The world has shifted drastically towards digital. Having a website has become the norm for a business. According to the data, more than 547200 new websites are created globally every day. With the surge in the demand for websites, the number of web developers has seen a rise too. According to a study by EDC (Evans Data Corporation), the population of developers is 23 million (Developers, Programmers, Coders) globally and is rising continuously. The count is estimated to reach 27.7 million by 2023.

The number of freelancers has seen an upside in recent years. There were 57 million freelancers in the USA alone. Globally, the count is estimated to be 1.1 billion. Web Development is among the most demanded jobs from freelancers.

With all of these, if you are someone who is a web designer in a company, a web design company, or a freelance web developer, how can you stand out in the competition? One of the strongest factors is the quality of the websites created by you. An important aspect of the process of creating websites that is imperative for quality is ‘Website Planning’.

What is Website Planning?

Creating a website is no less than the construction of a building. Before constructing a building, all the involved parties plan and create a visual of how the building is going to look like. Only after the finalization of the plan, the construction is taken up. The aspects are not tested or the decisions are not changed in the run time during the construction. Hence, it is called Architecture.

Similarly, for creating a website, prior planning would give clarity to the expectation of the client and also give them a visual of how the website would look like. This is called ‘Website Architecture’.

One of the best platforms to plan for your website is Slickplan. It contains all the tools you would require for website planning. You name it, and you will find it! From the sitemap builder, diagram maker, content planner, to even enabling you to create and share design mockups, Slickplan has it all. Companies like National Geographic, Samsung, Spotify, Facebook, LinkedIn, Viget, CBS, and such 25+ Fortune 500 companies use Slickplan for their website & software planning.



Features of Slickplan:

1. Sitemap Builder:

In simple words, a Sitemap is a flow-chart diagram that depicts connections between the web pages and content on a Website. It is one of the most effective methods to get a bird’s eye view of the Website structure and plan for the website accordingly. A Sitemap acts as the base for Website Planning. With Slickplan, you are provided with a Sitemap builder which would help you create a sitemap within minutes.

Create Sitemaps: You can create a sitemap using the drag and drop interface. Just drag and drop the elements and cells in the form of a structure you would want. If you have an existing website, the site crawler feature would generate the sitemap of the website from the URL or the Google XML file you feed or import.

Manage Large Sitemaps: Have a large project to work on? You can separate the sitemap into different collapsible sections and focus on the areas individually.

Page Types, Notes, & Links: You can visually denote the type of page each cell represents while planning for the website. This helps you visualize each page and plan accordingly.

Customize Sitemaps: You can brand your Slickplan account and sitemap projects by setting your brand colors, uploading your company logo. You can change cell colors and text colors too. You can upload the clients’ logos to their projects and give them a custom-made look.

Collaborate and Share: Slickplan makes collaborating with your teammates, sharing projects with your clients easy. You can share with them the link to the project with HTML View, and communicate through Live Chat for any modifications.

Export Sitemaps: Want more? You can export a project as PDF, PNG, XML, CSV, or even a DocX File and share it across to your clients.

Even if you are a novice, the Slickplan provides a step-by-step guide for every step of creating Sitemaps.



2. Diagram Maker:

Designing a website is no less creative than painting. It is also no less than the architecture of a building. Slickplan provides you with a Diagram maker, a tool that helps you design a diagram for the user paths and interactions on the website.

Create a Diagram: You are provided with a drag and drop interface to create your diagrams that would act as a visualization of the website. The diagrams are completely integrated into the sitemaps.

Symbol Library: The diagram tool comes with a complete library of symbols that can be used to create diagrams that make them look beautiful. The tool features the JJ Garrett Symbol library that is specifically designed for planning websites and for enhancing user experiences. You can create multiple work areas to test different scenarios and versions of the plan.

Sharing Diagrams: Alike Sitemaps, the HTML view of the diagrams can be shared through a link, an email or social media post so that your team members or clients can read it easily.

Exporting: The diagrams can be exported to different formats including PDF, PNG, and more.

3. Content Planner:

Is the content on your website engaging enough? Content is the most pivotal element in a website. If the content is not captivating even the best of designs would be of less use. The content that is planned before-hand (prior to coding of the website) could be easily collaborated and included during the process of coding.

