Planning Your New Website - How Can VIS Help You Avoid Most Common Mistakes ?
Successful websites don't happen accidentally. A business that runs an effective website thinks carefully conversely, those businesses that fail to undertake any planning are, inevitably fail.
Don't let your new website become a disappointment to your business.
Some careful VIS PLANNING TIPS:
Mistake 1 - Most Website Owners Don't Know What They Want Their Website To Achieve
When you can define clearly the overall aim of your website, you are ready to present your thoughts to your website designer. Their role is to develop a website that achieves your aim; your role is to decide what that aim is.
As long as you have thought through your objectives and understand what you want your website to achieve, you have made the first step towards a successful business website.
Mistake 2 - Most Website Owners Don't Know Who Their Website Is for
The usual answer is "customers" but this is too vague. Is your website aimed at existing customers, with whom you already have a relationship, or prospective customers who don't know your business?
The answer is both customers are business prospects for success.
Mistake 3 - Most Business Websites Have A Poorly Defined "Call-To-Action"
The most beautifully-designed website is, in itself, entirely useless unless it encourages visitors to take some specific action:
• Complete an online enquiry form
• Register on the website
• Purchase a product
• Sign up for a newsletter
• progress deeper into the website to read more about products and services
Each of these is a measurable action which should correlate with the website objectives you defined earlier.
Mistake 4 - Most Business Owners Don't Work Hard Enough To Generate Visitors To Their Website
The "build it and they will come" philosophy rarely works for websites, especially for business websites.
The most common visitor-generating initiatives involve:
Search Engine Optimization - encourages search engines such as Google to position your website prominently for keyword searches relevant to your business.
Search Engine Advertising - enables you to pay search engines such as Google to position your website prominently for keyword searches relevant to your business .
Online PR - generates interest in your business as well as links to your website.
Email Marketing - you can market directly to a defined target audience and encourage them to visit your site.
Off-line Marketing - using your website address on company literature, clothing, vehicle livery etc. will raise
awareness of your site and encourage visits.
Mistake 5 - Most Business Owners Don't Measure Their Website's Success
Your website will require an investment of both time and money and, as a business owner, you should expect a return on your investment.
Your website's success can be measured in three ways:
• Qualitative Feedback: Do you get positive comments about how easy it is to navigate or about how useful someone found its content? Do you get enquiries from prospective customers via your website?
• Key Performance Indicators: Monitoring the number of enquiry forms completed by visitors each month
• Website Statistics: provide details about your site's overall activity, including the number of visitors it receives, how those visitors found your website and which pages of your site they look at most. (Helping you learn your customers' behavior)
Mistake 6 - Most Business Owners Don't Keep Their Website's Content Fresh
Content give visitors a reason to return, it encourages greater attention from search engines as well. Google, Yahoo and others will happily follow links to new pages on your site and index the content they find. More exposure in search engines generates more visitors, which further increases the chances of your website achieving its objectives.
