Website Marketing Pt 1 - Choosing a Website For the Right Reasons

So you've made the decision that you want a website. Maybe you're a small business looking to move your company profile online; or a sole trader hoping for new leads and business contacts; or perhaps you're thinking that if all your competitors are presently online then you should be too.

Reasons may differ, but one thing is certain, you shouldn't just do it for the sake of it and expect your business to be revolutionised overnight. After all, you're going to be paying a substantial sum of money to see your website designed, developed and put online. You should really have your goals set out long before any money exchanges hands.

A common mistake to make is the belief that once your website is visible, the visitors will start flooding in. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Imagine your website as an acorn on a forest floor. What are the chances of that one specific acorn being found amongst all the other acorns that have fallen from the multitude of oak trees spread across the acreage that makes up the forest? Do we really need to answer that? The odds are stacked insurmountably against that one acorn ever being found.

There are so many businesses that have fallen into the trap of putting their website onto the internet and then left it at that. Maybe they think that after spending a reasonable sum on the web design in the first place, they shouldn't need to spend any more.

Unfortunately this isn't the case.

Websites need marketing, just as you'd market any other aspect of your business. After all, you wouldn't spend money on an advertising campaign and then shut the resulting literature away in a bottom drawer so nobody would ever see it. Not unless it was really bad, of course.

But there are those that apply this mentality to their website.

If you've no intention of marketing your website, then you'd be better off forgetting the idea and saving your money. You certainly won't see a return on that initial investment.

But if you're still determined to have your website, and recognise the marketing in some form will be required, the second part of this article will discuss the options open to you