5 Keys to a Successful Website

There really is a process you can go through to ensure that your website will actually accomplish the goals that you have for it. If your like most of our clients, part of that goal is to generate new business leads from your efforts. Here’s how you can do that:

• Plan – before you even begin the process of building a new website, you must first decide what you plan to accomplish, how you’re going to accomplish it, and how you will measure success. Who is your target audience? How will you get them to your site? What will you show them when they get there? How will you convince them to contact you? And, how will you know what’s working and what isn’t? These are just some of the questions to answer in the very beginning.
• Coordinate – your website has to not only impress your visitors, but also has to impress the search engines in order to drive the right visitors to your site. This takes some very specific elements that must be considered before building the site. Not only that, but if you expect to convert your visitors into prospects and customers, you need to build the site with that in mind as well.
• Attract – how will you attract your target audience to your website? Since the majority of them are using search engines to find new partners, you will need to be visible on the big 3 engines…Google, Yahoo and MSN for targeted keywords. And, since 80% of searchers will click on organic listings rather than paid ads, search engine optimization should be part of your marketing plan.
• Convert – Once you’ve gotten your targeted visitors to the website, how will you convince them to contact you? These tactics will vary depending on the audience (engineers versus purchasing people), but a coordination of landing pages, content and conversion tactics will be critical to success.
• Measure – in order to understand how to continually improve the performance of your website, you must be able to measure visitor behavior based on intent. How are visitors that are typing some form of your company name in their search string performing as opposed to those tying in a generic name for your product or service? Which conversion tactics are working and which are not. To know this, you must have a comprehensive visitor tracking program in place.