How to plan your Website?

If you have a business idea, a project, a hobby or a working company that you want to share with a wider audience, you've probably asked yourself how to start planning a website? But how do you plan a website or e-shop that meets your goals and expectations? What are the steps to a successful website?

In this article, we will introduce the main website planning processes. We cover topics such as:

• How to set objectives and target audiences for the website
• How to choose between a domain name and different web hosting services
• How to design and structure your websitee
• How to create and optimise website content easily
• How to market and promote your website.
• How to set a budget for your website and what resources you need

By the end of this article, you will have a clear understanding of how to design a website that meets your needs and attracts visitors. Whether you want to create a blog, a portfolio, a company website or an online shop, this guide will help you get started with planning your website.

How to define the objectives and target audiences of your website?

The first step when starting to plan a website is to define the objectives you want to achieve with it and the target audiences it is aimed at. This will help you set your goals, choose the right tone and tailor your content to your ideal customer. In order to define your objectives and target audience, you need to find answers to the following questions:

• What is the main purpose of a website? What do you want to achieve? SMART or PACT methodologies are the easiest ways to set goals, choose the one that suits you.
• Who are the potential visitors to the website? What are your customers' demographics, interests, behaviours and pain points?
• What value proposition do you offer your customers? How does the website solve their problems or help them get what they want?
• What activities do you want visitors to do on the website? Do you want them to subscribe, buy, contact you, share content or do something else?
• How do you measure the success of your website? What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) you use to monitor your progress and results?

To answer these questions, you can use a variety of methods, such as brainstorming, market research, competitor analysis, surveys, interviews, persona-based user stories. These will help you to gain insights and knowledge about your niche, competitors and target audience.

Once you've defined your objectives and target audiences, you can write a mission statement that summarises your brand vision and value proposition. A mission statement is a short and catchy sentence that describes what your website or e-shop does, who it serves and how it is different from others. Here are some examples of mission statements for popular websites and e-shops:

Some examples of mission statements

• Amazon: To be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
• Netflix: To entertain the world with TV shows and movies across a wide variety of genres and languages.
• Spotify: To unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by it.
• Airbnb: To help create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, providing healthy travel that is local, authentic, diverse, inclusive, and sustainable.

A mission statement will help you to better communicate your goals and values to your target audience and stakeholders. It will also help you stay focused and consistent throughout the development of your website.

How to choose a domain name and web hosting provider

The next step in planning a website or e-shop is choosing a domain name and web hosting service. The domain name is the Internet address of your website or e-shop, for example www.ettevõte.ee. A web hosting service is a service provider that stores the files of your website or e-shop and makes them available to visitors.

Choosing a domain name and web hosting service is an important decision that can affect the visibility, reliability and security of your website. Here are some tips to help you choose the right domain name and web hosting for your needs:

Domain name

• The domain name should be relevant, memorable and easy to spell and pronounce. Avoid the use of numbers, hyphens or abbreviations that may confuse visitors.
• The domain name should reflect your brand identity and value proposition. Use keywords that describe your niche, products or services. You can also use your own name or a creative name that stands out from others.
• When choosing a domain name, choose the extension that suits it, such as .eu, .com, .net, .org, .biz or .co. or use a country-specific extension for a specific country of destination, such as .ee, .fi, .lv, .uk, .ca, .au or .in if you want to target a specific country market. You can also use a niche-specific extension such as .shop, .blog, .art or .travel if you want to highlight your industry or category.

Web hosting

• Choose a web hosting service that is reliable, fast and secure. Compare providers. Compare different providers, packages and prices to find the best value for money for your website.
• Choose the web hosting that supports the platform or software you want to use to create your website. For example, if you would like to use WordPress, you can choose a dedicated WordPress web browser that is designed and optimised for it. The location of the web hosting provider's servers is also important. If you are setting up an e-commerce store in the Estonian market, it makes sense to use a web hosting provider whose servers are located in Estonia, but if your main target market is in the US or Asia, it makes sense to use a provider whose servers are located in the region.
• If you're sure that your website might need more server resources then choose a web hosting solution that offers scalability and flexibility. You may want to start with a simpler package that requires fewer resources, and then move up to a higher-performance package as the website grows and attracts more traffic.

You can use a variety of tools to choose a domain name and web hosting, for example there are good web hosting solutions in Estonia: Web hosting and Zone:

Veebimajutus.ee - Convenience and affordable price

Veebimajutus is a modern and innovative web hosting provider in Estonia with over 25 years of experience and over 25 000 customers. Veebimajutus offers shared web hosting as well as domain registration, email hosting and SSL certificates.

90%'s web hosting clients are small and medium-sized enterprises in Estonia. Their motto is "Manage everything from one place. Conveniently and quickly.". The most beginner-friendly service, lots of DIY tutorials and a blog where you can find useful tips to improve your website.

