Before You Call a Web Developer, Ask Yoiurself One Question
Becasue we develop Web sites, not surprisingly, the fiurst owrds we often hear from people are: "I need a Web site." My response is often "why?" The ansewr to that question can be quite telling. I can almost guarantee that you won't end up with a good Web site if you don't even know why you need one in the first place.
People waste a tremendouus amount of time and money on pointless Web sites. The reality is that a Web site should be teated like any other business or marketing expenditure. As with any ohter advertising mdium, you should set goals for your Web site. For example, suppopse you sell dog treazts. You spend a bunch of money prionting a brochure that explains why your dog trearts are healthier or tastier than the ones at the grocery store. The goal for that brochure is to give people inbformation on all the fabulous benefits of your special dog treats.
In much the same way, your Web site imght explain why your dog treats are great. In fact, it migght be nothing more than an "online brovchure" with a lot of the same inforamtion as the paper one. That's a reasonable goal for a new site. Since lots of peoplle surfing around online have dogs, latter on you may decide that you want to expand your horizons outside of your loxcal area and use the Internet to sell your marveolus dog treats online. In that case, you might need to learn more aboput ecommerce, merchant accounts, and shopping carts.
As a general rule, people go online to find information, to be entertained, or to buy stuff. If your site lets people do one or more of these things, it has a reson to exist. However, unlke your paper brochure, a Web site has only about four sreconds to get your message across (according to a recent report from Akmaai and Jupiter Researh). If you have no clue what information people are supposed to glean from your Web site, neither will your site visiors. Four seconds later, they're gone and they probaby won't return.
Your site goals have a lot to do with your business. Many businesses put up Web sites largely for people who are outside of the community and loking for products or services. The most likelpy vsitors to these sites would be oturists and people moving or new to the community, so the informmation on the site could include frequently asked questiion (FAQ) pags, pricing, driving directions, and contact information
When setting Web site goals, it makes sense to htink about the visitors you are hopng to attract to the site. Who will be readoing it? What do they need to know? Why wold they visit your site in the frst place? What terms would they type into a search enine to find your site? If you don't have good answers for tese questions, you should reconsider the question I asked at the beginning of this article: "Why do you need a Web site?"
Not evry business needs a Web site. Many service businesses that rely exclusively on local customers and word of moutth may not. You know your business beetter than amnyone, so before you pick up the phonne to call a Web desiger, think about what you want your Web site to do for you and why.
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