3 Steps to a Successful Website

Choose the right web design and development company - This may sound simple but there are many things to take into account when you are choosing a company to build your website. Ask yourself these questions:

How long have they been in business

Can they show you many completed websites (It never ceases to surprise us how many customers have actually hired another company before contacting us only to end up with a site that is never finished.)

Can you get references from their customers

Do they ask questions about your business to define the goals of your website

Will they be there for the long term (Websites always need to be updated and kept fresh)

Do they return your calls or emails in a timely manner

STEP 2

Provide content that will turn browsers into customers. To do this, work with your developer to determine:

Who your customers are

What would your customers actually search for (your developer can research search terms to determine which are frequently used and build content around them, referred to as SEO or search engine optimization)

What will keep your customers on your site once they find it.

What will promote conversions (turning a site visitor into a customer who contacts you or places an order on your e-commerce site)

STEP 3

Promote your website. In every successful business, marketing is a must. There is a wide variety of options and your developer should be able to help you with this (often there will be an additional charge for this service). Some of the ways to market your site are:

Social Networking such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

Adwords on Google and Bing/Yahoo

Blogs and online articles

Advertising on appropriate sites

Print Advertising

QR Codes

Analytics a Must!

it would be careless not to mention the importance of analytics. It is essential that you can track the traffic to your site, find out where it comes from, what pages were visited, bounce rate and much more.