by Curtis Carmichael

This step is perhaps the most difficult task in the whole Web site creation process. Ask yourself, "What do I want on my Web site?" Take a few minutes and jot down some ideas. You should devise a fairly decently sized list to save you time during the site creation process. After all, you probably want your site up-and-running as soon as possible. It’s important to create this list before proceeding to the next step. Be sure to get a lot of ideas. The more information you have on your site, the more informative it is and your visitors will be more likely to return to it. Just make sure it all fits into your site’s topic since you probably don’t want a site containing different topics. Subtopics are okay and they should stem from a single main topic whenever possible. People generally don’t like to scroll continually on a single page so cutting down on main categories is crucial.

Once you have a good list going, try categorizing them. You will find this step helpful when you have to construct a site map. When you’ve finished categorizing your ideas, look for a common relationship between them. For example, are your ideas centered on ocean life? Your common relationship would center on your title. In this case, the title, "A Synopsis of Ocean Life" may be appropriate. Or, if you were simply devising a personal site, for example, "John Doe’s Site" would suffice.

Remember to aim your site towards your target audience (the primary group of people that would get the most from your site).