In the digital age, having a functional and efficient website or intranet is a valuable asset for a company, regardless of its size. Here are 10 tips for a successful website and the steps to build a site.

The gains in productivity, attractiveness, image or information flow are real and fully justify the investment in time and means. An attractive website will allow you to :

to improve your notoriety on the Internet with a better visibility and a controlled content.
to have a showcase for your digital marketing
There are currently many tools to create your own website. You can also entrust the realization of your website to a webmaster or a digital strategy agency. But in both cases, you can’t launch yourself into a vacuum without preparing your site as one prepares a marketing or communication plan.

Whether your business is b2b or b2c, the marketing tricks are different. Whether it’s a site redesign, the creation of a showcase site or an intranet site, you need to identify :

• the target audience of your site
• the message to be conveyed
• the design and realization of a dynamic site, with good ergonomics and good content

1. Establish specifications for your web site or intranet site

This is the most important issue of all. For what? For whom? Is it a site redesign, a modernization or a creation? What need will the new site meet?

2. Define the objectives of the site?

There are a wide variety of reasons for building a website or intranet. For example, there are many reasons to build a website or intranet:

To facilitate the sharing of information
Boosting sales
Controlling communication
Launch e-marketing
Or simply exist on the web in the face of competition, etc.

3. Find the textual content of your future site

The textual content of your site is at least as important as its graphic charter. It is thanks to the text and keywords that Google Analytics engines will reference and classify your pages.

It is useless to produce text spreads to get a good SEO (Search Engine Optimization), just choose your words well and understand how to reference your site.

4. Choosing your web tools or functionalities

There are plenty of them. Faced with this abundance, it is very tempting to select as many tools as possible. Abundance does not make richness, so choose carefully the features (video, agenda, e-shop, survey…).

5. Define public or private access

Which employees are concerned by the intranet? What will be the access levels?

Remember that nothing on the web is truly private and that it is not the place for confidential information. Don’t hesitate to organize a preliminary discussion with your company’s IT department or to consult a SaaS (Security as a Service) provider.

6. Know your audience

What are your future users: their needs, their problems, the reasons for their visit, their internet habits, their connection to social media, etc.?

For example, should the content be available in several languages or should it be worked on to offer a particular level of accessibility?

7. Define content administrators and webmasters

You will be able to call on either internal resources or independent service providers, whether for content management, technical updates, graphics, referencing, etc.

8. Define the tree structure of your site

Following a reflection on your specifications, you must be able to schematize the tree structure of your site. Typically, home page, presentation, offers, contact, etc…

Think about getting inspiration from other sites to acquire expertise in ergonomics and UX (User eXperience) and do not hesitate to consult the website templates and website templates of your most successful competitors.

9. Support each of your decisions with data

One of the biggest risks in an intranet project is to rely on intuition rather than Big Data. Conduct surveys and polls, don’t hesitate to launch a beta test version with a few selected users to test your ideas.

A site may very well please you, but prove to be perfectly ineffective. So it’s useless.

10. Identify obstacles

What are the main risks to the project? At which phases of the project will you be most vulnerable?

Typically: “Too many captains on the boat”: you will be forced to design the new site in committees, with many decision-makers. You risk designing a gas plant.

You have an intranet or website project and some of these issues are causing you problems or concern? Ask for a free 15-minute consultation with a member of our team.