How To Save Money With These Web Site Planning Tips – Part 3

Are you thinking about taking your business online?

Then this article on planning your website is for you.

Note: This section continues from the previous article where we take you through the process of planning your business website.

• For Part 1, go here: A Basic Guide To Website Planning – Part 1
• For Part 2, go here: How To Plan Your Website – What To Do And What Not To Do – Part 2

A Basic Guide To Website Planning – Part 2

Up to this point, we have looked at the following areas of the website planning process:

• Step 1 – Your Website Goals
• Step 2 – Your Website Name
• Step 3 – Managing Your Technology
• Step 4 – Define Your Audience
• Step 5 – Identify Your Key Phrases
• Step 6 – Defining Site Categories
• Step 7 – Creating Your Content Strategy

You’re almost there with your initial website planning work. In this phase of the site planning process, we are going to set up an initial blogging schedule, define what type of content you are going to create for your website or blog, and decide who is going to do what on your site.

Step 8 – Creating Your Blogging Or Content Publishing Schedule

You need to publish content regularly for your business to grow online. A content publishing system is the most productive and effective way to plan, schedule and track your content creation and publishing process.

Creating Your Content Or Blog Publishing Schedule

After creating an initial list of content ideas, the next step is to set up an initial blog or content publishing schedule.

Although this step may not seem to related directly with building your website, by creating your content publishing schedule and then thinking about what types of content you will need to create and who will be responsible for managing all of this (see Steps 9 and 10 below) will help you understand what type of additional services and resources your business will need to have in place once your site has been created.

Content Scheduling Tips:

Tip #1 – Be Consistent

Adding new content to your website consistently is vitally important for building an online audience and increasing your site’s search engine rankings and results.

This is the step where you are actively marketing and promoting your business with content, and so it’s essential that you create a habit of publishing content on your website regularly.

Start by making a commitment to publish a new post each week or fortnight to your website. Decide on a specific day of the week and time that you will sit down to write your articles. Allow 1-2 hours to create and publish (or schedule for publishing) each item of content.

Now, commit to turning this into a regular habit. Keep monitor this commitment and if you need to, adjust your schedule accordingly.

Remind yourself when you sit down to write your content that you are you are working on growing your business, instead of just simply working in it.

Tip #2: Content Scheduling Tools

If you are going to publish content on your site consistently (and you should!), having content scheduling tools can help keep your workflow organized.

You can use simple spreadsheet-based Editorial Templates to help schedule and track the content content publishing, or use a WordPress plugin.

Spreadsheet-Based Editorial Templates

You can keep things simple and schedule your content creation using any spreadsheet program …

Content Planning Template Created Using A Spreadsheet

Use this master spreadsheet to plan your content production and publishing schedule. For example, in your spreadsheet, you can create the following columns:

• Publish Date: Enter the date you plan to publish the content. Tip: You can use color-coding to indicate when content has been published. You can also create a second column to record 1) the date your content needs to be written by, and 2) the date your content is scheduled to publish on your site.
• Author: Who will write or create the content. (See Step 10 below)
• Type: Enter the kind of content you will be creating for this topic. (See Step 9 below)
• Category: If you are publishing content to your blog, enter the blog post category you will publish this item under.
• CTA: What is this specific item of content designed to help you sell or promote? Record your offer or call-to-action here.
• Headline: Enter your article headline, title of your content item, etc.
• Description: Enter a brief description or purpose of your content.
• SEO: The main keyword phrase your content is targeting.
• URL: Once you have published the item, record its URL here. This will make it easier to find the content URL when promoting your content (e.g. on social media, emails, etc)
• Short URL: You can also add a shortened version of the content’s destination URL for promoting on Twitter, or tracking your campaigns.

You don’t need all of the above columns. You can keep things simple by creating a basic spreadsheet containing just these essential columns:

• Publish Date
• Content Author
• Content Format
• Category.

If you want to create an Editorial Calendar to help plan your content every month, just search online for “free monthly calendar template” or download a free calendar template from WinCalendar.com …

WinCalendar.com – Calendar Maker

WordPress Editorial Scheduling Plugins

If you want to manage your content scheduling directly from WordPress, there are some useful plugins you can install:

Editorial Calendar

Editorial Calendar is a Free plugin for WordPress that allows you to see all your posts and drag and drop them to manage your site.

