Many people are in a hurry to choose templates and pick hosts as soon as they mention building a website, but what really determines the quality of the on-line and the subsequent maintenance costs is actually the planning before building a website. The goal, content, budget, domain name, compliance, security, these foundations are solid, you make choices later will not be easy to take a detour. Below I give customers to do a station before the common set of "pre-construction planning and preparation work list" complete development, less step in the pit, fast on-line.
Clarify the goal and audience (the anchor point of all decisions)
Do not start thinking about the function, with a clear sentence to write "the site to help me achieve what".
- Business goals: customer acquisition, sales, inquiries, resume submission, branding, choose at least one main goal.
- Audience Profile: Who is coming? Do they use cell phones or computers? From search, social media or offline QR code?
- Core Conversion Path: What are the 3 shortest steps from the homepage to reaching the goal? Design this path to be the smoothest.
Turn your goals into quantifiable metrics.
- Within 30 days UV, conversion rate, form submissions, inquiries, etc., set a measurable range.
- Key page KPIs: home page bounce rate, product page dwell time, form submission success rate.
Content and information architecture (content first, then visual)
Write what you have to say clearly first, then talk about layout.
- List of pages: Home, About Us, Products/Services, Prices, Cases, Blog/News, Contact.
- Information Architecture (IA): Use card sorting to group content, key information can be found within 3 clicks.
- Wireframes/prototypes: Use a whiteboard or tool to draw low-fidelity prototypes to confirm the order of modules and the skeleton of the copy.
Copywriting and Material Preparation (H4)
- Tone and style: industry credible + readable, no piles of jargon.
- Material copyright: images, icons, fonts should be licensed; it's better if you can shoot them yourself.
- Multi-language requirements: Determine if Chinese/English bilingualism is required, and the translation process.
##### Copywriting Short List (H5)
- Home page: 120 words or less of value proposition
- 3 selling points + 1 scenario for each product
- 3-5 customer case studies (with data/before/after comparisons)
- Clear CTA (consulting, trial, quote)
Budget, time and team division of labor (realistic boundaries)
- Budget: domain/hosting/credentials/design/development/copywriting/filming/tool subscriptions. Allow 10-20% for unforeseen expenses.
- Time: work backward to go-live date, split into "content completion - design - front-end - tuning - testing - filing/work orders - go-live ".
- Division of labor: who produces the copy, who gives the material, who does the SEO, who does the O&M. One task, one person in charge.
MVP Ideas (H4)
Go live with a "minimum viable site" (convertible, searchable, contactable), then iterate at a bi-weekly pace.
Domain name, branding and compliance (to be finalized before launch)
- Domain name: easy to remember, short, and consistent with the brand. Prioritize .com/.cn, preferably with social media accounts of the same name.
- DNS and resolution: choose a service provider that supports record monitoring and alternate resolution, and preset A/AAAA, CNAME, MX.
- Branding materials: Logo, color swatches, fonts, favicon, Open Graph charts to avoid temporary changes before launch.
- Compliance & Policies:
- Privacy Policy and Cookies Tips (for forms/tracking).
- Copyright and Disclaimer.
- If providing services in mainland China, pay attention to ICP filing, public security filing, data and advertising compliance guidelines.
Technology selection and infrastructure (don't use tools for the sake of tools)
- Website building method: self-built open source, template website, customized development, according to the complexity and budget.
- Hosting and servers: shared hosting, cloud hosting, Serverless, static hosting (such as Pages), combined with traffic and geography.
- Performance and security: HTTPS (TLS certificate), CDN, WAF, logging and monitoring, automatic backup and rollback.
- Data & Integration: Whether to interface with payments, CRM, work orders, buried points and A/B testing tools.
SEO and Accessibility (H4)
- Basic SEO: semantic HTML, title and description, canonicalized links, sitemap, robots.
- Core Web Vitals: LCP, CLS, INP metrics to cross the line.
- Accessibility: contrast, keyboardable, images instead of text, form validation friendly.
