8 keys to website success

If you already have a website, are building a new site, or are revamping your current site, you realize the critical role an online presence has to your success. Your website is an information tool that outlines your product and service offerings, a marketing tool to bring in new business, and a retention tool to keep your existing customers coming back for more.

There is no one single equation for online success, but there are a number of common mistakes that can hinder the success of your website. Here is a look at eight possible elements that can keep you from achieving online success with your website.

1. Have a clear purpose
Whether your website represents your business, an organization, or whether your business is a website, it requires purpose. A website without direction will not produce results. A successful internet presence requires time to plan and define what you expect your website to achieve.

2. Focus on the visitor
Your website must maintain focus on the users of the website. Without satisfied visitors, a website will not be successful. The most common approach is to build the site how you like it or how you want it to be, but visitors’ opinions are much more important. Throughout every stage of the website development process, meeting the needs of visitors should be the primary concern. In the end, the website purpose is actually to meet the needs of its visitors – and it’s only by meeting the needs of its visitors that it will ultimately meet the needs of your business.

3. Provide compelling content
With over 68 million websites online [http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html], the internet is an extraordinarily vast source of information. Your website needs to provide valuable content for visitors. Video, audio, news, tutorials, pictures, online tools, etc — all of these attract visitors and make a website more valuable. Few websites today will continually draw crowds of visitors without having compelling content at hand.

Website content should also be results-oriented. Your website should not talk about how incredible your business is; it should speak to the incredible results your business can achieve for its customers. Visitors do want to know about your background and success stories, but they are interested in that information in relation to how it affects them.

4. Employ a marketing strategy
Regardless of how great your website is, to be successful people need to be able to find it. A website marketing strategy does not require thousands of dollars in advertising. Strong marketing strategies can include spending only a few dollars on targeted pay-per-click ads, optimization for search engines, and social media tie-ins.

There is no limit to what can be done to market a website, but a developed strategy is necessary to ensure you get the right people to visit the site. A website without a marketing strategy gambles that people will somehow find the site, which can sometimes be a long shot in the dark.

5. Continually update content
Successful websites have repeat visitors, and one of the keys to attracting repeat visitors is to continually add new content. Many website owners get excited for the launch of a new website with the potential that exists, but over time that interest often fades. Your website can be an invaluable asset, or it can be a hindrance if there is no commitment to keep it updated and relevant.

6. Have clear calls to action
Goals of different websites vary — selling products, gaining subscribers, or providing information about business services. Successful websites encourage visitors to do what the website proprietor wants them to do. Establishing an effective call to action requires clarity about what you want visitors to do after arriving at your website, and creating clear channels to drive traffic through.

7. Use a functional design
Visitors base their first impression of your site on looks and appearance. While design is important, a design strategy takes into account the website’s target audience — the technical capabilities of their computers and internet connections, their proficiency with technology, and common user interface elements. Not every successful website needs to have a fancy design, full of exciting, technologically-advanced features. A clean, attractive minimal design can be effective for many websites.

Visitors come to your website to find the product or information they seek. Navigation should be easy to use and understand, and always located in the same spot on every page.

Flash has its purpose, but it should not power your website. When implemented poorly, it consumes excessive bandwidth, can confuse users with unconventional navigation and control mechanisms, and also has significant accessibility issues. On the flipside, Flash can be successfully implemented in media-rich microsites.

Website design should never take priority over usability. If a design interferes with visitors’ ability to access and use the site, it is an ineffective design. Designing for user experience is far more important than creating the flashiest and most visually complex website.

8. Use an Analytics tool
Once a visitor arrives on your website, it’s vital to analyze their behavior in detail. Analytics go well beyond a simple hit counter. Modern analytics tools keep track of visits, multiple visits of same visitor, where they are from, how they reached your website, what pages they went to, how long they were on the website, and much more.

Analytics are a key tool on optimizing website content, calls to action, and determining the success of the website marketing strategy. Analyze the pages upon which visitors are most likely to enter the website and the pages that they most likely to exit the website. If a landing page is also the exit page for a disproportionate number of visitors, that page may require some visitor retention focus or the audience may not be marketed appropriately. If the exit page is right before they complete an order or contact form, it could indicate that the prices are too high, content is not compelling enough, or it could be that you have a broken link. Website analytics identify deficiencies and opportunities in the quest to reach your website’s goal.


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