At some point the majority of businesses have considered whether they need to invest in a business website. If there is justification for the development of a website the next stage in this important process is to look at the main factors which will influence the design and development of the website.

• Firstly consider the type of business you have – business to business websites (targeting a business audience) are very different to business to consumer websites (targeting consumers rather than businesses. A business site will require very different content to a consumer website, take the time to look at some of the websites belonging to your most successful competitors and see how they do it.

Next you need to consider how you are going to develop your business website on time and to budget – you need a plan! At the very least you should have a rough plan detailing your key actions and site objectives – this will help you develop and assess the success of your website as the project progresses.

• As part of the plan you must include a firm idea of what the objectives of your website will be.  For example, to generate sales leads or to increase charitable donations, etc. A number of small and medium sized businesses complain about the failure of their new websites to attract sales leads, however this is often due to an absence of clear objectives based on lead generation set out from the start.
• One important factor to remember is that you should not stop existing forms of marketing and replace with marketing your website online – keep doing both. Traditional forms of marketing can still prove useful and effective. For the most effective results integrate your website and traditional marketing e.g. ensure you quote your new website in all of your printed marketing literature.
• Some of the most user-friendly and useful websites in the world never attract any visitors – the reason: you must tell people about your site. Generating traffic to your website is imperative, you wouldn’t get a new phone line installed and then sit by the telephone waiting for it to ring, so don’t do the same with your website. Make raising the visibility of your website a key priority.
• Remember: keep it simple – don’t be tempted to overcomplicate the design, or content on your website. The same is true for the technology used on your website. If you have limited technical knowledge make sure your site or the technology used to create it is as user-friendly as possible. It is better to learn as you go along than let doubt and perfectionism stifle your opportunity to achieve some good results – you can always improve your website with every iteration.
• You should always track success, even if it is in a crude basic way – keep track of where your online enquiries are coming from e.g. a simple source of enquiry question on a contact form or a simple log of how many visitors your site has received. Free analytics tools are offered by many website hosting providers. How will you know you have achieved your objectives if you do not track success, how will you improve if you don’t record what is not working and what is?
• Ask yourself the question: could I cope with an influx of leads from a new website? Be prepared for success, think about whether you have the resources to cope with an influx of leads from your website. Make sure that your resources are synchronised with your website plan.
• Finally, don’t believe the hype.  Leave flashing websites and neon lights to the large brands to try – they have the marketing large budget to be able to experiment. Stick to simple ideas, they work well in traditional marketing so they will work well on the web.

Request your free copy of the We Are Web Quickguide to Website Investment for SMEs at We Are Web.