The Editorial Calendar gives you an overview of your scheduling and when each item will be published. You can drag and drop to move posts, edit posts inside the calendar and manage your entire blogging schedule.

(Screenshot source: Editorial Calendar website)

To learn more visit this site: Editorial Calendar – WordPress Plugin

Edit Flow – WordPress Editorial

Edit Flow lets you collaborate with your editorial team inside WordPress.

Some key features of this plugin include:

• Calendar – A month-by-month look at your content.
• Custom Statuses – Define key workflow stages.
• Editorial Comments – Allows private discussion between writers and editors in the admin via threaded commenting.
• Editorial Metadata – Helps you keep track of important details.
• Notifications – Lets you receive timely updates on any content you’re following.
• Story Budget – Lets you view your upcoming content budget details.
• User Groups – Helps you organize your users by department or function.

(Screenshot source: Edit Flow website)

For more information visit this website: Edit Flow – WP Editorial

Oasis Workflow – Plugin For WordPress

Oasis Workflow is a powerful feature-rich plugin for WordPress that allows you to automate any editorial workflow process using a simple and intuitive graphical user interface (GUI).

Some of the many useful features of Oasis Workflow include the ability to configure your work flow using a visual work flow designer and simple process/task templates.

(Above screenshots taken from plugin site)

It also also offers role-based routing, lets users view their current assignments and sign off on their tasks once assignments are completed, process history for auditing purposes, task reassignment, due date and email reminders to help you to publish your articles on time, and an out of the box editable workflow to help you get started.

Oasis Workflow also has a “Pro” version that includes additional functionality, such as allowing you to create multiple workflows, copy workflow and copy steps, auto submit, revise published content and more.

To learn more visit this site: Oasis Workflow

Step 9 – Define What Kind Of Content You Will Publish

What Type Of Content Will You Publish On Your Website Or Blog?

After setting up your schedule for creating content, the next step is to establish what kind of content you are going to create to publish on your website.

Are you planning to publish articles, videos, audios, interviews, product comparisons, downloadable PDF reports, etc.?

Knowing what types of content you intend to create for your website is useful, because this helps you understand what other technologies and resources you will need to purchase or budget for to create your content. This could include purchasing video screen capture software for videos and multimedia presentations, slideshows, etc.

Step 10 – Assigning Roles And Responsibilities

Who Will Handle All Areas Of Running Your Website Or Blog?

The last step in the website planning process is to decide who will be responsible for various areas of your site and content and assign these to your human resources, or consider outsourcing.

There are many roles and responsibilities involved in running a professional digital presence.

When completing this step, ask yourself the following questions:

• Who will decide what content gets written/published on your site?
• Who will create the content (e.g. researching, writing and rewriting, sourcing and creating graphics and logos, videos, audios, newsletter content, training content, FAQs, etc.)?
• How will you communicate what needs doing to others? How will people communicate with each other to ensure that everything works smoothly?
• Who will manage the scheduling and publishing of content on your posts and pages and update any outdated content?
• Who will promote and market the website with search engine optimization, online advertising, social media marketing, video marketing, etc.?
• Who will maintain and upgrade site software, install new applications, customize web templates, provide technical support, etc.?
• Who will be responsible for setting and monitoring the budget for all of the above areas (including budgeting for the cost of building your site)?

Who is going to be accountable for all areas of your site?

Depending on your situation, it may be just one person doing it all (e.g. you), or a few people, or perhaps even some outsourced help.

If you don’t know the answer to the above questions before getting your website built, you could end up investing a lot of time and money building something that will not only not help you grow your business, but cost even more of your valuable money and time.

Tip: Focus On Processes, Not People When Assigning Responsibilities

Document or flowchart exactly who will do what in terms of managing your website and content creation.

Focus on documenting which roles should be responsible for the processes involved before assigning names to responsibilities or making people in your team accountable for managing these. This will help you understand how much responsibility and work is involved in each part of the process, explain why you are asking people to take on additional responsibilities, and assist you in planning the allocation of resources accordingly.

Congratulations! You have completed all of the sections of the website planning process. You can now begin looking at options for getting your site built.

Hopefully now you have a better understanding of the web site planning process and how WordPress can help you get better results online. If you need information or assistance with any aspects of web development, see the other articles we have published on this site or contact us.

