Creating a Website Outline
Creating a website outline of your site is just as important as the design.
The step of creating a website outline can be taken on your own, or if you’re working with a copywriter you might want to first get some basic ideas down on pen and paper and save the final brainstorming for your first conversation together. All these steps can be used for refreshing an existing website too!
What’s the number one goal of your website?
- What do you want to accomplish with your site?
- What do you want your website visitors to DO when they get to your site?
- What’s that top priority?
Most of my clients want to build relationships with their visitors, which requires time and nurturing. It doesn’t mean you can’t get sales straight away but you need to build a nurturing environment and invite them to join your email list. This is the way to build repeat customers that know, like, and trust you. More about that later.
You’ll probably want something similar to the following pages, it doesn’t have to be complicated.
- Home
- About
- Services
- Testimonials
- Blog
- Contact
An example of adding pages is, perhaps under Services you may want 2 tiers, which lead to more pages of information. These are not in the actual navigation menu.
Your About Page can invite them to a consultation call and maybe the Contact page does the same.
I recommend a less is more mindset, whilst also giving your visitors the amount of information required to make contact with you. It truly is a fine balance.
Remembering pages can always be changed, added, deleted and updated, anytime.
Getting clear on the goal of each page is very important to the overall impact you want to have on your visitors.
Your website visitors are looking for a clear direction on where to go and what to do on your website. Your website outline will nail it.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to simplify your visitors’ experience. They rely on you to guide them in the right direction. This is where strategy meets design. It’s that important.
- What if you’re trying to convert visits into sales but your contact details are hard to find?
- What if you’re trying to grow your email list, but web visitors can’t find the sign-up form?
- What if, you’re a brick-and-mortar business but your visitors can’t find your physical location?
You have a limited amount of time to keep your visitors on your website and if they can’t navigate it easily, they will simply go back to Google and search again. Creating a website outline will significantly increase your strategy.
Ok, Let’s Summarise
- What’s the number one goal of your website?
- What are the pages you’d like on your website? (You don’t need to know what’s on each page yet).
- What’s the goal of each of those pages?
If you’re feeling a bit stuck and this seems overwhelming, don’t worry, it’s a lot to take in. If you’d like a bit more support than this post provides, contact me and we can book a 1:1 call.
The simple process of getting a new website for your business.
Click this link if you’d like to download my all-inclusive checklist.
These steps outline what it takes to get your beautiful new website up and running.
This list will give you a perfect understanding of the process before hiring a designer.