Planning to complete the creation of a website (source Arkantos Consulting)

ConseilsMarketing.fr is pleased to welcome into its columns Chrisopher Da Silva

Arkantos Site Consulting, which offers the complete schedule for the completion
of your website, the project definition referencing, through maintenance. With a
ll this information you will be able to establish a comprehensive specification
that is Pro for a blog or website, produced in-house or delegated to a communica
tions agency.
Part 1: Project definition
One basic step in developing a website is the project definition itself, allowin
g the identification of initial scope and the establishment of adequate organiza
tion and facilities, both human , technical and budget for its implementation. M
any projects creating websites fail because of lack or absence of the original f
raming. This step is based on 5 separate tasks: * * * * to assess the needs and
expectations (due diligence), writing the summary report, the drafting of functi
onal specifications, project plan development and Site Maintenance Plan
We will not go into detail in all these tasks, but here are some tips that will
guide you to the first 3 steps.
1 - Audit your client (or yourself)
The purpose of this pre-audit is to determine the primary objective of the proje
ct and the secondary objectives or the targets, objectives related to brand perc
eption, the nature of the site content, specific technical and communication str
ategy . Therefore collect as much information at this stage in order to conduct
a comprehensive study of the project (feasibility, market research, competition)
and lead to the development of a tool maximized (the site) to respond effective
ly your needs and those of your target. Here is a general model questionnaire: 1
) General Information Project Name URL or URLs present desired contacts for the
project (name, email, phone) Due to the launch site The external factors may inf
luence the timing
2) Why? - What is the goal you want to achieve with this project (what business
problem you would solve through your website)? 3) For whom? - Who is your target
? Describe your target (CSP, using the Internet ...) 4) Value - Why would your t
arget she needs you? What is the point?
- What do you better than your competition? - How are viewed your products / ser
vices your target? - How to use your target Does your site? What is its objectiv
es (those of the target) 5) Perception - List of adjectives on how you want your
target receives your new website - What's different compared to the current per
ception of your company (or old website) - List of web sites you like. What do y
ou like these sites? 6) Content - Do you have an existing content to provide for
your site or is it a new content? Who will write the new content? - What are th
e visuals that we will have to serve? Are there or should we create them (logos,
pictures, graphic ...)? 7) Technology - What types of technologies would you li
ke to implement for your site (Flash, AJAX ...). If so, please explain how it wi
ll improve the user experience on your site. - Will you need functionality relat
ed to a database (CMS to update your own team by certain parts of your site, cus
tomizing connections, private space ...)? - Will you need secure transactions (t
hrough an e-commerce)? - Will you need other programming features, like a search
function for example? 8) Marketing and Communication - How would you like your
target audience find you? What levers will initiate a visit (backlinks, incentiv
e, organic results, sponsored links ...)? If you already have a website, how do
you communicate your URL online and offline? - Do you have an idea on the market
ing strategy that you want to adopt to promote your site? If yes€can you descri
be it? 9) Updates - How do you plan for conservation of the current content of y
our site and update it (in the case of an existing website)? - How often the con
tent should be updated? - Who is responsible for updating and editing content? -
What software do you use for your updates? - Additional Notes and Comments 10)
Budget - What is the overall budget allocated to the project? - How the budget i
s distributed in the different workstations (audit, design, production, marketin
g & communication ...)
2 - Write the summary report
By relying on the information provided during the audit, write a summary for bla
ck and white define the project objectives, the profile of the target, the perce
ption of the target, the main message to deliver and competitive advantage. Here
is a frame of writing: 1) Project Summary - Brief description of project - Obje
ctives and launch date - Estimated Timeframe for achieving the business target
2) Profile of the target - the target profile (CSP level of Internet usage ...)
- General Use of the Internet by the target - The needs and interests of key tar
get 3) Perception How to target your target sees you? How would you perceive tha
t you target? How the new website will allow access to this new perception? Adje
ctives characterizing the new site
4) Message - What is the main message to convey to the target? - How will this m
essage sent? 5) Competitive Advantage - What are the differences with the compet
ition? - What are the strengths of the current website?
