When Do You Need Website Development Planning?
Before you build a NEW website
Good results do not happen by chance: you need to plan for them to happen. Your website needs to be well-planned so that it achieves your business goals.
Before you REDESIGN your current website
Avoid making the same mistakes on your new website. During the website planning phase, specialists will detect and help you remove your current website's flaws so that they do not reappear on your new website.
Always Hire Planners Before Hiring Builders.
Building websites is similar to building houses: first you hire the architects, and then you hire the construction company. The construction company would refuse to build a house without an architectural plan.
Unfortunately, too many designers and programmers are comfortable with coding and designing without a website development plan. Lack of planning is what makes clients unhappy with their websites. Because the internet is still young, many website developers aren’t experienced enough to insist that clients get a website plan first.
A website development plan contains instructions for website programmers and website designers on what needs to be built, how, and why.
It’s too early to hire programmers and designers if the website plan hasn't been created yet.
PLANNING FIRST: what a proper website development process should look like.
5 Main Steps of the Website Planning Process:
1. Defining business goals
First we discuss and define your S.M.A.R.T. business goal(s). These goals will drive the entire project.
An example of a S.M.A.R.T. goal would be: "We'll put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade."
- S.pecific “A man on the Moon” sets a target specific enough to focus on.
- M.easurable Is there a human being on the Moon, or not? It must be relatively easy to measure whether the goal has been achieved or not.
- A.chieavable It must be possible to be successful. In 1962, when president Kennedy delivered his famous speech, scientists were already sure that going to the Moon was tough, but possible.
- R.elevant Is it worth spending your time on achieving this goal? Goals that are relevant keep the motivation of the entire team high enough and long enough to succeed.
- T.ime-Bound A goal without a deadline is just a dream. Setting a hard date sets your team up for success, and enables you to measure your performance.
2. Creating your company profile
Creating your business profile is an important discovery process in which website planning specialists gather strategic information about your business, the kind that is unavailable to the public.
The result is a document defining the following aspects:
- Your Products and Services We’ll define the desired range of products and services which you want to present on your website.
- Profiles of Your Ideal Customers We’ll understand who your best customers are, what motivates them, and which problems you’re solving for them.
- Your Competition We need to research what your competitors are doing online so that we can keep you several steps ahead of them.
- Your Market Situation Explain to us your position on the market, and we’ll uncover hidden opportunities available to you online.
- Your Competitive Advantage Your website needs to clearly say how you’re creating value in a different way than your competitors do.
3. Creating strategy
Digital marketing strategy defines how digital channels fit into your overall business strategy.
The result is a document specifying the following aspects:
- Buying / Selling Cycles How do your customers prefer to buy? How are your sales efforts aligned with customers’ expectations?
- Marketing Funnels Which paths will exist on your website so that it turns first-time visitors into repeat visitors into inquiries / sales?
- Marketing Channels Where are your customers congregating online? Which channels must you use so that they’re willing to listen to you?
- Content What do you say when your customers are ready to listen, and how do you say it so that your message influences them?
- Processes How must you organize your internal teams and processes so that your strategy works well? Who will do what? For example, who will write the content?
- Timelines When do you work on executing your strategy, how often, and are there any deadlines?
4. Finding website flaws (optional)
No website is without flaws. If you're doing a website redesign, you need specialists to detect its flaws and help you remove them so that they do not reappear on the new website. The result is a written website improvement report, analyzing 4 aspects of your website:
- Sales / Marketing Features Are there clearly defined marketing funnels, and are they set up well? Are calls to action used? Is there useful Google Analytics data to guide our decisions?
- Architecture & Layouts Does your website use the concept of landing pages? Is your navigation confusing? Are there broken links? Do you use links well?
- Design & Programming Does your design make your content stand out? Do your apps work well for humans and search engines?
- Content Do you answer your customers’ most important questions? Is your content hard to understand, boring, or untrustworthy?
5. Creating website architecture
Website planning specialists ask questions such as: why? what? how? how many? which ones? to define and document the following technical aspects:
- Content Types, Formats & Scope References, blog posts - yes or no? Text, presentation, or video format? How many pieces of each content?
- Visual Website Map How will the website menus look like? Two, three, or more levels of navigation? Which content is most important?
- Sales / Marketing Features How do we design marketing funnels? Where do we put call to action buttons? Will there be an email newsletter?
- Applications Which apps are essential for delivering the content well? Do we need a blog, search, web forms?
- Characteristic Design Templates How should we structure our landing pages? How do we design our content so that it influences our visitors?
