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What Is a Website Blueprint?

A website blueprint is similar to a blueprint for a house, it’s a set of plans that allows the builder to easily construct the website while limiting the unforeseen obstacles that could arise if one doesn’t think through the website build prior to getting started. Your website blueprint should contain:

• as much information about your website as possible

• plans for every page within your website. From the Contact us page to your major information pages, all should be flushed out in detail so that the builder can simply plug-in the information during the build.

• What Are the Main Components of a Website Blueprint?

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Developing a proper website blueprint definitely takes time. With that said, it’s going to save your website builders much more time during the build because they’ll have plans to work off of and not just notes or email messages from you/the client. All websites contain three critical pieces. Each piece works together with the other two pieces in order to create a seamless web experience for the reader. The three main pieces that must be worked through for every page within your website are:

• Architecture

• Content

• Design

Each web page within your website needs these 3 elements in order for it to function properly. I liken the Architecture , Content, and Design of web pages to the human body.

• The Architecture of a web page/website is similar to the bone structure in the body. It forms the overall shape of the website.

• The Content of the website is like the internal organs. The “heart” of the site so to speak .

• The Design of the website is similar to the skin of the body. It’s the outward appearance that the website displays to others.

If a person is missing any of these elements or if any of these elements are not functioning properly the entire body/person is affected. The same is true for a website. If the architecture is broken then the Content and Design suffer and vice versa.

Now that we understand the three main elements that must be flushed out within every web page within your website in order to create a strong website blueprint, let’s go ahead and break each of these elements down and explain how they fit into the whole of the website blueprint.

Website Architecture

As stated above, website architecture is similar to the skeleton of the human body. It’s the layout of your website. Not to be confused with the design of your site, which we will get into later in this article, the architecture is how the website and each individual page is laid out. Some of the main architecture elements of your web pages are:

• Main Navigation Buttons – Are these located along the top of the site? Is there a left navigation system? Perhaps you want to have a drop-down list from some of the main navigation buttons.

• Main Content Area – Where will the main content area be? Is it centered within the page? Does it encompass the entire page?

• Right/Left Sidebars – Will you have a right and/or left sidebar within the web page? Will there be plugins or navigation buttons within the sidebars?

• Image Slider – Some websites now have image sliders somewhere within the page. Will your site have a slider? Where will it be positioned?

• Footer – The footer is an important part of a website, but one that is often overlooked. Will you include navigation buttons in your footer? How will it be positioned and displayed?

By thinking through these architectural elements within your site prior to the construction of the site you will save a lot of time during development. It’s also a good idea to keep these architectural elements the same for all pages of your site. Obviously there could be a few pages where these elements may differ, such as if you have a blog on your site, or an e-commerce store, etc. For the most part though, as you work through each page of your website within your website blueprint, these architectural elements will be fairly consistent.

Website Content

Developing your website content is one of the most important pieces to creating a successful website. Successful content must:

• tell your story in a way that’s both educational and engaging

• be optimized for search engines

• written in such a way that naturally leads your reader through your website

• structured in a way that allows your readers to understand whatever information you are trying to convey

• leads readers to your call-to-action

• encourages readers to click deeper and deeper into your site

• Include Keywords in Your Website Content

Back in part 1 of this website planning series we discussed the importance of developing a list of keywords that would help your website rank highly on search engines and attract quality website visitors. The content within your web pages is where those keywords should be inserted. When optimizing your content, be sure to:

• sprinkle your keywords throughout your web pages

• not to “stuff” your pages with keywords whereby your content no longer makes sense

• link the proper keywords when driving your readers to other pages within your site. Instead of linking the words “click here” for more information on website design. Link the words “website design tips”.

By taking time to write your content now, during the website planning phase, you can make all of the necessary changes before the site actually goes live. Remember that the content of your site is like the organs within your body. It’s what keeps the site functioning over time. Be sure to take as much time as you need to perfect the content within the pages of your website.

Website Design

It used to be that people didn’t take much time or put much effort into the design of their website. However, over the years people have begun to realize just how important design really is to creating a successful website. Just like your outward appearance is the first thing most people notice about others, the design of your site is what catches the reader’s attention first.