If you are looking for a simple and user-friendly web hosting service to start your own website, then veebimajutus.ee is the right choice for you.

Would you like to get 6 months of free online accommodation on veebimajutus.ee? SOODUSCODE

Zone.ee - Quality and reliability

It is one of the oldest and most popular web hosting providers in Estonia, with over 25 years of experience and over 100 000 customers. Zone.ee offers all types of web hosting from: shared, VPS, cloud and private server web hosting, as well as domain registration, email hosting and SSL certificates.

Zone.ee is renowned for its quality and reliability and excellent customer support. Zone is one of the most scalable online accommodation in Estonia, where you can start with shared accommodation and move up to a private web hosting package as needed.

Want to register a domain with web hosting zones? SOODUSCODE

Foreign web hosting providers for websites built on wordpress: WPengine, Flywheel, GoDaddy, Bluehost, SiteGround.

Once you've chosen your domain name and web hosting, it's easy to get your website up and running. In the web host, you can configure your email accounts, SSL certificates and other settings to increase the security of your website. If you have any problems with the configuration, please feel free to contact us through contact form.

Website design and layout

Website design and layout is not just about aesthetics. They have a direct impact on your website's usability, visitor engagement and conversion rates. Therefore, it pays to invest time and resources to ensure that your website design is not only beautiful, but also functional and user-friendly.

Look at and analyse what the competitors' websites are like and what functionalities they offer to the user, while also thinking about what you as a customer would expect from a competitor's website, i.e. what you could offer your future customers and how user-friendly their websites are. Be sure to find out what the design trends are in your niche. A good way to find the latest website design trends and inspiration is to check out awwwards.com, Pinterest or Dribble.

Key points to focus on in your website design:

• Esmamulje: Visitors will be impressed by your website within seconds. That's why it's important that your website design is modern, clean and professional.
• Visual hierarchy: Important information should be highlighted and easy to find.
• User-friendliness: The design of the website should be intuitive and simple, so that visitors can quickly find the information they need.
• Brand consistency: Use the same colours, fonts and tones that are consistent with your lodge's brand identity.
• Trends: While it's important to be up to date with website design trends, you should choose the ones that are best suited to your brand and target audience, and that can be done within your website budget.

Consider whether a bespoke design on a ready-made base is enough for your website or whether you need a tailor-made design. Think through all the key design aspects of what the visual layout of the website could look like. Sketch it out on paper or cut it together from different homepages and, if necessary, give your collected ideas to the designer.

How to create and optimise website content

The fourth step in website planning is content creation and optimisation. Content includes elements such as text, images, videos, sound and interactive features. Creating and optimising content is an important part of website planning as it can affect web reputation, authority and search ranking. It is also worth considering whether it would be necessary to involve helpers, such as a content writer, graphic designer, photographer or videographer, in the production of the required content.

What type of content does your website need?

• Articles: Do you want to share information, news about your activities, campaigns or even your expertise in your niche? Regular and quality articles help to increase the authority of your website and improve its visibility in search engines.
• Videos: Visual content is often able to convey information more quickly and emotionally than text, and is often more impactful.
• Gallery: If your field requires outstanding visual presentations, like photographers, designers, architects or artists, then impressive image galleries or portfolio pages are essential elements of your website.

Here are some simple tips to help you create and optimise your content:

• Content that is relevant, valuable and engaging. The content should be relevant to the purpose, target audience and value proposition you have created. It should also provide useful information, address reader pain points, answer questions or inspire readers to take action.
• Content that is original, authentic and trustworthy. The content should reflect your brand tone, style and personality, as well as your brand position. It should also be backed up with facts, figures and sources.
• Story content that is clear, concise and easy to read. The content should use simple and direct language, short and simple sentences, grammar and punctuation. It should also use headings, subheadings, lists and bullet points to organise and structure the text and highlight key points.
• Create content that is optimised for search engines and users. Content should use keywords, titles, meta descriptions and headings that match the target audience's searches in search engines. Content should also use images, videos and other media that enhance the message and appeal to other audience senses.
• Create content that is consistent and up-to-date. Content should follow a consistent tone, style and format throughout the website. It should also be regularly reviewed and amended to ensure that it is accurate, up-to-date and fresh.

You can use a variety of tools and resources to create and optimise your content, such as Google Docs, Grammarly, CoSchedule Headline Analyzer, Rankmath SEO and Unsplash. These can help you write, edit, format and optimise your content for search. You can also use tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics to monitor and improve the performance and user experience of your content.

How to optimise your website for search engines?

• Quality content: Search engines value quality and relevant content. Provide value to your visitors by regularly updating the content on your website and be sure to post new content.
• Keyword analysis: Think and analyse what words and phrases your target audience might use in search engines. Integrate these keywords into your website content, meta descriptions and URLs. For keyword research, Google Keyword Planner is a great workhorse.
• Technical SEO: Make sure your website loads fast, is mobile-friendly, images are optimised and all pages are correctly indexed in the search console. If the website is slow, bring in a developer to solve technical problems.

