The first and most important part of creating an effective website is to establish realistic goals of what you want to achieve. Think about why you want the website in the first place. Some reasons might be:

• Providing an introduction to your company or organization with a "digital brochure" website
• Supporting your sales-related efforts with product information, white papers or a shopping cart
• Disseminating information to your constituents
• Taking donations / selling merchandise
• Promoting your events / activities
• Managing your files and your customers
• Getting feedback

Don’t take this preparatory process lightly—it isn’t easy to do. Often, there are competing interests, and many day-to-day activities to keep you distracted from concentrating on the big picture. You may want the assistance of a business or strategy consultant, or a website producer.

If you are pleased with the direction in which your site preparations are going, you can move on to Step 2 - Organize your Content .