1.  Consider the target audience and how they are going to find your website.

Content is key ! It’s a common assumption for people to think that when your shiny new website is all finished you will be flooded with enquiries from the largest target market to date, people from the internet.

Well, that depends. How will they find you? Google is the usual response and I’m not saying it won’t happen but you must consider a key point to give your website every chance of being a success.

There are a wide variety of techniques Google uses to anaylise a website, rank it against your competition and deliver the right users to your door. Assuming you aren’t a web designer yourself, I will cover the main asset you can bring to the table to aid your success, your content.

Try to remember a key issue for Google is your page relevancy, the page content needs to be relevant to the phrase the user typed into the search engine. If you are a ‘Website Design Company In Sheffield’, try to have refer to yourself as a website design company based in Sheffield then explain about the services you offer.

Try to be resourceful in Google’s eyes. Provide more relevant information to the user than your direct competition. Consider what you think they will type into the search engine and be relevant.

2.    Who will look after the site post launch?

When a company usually approaches us we normally hear one of two things, ‘We have a website but it’s very out of date and needs a facelift’, ‘We have a website, but it doesn’t do anything for us’. There may be many reasons for the second problem which I usually go through with the client however the first one could have been avoided in two ways.

Option 1 : The web design company updates the content for you on a pay as you go / monthly agreement system.

Option 2 : A Content Management System (CMS).  (This  is where you have a login which would take you to a control panel and provide you with the tools to edit / manage your own content.)

Hot Tip : Try to remember, websites which are frequently updated rank higher in search engines. Use dynamic content from other sources if your industry doesn’t alter frequently.

3.   Consider Your Photography.

Do you have good photos of your products? Do you need the web design company to source images or provide you with a professional photographer? Do any previous photos taken still reflect the image you / the company would like to portray?

Successful websites are usually aesthetically pleasing, user friendly, well built and marketing correctly. A good web design company will tackle these issues on a regular basis for a variety of clients. Try not to cut corners on the photography and factor professional images into your budget.  In the past I have sourced a full set of images and videos for clients for £0-20. We have also hired photographers and done custom video shoots for clients with larger budgets. Your photography should leap off the page and capture the audience as a sale sign does in a high street shop window.

Hot Tip:  The same psychology can be applied to high street shoppers browsing shops as internet users, grab their attention and remember, Internet Explorer / Firefox / Safari and Google Chrome are all referred to as internet browsers.

4.  How will you introduce your site to it’s target market ?

Hit List :

a ) How will you market the website online?

b ) Have you considered the social networking side to marketing online?

c ) Would you benefit from email marketing?

d ) Ask your web designer how you could use Google Adwords effectively.

e) If you have an offline brochure have you considered a downloadable version to email to prospective clients or even converting it to an interactive brochure?

f ) Ask a professional about a ‘link campaign’.

g ) Ask about Google Base, Google Trends, Rss and Xml Feeds. These are all useful online resources which used correctly can aid companies dramatically.

h ) Consider running an affiliate marketing scheme.

i ) Consider blogging about your products, new product/services/news and then publishing articles on other relevant websites to increase your traffic.

j ) Be honest with the design agency. If you don’t know who to market yourself they should have the answers.

Hot Tip : For more info on internet marketing click here

5.  Don’t Be Afraid To Ask! If You Don’t Know Just Be Honest.

Communication is key, a good web developer will try to explain how and why things work the way they do as it expresses the value in their work, educates the client and involves them in the development process, (that is of course if the client has any interest in knowing).

Never feel embarrassed to ask or act as if you know more than you do.  A good company should be approachable enough to ask for help / advice / support on any topic.  When a client gives the impression that they are more knowledgeable on a topic than they actually are, the end result could be that your are left with a website that you don’t understand, which in turn results in you not maximising on your investment and not feeling like you have value for money.

If you would like to get in touch with me you can do so via this link.

Comments and questions are welcome below, did you find this article useful and if so how?