Probably the most critical part of Internet marketing for your business is organizing your website so it will achieve your overall goals.  But this critical step is usually the one business people skip, or just leave it to their web designer to consider, which can be even more damaging to their overall goals. 

By strategically planning your new website or an update of your existing website, you will ensure you have a marketing piece that showcases your business to its best, allows you to be in control of ongoing content updates, and achieves the goals you have set for your business.  Below are a number of steps to follow while planning your new website:

1.  Create a list of anything your website visitors will want to know about the product or service you are offering.  If you are planning a website for a school, for example, the visitors would be interested in how man students attend, classroom sizes, staff information and sports offered.  Take the time to brainstorm as many areas related to your product, service or industry that someone might be interested in when visiting the website.

2.  Imagine for a short time that you are a potential website customer.  Visit and review some websites similar to the one you will offer as if you were a potential customer.  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 driven to take action?  How easily can you find what you are looking for? How many different pages do you have to click through to find what you want?  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.  Your visitors already have questions about these things.  By arming yourself with this information, you will be able to plan your website to answer their questions right away. 

4.  When planning your new website, make sure to keep in room 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 website is not static, but rather should change constantly to meet your customer needs. 

5.  Finally, make sure your website is easy to control, so you don’t have to rely on your website designer to make even the smallest changes.   Today’s dynamic Internet marketing environment demands new and fresh content added to your website often, and the old fashioned sites that rely on a web developer to make changes just won’t work anymore.  Your new website should be on a platform that lets you add content quickly and easily.

Usually, a new website is one of your business’ largest expenses.  Make the most of your investment with a new website that supports the goals you have set for your business. 

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.