8 Minimum Standards To Achieve

The following standards are recommended to achieve.

Most successful small to medium sized business websites should achieve the following:

1. Have objectives, which are predetermined before ANY work is started. These will be the foundations of the whole site. The directors/owners of the Company should set the main objectives preferably after reading this entire list. Involving key departments such as sales, customer service and even the person who answers the telephone will reveal areas of the business that can be streamlined and improved, like your sales staff may request quotes be conducted online so as to spend less time on the phone. Get every department to list their wants and needs, you may be surprised at how many can be achieved using your website.

2. Identify your target audience, write the content and structure the site for them. If you sell reading glasses then you definitely do not want to be using small blue fonts on a grey background. Other examples include time poor executives who would appreciate short and to the point content, interior designers like lots of pictures, small business owners like free useful tools, younger generation go for interactivity such as games, men go for how does it work and women go for how does it make you feel. In summary, know who you are trying to write for and write accordingly.

3. Search engine friendly and so constructed in a way that they can read every page you want them to. If the search engines are not reading your site then this is the same as paying for thousands of leaflets to be printed and then not distributed.

4. Optimise the web site for search engines so that the content you have written for your customers is appearing in the first 3 pages of search engine results, preferably showing on the first page for your keywords and phrases. This is achieved by identifying which keywords and phrases to chase after, analysing the competition for those keywords and then implementing the best and most achievable ones into your site.

5. Use a recognised sales approach. Your web site should offer benefits for its visitors, not standard advertising blurb. Remember that people do not buy drill bits because they are interested in sharpened pieces of toughened steel, they want the holes they create so talk about the end benefits of your products or services to your customers, not how great and fantastic the Company is.

6. Be quick to download for those on dial up modems.

7. Use multi media (pictures, sounds and movies) to achieve an objective, not because your web designer offered you a deal.

8. Have an Internet strategy for your website. Only you will know what works for your product or service once you have tried different methods. Research, implement and monitor what works best for you, like paid for advertising or organic search engine placement.