No doubt, you’ve visited plenty of websites that have proven to be a waste of your valuable time. If you’re like many business and marketing professionals, you secretly hope that your website meets the needs of your prospects, customers and internal users. But you’re not really sure, are you … ?

You can create a roadmap to greater website effectiveness by taking the following advice. You’ll surely find that the investment in time and money - to convert your website to a successful measurable marketing tool - well spent.

Here are several tips that promise increased qualified traffic to your website(s) and enhanced visitor usability:

eTip #1: Develop a marketing plan for your website. It’s not complicated, really! Focus your plan on your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – online and off. Define your business, sales, marketing and online objectives. Create a detailed profile of your various website users. And, include the methods you’ll use to track and monitor the use and effectiveness of your website.

eTip #2: While developing your website marketing plan, you’ll need to ask yourself “What is the purpose of my website?” Does it need to generate sales leads or requests for information? Is it an image-making tool? Or, rather, a customer service tool? Do your sales people use it to “sell” prospects on your capabilities? Once you’re really sure what it is you want your site to do, you can apply design and usability strategies to achieve specific objectives.

eTip #3: Understand the users of your site. Your organization may need to communicate to a few different target markets and audiences. The more you know about each type of user (whether it’s an employee, customer or prospect), the better you can effectively communicate with him/her via your website.

eTip #4: Make sure the strategy behind your website design comes from someone qualified. Often, businesses cut budget corners by asking the IT department to develop the website. Internet Service Providers and design freelancers also offer quick, low-cost website development services. Sooner or later, these businesses learn first-hand “you get what you pay for.” Your best bet is to assign your web strategy and design efforts a marketing communicator who understands usability design. The investment now will eliminate the need for you to re-do your website again in the near future.

eTip #5: Don’t try something new because it looks “cool”. If you want to use multi-media or animation, ask yourself the reason why. What purpose will it serve? Will it help you to meet your goals? For example, if you’re making people sit through a flash program before they reach your home page, you may decide to scrap it! Businesspeople and consumers alike are pressed for time. Help them get the information they need quickly.

eTip #6: Drive traffic to your site! Your website can and should be THE place you want people to go to get deeply involved with your company and to get to know your products and services. Make sure your URL is on your business cards, collateral material, your email communications, your advertisements. Simple, basic search engine optimization on your home page will help ensure qualified Internet users find your website through engines like Google, Yahoo and Ask.

eTip #7: Is your content fresh, or is it the same material you put up there when your site was first created? Give your website users a reason to come back again and again.

eTip #8: Monitor and measure your site. Proof and update content, make sure incoming email is routed and answered promptly and test links and user tools (like your Search function). Subscribe to a website traffic analytics tool like LiveStats, Urchin or WebTrends. For a modest fee (usually offered through your hosting vendor) a traffic analytic tool will tell you how many visitors your site receives, where they are clicking within your site, how they found your site, what operating system and browser they are using, and much much more. Use this valuable information to improve your website.

What does “success” mean to you? Johnson Direct designs Websites to drive response. When developed with a strategic focus on direct response, Websites and microsites will not only drive sales, but also to gather information about customers and prospects, providing qualified leads for further sales and marketing efforts.

Of course, website design MUST revolve around the end user. This means you MUST consider the needs of your end user – customers, prospects, employees, the media – in addition to your organizations business and marketing objectives. This approach is called “usability design” and it is necessary when creating intuitive navigation, easy-to-find content and useful response mechanisms.

Contact us today to build a plan for your site's success.