In the dynamic digital world, your website serves as the cornerstone of your online presence. It’s the hub where all your marketing efforts converge and where prospective clients get their first impression of your business. That’s why planning your website meticulously is crucial.

Website planning is akin to drawing up blueprints before constructing a building. It ensures that the final product aligns with your business goals, serves your audience effectively, and delivers a seamless user experience. This process helps you to anticipate challenges, allocate resources wisely, and maximize your ROI.

A well-planned website can elevate your brand, drive lead generation, and catalyze business growth. Conversely, a lack of planning can lead to a site that falls short of expectations, with wasted time, money, and opportunities.

Our fillable PDF website planner document provides a structured approach to help you plan your website effectively. In the following blog, we will guide you through the instructions for using this document to lay a solid foundation for your website development process.

Download the guide here

Step 1: Technical Information

• Business Name: Your legal business name.
• Is this a new or existing site?: Yes or no if it is now or existing.
• Website Address: What is your business domain name or enter N/A if you don’t have one
• Where is your domain registered?: If you have a domain name, what registrar are you using? Cloudflare, Google, Namecheap, etc.
• Don’t have a domain?: We recommend you register one with Cloudflare here: https://www.cloudflare.com/products/registrar/
• Social Media Accounts: Enter the full profile URL in a similar format to this: https://www.facebook.com/hourglassmarketingfunnel
• Website Features Needed: What are some main features you want/need on your new site?
• Payment Processor(s) Needed: If you have a way for customers to pay, what payment processor do you need?
• Describe any other integrations: Does your website need to communicate with any other platforms for your business such as CRMs, Funnel Pages, or Scheduling?
• Describe any other features you need: Is there anything else that your website needs that isn’t listed here?

Step 2: Business Information

• General Description: What is your business, industry and other general information?
• Describe your Ideal Customer: Who is the absolute best person you want to or currently sell to? Be very specific about their demographics, life, and personality.
• What is your Unique Selling Proposition?: Compare yourself to your competitors, how do you differ?
  Read this guide: Crafting Your Unique Selling Proposition: A Simplified Step-by-Step Guide
• List your Main Products and/or Services: Write a brief overview of your products/services, and why you offer them. Later on in the document you can list them out individually
• What action do you want your website visitors to take?: Why do you need people to visit your website? What do you want them to do and why?
• Mission: What is your reason for your business?
• Tagline: What quick memorable line do you/can you recite to quickly make people understand what you do?
• Brand Description: What does your brand look like, feel like, and sound like? If it were a person, what kind of person would it be?

Step 3: Asset Information

• Check all you have: Check everything you already have.
• Links to Assets: This can be links to any cloud storage where your website information is.
• Links to Copywriting: This can be any documents, articles, or existing  copywriting you have
• Color Preferences: What colors do you want to primarily use on your website?
• Font Preferences: What fonts, variants, and styles do you want to use on your website?
• Basic Pages to Include: Check the basic pages you want to include on your site
• What other pages do you need?: Are there other pages you want to include on your site?

Step 4: Products & Services

• List all products, services, prices (if applicable), and any other information that is important for the website.

Step 5: Page Outlines

• The page names are located just below the step number except for the “Other” outlines which have a text box to label the pages you want to have created
• Fill out the sections to the best of your ability, have other people check it over and give feedback.

Step 6: Analytics

Don’t skip out on attaching analytics to your digital marketing efforts. Only when you can see feedback about how your information is being utilized can you improve it.

• Google Analytics ID: Create a free Google Analytics account and paste the script in here for your reference. It will also be beneficial to record the username of the account, and who else has access for future reference.
  Follow this guide: Setting Up Google Analytics 4 (GA4): A User-Friendly, Step-by-Step Guide
• Facebook Pixel: Create a free Facebook Meta Suite account and paste the script in here for your reference. It will also be beneficial to record the username of the account, and who else has access for future reference.
  Follow this guide: Creating a Facebook Pixel: A Simple, Step-by-Step Guide for Maximizing Your Social Impact
• Other Tracking: Keep track of any other tracking or performance accounts here.