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4 important factors for a successful business website
There are four main factors you need to take into account if you want a successful business website: Online Business Development, Internet Marketing, Website Features and Infrastructure and Support. Most companies only focus on one but if you cover all four then you'll succeed online.
Online Business Development
Before you build a website you need to plan how it will succeed by identifying the target market, their needs and what you need to measure to know if your website is successful. Here's a few questions to ask yourself:
- Have we created “website pathways” that encourage our customers to buy from us?
- Who will be responsible for the ongoing Internet Strategy of our website to ensure our business success?
- Do we have professional design to improve trust and usability like www.famco.co.nz?
- Do we have a an easy to use Content Management System (CMS) so we can regularly update our website?
- Is our site Responsive web design that automatically adjusts so it can be viewed on mobile devices like iPhones which gives us more market reach
- Can we use Business Automation to streamline your business such as online payments or quote forms?
Internet Marketing
Once your website is built you then need to promote it. There are over 234 billion websites on the Internet so you need to do this correctly. Here's some more questions:
- Has our website been Search Engine Optimised to increase chances of getting found on Google?
- Will we have ongoing Internet Marketing to ensure we’re getting found on the web?
- Have we been added to Google Places For Business to improve our chances of getting found in Google like www.spinningplanet.co.nz/googleplaces?
- Do we need to buy Google Adwords to increase traffic to our website?
- Should we create Online Video to encourage sales and reduce costs and support? It has worked exceptionally well for www.eeezz.co.nz
- Do we need Social Network business pages to attract clients back to our site and show our expertise like www.spinningplanet.co.nz/linked?
Website Services (Features)
Website can have a number of features that either drive traffic back to the website, improve brand or improved business profit.
- Should we write a blog that people will share to drive more traffic back to our site like www.spinningplanet.co.nz/blog?
- Do we need a monthly e-newsletter to attract clients back to our site? Spinning Planet's monthly e-newsletter makes them an average of $10,000 per month in sales: www.spinningplanet.co.nz/spnewsletter
- Do we need E-Commerce to reach wider markets and streamline sales and shipping like www.comac.co.nz?
- Could we benefit from Online forms for surveys, quotes and more?
- Do we need Event Calendars to automatically keep customers updated?
- Do we need Galleries and Product Catalogues to showcase our products and services?
- Do we need News items that our customers can share to help drive traffic back to our website?
- Could we benefit from a Promo Box so we can create our own website promotions?
Infrastructure and Support
One area that most people don't pay enough attention to is where will your website be stored and who will be providing support for it?
- Will we have online security to protect our information and stop spam like www.spinningplanet.co.nz/custom/ids/?
- Will our website be hosted on servers located in NZ for faster service and a better chance of getting found by Google?
- Will we have Mobility so we can access our emails or edit our website from any Internet capable computer?
- Will we get free upgrades to ensure we're using the best tools to succeed on the Internet?
- Will we get free technical support from local people that know what they’re talking about?
- WIll our website technology be open so we can take advantage of new Internet features quickly and expand our website easily?
To add to this you then need to ask if the web development company you’re working with has the processes to ensure your success. Below is an example of our website development process:
As you can see there's a lot to think about when creating a successful business website.
brynn :-)
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