Development and Creation of a Corporate Website. Part 1

Today, on the Internet, there is a huge number of different sites of different thematic focus with different design, different audiences, different goals and objectives, etc. And a person to an ignorant person is often given a very difficult matter to understand what site he is at the moment, what he is oriented on, etc.

Virtually every organization has its own website on the Internet. Practical necessity, the opportunity to increase sales growth and find new ways of development - these and many other reasons are driven by numerous companies when developing their own representation on the Web.

A corporate website is the most popular and often occurring type of Web-resource on the Internet, which provides a number of opportunities: the company's image growth, expansion of clientele and geography of the sales market, direct sales. In addition, the availability of such a Web-pecypca allows you to actively publish materials about products, services, conduct virtual advertising campaigns, PR campaigns and much more. If a company already has its own offline business, then with the help of corporate Internet systems it creates new channels for interaction with the outside world.

The corporate site of the company is not just its business card, its "face", but also a powerful marketing tool with which the company interacts with its audience: customers, suppliers, sponsors, investors, representatives of the media and other persons interested in the work of the company.

A modern corporate website can be implemented both on the Internet and in the intranet environment (intranet, built on the principles of the Internet). At the same time, the intranet site is supplemented by the necessary number of business applications with which it can provide: a mechanism for centralized information storage, collaboration tools (mail, contacts, schedules), planning, development, editing, approval and publication of materials, and much more.

The Internet today - very reliable and profitable advertising platform, and it is not surprising that more and more companies are rushing to develop high-quality corporate website.. But in the conditions of constantly growing competition, the requirements to the website are also growing. The corporate project is obligated by any acceptable means to stand out from thousands of similar ones. It should easily be through a search engine, have a bright exclusive design, provide all the necessary information about goods and services, have thoughtful and accessible navigation.

Audience of corporate sites.

The audience of any corporate site can be conditionally divided into 3 main categories:

 - Constant visitors. Regular visitors already know what kind of company it is, what it produces or sells, in which city it is located and what phone numbers they have. This is usually clients or partners of the company who can access the site only for the sake of reading the news feed (to keep abreast of the company's events), participating in surveys or marketing and advertising campaigns, discussing topical issues on the forum, etc.

 - New visitors. This category of visitors comes to the corporate site for the first time: via a link through a search engine or to the address indicated in the business card or advertisement in the newspaper, etc. They are not yet familiar with the company profile, the type of its activities, therefore, the information sections Information about the firm, history of its development, successes and achievements).

 - Forced visitors. This type of visitors is formed according to a specific need. For example, you urgently needed a contact phone of the director of the metallurgical plant. You will use search engines, catalogs of Internet resources and other electronic means and you will find a link to the corporate website of the said plant, where you will find the contact information you need. Another example: You were instructed to make a list of the most successful model agencies. You will go through the websites of these agencies, collect the necessary information, bring it to your computer and, most likely, will never go to any of the seen corporate sites of model agencies. You are a forced visitor.

Corporate sites (with rare exceptions) are created not for the company, but for customers, so they should primarily be user-centric.

Aims and objectives of corporate sites.

The corporate sites have different goals and objectives. It is important to understand that the site is the person of the organization and implies the official representation of the company on the Internet. In many ways, thanks to its work, users want to work with a particular company.

The main goal of a corporate website is to bring information about a company, its activities, products or services provided, to the knowledge of as many people as possible, in which the company is interested both in future consumers or partners. Corporate sites today are also simple resources that allow solving marketing tasks that the firm sets itself, and complex systems that interact with the company's internal systems: databases, systems for calculating customer management, etc.

The creationof a corporate site is not just the creation of a beautiful attractive image and the writing of code. This process is a complex event that includes an individual original design within the corporate style of the company, a convenient management system, as well as optimization of the Internet pages for further promotion of the website. Before you start developing a corporate site, you need to identify and formulate goals and objectives through marketing research. In particular, for what it is needed, who are potential visitors, how they will use this Internet resource, what kind of information they are interested in and what they will be looking for by visiting this site. After this, the concept of the future page is usually outlined.

In the next part, we will look in more detail at the design stages and on what design features should pay special attention.