##### Essential Tools (H5)
- Search: Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools
- Analytics: GA4/alternatives, heatmaps & screen recordings
- Performance: PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse
- Log Monitoring: APM/Error Reporting, Uptime Monitoring
Comparison: How to choose between three common "starting positions"?
- Content before technology vs Technology before content
- Content first: better aligned with goals and information architecture, more stable online.
- Technology first: easy to be led by the template, and high cost to change.
- Independent domain name vs platform second level domain name
- Individual domain name: brand and SEO friendly, free migration.
- Second-level domain name: low cost, fast, but long-term unfavorable brand precipitation.
- One-off vs Iterative
- Iterative more controllable, can use data to correct the direction; big and full easy to postpone and over budget.
The list of preparatory work before building a website (summarized in table)
| Matters | Key Points | Common Pitfalls | Tools/suggestions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Objectives | Clarify the main transformation | Mix of multiple objectives | KPI charts + Kanban boards |
| Audience Profiling | Devices/Channels/Demand | Ignoring mobile | Data + Questionnaires |
| Information Architecture | 3 layers of access | Menus too deep | Card Categorization |
| Content list | Copy + material ready | Temporary rewrites | Template library |
| Brand Materials | Logo/color swatches/fonts | Missing License | Style Guide |
| Domain & DNS | Synchronized Social Media Registration | Resolution Confusion | Specialized DNS |
| Technology Selection | Managed/Hosted/SSL | Choose for Coolness | Making the Tradeoffs |
| Performance and SEO | CWV & Meta Information | Forget sitemaps | PSI+SC |
| Compliance & Privacy | Policies/Filings/Authorizations | No Privacy Statement | Templates + Legal |
| Monitoring & Backup | Buried Points/Logging/Rollback | No Recovery Walkthrough | Backup Schedule |
Steps to landing (from zero to live)
1. Write a one-page PRD: goal, audience, list of pages, conversion path, go-live date.
2. Pull content list: page-by-page list of titles, core copy, material requirements and responsible person.
3. Draw low-fidelity prototype: black & white framework first, prioritize information & CTA location.
4. Choose domain name and resolution: register the main domain name and common variants, configure DNS and subdomain planning.
5. Set the technical route: static/dynamic, hosting/CDN, HTTPS, backup strategy, write it all at once.
6. Do Compliance Package: Privacy Policy, Cookies Tips, Copyright Notice and Filing Preparation.
7. Pre-launch check: performance, SEO, accessibility, form/payment full-link walkthrough, 404/500 pages and monitoring alarms.
8. One week post-launch review: look at data to fix copy and navigation, make a list for the next iteration.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- Q: limited budget, what to do first?
A: domain name + basic hosting + content and information architecture + HTTPS + monitoring, other things such as dynamic effects and complex integration can be postponed.
- Q: What if I don't have a designer?
A: Take the low-fidelity prototype + mature system theme to run first, to retain the space of replaceable styles.
- Q: Should I be multi-lingual?
A: Depends on the audience share and maintenance capacity, multi-language means continuous translation and SEO maintenance, small amount of first Chinese or English main site can be.
Conclusion
Planning before building a website determines the efficiency and cost of each step in the future. First of all, the goal, content, domain name and compliance, security and these "foundation" to build a stable, and then choose the appropriate way to build the site and technology stack. By following the preparation checklist above, your site will go live faster and be more sustainable.
References:
- Google Search Center: a guide to getting started with SEO - https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide?hl=zh-cn
- MDN Web Docs: Site Building Basics - https://developer.mozilla.org/zh-CN/docs/Learn
- PageSpeed Insights (performance and CWV) - https://pagespeed.web.dev/?hl=zh-cn
- Google Analytics 4 Documentation - https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/10089681?hl=zh-Hans
- Let's Encrypt (TLS/HTTPS) - https://letsencrypt.org/
- Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ICP Filing System - https://beian.miit.gov.cn/