Creating an online presence for your business

The first step is to work on the scope which involves figuring out the following information:

- Your target audience: Factors such as age, gender, group, ethnicity, geographic area, culture etc., need to be clearly defined as this information will help in creating features which will be useful for them.

- Goal of your website: The specific needs of the target audience that your website will satisfy. Whether it involves buying a product, signing up for a service, making new friends, finding people etc., The purpose of a website can be to meet more than one goal.

- What set you apart from your competitor's which you can highlight on your website either by a message or by a specific functionality.

The above information can be used to decide the features and the type of design that you need on your website. And once the scope is final, its time to see what type of website would best suit it all - whether you need a customized Blog, third party shopping cart or create a custom made Content Management System.

Once the scope has been finalized, its time to work on the design. The pictures, colors, graphics, layout etc has to be in sync with the accepted industry standards, target audience, etc.,

The design should convey the right message and highlight the main functionalities and features of the website so that people can easily find and use them.

Once the website is launched, you need to test each and every functionality to make sure it is working as per the original scope. This is also the time to see if you need any additional modules.

Once the website is launched, its time to announce to the world about your online business. Making a marketing plan before the launch is a good idea.