Everyone agrees that in order to properly market your business you need to have a web site. For many businesses the person in charge of this project has little or no experience with developing a web site. They know they need it, but have no idea what is involved and so often make their decisions based on price or style, rather than substance.

Over the last eight months, I have spent much of my time redeveloping web sites. Some of the sites had fulfilled their original purpose and needed to be updated because; a) the company had outgrown the site, b) new technology enabled new functionality, or c) they needed a fresh, more contemporary look. Unfortunately though, many of the sites I have worked on are brand new, some just weeks old. A few were inexpensive sites, maybe a Do-It-Yourself project or developed by a friend of a friend, but others were done by agencies and cost $30,000 – $40,000. The budget and creativity were there, but they were poorly planned and did not fulfill the company’s goals.

Currently I am working with a client that just launched their new site. I was brought in to oversee the development of a gift card section for this site. They were thrilled with the new look, but not the functionality. The designer did not design the site with the visitors and site goals in mind. The two main goals of the site were to provide information about their franchise opportunities and provide a revenue stream by selling gift cards online. The first thing I noticed when reviewing their site was the links to Franchise Info and Gift Card Purchase were out of the viewable space or “below the fold.” So in order for someone visiting the site to find this information, they would have to scroll down the page, greatly decreasing the numbers of visits to those areas of the site. This was just one of many areas of concern, but the most profound.

Designers are usually focused on how the site looks, programmers are focused on how the site works, but the most important part of development and the one that is most often overlooked, is the visitor’s experience sometimes referred to as usability. It is so important to ask throughout the design and development stages – Does the site fulfill the company’s goals and can a visitor find the information they want easily.

The best way to avoid this mistake it to take the time to set clear site goals before design and programming begin. Then make sure these goals are still being achieved throughout every stage of the process. There are several stages of development to be aware of.

1. Discovery Stage – Set goals, discuss functionality, begin to collect assets

2. Wire frame and navigation – Make sure that the most important areas of the site are easy to access.

3. Creative Comps – The designer should present one or more comps of the home page and an interior page, for your review and approval before moving into additional design or the programming stage.

4. Programming – This is the full production stage of the site and when all content is added. You should be given a link to a beta version of the site to review before the developer goes LIVE with the site.

5. Quality Assurance – The testing phase. Be sure the developer tests on multiple browsers. What looks good on Internet Explorer 6, does not necessarily work on IE7 or FireFox.

Never be afraid to ask questions. When you receive the beta link to your site, test it yourself, have a friend, or co-worker go through the site and try to access key information. Ask them, does the navigation make sense? Could you find key information? And so on.

Finally, make sure to consider current as well as future goals for your site. If you want to be able to make your own changes, capture data, open an online store or increase the site size, let your web team know at the beginning. This can save time and money down the road.

This Ain’t No Field of Dreams

Your website design is killer; you FINALLY have it up and running. You have all your content, maybe some cool bells and whistles, and you are ready for business. As the movie says, you “build it and they will come” – soon thousands of people will visit and learn all about your great products or services. Right? Well, not really. According to a Netcraft report from May of this year, there are over 168 million web sites and counting. The word is out and businesses large and small know that having a web site is no longer optional it is mandatory.

So, how do you get people to visit your site? Unless you are a large company with plenty of brand recognition it may take a little time to build up your traffic, but there a variety of ways to begin doing so that are free or relative inexpensive. Here are few simple ways to start.

1. Include your site address on everything you use as collateral. This seems obvious, but it is surprising how many people forget to include their web site in their advertising or their email communication.

2. Make sure to register your site with all the free search engines such as www.dmoz.org, www.scrubtheweb.com, and www.ineedhits.com. There are a lot of these search engines and it can be time consuming, but it is worth it. There are also companies that you can pay to submit your site to a variety of paid and free search engines. Note: It can take up to 60 days for your site to show up when searched.

3. Affiliations and linking are a great way to build traffic to your site. You can offer to include links of other businesses that compliment your own, in exchange for them to do the same. Another way to increase your links is by social networking through sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace and Facebook. Link popularity has direct benefits, but can also increase your rankings with popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Check out www.linkpopularity.com to check your sites links.

4. Send regular email announcements that link back to your site, with specials and news just for your customers. Not only does this drive traffic back to your site, but also reminds them you are still around. There is an added bonus in that it makes them feel special, like they have the inside track. Always remember to capture email contact information when ever possible so you can build up your email database. I always recommend my clients get an account with Constant Contact (www.constantcontact.com). It is easiest way to build a database, organize it and create communications for your customers. Plus they allow your visitors to opt-in and opt-out as they prefer.

5. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – There are many ways to optimize your site, but the simplest way to start is by making sure you have good content on every page and that the content is reflected in your META tags and keywords. Make sure to use words that your target market will use to search for products and services your offer. Be warned – SEO is not something you do once, just when you launch your site. It is an ongoing process. Many companies now have an SEO as a line item in the marketing budgets.

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After they have gone through the process of putting up a Web site, many business owners seem to think that visitors will just magically find their site and start to buy stuff. Sadly, that notion couldn’t be further from the truth. A Web site is useless as a marketing tool if nobody ever sees it. However, you can do a number of things to increase the number of people who find your Web site.

1. Get incoming links. If you don’t have any links from other Web sites pointing to your site, search engines and people are unlikely to find it. Most businesses work with other vendors or members of industry associations or organizations. Ask those people to link to your Web site. The best incoming links are those that are related to your industry.

2. Optimize your site for search engines. The way your site is created and the text it contains are important when it comes to being found. If your site is about purple widgets, you need to make sure that the term “purple widget” is used in the text on your pages. Note that having the words in a graphic does not count. If you have a website design that uses a lot of graphics, make sure text that people may use to search for your Web site is actually in the Web site text and not embedded in a graphic or animation.

3. Send out press releases. An easy way to get incoming links is to get them from news organizations. Many newspapers and magazines put their articles on line. If you send out a press release and your story is written up, the article should include a link to your Web site. Be sure to include your URL in every press release you send out.

4. Write articles for your site. Another way to entice other sites to link to you is to write informative articles. If you know a lot about purple widgets, write articles about how they can be used. Other people who are interested in purple widgets then link to your article. You also can post articles on some of the many free article sites online. In this case, other people post your article on their site. You include a “resource box” that includes a link to your Web site.

5. Offer freebies to visitors. People love free stuff and they often tell their friends. Many sites offer free newsletters, downloads, coupons or software as a promotional tool.

6. Network online. Participate in discussion groups that are related to your industry. Include a “signature” line in your emails that has a link to your Web site. If you answer questions and help others, people are likely to click the link in your signature to find out more about you.

7. Don’t forget about “off-line” promotion. It should be obvious, but put your URL on every piece of print material you generate. Include it on your business cards, letterhead, advertisements, and freebies like pens and tote bags. Whenever you print your company name, print your Web site URL as well.

It takes time to effectively promote a Web site, so be patient. Search engines take a while to clue into a new site, but by incorporating these online marketing techniques, you will be rewarded with more visitors to your site.