In the past, promoting yourself was all about having the right branding. Marketing people and designers all told you the importance of branding – The right ‘look’ or logo. But, when it comes to online marketing, the purpose and functionality of a website is key. Successful, high traffic websites do not replicate what is done offline with signs, brochures or display ads, only considering the visual appearance or message.
Fellow WordPress colleague Chris Lema sums up the frustrations well….
Key questions for a business website wanting to grow are: Does it work the best; does it fit us; does it do what we need; will it generate leads; be relevant to customers? These are more important that how ‘pretty it looks’ or personal branding, that rarely generates immediate sales.
Before design or branding – Define a purpose and focus for the site
So, before you all go rushing off to browse through theme sites, or even the features or listing building strategies you’ll need, watch this, which may help you define site purpose and focus…
Note there’s nothing in here about how the site looks or the theme you’ve chosen. Google is blind to such things. It is important to humans, but not Google when it determines if you are worthy of its traffic and sales leads.
This means in the early days of a new website, the content, keywords chosen and methods to capture leads have a higher priority than what the site ‘looks like’. If you’re on a budget, save money and do the bulk of visual design last, not at the beginning…. Remember, this is a website, not a printed brochure.
Conclusion? Talk to an SEO guy first, Coder second, Web Designer last…
Talk to us and we’ll help mark out a website development roadmap that makes sense.
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