To Sell Well Plan Well…

There are many types of website. From B2B to B2C and each and every website wants to be popular in their desired segment and want’s to be a step ahead of their competitors, on every front whether it is design or programming aspect of the website. No stone is kept unturned to attract more and more visitors. Website should cater to the user requirement without wasting their valuable time. Minimum time but maximum output.

Now how can we achieve this? Yes, only by proper planning. So we normally consider, content, navigation, business objective, visual look and feel, message or messages to be highlight more and so on.

I think that following are six of the most important points which should be considered while planning for any kind of website. I feel now website can fall outside the points. These six points have helped me in planning my website and satisfy my clients' requirement. There is no fix order for these points when considering them.

Points are:

Image of the Organization: Every website represent some organization, and every organization has its own image for the world. Every aspect of the website should communicate this. Now it varies with every web analyst how he/she may want to communicate this image rather how you’d like your customers to look at your IMAGE. It is up to you, how you want to represent the organization through the website, it depends on your priorities like do you want to do branding first and then go for others things. It require a lot of planning and understanding of your precise need and priorities

Return on Investment [ROI]: Every business needs investment and every investor wants a return on investment as soon as possible. Well it depends on the business of organization whether they want to make money from the site or just make their presences, or it is the secondary source of marketing to get business indirectly or just a value added service. Once you are through with this, you can go further on making website.

If you are making money from it you got to be bit more serious about products/services the organization want to sell through the website. It should visually be good, updated on regular basis, and Search Engine Optimization [SEO] has to be done on regular basis. Create application to track your user/visitors activity on the website. Start profiling the user irrespective of its status registered or not. This will help you setting the priorities according to the public demand.

Proper Navigation: This is backbone of every website. Visitor should not face difficulties in reaching the information they desire. Most common heads should be present on all the parts of the screen. That is top, bottom left and right. Make point to add go to TOP link if the content of the page is scrollable. No information should be 3 clicks away from the root/homepage. Make point to create the page pointer so the user knows where is at present on the site. Example: If user is browsing through the contact info of the organization and is on commercial contact page then, create a pointer at top of the content like CONTACT-> COMMERCIAL. Providing a search box option should also be considered for content heavy sites, like news portal, online education systems, etc.

Update on Regular Interval: You should consistently update your site so that the visitor finds new information and visits again and again which will consistently makes its mark on visitors minds. Try and give niche information or solution to your visitors that no other site provides. If you are successful in providing this you, then you can rest assured that visitors will make your site very very busy.

Bug Free, Good Content and Security: Strictly no bugs. Create strong error tracking/handling application. Webmaster should make a point that he/she is informed of all the bugs, which occur. This will help him/her to resolve it and prevent from reoccurring.

Content should be very precise, creative and brief. No user has time for lengthy and boring contents. "Boring professor in no one’s favorite".

Security is vital when user is submitting personal or commercial information. Every visitors wants the security of an e-mail which he wrote, Credit card number etc, if it is online banking, then customer wants his account number, transaction details kept secure and safe.

Support your internal operations: Make best use of all available technologies, and integrating them with your online operations.

Example applications to consider include:

· Instant messaging, Email facilities for your employee and clients
· Make client area on your existing website, so it can check for it’s regular update.
· Just-in-time training or on-the-spot manuals for your operatives.