When you're planning a Web site, it's important to establish the goal of the site first.  Briefly, here are some good tips for creating a goal for your site:

• Make sure you know who your audience is. For example, is your site intended for customers? employees? students? friends? family?

• If you are making a site for your company, make sure the goal is specific and quantitative. After all, you will want to see results, and that usually means a specific dollar amount gained or number of labor hours saved.

• Keep your goal simple. A couple of sentences or a short paragraph is enough. If your goal is too long, your site will end up looking like it's trying to do too much.

Planning on Paper

The first step is to plan your web site design on paper.  I have provided some links to tools you can use to help clarify your thinking around the purpose of your web site and the types of pages and layout you need to achieve you goal.

Page Layout

The first thing to do is sketch out a basic page layout.  This will help you focus on what you want your pages to look like.  Make notes about what kind of graphical elements you want to include, like logos, or pictures.  Try to keep your web page from becoming too cluttered.  It is better to have additional pages than to try to include everything on a single page.

Web Site Layout

The next step is to list all of the pages you want to include in your web site, and then organize them using a flow chart or organization table diagram.  Think about the different topic areas you want to include in your site, and create a page for each of them.  Create a logical flow, imagine yourself browsing your web site, and think about the order you want the information presented to your audience.  then design an organization chart showing the pages, using arrows to represent navigational links between them.