Advance Planning Is the Key to a Successful Website
Written by myworldplus on Saturday, May 1st, 2010 in MLM.
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Planning a website that will achieve the goals you have set for your business is probably the most difficult part of the entire Internet marketing process. Yet, most people completely bypass this important step or, worse, just turn the whole project over to a website designer to handle.
When you take the time to strategically plan the outline of your new website or an upgrade of your current one, not only will you achieve a website that will show off your business in the best way, but one you will be able to add and edit content easily, and probably most important will help to achieve your overall 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. Surf the Internet and visit various sites offering similar services, then review them as a potential customer would. As a potential customer, what are the things you like and dislike about each website you visit? Are you driven to take action? How easily can you find what you are looking for? Are there a lot of pages to navigate through to get to 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. You don’t need to invest in expensive search tools, Google has a free keyword tool that is adequate for this purpose. By typing in a general phrase such as “exercise video”, other keywords will come up that are related. These are the things your visitors already have questions about. By arming yourself with this information, you will be able to plan your website to answer their questions right away.
4. Plan your new website so that it can expand. Avoid websites that can’t be easily expanded to add more pages or products. A good website is a constant work in process.
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. Old fashioned websites that only a web developer can change do not work in today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment that demands new content added regularly. You need a website platform that will allow you to add website content fast and simply.
Your website is most often one of the biggest marketing expenses your business will encounter. Don’t waste it with an inferior website that doesn’t support your business objectives.
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.



