Before you launch into your next website development, we recommend that you set aside some thinking time so you can develop a strategy for your website that is aligned to your overall business goals.

Start by determining the purpose of the website

Most businesses know they need a website, and often get one designed so they can tick it off from their list of marketing requirements. It’s very tempting to send through lots of content and a few thoughts to your web firm and tell them to ‘go for it’. If they’ve got a good understanding of your business and a marketing mind then you may well get back a website that will really add to your marketing efforts. But why take that kind of chance? Depending on the size of your business, it could take up a considerable chunk of your marketing budget. So you want to get it right. Without a clear purpose it’s also impossible to measure the site’s actual effectiveness. Once you know the purpose of the site you can come up with a number of ‘calls to action’ to get your visitors completing the goals you have. Examples include: join your mailing list, pick up the phone and call you, print off a voucher, request more information via a web form, or buy an item online.

Work out your target audience and what they need from your site

Most websites have multiple audiences, and one of the best ways to plan for their requirements is by using ‘personas’. A persona is a fictional character who has a background story. You can then brainstorm on how the persona (for example, Jane Smith, 32, professional, lots of disposable income, socially and environmentally responsible) will use your website. You’ll be surprised at how quickly ideas will spring forth from this exercise, as it really helps to say things like ‘Jane would like that we are carbon neutral and donate to good causes’. Personas are part of what is termed user-centric design, which at its most basic is designing a website around the needs of your users.

What type of content will attract people via search?

Getting traffic from the search engines should be one of your top priorities. Your corporate pages (About Us, Services) should rank highly for your main keyword phrases (the terms that describe your offer). You will also want to capture traffic from what is called the ‘long tail’ of search. These are search phrases that are very specific. An example long tail search might be ‘what is the weather like in New Zealand in June’. The best way to attract this type of search traffic is by writing articles or blogs on a regular basis. This can be hard work as it’s not always easy to come up with new ideas on the spot. But once you have one idea, it’s not long before you have a dozen. We recommend that you set some time aside for idea generation. You don’t have to write everything at the same time, but having a content plan for the next few months (at least) will take some of the pressure off.

Don’t try to do everything at once

Phase your website development, as doing everything in one go increases the complexity of the site and the development time. It’s better to have a site live now rather than delay it by trying to make it perfect from the get-go. A website is always a work in progress, and once you have some metrics on what is going on with your web visitors you’ll find you are in a much better position to make intelligent and well-informed improvements as you go. And lots of small changes can really add up to large changes over time.

If you’ve got questions about developing your next website give us a call on 03 366 33 40 or email info@tmlwebdesign.co.nz. We are happy to answer your questions and discuss your requirements with you.