Advance Planning Is the Key to a Successful Website
Planning a website that will achieve the goals you have set for your business is probably the most difficult part of the entire Internet marketing process. However, most business people ignore this critical step, or leave it to their web designer to take care of, which can often be even worse.
When you take the time to strategically plan the outline of your new website or an upgrade of your current one, not only will you achieve a website that will show off your business in the best way, but one you will be able to add and edit content easily, and probably most important will help to achieve your overall business goals. Here are a few steps to use in the planning process:
1. Write down on a piece of paper everything you think the visitors to your web site might want to know about your product or service. If you are planning a website for a school, for example, the visitors would be interested in how man students attend, classroom sizes, staff information and sports offered. Brainstorm every possible topic someone might want to know related to the industry, product or service your website will be offering.
2. Put yourself into the visitor’s shoes. Surf the Internet and visit various sites offering similar services, then review them as a potential customer would. As a visitor, what do you like and dislike about each site? Are you driven to take action? How easily can you find what you are looking for? Are there a lot of pages to navigate through to get to what you are looking for? With the goal of making your website as easy for potential customers to use as possible, note all of this information down for future use.
3. Investigate to find out the keywords your visitors will most likely search for to find your website. Google has a free keyword research tool that will work fine for this purpose. By typing in a general phrase such as “exercise video”, other keywords will come up that are related. These are the topics that people are searching for already. Knowing this, you can plan your website content to answer their questions up front.
4. Make sure to plan your website to grow. Don’t be lured into a website format that won’t let you expand easily to add new content pages or products. A good website is a constant work in process.
5. Finally, make sure your website is easy to control, so you don’t have to rely on your website designer to make even the smallest changes. Successful Internet marketing today relies on a dynamic website with fresh content added often, and having an antiquated website that only your designer can change will just not work anymore. Your new website should be on a platform that lets you add content quickly and easily.
Usually, a new website is one of your business’ largest expenses. Don’t waste it with an inferior website that doesn’t support your business objectives.
Marty Dickinson is the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for over 10 years. His specialty is Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors. Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.
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Tags: general business tips, Internet Marketing, Marketing, online marketing, sales and marketing, Small Business, website design, website development, website tips
