Who, what and how

Before you even think about developing or commissioning a website, make sure you have a business plan!  Your business plan will have clarified:

1. Your target market - to be successful in the online world you need to be targeted and specific about who your market is. This is critical to getting the right traffic to your website i.e. those that will buy not just looky-loos.
2. Your niche product and services – not knowing your niche will create huge online advertising costs because you can only ever be generic in your search terms and generic terms cost big money.
3. Your business strengths – these can be played upon in online advertising campaigns and organic search to differentiate you from your competitors.

Next you need to delve deeper into why you want a website so you know which website technologies to choose and how you will make money from it. What is your goal with having a website? How will it increase your revenue?

Develop your website goals

Typical reasons for having a website include:

1. 'Everyone has one so I should have one too, so I am on an even playing field'.
2. 'I want to sell my products and/or services online'.
3. 'I want to have an internet presence so my (potential) customers can find me'.
4. 'I want my business to look professional and these days if you don't have a website you aren't in the game'.
5. 'I want something that tells people how to contact me'

The problem with these reasons for having a website is that they aren't really goals. What you really want to do is determine what your true goals are. True goals should state:

1. what you want to gain
2. by when
3. how it will be measured as a success.