Please consider subscribing to our blog, as we plan to add lots more content, resources and useful tips for small businesses on developing your online marketing strategy.

The post How To Save Money With These Web Site Planning Tips – Part 3 appeared first on Quick Click Hosting.

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Follow These Web Site Planning Tips To Build A Better Web Site

This is Part One of a 3-part series of articles about how to plan your website.

Are you thinking about taking your small business online?

One of the many decisions you need to make is whether or not to build this website yourself, or get someone to create the website for you.

Both choices have pros and cons. Whatever choice you select will depend on many things like:

• What kind of a budget you have allocated for website development
• How much time you can put into building your website
• Your business priorities
• Sense of urgency
• Your level of technical skill
• Your level of commitment to supervise and manage the project
• etc …

If you have a small budget and you want to save money, you could choose to develop the web site yourself, but it goes without saying that you will then need to invest time figuring out how to put things together.

How To Plan Your Website – What To Do And What Not To Do

Whether you decide to build a website yourself or get someone else to build it for you, the first important step is to do some website planning. In this post we explain why planning your website is important and what to avoid doing when planning a web site for your small business.

Planning your website is regarded by many online marketing experts to be one of the most important aspects of the whole process of getting a website built. Taking time to carefully plan your website upfront helps to avoid costly errors later and results in a better end end product.

In this article, we provide a comprehensive primer for non-technical users aimed at helping you better understand the website planning process. We will also cover the dos and don’ts of planning a website or blog, and give you tips on how to talk to your website developer to ensure that you end up with a website that will perfectly meet your budget, suit your needs and deliver you great results online.

Important: Before setting up a website or registering a domain for your web site, it’s absolutely important that you first spend a little time doing market research.

Building a successful digital presence requires more than just getting a professional website set up. It requires amongst lots of other things, a commitment to develop and implement an ongoing digital marketing strategy.

The Site Planning Process Explained

So … you have decided that you want an online presence.

Let’s start, then, by gaining a better understanding of the website planning process.

Before doing anything else, study the process chart below, and let’s work step-by-step through the information in this post together.

Note: To view a larger image click on the image or the link below the process chart.

(click to view larger flowchart)

To make this process easy to follow, we recommend downloading and printing the Website Planning Flowchart shown in the above image.

Once you have downloaded and printed out the flowchart, grab some paper and a pen, or whatever you takes notes on, so you can jot down your thoughts and ideas as we walk you through the process. Also, make sure to shut out all distractions over the next 15-45 minutes.

Step 1 – Define Your Goals

No matter what type of website you decide to build, the first step is to define one or more goals for your website and make these as specific as possible.

Ask these questions:

• What kind of web site am I planning to build? Is it a business web site, e-commerce site, a personal blog, or some other kind of website?
• What specific objectives would you like this website to help you achieve?

For example, your goal could be to:

• Sell products or services online – you might need to build a site with e-commerce facilities. Depending on your objectives, this could also require the addition of a membership site area that only your customers can access.
• Capture new leads – you might want a simple site built with a “squeeze” page (landing page), or a lead generation form where all of yourvisitors get directed to,
• Have a portfolio site that will help build credibility and trust for your professional services or brand, post news, announcements and information about company events, etc.
• Get more exposure online for your existing business – you may want to look at getting a blog built on a separate domain, or added to an existing website to interact with users and keep customers informed about your latest product updates, or help establish your authority and expertise in your specific niche.
• Or something else …

Record whatever goals you want your website to help you achieve on your worksheet, a blank sheet of paper, or wherever you are recording this process.

Once you have written your list, go through your list and choose the goal that is most important to your business.

Write down this goal on your process chart (in “Your Website Goals” section) as “Goal 1“.

Now, go back over your list and repeat this process to find two more goals and write these down in your worksheet as “Goal 2” and “Goal 3“.

You’ve probably heard the old saying “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.”

But, what if you already can’t manage?

Building a website is going to pile on a ton of extra responsibilities on your plate.

Your website planning process is an integral aspect of your business marketing planning processes. It’s important, therefore, that you continually refer to your marketing plan to make sure that you will have the resources and capabilities available to implement the strategies to help you achieve your goals.

So, with this in mind, take a moment to complete the following right now:

After listing at least 1-3 goals and written these in your planning chart, go back to “Goal 1” and ask yourself this question: “how will I measure this goal?”

