When it comes time for the development of a website for your business you should consider the following 6 Tips. Hopefully they’ll help you develop a useful and profitable marketing tool for your business.
1. Do Keyword Research
When you’re starting a website development project for your business one of the first things you should do is perform keyword research. Choosing the correct keywords and using them effectively will help drive traffic to your website. Use a Keyword Research tools like Wordtracker to discover the most popular keywords for your sector and services.
2. Analyze Content for your site
You really need to analyze the content you’ll have on your site. The content development for your business website will include straight forward text that you’ll write for every page plus documents like PDFs. But you’ll also need to analyze the number and type of images you’ll need to illustrate services and products, whether you have testimonials from customers, . And think about content to keep your site fresh and up to date like news, upcoming events or monthly tips that visitors will find useful.
3. Develop your site’s architecture
This is really important for website development. Your business website needs to solve a problem for a visitor. They want information and they want it fast. You need to make sure access to information on your site simple and efficient. In terms of navigation make sure the main areas of your site are listed using a navigation system that people are familiar with. Development of a new website architecture that breaks the rules is a waste of time and will only serve to frustrate your visitors.
4. Get professional web designs
It is worthwhile getting professional web designers to develop a website for your business. Visitors to your site will make a snap judgment as to whether you’re a credible company and professional design helps a lot. There are good quality affordable web designers out there. Try elance or rentacoder to find good quality website development professionals at affordable business rates.
5. Conduct Usability Testing
During the website development process your business should conduct usability testing. Test the designs, test the functionality and . It doesn’t have to be expensive either. At the design stage choose 3 individuals outside your company to proof your design. Ask them to tell you; what they think your site does, what are the main areas of the site, and who they think will be interested in your site. If they’re having trouble answering any of those questions, further development of the website should be put on hold so you can resolve any issues. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water though. You might only need to make minor changes.
When the site is ready for testing choose another 3-4 individuals outside your company and ask them again; what they think your site does, what are the main areas of the site. But also ask them to find some specific information on your site. Ask them to think aloud so you can understand their thought process. Observe where they put their mouse when navigating and see how the interact with the navigation system.
Overall usability is about reducing the number of questions people need to ask themselves when navigating your website. Question like; Is that a button? Where is the navigation? How does a Quick Search differ from a Normal Search? Make information intuitive and your business website development [http://www.larismarketing.co.uk/pages/articles/Default.aspx?art=51] will be successful.
6. Get Google Analytics code in every page
This is hugely important for the ongoing development of your business website. Google Analytics is a free service allowing you to track the performance of your website. Simply setup a Google Analytics account and add the code they give you into every page on the site. It is a really simple process, but if you’re not sure how to do it get your web developers to do it for you. Google analytics provides a wealth of information including; visitor numbers to your site, the keywords people used to find your site, the top landing pages, the top exit pages and an overall rate which can be a telling factor of your site’s overall importance. After a month or so you’ll have plenty of information that you can use to improve your website’s performance in the search engines and usability for visitors.
