Web Site Design

Establishing Requirements

Even in developing what appears to be a simple web strategy can easily go from a simple web site to fully analyzing specific business processes and determining how that web site can enhance the profitability of the company along with integrating that data with other company data sources.

The simplistic thought of getting people to visit ones web site will result in automatically increasing profitability is simply not true. Getting people to visit a web site is only half of the battle as once the visitor gets there they have to want to buy the product or service that you are providing. There is so much that can be, and should be, done to enhance the web site as it is such an important part of the business. Some of the items that I recommend discussing are:

1. The web site content needs to be developed to:
   • Draw traffic from outside sources
   • Convert that traffic to sales
2. Web site traffic analysis needs to be evaluated in order to determine:
   • How many people are actually getting on the site
   • What are they doing while they are there
   • Why are they not buying
3. Google maps, Bing, and Yahoo listings need to be created and maintained with accurate information
4. Social networking sites need to be utilized in order to enhance sales and to increase brand recognition along with increasing search engine rankings
5. SEO work – I only recommend one person to do this type of work and she does very high quality work and, most importantly, her work gets results. Unfortunately, she has a waiting list, but, fortunately, that gives us time to get everything in order before she does the work.
6. All email and social network marketing efforts should work in conjunction with the web site.

While I have many clients, past and present, that have used various search engine optimization and marketing companies, I am constantly amazed at the amount of time, effort, and money that is spent in trying to find that "solution" that is going to move the company ahead and actually produce a notable increase in revenue only to give up on that strategy with only negligible results. It all comes down to determining what the business objectives are as well as how cost effective the various strategies are, based on the "best case" scenario for each plan of action, before moving on to the implementation phase.

For example, before investing in an SEO strategy it would be wise to investigate which particular key words would produce the most beneficial increase in web site visitors. Determining which particular key words to target with ones web site is extremely time intensive but certainly well worth the investment as attaining high rankings for insignificant key words will result in either minimal increases in site traffic or an increase in traffic without the increase in revenue. Another example is before implementing a strategy to increase sales from ones web site it would be beneficial to ensure that company has the product and resources to handle projected increased sales volume in a profitable fashion.