Website Marketing

For everybody who sees the benefit of, and wants a website there are so many options. The moment you speak to somebody the more confusing it gets. This person knows a person who knows a person and so it goes. Eventually you will have to make a decision, but what are you going to choose? How do you know where to look and what is reasonable when it comes to the price and features and functionality and search engine optimisation and content management and… and…STOP, take a step back and let’s try to see the wood for the trees.

First things first

• What’s in the budget?
  Budget is going to be an important factor when it comes to your website. Truth is, you get what you pay for, so choice is important.
• What do you want from the site now?
  What is the most important thing you want the website to do? Make a list of everything you want, the select your top 5. Focus on starting here. You have more chance of getting the best return on your budget.
• Long term goals
  How do you want the website to work in a few weeks from now? This helps to plan the short term and make provision for the long term requirements.
• Who will build the site?
  This is possibly the most difficult choice. Once the money changes hands you are heading down a road that will take time and impact on your company. Take a look at past work and even contact some of their customers.
• Time Frames
  Set specific times to specific tasks. Make sure everybody has the same expectations.
• Adapt
  Website developers know more about what works and what doesn’t. Listen to their suggestions and adapt your ideas when and where required. Developers worth their salt wont lead you down the wrong path and will try to persuade you to do things the right way.

More to think about

• How much time will you have to update the site? If none, look at some kind of maintenance retainer to keep the site up to date.
• How software literate are you? It’s one thing to say “I will update the site myself, show me how.” and another to be sitting behind the screen at 10:00pm the night before a deadline, 3 weeks after the site went live, trying to remember what you were shown about updating.
• Practice, practice, practice. If you are going to update, then refresh your skills on a regular basis.
• Work the website. A website does not just become an important resource for people or suddenly appear by magic on search engines or in the favourite’s list of your customers. You have to keep your customers interested and keep it fresh.

Remember to keep your website up to date. There is no ‘keep my website interesting’ or ‘insert relevant content here’ button on the computer. You need to put in the time to get the return.

Now that the site is live

Questions you might want to add to your list when planning your site. Once the site is live these are the issues that are most important and yet, often not considered in the planning. This is where you have to roll up the shirt sleeves and put in some effort to improve your rate of return. Look at the statistics and make changes, use the web tools available to see what works better and implement the changes. Make sure your site is built with features that allow you to update your site easily, integrates with good, solid statistic collecting software and remains user friendly.

• Why am I not on Google?
• Why am I not getting more enquiries?
• How many people visit my website?
• Where are my visitors coming from?
• How do I get more people to the website?
• Why aren’t they buying?

Remember that websites are not like the printed brochure, they can be changed, improved and updated as and when required. Make sure that your site is flexible, that content can be updated easily and that you are able to manage the process effectively.

The moment you decide you need a website you will find yourself at the crossroads, you will have to choose and you will only know if you made the right choice after the fact. The better your preparation the better your chance of success. Know what you want and make sure your developer knows what that is.

Click here if you need help with your website.