In other words, what benchmarks will you use to measure your website’s performance? How will you know if your site is on track to help you achieve your business objectives?

For example, your website’s objective could be getting a certain number of leads every week through your site’s contact form, or getting “X” numbers of subscribers per week, etc …

Think about the resources and costs associated with managing the process of monitoring your goals. If you need to, revise your business plan to accommodate your findings.

Note: It’s also important to keep your goals as flexible as possible at this stage, so you can re-evaluate these as more information is collected from your website from visitors.

Step 2 – Name Your Website

After you have clearly identified your site’s goals, the next step is to come up with an appropriate name for your website.

This is an important step of the website planning process, so take your time to think carefully about coming up with a good name for your site.

Brainstorm your ideas or mastermind with others. Call a few customers (or potential customers if you haven’t launched your business yet) and get their input.

Try to think beyond just the name of your company, especially if your name isn’t something that immediately brings up your products or services to mind. Remember, most online users have never heard about you.

Put yourself in the shoes of an online customer. Who would be looking online for the very product or service your company sells? What would they be typing into a search engine or browser to find you? Once you know this, try to come up with a name that would entice your users.

Note: You can be creative and clever with your name, but it’s best to avoid being “too creative”. the same can be said about choosing a catchy, memorable or a stand out name. You can have a fun or quirky name, but it’s best to avoid names that may sound offensive (and definitely stay away from trademarked or registered names or phrases – you’ll just be asking for trouble!)

If you go online, you can quickly find out what other companies in your industry or niche have named their sites. Study your competition, especially those who occupy the search results that you would like to show up in.

For example, if you are planning to start a food blog, a quick search online for “cooking blog” reveals some great blog names like: “Smitten Kitchen”, “Cooking With Amy”, “Shockingly Delicious”, “Worth The Whisk” and more …

So … this is the step where you can get inspired. Make a huge list of potential names and then begin narrowing your list down.

After narrowing this list down to the best candidates, repeat the same process as above to craft a description, tagline or unique value proposition for your site.

Your description should be concise and inform the reader with as few words as possible what the website is all about. For example, in one of the cooking sites we came across while searching online, the site description was “Fast, Fresh, and Simple Recipes Easy Enough for Tonight’s dinner.”

Including keywords in your site’s name and description can also be useful.

Once you have completed this step, it’s time to look at your domain name. If you plan to add a blog to your existing website and feel that this blog should be its own entity, then go ahead and register a new domain name for your site.

There are different strategies you can use to register domains names for your web site. For example, you can register keyword-rich domain names (i.e. domains that include the key phrase you would like to rank for in the search engines), expired domain names (domains that the previous owners have decided not to renew and that can be registered again, other top level domain names and domain name extensions, etc.)

Tip: Subscribe to our site to learn more about practical strategies on registering domains and tips on how to develop your web marketing strategy.

Step 3 – Managing Your Technology

Once you have settled on a name and description for your website, the next step is to develop a clear plan to manage the technology that will host, support and help drive your online marketing vehicle.

We highly encourage you to consider building your website with WordPress.

WordPress is not only a robust web-building platform, but it is also easy-to-manage and great for non-technical users.

WordPress is also the world’s leading content management system (CMS), and, as you can see from the screenshot below, WordPress powers almost 50% of the world’s CMS-driven websites.

A WordPress-powered website or blog is ideal for publishing content and communicating with existing and potential clients.

A business website or blog created with WordPress lets you interact with site visitors, and makes things like posting content, special offers, promotions, news and announcements about your services, company or industry very easy, especially if you have little to no technical web skills. In fact, no coding is required to publish content on a WordPress site, and managing things like file and data backups and software upgrades can easily be automated.

In fact, many businesses no longer use static websites built using traditional website building tools. More sites are now being powered by technologies like WordPress, which can provide businesses and their users with all of the functions and capabilities of a regular website.

If you would like to have better control your business online and don’t have the time, need or desire to learn “web code” languages such as HTML, then you should consider using a WordPress-powered business website or blog.

Website Hosting & Web Site Management

In addition to using to build your web site with the WordPress web publishing software, you should also choose where you are going to host your site, and whether you are going to outsource your site management to someone else, or manage the website yourself.