Some important design factors to keep in mind are:

• Design the site within the theme of what you’re try convey to your audience. If you’re writing about plants or flowers you probably don’t want pictures of cars on your site.

• Identify the main design elements within each page of your website

Here are some of the other design elements that you should think through for each page of your website:

• Navigation Button Colors – Should a button change color while in a depressed state in order to help the reader identify which page he/she is currently on?

• Site Logo – Where will the site logo be positioned within the site?

• Content Images – Within the content of your pages images should be used as visual supports for the information being discussed. Determine what images can be used within the content of each page.

• Site Colors – What colors make the most sense for your website? Choose background colors and font colors that appeal to your target audience and support the theme of your site.

Design is a critical component to the success or failure of a website. It’s important to go through each web page and determine what design elements make the most sense for that specific page. All design elements should reflect the overall theme of your website in order to give the appearance of a cohesive website. Remember, design is the first thing readers notice. Be sure to choose a design that encourages visitors to dig deeper.

Creating Your Own Architecture, Content, and Design Document

Taking time to create your own Architecture, Content, and Design document will be the best investment you decide to make for your website. This document will act as your guide when building your website. Be sure you list all of the pages within your site, go through each page and fill in the architecture, content, and design elements. By thinking through each of these three key elements for each page you will ensure that you create a website that’s educational, easily navigated, and one that attracts visitors to complete your calls-to-action.

The Importance of Website Planning

Image by: tome213

Too many individuals and businesses simply start hammering nails without taking the time to create the proper plan. I like to say that anytime you undertake a task like building a website, building a house, or starting a marketing campaign, etc. it’s important to spend two-thirds of your time planning and one-third of your time executing. Far too often people skip the planning phase in order to “save time”. Unfortunately, what they come to find out once they get into their project is that without taking the time to plan for executing the project unforeseen obstacles pop up and the builders usually have to redo some of their work. When you take the time to think through your project prior to starting the build you can usually foresee some of these obstacles and come up with a plan for avoiding them. This will actually save your time (and money) in the long run.

5 Keys to a Great Website

When it comes to website planning there are at least five key items to consider when coming up with your website blueprint. If you make sure to take time to think through these five things your chances for creating a successful website increase exponentially.

• Determine the goals for your website. What are you trying to accomplish?

• Pinpoint your target audience and try to understand what their interests are. How can you provide them with the valuable information they are looking for?

• What will your call-to-action be? Determine what you want your website visitors to do once they land on your site.

• Figure out how you will get your readers to easily navigate through your site in order for them to complete your call-to-action

• Create a list of keywords that you will use throughout your site in order to move your web pages up the ranks of search engines like Google, Bing, etc.

There are obviously more things that you need to think through when developing your website, but many of those have to do with your own personal objectives. The five keys above are universal to all websites. If you take the time to think through these items you will definitely set yourself (or your business) up for success. Now let’s take a look at each of these five items individually.

Determining Your Goals for Your Website

Image by Mattox

Anytime you undertake a project of this magnitude it’s critical that you set goals prior to anything else. Without setting goals before building a website you are unable to determine what you’re looking to accomplish. Without knowing what you want to accomplish you will end up building a site that has either too much information, too little, or possibly even the wrong information. Setting goals for your website will allow you to be efficient in your website build. It will also allow you to come back periodically after the site is live and determine your return-on-investment. If you don’t set goals, how will you know if your website is successful? Setting goals doesn’t take that much time. Make sure you don’t skip this step. It’s important.

Identifying the Target Audience for Your Website

Who are you building your website for? What are their preferences for reviewing information? Do they like to read content? Would they rather watch videos? How do they like to receive content? Via a RSS feed? Via email? These are the types of audience-related questions that you need to ask before you can determine what shape your website will take. It’s important that you understand your audience, this way you can make sure you can tailor your site to jive with their preferences. Doing this will push your website to the top of their list of sites to visit when they want information on your topic. It will keep your target audience coming back to your site, as well as, entice them to share it with their friends. That’s what it’s all about, right?!