Plan well for the content, the content should be something that is for your audience. The content is of various types today, there is written content like a blog, there is Video content (either a recorded, prepared video or an animation). Content is what the visitors read when they visit the website, hence, what you say and how you say becomes an important element. The objective of content is to provide the information the visitors are looking for, tells them who you are, and your brand story, and convinces them to convert. The content should be educational, engaging, and SEO-optimized to get more visitors to your website.

Slickplan provides you with a content planner which would help you:

Gather: It allows you to gather and organized optimized text, images, videos, tables, files, and SEO elements.

Edit: You can edit the content before transferring it to the website.

Collaborate: Your client or a team member has content to share or add. You can easily collaborate with them.

Transfer: When the content is ready, you can export it and transfer it to the website.

The scenarios in which the Content Planner by Slickplan is most useful:

• Planning New Websites or Individual Pages
• Revising Existing Website Content
• Managing Content Workflow
• Pre-Optimization of On-Page SEO Elements
• Planning Page Content Ordering and Layouts
• Creating Content as a Team
• SEO Content Creation
• Managing Regular Blog Content Organization
• Knowledge Transfer from Clients

4. Design Mockups:

Mockups give a much clearer view of how the website is going to look like. The ‘Design Mockups’ by Slickplan enables you to share mockups along with the sitemaps, diagrams, page content to give a visual to the client. Best part? You can do all of this from one system instead of sharing it through mail or a cloud folder. You can collect the feedback & comments, and save your notes too.

Advantages of Slickplan for Web Designing Companies & Freelancers:

1. Saves Time & Improves Productivity:

Aristotle said “Well-planned is half done”- it applies perfectly to creating the websites as well. There are several aspects of the creation of the websites that need to be planned, reviewed, and tested. Without a plan, a lot of time would be lost in the activities like testing, coordination, iterations, etc that yield less. On average, Slickplan saves 10 hours of sitemap design, planning, sharing, and approval time than traditional methods. That’s a lot of time saved.

2. Avoids Disappointment:

In Web Designing, matching up to the expectations of the clients is the primary goal. When there is little or no possibility of collaboration through the traditional modes, the chances are high that there would be a difference in the expectation and delivery which creates disappointment. A website planning software like Slickplan helps you avoid all of it.

3. Enables Simulation & Testing:

With Slickplan, you can create sitemaps, diagrams, and mockups and visualize the complete structure of the website. From user paths to interactions, every aspect can be planned before coding. Not only that, with mockups, you can even conduct testing of aspects to check if it functions as planned.

4. Enhances Quality:

Since the majority of the corrections, improvements, feedback, and comments, collaboration for design or content, etc. are completed in the planning stage; it is bound to enhance the quality of websites by the programmers in the company or by yourself if you are a freelance web designer.

5. Increase CSAT Score:

CSAT Score is Customer Satisfaction Score. Your clients would be in the loop with the progress on development; moreover having them involved in the stage of planning- sharing their inputs of how they would like the website to be, instead of being in the dark until the website is delivered, would only increase their confidence in the quality of delivery. And when they find the quality to be at par or beyond their expectation, you are creating a strong pool of satisfied customers who will vouch for your quality and bring in more business for you.

6. More Projects-More Profit:

Since planned projects get executed and complete faster, you can take in more projects for the same duration of time thereby, increasing the profit that you earn through these projects.

Clients List:

Their clients, to name a few, are companies like:

• National Geographic
• Samsung
• Google
• Facebook
• Garmin
• LinkedIn
• Spotify
• Nike
• CBS
• Fox News
• Best Buy
• Disney
• Ogilvy

Testimonials:






















Conclusion:

Get Planning! If you are a Web designer working with a company, website planning would help you execute any changes and updates required to the website fast. If you are a web designing company or a freelance web designer, website planning is most vital for the growth and success you envision to achieve in the web designing industry; and Slickplan makes it possible for you.

Meanwhile, if you are planning to learn web designing so that you can build the website yourself, or join a web designing company, you can start with the course HTML & CSS for absolute beginners by Ms.Shruti Balasa on Udemy. Do you plan the websites? Have you used a Website Planning platform like Slickplan? Do let us know your feedback in the comments below.