Do we need a website?

Websites can be an extremely effective method of communicating but they can also be expensive to set up, take time to maintain and their success ultimately relies on the target audience choosing to make use of them. Therefore, it is worth considering the following points before you embark on setting up a new website:

• Who am I targeting and is a website the best way of reaching them – be wary of trying to be all things to all people

• How will I generate traffic to the site?

• Are there other websites in existence that I could refer people to rather than reinventing the wheel, such as Directgov?

• Could I develop a dedicated page on our existing area site rather than a whole new site?

• How will we keep the site content fresh and is there sufficient staff resource and budget to keep the site regularly updated?