Advance Planning Will Make the Most of Your Website

One of the most difficult, but key components of the Internet marketing process is to design your website to achieve the goals you have set for your business.  But this critical step is usually the one business people skip, or just leave it to their web designer to consider, which can be even more damaging to their overall goals. 

The process of carefully planning the outline of a new website or upgrade to an existing website will secure for you not only a vehicle to show off your business in the best light, but also one that you are able to control the process of updating content, and, most importantly, achieve your business goals.  Below are a number of steps to follow while planning your new website:

1.  List all the information about your product or service that a visitor to your website might be interested in knowing.  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.  Imagine for a short time that you are a potential website customer.  Visit and review some websites similar to the one you will offer as if you were a potential customer.  As a visitor, what do you like and dislike about each site?  Are you driven to take action?  How easily can you find what you are looking for? How many times do you have to click to find 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. Google has a free keyword research tool that will work fine for this purpose.  Type in a general phrase such as “high school” and see what other keywords come up.  These are the topics that people are searching for already.  By arming yourself with this information, you will be able to plan your website to answer their questions right away. 

4.  When planning your new website, make sure to keep in room to grow.  Stay away from website formats that can’t be expanded easily to add products and new pages.  You will find that building a great website is a constant work in progress. 

5.  The final thing to keep in mind is that you want to be able to control your new website, rather than be at the mercy of your web designer to make even the simplest of changes.   Today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment demands new and fresh content added to your website often, and the old fashioned sites that rely on a web developer to make changes just won’t 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.  It is critical to take the time to plan a new website that is compatible with your business goals. 

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.