Developing a Call-to-Action for Your Website

The most successful sites have a prominent call-to-action within their pages. If you don’t ask your audience to take action, how can you expect them to do what you want them to do. Without a call-to-action you cannot expect to accomplish your goals. If one of your goals for your site is to get an e-book in the hands of your website visitors then one of your calls-to-action must be “download our e-book”. If one of your goals is to grow your website traffic then perhaps another call-to-action is “share this page with a friend”. You cannot expect that your website visitors will know what you want them to do if you don’t ask. Be sure to include one or a few calls-to-action within the pages of your website. Having clear CTAs will help you accomplish your goals for your website.

The Importance of Website Navigation

Too many sites are created without thinking through their navigation. Far too often you land on a web page and have no clue how to get access to the information you’re looking for. Why do so many people love Apple products? It’s because they are intuitive. Users can look at an Apple product for the first time and quickly understand how to use the product. If you take time to think through your navigation before putting your website together you will find that your website visitors will navigate to the pages you want them too. Let’s go back to the e-book example. If your call-to-action is “download our e-book” you need to make sure that you make it very apparent how visitors can find the e-book and download it. Be sure that you don’t include too many different pathways all leading to the same page. This can confuse people. Usually a top, left, or right navigation bar for your main pages is sufficient. You can then interlink pages within the content of your site. If you want visitors to go from your blog to your ‘Services’ page, then be sure to use the content within that blog post to link it to your ‘Services’ page. When choosing the words to hyperlink to your ‘Services’ page, it would be smart to use the keywords from your keyword list.

Create a Keyword List for Your Website

Search Engine Optimization is critical in attracting quality website traffic. I say quality website traffic because who cares if you have 10,000 visitors to your site per month if none of them follow your call-to-action. You are creating a website to accomplish specific goals. You can only accomplish those goals if you attract the right kind of traffic (ie. your target audience). In order to attract quality traffic to your site, it’s important to put together a keyword list. There are a lot of great tools out there to help you determine what keywords to use. Google Keyword Tool is one of the best tools out there. You can enter words or phrases that represent the content/theme of your site. You can find other similar websites and enter those URLs. Google will then provide you with a list of the most relevant keywords and how many sites are using them. It’s important to select the keywords that make the most sense for your website and your audience, but also choose keywords that aren’t being 100% used by a bunch of your competitors. By carefully choosing the right keywords you will set your website up for success in driving quality website traffic to it.

In the next installment of this ‘Website Planning’ series we will review how you can take all of this “pre-work” and turn it into a functioning website blueprint, a document we refer to as your ‘Content, Design, and Architecture Document”.

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WordPress has had over 65 million downloads since version 3.0 was released, and in this third major iteration we’ve added significant polish around the new user experience, navigation, uploading, and imports. Check out this short video that summarizes the things we think you’ll find are the cat’s pajamas:

Introducing WordPress 3.3 “Sonny”

For Users
Experienced users will appreciate the new drag-and-drop uploader, hover menus for the navigation, the new toolbar, improved co-editing support, and the new Tumblr importer. We’ve also been thinking a ton about what the WordPress experience is like for people completely new to the software. Version 3.3 has significant improvements there with pointer tips for new features included in each update, a friendly welcome message for first-time users, and revamped help tabs throughout the interface. Finally we’ve improved the dashboard experience on the iPad and other tablets with better touch support.

For Developers
There is a ton of candy for developers as well. I’d recommend starting your exploration with the new editor API, new jQuery version, better ways to hook into the help screens, more performant post-slug-only permalinks, and of course the entire list of improvements on the Codex and in Trac.

What is happening??? – Transfer of your domain name (i.e., yourwebsite.com) from Domain Register “A” to Domain Register “B.”

NOTE: the transfer of a Domain name registration takes 5 business days. If the DNS need to be changed as well, generally another 24-48 hours are needed for the DNS to propagate to the new DNS settings.

The Domain transfer process (normally):

~ you need to unlock your domain name and request or get an “Authorization Code” from your current (old) Domain Registrar. The code is normally emailed to the admin account listed with the current domain registrar. This is can be verified at www.whois.com.

~ you need to then provide me with the ‘authorization code” and we will initiate the transfer.

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