You can use tools such as Pingdom, GTmetrix and Google PageSpeed Insights to test the speed and performance of your website. In the Search console you can monitor how many pages your website has been indexed by Google and if there are any problems with the indexing of pages.

Apart from SEO, try conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and user experience optimisation (UXO). These strategies will help you improve website conversion and build long-term, lasting customer relationships.

How to market your website

The fifth step in planning a website is marketing and advertising your website. This involves advertising your website to attract visitors. To successfully market your website, we recommend the following solutions:

• Digital Marketing - Market your website through different channels, such as Google ads, social media posts or paid ads, email marketing, content marketing through blogs, influencer marketing or paid digital advertising in media publications. These will help you reach your target audience faster, increase website traffic and make sales.

You can advertise on your website using a variety of services such as Smaily, Mailchimp, Hootsuite, Buffer, BuzzSumo, Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIN Ads, etc. These will help you manage and optimise your digital marketing campaigns.

• Conventional marketing - If your business is primarily aimed at the local market, you could try printed flyers, posters on local notice boards, outdoor advertising, promotional menswear or even promotional clothing (for example: last summer we tested a t-shirt with a client's logo and qr-code on a newly designed website, traffic and enquiries increased 4 times on the working days the t-shirt was worn).

Try out different techniques for marketing your website and find the one that works best for promoting your business.

Website budget and resources you need

Creating a website is an investment in your business or brand. As with any investment, it is important to think about budget and resources to ensure the success and sustainability of the project objectives.

How to set a budget for your website?

• Objectives: Build on the objectives you set in the first part of the planning. And think about how big a budget you could have to meet those targets.
• Design solution: Think about which design solution suits you and supports your goals. A simple, off-the-shelf design will always be cheaper and easier to build than a bespoke, sophisticated design, but a bespoke design can be what sets you apart from the competition and can help you to succeed quickly.
• Functionalities: Consider whether it's a simple business card type website with a simple contact form, a more complex e-shop or a portal. Remember that the more special features and customisation you need on a website, the higher the likely budget and complexity of the website.
• Website content: If you plan to create a lot of high quality content for your website, you should definitely consider enlisting the help of a content writer or photographer, for example, who will write and photograph the necessary material for the content. Alternatively, for a lower budget, you could also use Chat gpt to create a text base and use images from an image bank or images created with ai, for example.
• Website optimisation: First of all, think about how much optimisation your website needs right now, whether it is enough to do a simple optimisation at first or if you need to do some technical optimisation as well. Be sure to include a developer in the conversation about technical optimisation. A technical optimisation of a website with a patchwork solution may require more work and may increase the budget. In the case of SEO optimisation, it all depends largely on the amount of content that needs to be optimised. The more content you need to find the right keywords for, organise the structure, etc., the bigger your optimisation budget should be.
• Website Marketing: In the case of marketing, let's go back to the objectives. If we have set a target of 1,000 sales in the first quarter of the e-store, then we should certainly choose a budget for marketing. In marketing, it is always possible to get a better deal if you do it yourself and use your time and creativity, while if you want to put more emphasis on other activities, then hire a marketer who will create a marketing plan and action plans for you to achieve your goals and handle all the marketing for your website.

What resources do you need?

• Designer: If you want a unique website design and branding, it's wise to bring in an experienced web designer to create the solution you need.
• Developer: It is also wise to involve a web developer for the specific functionalities and the construction and technical optimisation of the website. The developer will create the necessary functionalities and code the designer's design specifications that your website needs. With regular maintenance, the developer will ensure that the website runs smoothly and is secure and updated on time.
• Turundaja: An experienced marketer can create a marketing plan and specific action plans with budgets that will help you move quickly and successfully towards your goals.
• Content creator and SEO specialist: Good content is one of the foundations of successful website marketing. A content creator can help you create engaging content for the reader, and an SEO specialist can help you tailor it for search engines.

Remember that the more resources you need, the bigger your website budget should be.

In summary, how to plan a website?

Planning a website can be a complex process. It requires careful research, analysis, planning and execution. By following the simple steps and tips outlined in this article, you can design a website that meets your goals and expectations. If you are struggling to plan and design your project, feel free to contact us and we will discuss how we can make your project a reality. Contact us contact form.

Follow these 6 steps to plan your website:

• Define your objective and the target audiences the website is aimed at
• Choose a domain name and web hosting for your website.
• Design and structure your website.
• Draw up a budget and think through what resources you need
• Create and optimise quality content for your website.
• Actively market and promote your website.

We hope this article will help you to get started with planning your website. If you need any help in planning and implementing your project, or if you have any questions or would like us to add something to the article, please contact us: info@atler.ee or through contact form.