Dynamic Business

Planning for growth

In addition to deciding how you would like your website to function now, it is important to think about where you see your site heading in the next five years. For example, do you have plans to set up a blog or develop a newsletter? Are you thinking of enabling online sales? Will you be incorporating more user interaction into the site? Thinking about these issues will help you decide how to set up your web platform.

You don’t need to develop a website that incorporates every piece of functionality straightaway, but explaining to your designers where your business is headed will allow them to plan for modular growth. You won’t necessarily see the difference on the front of your site, but they may design things a little differently in the back end or use a different web platform to ensure that your website can expand as your business develops.

Incorporating SEO so people find you

It is one thing to have a website, but it’s another for your website to be found among the millions of others. Ten to 20 years ago, it was important for businesses to list an ad in the Yellow Pages. These days it’s important for business websites to have high search rankings. This can be achieved through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), a technique that helps search engine bots, like Google’s bot, find your website.

Search Engine Optimisation is an essential part of the mix and should be incorporated into the design from the ground up. You should discuss SEO with your web designer and make sure they are creating pages with this in mind. However, while SEO is important it isn’t the more important than the user experience. When sites attempt to engage search engines over and above their actual audience, the copy tends to focus on keywords and can lack cohesion for your real audience. It is critical to write for users of the site first and then consider search engines and keywords.

Conclusion

There are many elements involved in creating a first-rate website but the key to success is effective planning. By understanding what your website needs to achieve for your business now and in the future, you are in a good position to start thinking about design and content. Take the time to meet with web developers to find a company you feel comfortable working with. They will be able to advise you on the web platform that will work best for your build as well as guiding you through the more technical decisions around navigation, layout and content management.

–Anthony Milner is product manager for Elcom (www.elcom.com.au), experts in intranets, extranets and websites.