Planning Website Content

We all want an awesome website, one that sings our praises and showcases our skills. It only takes a few minutes of browsing to drool over snazzy competitor sites and inspire yourself to register a domain name of your own. But how do you transform that into a compelling website? If you feel overwhelmed about where to start, take some time to plan it out.

1. Review similar sites
Yes, drool over those snazzy sites! And while you’re there, take notes on what you like about them, what works and what you’d like your site to do differently.

2. Make a list
List the main navigation buttons you’d like to include. Try to keep it between 5-7. More than that becomes overwhelming to your viewers.

3. Check it twice
Look through your navigation list for redundancies or similarities, and see if you can combine any topics into subcategories.

4. Outline time
Now go through each main navigation title and outline the content for those sections: introductory text, bullet points, sublevel links, photos, and other desired functionality. Gather any additional content you have, and organize it by navigation topics.

Whether you’re creating your own website, or working with a designer, planning the content from the beginning leads to a much smoother development process.