If I've learnt anything over the year's in the IT & Internet industry it's that when talking to people, be they potential or existing clients, one thing I don't take for granted is their knowledge levels. Instead I find that once I define someone's requirements it's always easier to start at the beginning rather than overshoot the mark by going into great detail and/or over-engineering the solution. That being said I would like to outline some of the obvious things that people often forget when asking themselves 'why a website?'

Purpose - the very first thing to do is to define the purpose of your website. Who is the target audience? is it for your existing or potential customers, suppliers or employees? Also, what is the goal of your website? your website can educate new and existing customers, it can regularly communicate information, transact order's or bookings, provide product and service information, trading information or be a community for clients and/or employees.

Content - To structure your website properly, think seriously about the content. Ask yourself what information does your viewer want? Consider what information you plan to include that is genuinely useful to your audience.

Building - Unfortunately most people who are 'at the beginning' are just thinking about the cost rather than the result; or they think that building a website is so easy that they can do it themselves (that's like me thinking I can fix my own car - ha!). Do you have an accountant, a solicitor, a mechanic?! Save yourself time and money and leave it to the professionals.

Usability - working with you, your web developer should design a layout, interface and dataflow specific to your viewer. Fast loading pages, obvious navigation and reduced clicks make for a viewer-friendly website. When determining the look and feel of your website it's best to keep your site in the same style as your marketing material. This includes your letterhead, business cards and advertising. Once you see the overall style of your marketing material, your web developer can design your website to retain your identity and branding.

Marketing - 'build it and they will come' doesn't work online! - instead invest in putting your web address on your business cards & car, in your email address and marketing material. Online, search engines such as Looksmart, Yahoo & Google are the most obvious for Australian markets. Again, your web developer should refine this for you and search engines are worth the investment; they don't cost a fortune and are the ideal way to market your website online.

A perfect example of what can be achieved, using the above steps, is this months feature website and given how topical recent virus threats have been, this month we look at an incredibly useful website. No pretty pictures or animated graphics, Symantec have put a very informative website at http://securityresponse.symantec.com to save your computer from hackers and virus threats. An easy to understand, content & feature rich, database driven website it seeks to sell, (and compliment), the software sold by www.symantec.com. It services and communicates to new and existing clients, the media and company shareholders clearly and successfully.