Take a fresh look at your website...
What's the goal of your website?- To inform?
- To build a community?
- To gain valuable market research?
- To reduce support and customer service costs?
- To reach a broad audience with a message?
- To find sales leads?
- To conduct e-commerce?
- To gain advertising revenue?
- To brand your company?
- To build trust?
- To reduce printing and mailing costs?
These are just some of the many possibilities. Remember, the web is not just a marketing tool - it's a business tool as well. While it is perfectly okay to have an Internet billboard that simply contains contact information, why settle for that when your site can do so much more? Even the smallest local business can utilize the power of the Internet to be more efficient and to build revenue. Once you start thinking about it, it's easy to get excited about the potential for your site.
Identify your target audience
Narrow this definition down to fit your particular customers. It's time to think like your target audience.
What do they want to see?
What information do they need?
Why are they even visiting your site?
If you can't get into their mindset, organize an informal focus group and ask them what they want. It's that easy!
Let them poke around your current site and give you feedback. Usability issues can be identified during this process as well.
You may find you need a formal usability analysis, a redesign or new content sections. Sometimes it's even better to scrap the old site and start over from scratch. The important thing is that when you build a great site that keeps your users in mind, it will be easier to get good links, good rankings and all around good results. Your company and your customers will benefit - and best of all - you won't be as dependent on search engine rankings to meet your goals.
