As a business owner, the process of designing or redesigning your website can be a daunting experience. How do you get all of the elements of a good website to fit together? What are the things that you need to consider with your web designer in order to maximise your website's performance. This is a list of elements that I consider when planning a website for myself or one of my clients.

1. Domain Name - do you have a domain name already or do you need one? A good domain name is one that relates to your business name or activity, and is easy for your clients to remember.

2. Main Purpose of the Site - is your site designed to be informative? Do you want to collect leads? Are you selling product?

3. Audience and Target Market - who is your website aimed at? What kind of crowd are you looking to attract?

4. Launch Timeframe - how long before you want to launch your website. How long is it likely to take for your site to be created? Do you have a buffer if something goes wrong?

5. Design Team - how many people do you need on your design team? You might have one or you might have many. This will depend on the skill levels of the people involved, the size and complexity of the website, and your launch timeframe.

6. Layout - Is your site easy to follow? How easy is it to find the navigation links? Is it clean or cluttered?

7. Navigation Links - navigation links must be easy to find and must clearly define where the visitor is going to, otherwise you will lose people from your site quickly.

8. Integration with your corporate or business image - your website is a reflection of your business onto the World Wide Web. So, your site should be consistent with your business image.

9. Colour Scheme - colour should be used to draw attention to the areas of your site that you want your visitors to focus on.

10. Content - This includes text, photos, articles, eBooks and other information that will be useful for your visitors. The web is about providing information to people. Answer their questions and they will find your site valuable.

11. Artwork - your artwork should be used to complement your business image. What do you want your website to say to your visitors? Your artwork should help to answer this question. It can also help to distinguish you from your competitors.

12. Banners - these are part of your artwork and help with the visual experience that your visitor gets on your website.

13. Fonts - your fonts should be easy to read, and consistent throughout your site.

14. Photos - photos help to sell product. If you are selling product then your photos should help your visitor to understand the product. Photos can also give your visitors an experience of what it will be like to use your product. Further, photos can help to build trust, by showing the human face of your business and also your business premises to help your visitor understand that you are a real business.

15. Internal Links - how do each of your pages link with each other? This helps both your visitors and the search engines to understand your site, which is critical to its success.

16. External Links - what other sites are you linking to? If you use other people's content then you should provide a link to their website to acknowledge this. You can also link to other sites that will provide relevant information to your visitors. This increases the value of your site to your visitors.

17. Incoming Links - this is vital to your search engine ranking. How many other sites are linking to your site?

18. Ecommerce Requirements - Are you selling product on your site? If so, it is vital that you have a shopping cart that is easy for your visitors to use, helps to build trust, and makes it easy for them to make payment by a number of means.

19. Members Section - can you create more value on your site by having a member's section that requires a login and password?

20. Forum - do you want a forum on your website where your customers can interact with each other, thus creating a community?

21. Newsletter - is there information that you want to convey to your customers on a regular basis? If so, a newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with your clients and build trust.

22. Video - video on your website is a great way to add a personal touch to your website. A personal welcome message from you to your visitors outlining your key points of difference about your website and your business is a great way to build a relationship with your visitor.

23. Audio - audio can be used in a similar way to video.

24. Blog - do you want to use a web blog on your site to interact with your customers on a regular basis? A blog is a great way to convey short pieces of useful information to your clients, and they can interact with you by replying to your posts.

25. Programming Languages - this is one for your web designer. There are many different types of languages that can be used to design a website? Which ones are most appropriate for your website?

26. Ongoing Content Management - how are you going to manage the content on your website? Do you have someone in-house, are you going to do it yourself, or are you going to outsource it? Do you need a Content Management System?

27. Site Updates - how often are you going to update your website? Do you want to apply different themes for different times of the year? E.g. Christmas, Halloween.

28. Search Engine Optimisation - do you want free traffic from the search engines? If so you must undertake some search engine optimisation.

29. Keywords and Key Phrases - do you want free traffic from the search engines? If you are looking for free traffic then you must pick words and phrases that have reasonable search volume, but less competition from other websites.

30. Budget - how much money do you want to spend in creating the website? Can you create the website you want with the budget that you have?

31. Marketing - how are you going to market your website once it is live? Are you going to market it online or offline or use a combination of both? How much money are you going to spend in doing this?

32. Code Validation - has your site designer or programmer properly validated the code for your website? This will have a bearing on the speed at which your site will load, how it will display in different browsers, and how the search engines will see it.