Probably the most critical part of Internet marketing for your business is organizing your website so it will achieve your overall goals.  However, most business people ignore this critical step, or leave it to their web designer to take care of, which can often be even worse. 

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.  Here are a number of important steps to take in the website planning process:

1.  Create a list of anything your website visitors will want to know about the product or service you are offering.  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.  Try to list every possible topic about your industry, service or product that a visitor to your new website might be interested in knowing.

2.  Take on the role of your website visitor.  Surf the Internet and visit various sites offering similar services, then review them as a potential customer would.  As a visitor who is genuinely interested in your product or service, what are the good things and bad things about each site you visit?  Are you inspired to take action from the website?  How easily can you find what you are looking for? Are there a lot of pages to navigate through to get to what you are looking for?  With the goal of making your website as easy for potential customers to use as possible, note all of this information down for future use.

3.  Research to find out what keywords your visitors might search for. 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.  These are the topics that people are searching for already.  With this information in hand, you can plan your website to feature content that answers people’s questions. 

4.  Make sure to plan your website to grow.  Don’t be lured into a website format that won’t let you expand easily to add new content pages or products.  A good website is a constant work in process. 

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.   Old fashioned websites that only a web developer can change do not work in today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment that demands new content added regularly.  You need a website platform that will allow you to add website content fast and simply.

Usually, a new website is one of your business’ largest expenses.  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.

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