WebMD is arguably the most popular source of health information in the US. What’s novel about this online publisher is that their site dominates Google search results for almost any medical question – and that’s no surprise. Why? They have an effective website plan in place that helps bring traffic to their site. Here’s what we can learn about creating a website plan from WebMD.
Generate the Business Information
As per WebMD editorial policy, their site aims to empower health professionals and patients with reliable news and info pertaining to human health and well-being. Similarly, you need to define your business goals in your plan. That is, state clearly what you want to achieve with your site and identify your target market. Are you offering a service? Are you selling a unique product? Or, is it a blog that you want to write about things you love and generate leads? No matter what your objective is, be sure to highlight the competitive advantage for the target audience to come to your website for the first time.
Create a Website Structure
Site usability and user experience are among the factors that determine search engine ranking success. WebMD site structure provides visitors with “a sense of place.” At any given time, you’ll always know where to get where you want to be, where you have been, and where you are on the site.
In the same way, you need to identify the pages, main categories as well as subcategories you’ll need on your site. Additionally, you’ll have to figure out which front end features are essential for meeting your business goals.
For example, if you are selling products, you’ll need to incorporate a shopping cart and credit card processing feature on your site. Several features you may want to consider include, among others, a blog section, contact page, social media links and share buttons, portfolio, and testimonial page.
Having a good website structure makes it very easy to design page layouts and templates.
Analyze the Competition
So far, you’ve established your intended goals, the target audience, and your site structure. But what’s the competition doing? You need to learn about your competitors and what they are doing to stay ahead. A good rule of thumb is to look out for any functionality or feature you think can help you beat the competition. SSL certificate, SEO, and caching are just some examples of the back end features that will give you an added edge.
Create Quality Web Content
Google rewards sites with quality content. That’s one aspect that makes WebMD one of the most visited healthcare websites. They regularly publish trustworthy and accurate information pertaining to drugs and human health.
With a general picture of what your site structure looks like, you can start creating quality content for your site. An easy way to hack this is to have a content list that simply describes the information that should go to your site. If you’re not sure where to start, a reputable copywriting company like Web Content Development can come in handy.
Now that you know how to create a website plan, you can freely proceed to design your site. Keep in mind that this should be preceded by buying your domain and web hosting.
Web Content Development
Need help with creating a website plan? Running out of time to build your site? Worried about creating your web copy? Well, look no further than Web Content Development! We have a team of experienced web designers, copywriters, and SEO experts. Call us to let us know what you need.
