How should beginners plan a website?

When planning a website, beginners should first clarify its purpose, intended audience, and budget, then organize the content they want to provide, map out page categories and navigation, and finally choose a building approach that fits their needs. The priority is not to start by studying code or choosing a template, but to answer these questions: Who is the website for, what problems can it solve, and how will visitors find the information they need? If you want to reach readers through search, you should also account for their search needs when planning content and structure.

Clarify the purpose before deciding how to build

iThome’s website-building overview recommends considering the purpose, website type, budget, and structure before evaluating custom development, templates, or outsourcing. Beginners can start by writing a short requirements list:

• Purpose: Will the site introduce a business, sell products, or serve as an educational blog?
• Audience: Who do you want to visit? What information do they need?
• Scope: What content will you include, how much of it, and what budget can you commit?

Business websites also need to clarify the strengths of their products or services. In a 2024 article, Da Vinci cautions that an impressive appearance, marketing investment, and keyword rankings cannot guarantee long-term conversions. Clearly explaining the value you offer is therefore more relevant to your needs than simply listing visual styles you like.

Match your content list to readers, not just keywords

Readers interested in the same topic may have different levels of knowledge. Using SEO tutorials as an example in 2023, yesharris noted that newcomers need basic introductions such as “What is SEO?”, while more advanced learners may need specialized content on topics such as structured data. When planning, list readers’ questions alongside the pages that will address them, rather than expecting everyone to read articles at the same level of depth.

Semrush’s introductory advice in 2025 was to start with simple, practical, easy-to-understand content, using terms and questions the audience might search for. Keywords here are clues to understanding needs, not a writing objective that replaces readers’ needs.

As for whether content or structure should come first, the sources emphasize different approaches: a Mobile01 discussion suggests that people without experience first consider their content and its volume, while a 2022 awoo article advocates confirming topics and categories before beginning the actual writing. You can start with a rough content outline and use it to organize the structure, without treating either sequence as the only rule.

Map the page hierarchy and plan routes to the content

NN/g noted in 2023 that a sitemap can show how content is organized and its hierarchy, but is only one part of information architecture. Planning should involve not just listing page names, but also identifying the main categories and the content within them.

• Reserve the top-level menu for important sections visitors need to find at any time, using short, descriptive labels.
• A blog can use topic overview pages that link to articles on subtopics, with those articles linking back to the overview.
• Check for orphan pages that have no internal links pointing to them, so content is not difficult to discover.

These structural planning recommendations from Semrush aim to make page relationships clear and navigation easier; they do not mean that creating a sitemap or adding links guarantees search rankings.