How To Make the Most of Your Website Through Advance Planning
One of the most difficult, but key components of the Internet marketing process is to design your website to achieve the goals you have set for your business. Yet, most people completely bypass this important step or, worse, just turn the whole project over to a website designer to handle.
The process of carefully planning the outline of a new website or upgrade to an existing website will secure for you not only a vehicle to show off your business in the best light, but also one that you are able to control the process of updating content, and, most importantly, achieve your business goals. 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. 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. Take on the role of your website visitor. Visit and review some websites similar to the one you will offer as if you were a potential customer. As a potential customer, what are the things you like and dislike about each website you visit? Are you inspired to take action from the website? Are you able to find what you are looking for quickly and easily? Are there a lot of pages to navigate through to get to what you are looking for? Take notes on all this information with the purpose of making your own website as visitor friendly as possible.
3. Research to find out what keywords your visitors might search for. 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 things your visitors already have questions about. With this information in hand, you can plan your website to feature content that answers people’s questions.
4. Plan your new website so that it can expand. 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. Today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment demands new and fresh content added to your website often, and the old fashioned sites that rely on a web developer to make changes just won’t work anymore. It is to your advantage to plan a website platform that will allow you to add content quickly and simply.
Your website is most often one of the biggest marketing expenses your business will encounter. Make the most of your investment with a new website that supports the goals you have set for your business.
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.