Listed below are some things to consider before beginning work on a web site.

1. Make a list of things you want to accomplish with your site. Do you want to communicate your knowledge in your field, learn more about your customers, or showcase your products? You should decide whether you want to sell products and services on the site, or whether your site will provide information about your products and services to support an offline business. Prioritize this list so that it is clear which items are most important to focus on first.
   
   
2. Write a description of your ideal site visitor. Figure out whether your primary site visitors will be current customers or prospects. Will they be people who spend a lot of time online or newcomers to the Web? A customer profile is important because it will shape site language, navigation and features.
   
   
3. Check out other sites to obtain ideas for look and feel. Pick out some sites that you like because of their look or features. This will help to get a feel for the direction you want your site to go in. These sample sites can be helpful because it is easier to visually see a look than to have to explain it. Sites do not have to be in the same industry or similar to your business at all. They should just share the look, or elements of the look, that you want for your site.
   
   
4. Think about the kind of art you want. Working with a professional web site designer means that you don't have to come up with the ideas for the site's creation, but you should be able to discuss what type of art you might prefer. There are three main choices for art: photos, clip art and custom designed images. Photos give a professional feel to the site and bring it to life, but can be slower to download. Clip art is cost-effective and quicker to load. Custom designed art is potentially expensive, but creates a unique element for your site.
   
   
5. Write site copy. Each page on your site will need to contain content. Creating this text will help you determine how many pages you need for your site. Help with editing and proofreading is available, but you will need to come up with the general information that you want to include in your site. First, determine the topics you want to cover on each page and prepare a basic site plan and then fill in the content. Remember, content is important. Sites rich in content draw and keep traffic.
   
   
6. Think about other features. The time to think about site features is before the design process begins, so that the site can be created with all of its elements in mind. Features you may want to consider include an e-mail newsletter sign-up, forms, dynamic effects, counters and multimedia.
   
   

These are the most important things to consider before beginning the design of a new site and are the topics that will be covered during an initial conference. Consideration of all of these factors before designing your site will make things run more smoothly and efficiently.