Probably the most critical part of Internet marketing for your business is organizing your website so it will achieve your overall goals. 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 number of important steps to take in the website 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. Take the time to brainstorm as many areas related to your product, service or industry that someone might be interested in when visiting the website.
2. Put yourself into the visitor’s shoes. 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? Does the website inspire you to take further action? Are you able to find what you are looking for quickly and easily? How many different pages do you have to click through to find what you want? 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. Research to find out what keywords your visitors might search for. You don’t need to invest in expensive search tools, Google has a free keyword tool that is adequate for this purpose. Type in a general phrase such as “high school” and see what other keywords come up. These are the topics that people are searching for already. By arming yourself with this information, you will be able to plan your website to answer their questions right away.
4. Make sure to plan your website to grow. Avoid websites that can’t be easily expanded to add more pages or products. You will find that building a great website is a constant work in progress.
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.
The investment by your business into a new website is a large part of your marketing budget. 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.