Features of the Website Planning Service
- Service category: consulting, one-time service
- Deliverables: a digital website planning document with written definitions and (for more complex projects) visual mockups
- Price: Starting at €2000
- Client required to sign a contract: NO
- Additional obligations: NONE
Website Planning Projects for Happy Clients
Answers You're Looking For
How do I know if I need website planning?+
Every complex, important web project requires website development planning.
All web projects including custom website programming require website planning.
The more unknowns there are, the more website planning your project requires.
Many companies underestimate the complexity of building an important marketing and sales tool that is a business website.
Without website development planning, you're risking that your website project won't go as you expected.
Our advice is to set aside some time and some budget for website planning. Do not rush into the development phase.
I already hired website developers. Aren't they supposed to plan my website?+
It depends on the type of your project, and on the chosen agency.
You should definitely ask them.
Some web agencies bundle website planning with website development. Depending on how important your project is to you, they'll probably deliver website planning of certain scope. Those are the good agencies to work with, because they will guide you through the process.
Other web agencies will skip website planning altogether because they assume you've got the website planning part all figured out. They will await and execute your instructions. Unless you really know where you're going with your website, you may not be too happy with what those web agencies deliver in the end. You may also be frustrated with how much of what seems to be their work you had to perform yourself.
How do you know whether you've chosen the right type of web agency? The best answer is: by how much you are paying them. Unfortunately, many companies figure this out when it's already too late, i.e. when they're already unhappy with how their website project is evolving.
If your website is important to you, and you can predict that your website project will go on for two months or longer, you should seriously consider hiring someone to create your website project documentation.
What's the price of the website planning service?+
Our website planning service starts at 1000 EUR for simplest website projects.
We recommend you spend 25% - 50% of your total website budget on website planning.
It really depends on the project.
What if I don't like the website plan you create for us?+
We make sure that the website plan we create for you is discussed with you before we go to the next step.
Website planning is an iterative process in which your expertise in your line of business is required. That's why there can be no nasty surprises in website planning. You will approve all crucial decisions and we're more than glad to explain all decisions we've made.
Does Logit develop websites?+
Yes, for existing B2B clients (with exceptions - see below).
We prefer to take on a website development project after getting to know our client's business well. The best way to do that is to first work together on smaller projects, such as website planning, website improvement reports or consulting.
Smaller projects give us ample time and the opportunity to teach our clients the importance of strategic, data-driven thinking, and decision making. Creating a website for a known customer thus becomes a successful project driven by the desire to achieve business goals, rather than to redecorate a website visually.
We'd be glad to make an exception for new clients who fit our ideal profile:
- you're an experienced company manufacturing / reselling B2B products or providing professional B2B services
- your website's main business goal is to generate business leads
- you'll include us in your website planning process
Am I going to be actively involved in the website planning process and what am I required to do?+
Yes, you will be involved in the project but not more than it is required.
This is approximately how much time it will be required from your side:
- Defining goals:
- 1 audio interview (15-30 minutes)
- review and written confirmation of documented goals
- Business profile:
- 1 audio interview (1-2 hours)
- review and written confirmation of documented business profile
- Digital marketing strategy:
- 1-2 audio interviews (3-4 hours altogether)
- production and delivery of typical content samples (e.g. 1 blog post, 1 case study, 1 product description ..) - approximately 1-2 hours per sample, 10+ samples
- Website improvement report:
- review and written confirmation of the delivered website improvement report (approximately 1 hour of your work)
- Website architecture (approximately 4-8 hours of your work altogether):
- review and written confirmation of visual website content map, in which you confirm the content scope, types, and formats
- review and written confirmation of each characteristic design template, which you'll receive in the primarily visual format
- review and written confirmation of the list of required applications
If we hire you for website planning, do we also have to hire you for web development and design?+
No, you don't have to if you don't want to.
Each phase is independent of another and you can hire anyone you want for any phase.
For example, you can hire us to do website planning, another agency for content creation, and another agency for website development and design.
Or you can write the content by yourself or with the help from our B2B Website Content Guide, hire us for website planning and another agency for web development and design. It is up to you and your preferences.
In what format do we receive project documentation?+
Project documentation is delivered to you in a written format; Microsoft Word or Google Docs, and visual format; PNG or PDF format.
This is what you'll get in a written form:
- documented project goals
- documented business profile
- documented digital marketing strategy
- report about the 10 biggest mistakes of your current website
- a list of required web applications
This is what you'll get in a visual form:
- a visual map of website content
- a visual sketch of characteristic design templates
See Related Services:
Lower Price, Lower Scope
- project-based consulting is great when you need an impartial specialist to help you improve the website plan you already have, or oversee website development
What Comes After Website Planning
- website content writing service
- B2B website development and design
When You Fill Out This Form:
- We'll email you within 24 business hours.
- We'll discuss your needs.
- You'll receive a quote for this service.
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