You have to have an objective before you take action. You must know what goal your Web site has to serve in your organization. If you want your site to help you with image building, you are going to have very different needs from an ecommerce site.
How many visitors do we want in a given time frame? What do we want them to do when they visit our site? What would an additional 10 percent per year increase in customers would do to your bottom line?
Who is target audience for your site? Are you selling to stay at home moms or, are you selling to C-level corporate executives? The look and feel of you site must reflect whom you are trying to reach. Have you looked at your competitors’ Web sites?
How does your target audience perceive your current Web site (if you have one)? Is your Web site an ingrained part of your business, or is it just a result of a once exciting but long forgotten project? If you have a Web site be sure to survey your customers, and learn from them. Ask specific questions about what they think about your content, user friendliness, and overall usefulness.
What sort of impression do you wish to create? If your target audience is...