Before the first graphic is drawn or the first line of code is written, you must define the website's budget, purpose, target audience, design, navigation, and content. And when that's all said and done you must define the marketing that will bring visitors to your site.

It sounds easy, but you'd be amazed at how many really bad business websites there are out there. Yours might even be one of them. If so, listen up. For nearly ten years now my company has been building and rebuilding websites for every kind of business you can imagine: from mom-and-pops to multinationals. We've designed (or redesigned) a couple hundred websites and along the way I have come to the conclusion that most business websites do a pitiful job of working for their owners.

What's that, you didn't know your business website should work for you? You think it should just sit on a server somewhere taking up digital space and collecting digital dust?

Wrong. Every website, business or otherwise, must serve a purpose, and that's usually where most websites falls short. They serve no purpose because the website owner never gave much thought to it. It's not the website's fault. A website is inanimate. It is only what you make it. The only life a website has is the one given to it by its designer and owner. If the human element doesn't do a good job of defining the building blocks, the website will serve no purpose and eventually die a digital death.

Building an effective business website isn't brain surgery, thank goodness, since that's how I make a nice percentage of my living. Building an effective, well-designed website that works for its owner, that actually serves a purpose, is all about definition.

Define the Budget Every website, no matter how large or small, must have a realistic budget, with "realistic" being the key word. I can't tell you how many times I've sat with a potential client as they listed off the eight million cool things they wanted their website to do, only to find out that their budget was just a few hundred dollars. I always feel like saying, "Well you just wasted three hundred dollars of my time, so here's your bill..."

Define the Purpose Every website must have a purpose. Purpose drives everything: the audience, the design, the navigation, the content, and the marketing. I could do an entire column on purpose, but suffice it to say that there are five categories of purpose under which most websites fall: the purpose to inform, to educate, to entertain, to generate leads, to sell, or a combination thereof. If you fail to define the purpose of the website, all else is just wasted effort.

Define the Target Audience Your target audience refers to that segment of the public that you hope to attract to the site. For example if you sell shoes, your target audience would be anyone with feet. Taking it a step further, if you only sold women's shoes, your target audience would be women (with feet) Why is defining your target audience so important? If you have no idea who your audience is, how can you expect to design a website that will appeal to them? Your target audience could be customers, investors, job seekers, info seekers, etc. Define your target audience, then figure out how to serve them.

Define the Design Website design theory has changed over the last couple of years, primarily because the search engines now ignore graphic heavy websites and give preference to those that take a minimalistic approach to design. If you look at some of the big boy websites like GE, Oracle, Raytheon, HP, and others you will see that in many cases the only graphic on the homepage is the company's logo. Search engines now give higher preference to websites that offer keyword-rich text over flashy graphics. Don't fight the design trend. You will lose.

Define the Navigation Bad navigation is the number one reason website visitors abandon a website. Navigation refers to the chain of links the visitor uses to get around your site. If your site has an illogical navigational hierarchy or too few or too many links or is simply impossible to get around, you've got problems. We live in a microwave society. We stand in front of the microwave tapping our foot and glaring at our watch wondering why it takes so damn long for a bag of popcorn to pop. Why can't a three-minute egg be done in thirty seconds? If it takes a visitor more than 3 clicks to get to any page on your site, your navigation needs improvement.

Define the Content Content refers to the information on your website, be it graphics, text, downloadable items, etc. Since the top search engines no longer use HTML Meta tag data to index websites, it is vital that your website content be text heavy, succinct and well-written to appeal to the search engine spiders.

Define the Build Method Next, who will build the website for you? Will you do it yourself using one of the point and click website builders or will you hire the kid next door? Will you hire a freelance designer or a professional firm? Budget usually dictates the build method, but be warned, when it comes to website development, you get what you pay for. Sure, the kid next door will throw up a site for you if you buy them a pizza or make your daughter go to the prom with them, but you will end up a with a website that looks like and performs like it was designed by the kid next door.

Define the Marketing If you build it, will they come? Not on your life, at least not without a good marketing campaign. Your website should become a part of all your marketing efforts, online and off.

Put the website address on your business cards, brochures, letterhead, and all collaterals. Include the address in your ads; print, TV and radio. If you prefer to do online marketing, figure out where your target audience surfs and advertise there.

If marketing is foreign to you, do yourself a favor and call in an expert. Many businesses fail because they simply do not know how to market their products and services effectively. This is also the downfall of most business websites.

Here's to your success!
About the Author

Tim serves as the president and CEO of three successful technology companies and is the founder of DropshipWholesale.net, an online organization dedicated to the success of online and eBay entrepreneurs. http://www.prosperityandprofits.com - http://www.smallbusinessqa.com - http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Web Design... How to find a low cost web design company In this article I will give advice and tips of where to find a low cost website design company and also about the best ways of producing a cool website. How many people or companies are advertising their services for web design? The answer is a great deal. They surely can not all be asking for huge sums of money to build and design quality websites. There must be some who offer cheap, affordable websites. If you think about a company or person who is just starting out, they have not got a very large portfolio of previous work and clients to show, and in this situation are likely in these early days to offer you a competitive rate. Once they become more established they will then no doubt increase their prices. To find these companies which are just starting out, I would advise looking on auction websites like ebay, looking in Yellow Pages, looking in newspapers such as a paper we have here in the Midlands called bargain pages. Looking on the internet on search engines and...

Web Design, Web Site Design News

eBay Software Seller Sentenced To Four Years (InformationWeek) Jeremiah Mondello was found guilty of stealing bank account information and creating more than 40 fake eBay and PayPal identities to sell illegal copies of software. Motorcycle stolen in 1974 found on eBay (The Philadelphia Inquirer) NEWARK, N.J. - Prosecutors say a Harley-Davidson motorcycle stolen nearly 34 years ago in Rhode Island has surfaced in central New Jersey. The 1971 Sportster, listed on eBay by a Voorhees man, was purchased for $2,400 by Michael Meistrell of Cranford. 4 years for Ore. man for eBay counterfeit software (AP via Yahoo! Finance) Some prices on eBay can look like a real steal -- and in the case of Jeremiah Mondello, that's exactly what it was. Mondello is going to federal prison for four years for selling counterfeit software on the online auction service. Zimbabwe's $100B Bank Note Prized On eBay (CBS News) Amid Zimbabwe's mind-boggling hyper inflation, a new 100 billion dollar bank note has more value as a novelty item on eBay than on the streets of the capital.