We use and recommend WordPress for most website applications, and we also provide more information about the benefits of using WordPress and tips on subjects like domain name registration, webhosting and website management in other sections on this site.

If you need help, don’t hesitate to contact us for assistance.

Step 4 – Defining Your Target Audience

After you have the basics of your site worked out, then it’s time to define who will be your target audience.

You will want to know key information about your site’s target audience, such as:

• Audience demographics
• What your audience needs and wants
• Problems your audience experiences, or will encounter in the future
• How they consume digital information
• How they generally see themselves
• What they expect from you andor your business

It’s essential that you try and create as accurate a profile of your ideal visitors as you can. Try to picture the actual person that you will be communicating directly with when presenting your information to.

To work through this process, begin by asking important questions, like:

• Who is the ideal visitor for your website?
• What will visitors search for on your website?
• What difficulties are people experiencing that your website can help them solve online? What specific solutions are people searching online for similar problems?
• Is your audience technology-savvy? How does your audience consume information? Will they prefer videos to visual content like images or graphics and text? Will they need downloadable content (e.g. price lists, schedules, timetables)? Do you need to create content like videos, audios or multimedia presentations regularly in order to engage your audience?
• Where are they located? Can geographic location and factors like education, relationship status or income level impact the success of your site? If so, what segments of the population will your web site be marketing to and how will you find and target these demographics online?
• How do your target users see themselves? Who does your audience form relationships online with? What music are they downloading? What else are they buying or consuming online?
• What do your target users expect from your site? What kind of information are you willing to provide to them for free or for a fee? What kind of information will you not be providing to them for free?

Being able to define your website’s target audience is an important step in the website planning process and it will help you communicate better with the web developer and everyone else assisting you in developing your website, and help to ensure that you get a better end product.

If you don’t have access to accurate market information about your target audience, then start with a “best guess” based on your experience and whatever research you can get your hands on.

Also, try not to limit things too much. You could be going after a niche that is just too small, or an online opportunity that may not be worth pursuing.

Finally, unless you plan to build a portal website and have the resources to do so, avoid trying to make your website be “everything to everyone”, or you’ll just end up creating a ton of extra work for yourself when it comes to populating your website with content, as you will learn when we continue exploring the website planning process in another post.

***

This is the end of Part 1

To read Part 2 of this article, click here:

Why Planning Your Website Is Important – What To Do Before You Build – Part 2

We recommend that you subscribe to this site, as we will be posting loads of great content, resources and cost-effective tips for small businesses on how to develop and implement a successful website marketing strategy.

The post Follow These Web Site Planning Tips To Build A Better Web Site appeared first on Quick Click Hosting.

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Why Planning Your Website Is Important – What To Do Before You Build – Part 2

Are you thinking about taking your business online?

Then this essential guide to website planning is for you.

Note: This section continues from the previous article where we provide essential information on planning your new business website.

• For Part 1 of the article, go here: Planning Your Website – Understanding The Process – Part 1

A Basic Guide To Website Planning – Part 2

So far, we have looked at the following areas of the website planning process:

• Step 1 – Your Website Goals
• Step 2 – Your Website Name
• Step 3 – Managing Your Web Technology
• Step 4 – Defining YourWebsite’s Audience

As you can see, in Part 1 we have established the foundations for planning your business website. If you have been following the above process, you would have a clear idea of your site’s goals and objectives, established your website name, decided on the technology platform you will be using and have a good understanding of your target audience.

At this point, many people begin building their website. We recommend, however, that you go through the rest of the planning process presented in this article, as we will now discuss planning your website content and looking at effective web content management and publishing strategies. Having all your planning done before you start building your website or blog could save you time and money.

Step 5 – Identifying Your Main Keywords

Keywords

Once you have a clearer idea of who you will be targeting with your site, it’s time to identify the main keywords that you would like people and search engines to associate with your site. This will help search engines connect your website with your target audience.

Ideally, you will want to focus on keyword phrases that have “low competition” and a reasonable number of users searching for these each month. Depending on your specific business, you may also want to focus on key phrases in your niche that have some level of commercial profitability.

There are many tools you can use to identify good keywords, including free keyword tools.

If you have an account with Google Adwords, for example, you can use a keyword search tool like the Google Keyword Planner Tool.

