. Add multiple views of the product if necessary.

• Contact us/about us page: Provide an overview of your company, company address and phone number, return policy, technical support email or phone number, and shipping information. Many customers will want to make sure that you are a real live company.

• Privacy policy: A privacy policy will ensure customers that their personal information will not be misused.

• Shopping cart/checkout page: Make sure your customers can easily access the shopping cart or checkout page to proceed to finalizing their transactions. These pages are created automatically based on a form you complete.

Consider creating a flowchart when drafting your website content. Get different perspectives from others by showing them your proposed site layout. Others may pick up something that you might have missed.