3 - Writing the functional specification
Using the pre-audit, a document expressing the functional requirements of the si
te and the various tasks that the user has to perform on the future site will be
drafted (the functional specifications), so the technical team site knows what
she has to develop and more importantly, how it should develop. It is therefore
necessary to investigate, characterize and prioritize each site functionality. T
hen, for each feature, a data sheet will be prepared containing: * * * * * The t
itle The aim A precise description of the criteria for assessing the implementat
ion of priority development
Part 2: The maintenance of the website
The maintenance plan is a document (available) for determining who does what, wh
en, how and with what resources. It is a dashboard important to both the externa
l provider (if any) for internal resources, and will be integrated later in the
Draft Plan (available). It can take many forms, have different content and / or
adapted according to the type of project you want to put in place. I propose the
dashboard type that I apply for projects that j'encadre sites (you can download
the PDF document at the end of this article). It is a short document but accura
te structured around five themes: * * * * * Updates Site Contributors to the Web
site The methods and means of contribution and updates the quality audits The t
echnical
Updates website
This section defines, generally, what sections of your website will be updated a
nd by what (s) frequency (s). It is important to keep in mind each item potentia
lly identified to inform this part. Finally, we get a table for each section tha
t will summarize the frequency of detailed update: daily, weekly, monthly, quart
erly, semiannually and annually. Contributors to the website content is obvious
that, for a site lively and capture the attention of search engines for its char
acter of cool (renewal of the content), he must allocate resources for updates u
pdate and maintenance. Before entering into details of the process of updates, i
t is imperative to frame the editorial team and define roles, time (because time
is money) and the degree of responsibility for updates. The methods of input an
d updates the website This part is divided into four distinct sections: * The wa
y the website will be updated (HTML editor, WYSIWYG editor, CMS tool ...): It is
not uncommon to see websites combining several tools updates (for very specific
topics). For example, you can use a conventional HTML editor for the institutio
nal part of the site (that is, in general,€that requires the least amount of up
dates), tool (CMS SPIP, for example) for a section published articles, a blog de
dicated tool (Wordpress, Dotclear, Typepad ...) for the blog party ... Other web
sites are all designed with a single publisher or HTML, or CMS or another. In th
e case of a proliferation of tools, be sure to fit intelligently likely interact
ions between them. * The need for additional resources: It is possible that depe
nding on your project and who does what, your employees have recourse to trainin
g and / or specific software. It is vital to identify these needs in advance, no
t to lose time and therefore money, once your site launched. * Automated process
es: whether for programming updates or any other feature requiring automation, i
t is necessary to identify pages subject to such modification and the process us
ed. * Updates for optimization is: whether internal or external resources, you h
ave to integrate a pole in your SEO project. You will need to define who will be
responsible for implementing the directives of optimization, updates (editorial
and encoding) and defining your internal training possible (for a healthy and s
ustainable SEO). If needed, you must use software to help in referencing (eg See
Urank) internally, make sure your staff have a thorough. Quality Audits As with
any procedure you should be able to analyze, measure and adjust your actions. Th
roughout life of your website, you must ensure its proper functioning. * You mus
t define who will be responsible to audit your site on a minimum annual basis (t
here may be more responsible) about your site's security, respect for privacy, b
roken links, accessibility, validating XHTML and CSS, and implementation of site
guidelines: respect of the templates used, the mark of respect, respect for vis
ual standards, naming conventions, site structure * ... You name the official to
validate changes The appearance of your website as it grows * You determine the
frequency of insertion of new entries * And will determine if these new entries
will use the same template as the rest of the site or require a new design
Technical team
The final section focuses on the technical team to update the website design, pu
tting in an editorial, the various features (members area, managing e-business,
search engine ...) and coding. You will also identify the needs of your resource
s and areas of technical expertise required for maintenance. And finally, who wi
ll
responsible for updates Site Graphics (logo design, retouching images / photos,
inserts ...). Whether you use internal resources or external, the scoreboard is
essential to guide the maintenance of your website and sustain it over time. You
can download the dashboard type PDF (maintenance plan websites) to assist you i
n setting up this task.
Part 3: the project plan
The last step of your website project, after due diligence (expression of primar
y and secondary objectives), the summary report of the audit, the functional spe
cifications (terms of functional requirements) and the maintenance plan ( distri
bution of roles and tasks) lies in the establishment of a working document that
will be given to each team member in charge of the website (internal / external)
. The project plan allows for setting the framework for future work, summarizing
all the data previously collected, supplemented by a schedule for each task to
be performed, the exact distribution of tasks and the budget estimate for each p
osition. It consists of 8 major points.
1 - Definition of Internet Project
Operations and deliverables: * * * * * diligence, conceptualization of the site,
technical features of the site, the project plan, the maintenance plan
2 - The Structure of Website
Operations and deliverables: * list the contents, * sitemap * sample layouts
3 - Pre-Optimization SEO
Operations and deliverables: * Audit desired keywords and assess their competiti
veness analysis * Keyword competing sites * Identification keywords * best perfo
rming combinations of search keywords most powerful validation of the list * Fin
al inclusion in the coding and editorial content site at the completion of site
4 - The Design of Website
Operations and deliverables: * * * * 1st mock (home page + 1 inner page), the se
cond model (home page + 1 inner page), the third model (home page + pages all wi
th unique design) Selection of template definition
5 - The Development of Website
Operations and deliverables: * * * * List of technical specifications of the tar
get (browser, OS ...) list of functional specifications (CSS, Flash, XHTML, Rich
Media ...), revised project plan, construction site
6 - Testing the Website
Operations and deliverables: * * * * * * * * * * * contents validation, validati
on of internal links, functional validation, verification of validity, accessibi
lity checking, testing browsers and operating systems, connection tests, tests o
f Usability, SEO integration, testing page load, safety test
7 - Pre-Launch of Website
Operations and deliverables: * * * * development of a practical guide, marketing
plan / communication, quality assurance plan, implementation of maintenance pla
n
8 - Launch of Website
Operations and deliverables: * * * * * Open site controls, implementation of com
munication plan, tracking and positioning adjustments, quality assurance tests,
updated site
Each operation has its execution schedule, staff responsible for implementation
and its own budget estimate. You can download a PDF of the complete schedule of
implementation of a website, complete with sub-tasks, I have not developed in th
is article. Arkantos Consulting is an Agency SEO / SEO provides SEO services, Ex
pertise Webmarketing (SEO audits and performance of websites), creation of websi
tes optimized for SEO and steering websites (internet promotion).