Using the Keyword Planner tool, you can see that more people are searching each month for the keyword phrase “overseas adventure travel” (> 18,000 searches per month) than a keyword phrase like “singles adventure travel“, which gets less than 1,000 searches a month …

Google AdWords Keyword Planner Tool

According to the Google Keyword Planner, however, the number of web sites competing against one another in the search space for “singles adventure travel“, is significantly higher than sites trying to rank for a key phrase like “overseas adventure travel“. This may be because one keyword phrase relates to a specifically targeted audience (i.e. “singles” looking for adventure travel), while the other is more generalized, or because there is more money to be made selling adventure travel products to singles, etc..

Doing keyword research can also help you understand the profit value of certain keywords. Typically, smart advertisers will invest more time and money promoting keywords that are targeted towards attracting a “buying” public, instead of keyword phrases that are more suitable for users who are simply browsing or researching information online.

For example, people who search online for the term “color printer” are typically not as ready yet to invest in a color printer as people who search for a more specific keyword phrase like “konica minolta magicolor 4750EN review”, so if you plan to sell or review colour printers on your site, you would want to aim for longer, more descriptive and more targeted key phrases (called “long tail keywords”), hopefully with a high amount of monthly searches and low to medium competition.

It helps, therefore, if you have some highly searched keywords in your posts. However, don’t invest too much time doing keyword research for every piece of content you plan to add to your site, especially if you are just starting out.

Make a simple start. Begin by making a list of the “top” five keywords you would like your web site to rank highly for in the search engines, make sure that these keywords have a decent monthly search volume and then use these key phrases organically in your posts (i.e. aim to write for human visitors, not search engine robots).

Once your site starts to attract visitors, you can then analyze actual data like keyword searches used by visitors to find your site from analytic tools and use the information to refine your keyword research and get better results online.

Keyword Research Tips For Business Owners

Tip #1: Avoid using keyword phrases that return extremely low to no monthly searches, or that have no demand. There’s not much point ranking #1 in Google for key phrases that no one is interested in searching. Also, if you type the keywords into Google and no one is advertising products or services for it (i.e. no Google ads show up), then that keyword most likely has no commercial value or is unprofitable.

Key Phrases that have no competition for advertisers are generally not worth targeting

Tip #2: Use tools to help you build keyword lists and generate commercial content ideas. Below are some great free and paid keyword research tools you can check out:

Free Keyword Research Tools

Google Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner Tool

The Google AdWords Keyword Planner lets you explore hundreds of keywords, keyword groups and keyword-based advertising ideas (e.g. pay-per-click advertising), get competitive keyword statistics, see how a list of keywords could perform in ad campaigns and even create a new keyword list by multiplying several lists of keywords together.

To learn more about this keyword research tool check out the website here: Keyword Planner

If you don’t have access to a Google AdWords account, you can use the FREE tool below to help get your initial keyword research done:

Ubersuggest.org – Keyword Suggestion Tool

Ubersuggest keyword tool

UberSuggest is a free tool that essentially lets you perform the same function as typing your subject into the Google search box and seeing what ideas or topics are selected.

This tool saves you time going go through the alphabet from A-Z to explore new keyword suggestions related to your subject:

Discover new content ideas with the Ubersuggest

To use this free tool, visit this website: Ubersuggest

Paid Keyword Research Tools

The keyword research tools below will help you not only discover many profitable key phrases and long-tail keywords to use when planning content or a pay-per-click advertising campaign, but also analyze your competitors’ keywords and formulating a content SEO strategy for your site:

Market Samurai

Market Samurai is inexpensive and provides not only keyword research, but also some great additional content and SEO research tools, with excellent training tutorials on performing keyword research for SEO purposes.

For more details about this software tool visit this site: Market Samurai Keyword Research Tool

SEMRush

With SEMRush, you can enter your competitor’s URL and the tool will give you a list of all the keywords that the site is ranking for, allowing you to easily find short-tail and long-tail keywords that you can then target for your own website.

To learn more visit this site: SEMRush Keyword Tool

Keyword Spy

Keyword Spy is an SEO tool that’s primarily used for researching keywords. You can use Keyword Spy to identify the keywords that your competition is using, as well as do research on keywords for your own site.

