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. Yet, most people completely bypass this important step or, worse, just turn the whole project over to a website designer to handle.
By strategically planning your new website or an update of your existing website, you will ensure you have a marketing piece that showcases your business to its best, allows you to be in control of ongoing content updates, and achieves the goals you have set for your business. Here are a few steps to use in the planning process:
1. Create a list of anything your website visitors will want to know about the product or service you are offering. Using the website for a school, for an example, you would probably discover that visitors would be looking for information on the staff at the school, classroom size, attendance numbers, and sports programs. Try to list every possible topic about your industry, service or product that a visitor to your new website might be interested in knowing.
2. Imagine for a short time that you are a potential website customer. Visit and review some websites similar to the one you will offer as if you were a potential customer. As a visitor who is genuinely interested in your product or service, what are the good things and bad things about each site you visit? Are you driven to take action? Can you find what you are looking for fast? How many times do you have to click to find what you are looking for? Note all this data down with the intent of making your new website as easy for your visitors to use as possible.
3. Do keyword research to find out what visitors will be searching for. There are free keyword search tools through Google that are completely adequate for this type of research. 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. Plan your new website so that it can expand. Stay away from website formats that can’t be expanded easily to add products and new pages. A good website is a constant work in process.
5. Plan a website that you can control, rather than be at the mercy of a web designer to make even small changes to your website. Old fashioned websites that only a web developer can change do not work in today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment that demands new content added regularly. It is to your advantage to plan a website platform that will allow you to add content quickly and simply.
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.