By Lori Gama-White
www.DaGamaWebStudio.com
Think of where your Web site was one year ago today. Perhaps you didn't have a Web site or if you did, maybe it was out-dated and difficult for people to use. You haven't received any leads or customers from it. Maybe no one even KNEW about your Web site.
Flash forward to now: is your Web site still not working for you? The end of the year is a natural time to set new goals for 2006. Let's get busy now and make some New Year resolutions for your New Web site. These seven simple goals can be applied to either creating your first Web site or re-designing your old one. If you take great care of your Web site, which is your top marketing and communications tool, it will take care of you.
1. Take time to reflect on the fundamentals. Decide on your Web site's goal; the type of visitors you want to attract; and decide what you want them to do before leaving your site. By becoming clear on these three important items, you'll save time and money later on when you begin to work with your Web production company. From this information, your Web producer and Search Engine Optimization expert will be able to map out a precise direction for information architecture; keywords; design; and a way for you to measure results (more about that later).
2. Plan your Web site with Search Engines in mind. Don't make the mistake of launching a Web site and THEN applying Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It's much easier to plan and integrate SEO before the site is written, designed and programmed. One common mistake is to include a nifty Flash animation intro page. Though you might impress visitors with cool graphics, you've sealed the door shut to your Web site because the Search Engines won't be able to crawl that page or get into the rest of your site from that page if it's done entirely in Flash animation.
3. Get clear on the type of Web site you'll have. Decide if your Web site should generate leads or drive foot traffic into your bricks-n-mortar establishment. Most Web sites can basically fall into one of those two categories. Knowing which category your site belongs in is an excellent starting point.
4. Lose some weight. Yes, your Web site could probably lose a few "pounds" of text and a couple of graphic file sizes. Too much text, especially on your homepage, and your visitor won't read it. Simply add a couple of sub-headings for quick reading and add a "read more" link to the rest of your text or hire a great copywriter. If you have too big a file size for your images and graphics, the page will load slowly on a modem connection (49% of U.S. Internet users have a modem connection). A slowly downloading page drives people away. You have about three seconds in which your visitors will decide to stay or go after they've landed on your Web page, so be sure they have some useful text to read as graphics download. Remember goal number 1, in which you decided what you wanted visitors to do before leaving your Web site? Include an easy-to-find call-to-action in your text (a fast-loading graphic helps, too) so visitors clearly know what to do while at your Web site. This could be any of the following: buy products; make a donation; subscribe to your ezine; visit your blog; call or e-mail you; fill out an application or some other thing you want them to do.
5. Carefully decide on your domain name. Think of a logical domain name that's easy to spell and easy to remember. Abbreviations usually don't work well because someone might leave out a letter. I don't recommend using a hyphen but there are exceptions. You'd have to always make that distinction when telling someone your domain name ("My-Domain.com" would sound like this: myHYPHENdomain.com"). Be sure to use your company name as your domain name, if at all possible. If you think people might misspell your domain name, you can buy the misspelled version and have it forward to your Web site. Always capitalize the words in your domain name in your marketing materials (MyDomainName.com) so it's easier for people to remember.
6. Carefully choose your hosting company. Don't pay too much and certainly don't pay too little. If you use extremely cheap hosting and pay around $3.00 per month, most likely you won't receive good technical support when you need it. And you'll end up wasting hours (time is money) trying to get adequate help. The Internet is not perfect but your Web site should never "crash" or be offline more than 1% of the time during the course of the year. If this happens, switch to a better hosting company who has 99% up-time.
7. Review and revise your Web site regularly. A Web site is the easiest type of marketing to measure results for. You can't determine how many people listened to your radio ad or looked at your newspaper ad but you can tell exactly how many visitors landed in your Web site's homepage. And you can easily see how long they stayed there, which pages they clicked to (if any), what Search Engines they used to find you and if they came back again. Your Web site statistics are jam-packed with helpful information so you can review whether or not your Web site is working. This helps you revise things that aren't working. You can then measure again with ongoing Web site analysis.
Without a strategic planning process beforehand, and little or no attention to your Web site during the course of the year, you've neglected your "garden" and wasted your business investment. With the New Year approaching, you can begin your Web site again, as if you were planting a garden. Properly plan and seed it, tend to it, weed it, and nourish it with new content, and as it grows, it will provide food for your table in the form of leads for your business, customers buying products, or some other form of fruition.
Lori Gama-White owns DaGama Web Studio in Greeley, Colorado. Developing strategic, results-oriented Web sites since 1997, Lori Gama-White and her team of Web professionals are passionate about helping people get their businesses on to the Internet. For more information, questions or comments, call 970-378-7822 or e-mail .
© 2005 Lori Gama-White - All Rights Reserved -
http://www.dagamawebstudio.com
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