Marbella SEO

One of the most difficult, but key components of the Internet marketing process is to design your website to achieve the goals you have set for your business.  But this critical step is usually the one business people skip, or just leave it to their web designer to consider, which can be even more damaging to their overall goals. 

When you take the time to strategically plan the outline of your new website or an upgrade of your current one, not only will you achieve a website that will show off your business in the best way, but one you will be able to add and edit content easily, and probably most important will help to achieve your overall business goals.  Below are a number of steps to follow while planning your new website:

1.  List all the information about your product or service that a visitor to your website might be interested in knowing.  Using the website for a school, for an example, you would probably discover that visitors would be looking for information on the staff at the school, classroom size, attendance numbers, and sports programs.  Take the time to brainstorm as many areas related to your product, service or industry that someone might be interested in when visiting the website.

2.  Take on the role of your website visitor.  Visit some websites and review them as if you are in the market for the services those sites have to offer.  As a potential customer, what are the things you like and dislike about each website you visit?  Are you driven to take action?  How easily can you find what you are looking for? How many times do you have to click to find what you are looking for?  Take notes on all this information with the purpose of making your own website as visitor friendly as possible.

3.  Investigate to find out the keywords your visitors will most likely search for to find your website. You don’t need to invest in expensive search tools, Google has a free keyword tool that is adequate for this purpose.  Enter a general phrase related to your product or service, such as “coffee filters” and other related keywords will appear.  Your visitors already have questions about these things.  Knowing this, you can plan your website content to answer their questions up front. 

4.  When planning your new website, make sure to keep in room to grow.  Don’t be lured into a website format that won’t let you expand easily to add new content pages or products.  You will find that building a great website is a constant work in progress. 

5.  The final thing to keep in mind is that you want to be able to control your new website, rather than be at the mercy of your web designer to make even the simplest of changes.   Today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment demands new and fresh content added to your website often, and the old fashioned sites that rely on a web developer to make changes just won’t work anymore.  Your new website should be on a platform that lets you add content quickly and easily.

Your website is most often one of the biggest marketing expenses your business will encounter.  It is critical to take the time to plan a new website that is compatible with your business goals. 

Marty Dickinson is the founder of HereNextYear, Inc., a full service Internet marketing company in business for over 10 years. His specialty is Internet marketing solutions for the small business owner, speakers and authors. Visit to see what HereNextYear has to offer and to learn more about their innovative new website packages fully integrated for ease with social networking and other Internet marketing strategies.