A website needs certain elements in order to succeed – mostly planning. Start with these 5 tips.

1. Plan the business – Start with the product or service, is there a market, a demand, an opportunity in the first place. Sell something offline before you try doing it online. Create a budget in your projections for design, development, maintenance and digital marketing of the website.

2. Plan the website – Do a layout for mobile first and then desktop, by doing a wireframe for each and tweaking it after discussion with team and customers. Engage your customers and get their input.

3. Plan the design – Start on a rough mockup first draft design and get input on that from potential customers. Then get started on putting flesh on bone.

4. Platform – do some research and get the platform that dos what you need and that you can use competently, backed up with support from a good web partner.

5. Market – Advertising is easier online, but is a new science, so learn how to do Digital Marketing or get someone competent who can supply testimonials and referrals. Call a few of these people and ask them how would they recommend you deal with this firm.

Planning is key to get a site that delivers results. Depending on the size of the project and the budget available, the whole process can take from four weeks to twelve. 

Many small business will invest very little time in the planning and very little money in the production, just to tick the box. The result is predictably very little return. Worse again they will be missing out on the opportunity they could have been getting if they had done it well. 

Stick with it and accept that the web is the way forward, the advertising medium of the 21st century, so this is important to get right and keep working on it.