First of all, you'll need to put yourself in the right frame of mind. First, don't be seduced by the snazzy Flash-heavy websites out there that try to 'trick' you into thinking they have something genuinely useful to offer. 80-90% of web visitors say that they want substance more than flash. Search engines want this, too.
Second, try to understand that creation of a website is more than slapping together a few elements from your latest brochure. You must be ready to create some really useful content, and to arrange/sort that content so that it speaks to your customers. Knowing what people are really searching for is better knowledge than what you might guess they're typing, so we'll need to analyze the log files, and take a look at a few data sources to understand this.
If you're looking to develop a retail store, then some bread-and-butter needs are obvious. Item names, descriptions, SKUs, prices, descriptions, weights, sizes, colors, etc. all need to be gathered (spreadsheets are ideal.) Categorize your products and name all of your product photography so that the image files' name matches the item SKU. |
