Developing a website for any purpose requires thinking about some important considerations that will effect the overall success of the site. Long gone are the days when simply HAVING a website was enough. Having a website still trounces not having one, but if you are going to put the time, money and effort it takes into building a site, why not do it right?
Here are a few things to mull over before you start writing copy, designing graphics or coding web pages:
1) What is the purpose of the site?
- to give inform
- to sell a product or service
- to gather information on prospects (subscription)
- to click through to another site of product
One of these is most likely the primary purpose of your planned site. Determine which one it is. You can’t have four primary purposes. Focus on one; the rest are secondary.
2) Focus on the primary purpose
- Make your primary purpose the focus of the home page
For example, if your primary purpose is to sell a product or service, the home page should be dedicated to showcasing the product or service. Prepare copy that describes your product or service featuring your keywords. If the primary purpose of your website is to get subscribers to your newsletter, the home page should feature the sign-up box and have supporting text to convince visitors that they need to sign up now.
3) Have a plan to drive traffic to the site
No matter what the purpose of your website is, you won’t get anywhere unless you have traffic. You can have the best copy ever written, but if nobody reads it, you won’t accomplish your primary purpose. You could have the prettiest website on earth, but if nobody sees it, nothing will happen.
How do you get traffic? Well you can buy it, you can borrow it or you can create it. Nothing new there. But for those of you who are unfamiliar with building traffic, let’s go over each one.
Buy it. You can buy “pay-per-click” (PPC) advertising, with Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing. There are other PPC networks as well. And don’t forget advertising in ezines - that can be very effective if you pick ezines that relate to your niche.
Borrow it. If you have an affiliate program, you can use your affiliates lists to harvest new subscribers for your list. Make an offer through your affiliates by email, tele-seminar, webinar, etc.
Create it. Build your list yourself by publishing a blog, writing articles for other websites and free articles sites, like ezinearticles.com
4) What if you have more than one purpose for setting up a website?
Many of you have multiple reasons for setting up a website. You may have a product or service, but also wish to sign up subscribers for a newsletter. Only one of those will be your primary purpose – the other(s) will be secondary purposes.
Position your primary purpose as discussed above and place it prominently on the home page. Place your secondary purposes on subpages (e.g. http://yourdomain.com/products.html) and link from lead ins on the home page.
Keep your focus and the spotlight on your primary purpose.
