Probably the most critical part of Internet marketing for your business is organizing your website so it will achieve your overall goals. Yet, most people completely bypass this important step or, worse, just turn the whole project over to a website designer to handle.
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. Below are a number of steps to follow while planning your new website:
1. Create a list of anything your website visitors will want to know about the product or service you are offering. For example, visitors to a school’s website would probably want to know the attendance levels, size of the classrooms, information on staff members and what sports they can participate in. 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. Put yourself into the visitor’s shoes. Visit some websites and review them as if you are in the market for the services those sites have to offer. As a potential customer, what are the things you like and dislike about each website you visit? 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? Take notes on all this information with the purpose of making your own website as visitor friendly 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. Your visitors already have questions about these things. By arming yourself with this information, you will be able to plan your website to answer their questions right away.
4. Plan your new website so that it can expand. Avoid websites that can’t be easily expanded to add more pages or products. A website is not static, but rather should change constantly to meet your customer needs.
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. You need a website platform that will allow you to add website content fast 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.