To learn more visit the site here: Keyword Spy Keyword Tool

Step 6 – Define Website Categories

Define Site Categories

Decide on specific topics within your niche or industry that your visitors might be interested in learning about and create a list of “categories” for all the topics that you plan to write content about.

For example, if you run a travel agency, your categories could be organized into topics like: “corporate travel”, “luxury travel”, “romantic destinations”, “holiday packages”, “hotel accommodation”, “travel accessories”, “train travel”, “airfare discounts”, “Travel Asia,” or any category of travel-related services you offer.

Plan to create an initial list of about 5 – 8 categories. You can always add more categories to your site later on.

Web Site Category Tips:

Tip #1: WordPress Makes Managing Categories Easy

WordPress offers two basic ways of grouping and organizing content (WordPress refers to these as taxonomies): “categories” and “tags”.

WordPress gives you great control over the management of your categories. It also lets you easily create new categories and match your posts to different categories to help keep all of your content organized.

WordPress Makes Managing Categories Easy

Tip #2: Categories Can Improve Your SEO

Using the right keywords in your category names can improve your website’s SEO rankings.

WordPress allows you to create search engine-friendly URLs that include your categories as keywords (great for search engine optimization, so keep this in mind when planning category topics …

WordPress Categories Can Increase Your SEO

Tip #3: Use Categories To Improve Site Navigation

Categories help users find content on your site more easily.

With WordPress, each category you create becomes a searchable webpage.

This lets your visitors find all blog posts published under that category in one place …

Using WordPress Categories To Improve Your Site’s Navigation

Step 7 – Defining Your Content Strategy

Plan Your Content Strategy

Now that you have created a list of keywords and categories, the next step is to begin planning your content strategy.

You need content for your “static” website pages (e.g. your “About Us” page, legal pages and your products, and you will also need content to publish regularly on your site.

Tips For Business Website Owners:

Tip #1: Your “Static” Web Content

Make sure that you have content for all of your “fixed” website pages already written before you begin building your website or blog”, especially if you plan to get someone else involved in the process. This will help to avoid additional costs caused by delays or unpreparedness.

Below is a basic checklist of the content you will want to have already prepared prior to building a website:

• Business name and brief description of your business.
• “Home Page” content.
• Content for your “About Us” page.
• “Products/Services” page content.
• Site Categories.
• Business Contact Details (e.g. business address, email, telephone numbers)
• Images (e.g. company logos, etc.). Image formats = .jpg, .png or .gif.
• 1 – 5 initial articles to be used as “seed content” for your site (saved as Word document or plain text file).
• List of all external links and additional contact details to be included in your site (e.g. “Vendors”, etc.
• Additional media or downloadable content (e.g. promo videos, PDF documents, price lists, etc.)
• Also, ensure that all links you plan to add to your website are working and all other details like spelling, phone numbers, etc. are correct.

Tip #2: Create A List Of Content Ideas

Here is a “quick” method you can use to create a list of content ideas for your site.

Write down 10 keywords, and for each keyword, create a list with one article idea you can add to your site.

You can also write a post about each of the following topics:

• Your products or services
• The people in your company – who are they and what do they do
• The latest industry news – what’s big news in your industry right now?
• A industry event you plan to attend
• Customer tips
• Affiliate tips and training
• What aspect of your solution could you educate prospects about to help overcome sales objections?
• What problems do you or your services help your customers solve?
• What reviews can you provide to help more customers buy from you?
• What are some of the more common FAQs you get all the time from interested visitors or prospective customers?
• etc …

Once you have a list of content topics, continue adding to the list.

Tip #3: Learn How To Never Run Out Of Content Ideas

We provide our clients and subscribers with comprehensive training email on how to develop a content marketing strategy, how to promote your business with content, and ways to never run out of content ideas.

The “Infinite Web Content Creation” email training series is designed for WordPress users and covers the following areas of the content creation process:

• How To Create A Sustainable Digital Content Strategy
• Content Writing Tips
• Copywriting Principles
• Content Posting Guidelines For WordPress
• What To Write About
• How To Outsource Your Content Writing
• Time-Saving Content Creation Strategies

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This is the end of Part Two

To keep reading this article, click here:

A Money-Saving Guide To Web Site Planning For Business Owners – Part 3

The post Why Planning Your Website Is Important – What To Do Before You Build – Part 2 appeared first on Quick Click Hosting.

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