Just like any businesses or companies, they all tend to have their own website and some have more than one, but then what's next? Does it bring in the sales you are expecting? Is it informative enough and pointing your customer to the right direction to take the action you want them to?

Most of the time, having a website and expecting it to do what you expected it to do is two different thing. The business owner usually envisions that their website will be able to do this and that, but a lot of times it falls short of their expectation. This is due to the reason that they are a lack of planning, strategy, and know-how in making it work the way they want it to.

So how can we avoid this pitfall and make the website work for you?

Plan and Strategized

You will need a business plan and marketing strategy. A website is not like, "if you build it, they will come" kind of thing. Unfortunately, this is a common misconception people always have when building their website.

Before you start building your website, spend some time constructing a business plan and marketing strategy. Your business plan should at least tell you about your customer, product/services, competitors and your market. Then what are the marketing strategy that you can use to reach your customer and make your presence felt?

This sound like a lengthy process, but believe me, it will save you from a lot of trouble later.

Choosing the right type of website for your business

We have seen many available options for websites. There are static HTML website, dynamic website, blog site, etc. You can even choose from using some free online tools to build your website as compared to getting a professional to do it for you.

If you have some good IT people who are familiar with website development most properly you will choose to use some free online tools or templates to do it. Do expect that these free tools or templates might not be easy to handle. When you run into problems, there are not much help you can turn to except yourselves. So make sure the free stuff that you are using already have what you wanted them to do.

Then the other problem would be the security of the website. Free stuff or open source might have their system compromised due to the availability for download by everyone. This is similar to letting everyone into your house wonder to every corner. It would be then easier for them to look for loopholes to come in.

Then the third issue could be the IT people that you have might not be an experienced web developer. It is important to know what would work and what don't. An experienced web developer will be able to know what is the best way to do something and what would work. They have done various websites with tons of request or strange request from customers. So most properly they can tell you before hand if your request is alright or propose alternative ways to do it as well.

Website Structure a.k.a Site Map

Having a good website structure or Site Map will help you to visualized how your website would be once it is ready. It will also tell you what content you will need to have in the later stage.

A good website structure will be able to guide your customer to where you want them to be instead of getting them lost and confuse. They should also be able to find their way back to different page easily. Some say that the rule of thumb is not to have content/link that is more than 2 level deep. What seems to be informative for you can be confusing for your customer. Customer prefers you to be simple and straight forward. If you confuse them, they will run away.

Content & Images

 Content is the heart and soul of a website while images make them more attractive and to make the reader easier to understand what you are trying to tell them. Other than attractive images and good copywriting, it is also important to include the element of SEO into your content. Repeating phrases or important keyword within a content page will show the importance of the word or phrase to the search engine.

Product Catalog

 If you have some amount of products that you are selling, would you want to put them all up onto your website? My suggestion is that it would be good if you can put them all up on your website. The more pages your have on your website with more keywords will actually increase the chances of search engine listing and people to find you.

To take a step further since you already have all your products on your website, why not place a button on every product item for inquiry? Your customer can enquire about your product and ask questions as and when they are on the page. But please make sure you that you are checking your email to reply to the inquiry and not keep your customer guessing if you have received the inquiry or not.

By doing so, you have actually made your website to serve your business as an online sales person and draw the inquiries to your team.

Online Forms & Inquiries

 Always have a form for general inquiries. so that your customer can get in touch with you. If you do not have, then you are like telling them not to bother you about anything. Also, make sure you have someone checking the email to reply them as well.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Finally, get some SEO done with your website. Your website is not going to get anywhere if you don't do anything at all. It is not a case of build and they will come kind of thing.

Not only that your website have to be enhanced for SEO to a certain level, but it has to be mobile-friendly as well as Google has already changed their algorithm to ranking and listing.

Not all web designers or developer are the same. Some just wanted to get a website done with good designing while neglecting the SEO part while others simply don't have good knowledge in this area.

There a quite a few tips and things we will do for our customer's website but I will explain that in my next article.

Conclusion

So if you have a website and it does not seem to work for you, think again whether you are lacking in your planning or other areas above. Don't blame your website for a failed or wrong investment.