Deciding to take your business on-line is an exciting step. Today, a small-to-medium-sized company can gain worldwide (and local) exposure quickly and inexpensively.

But be sure you're entering the Web arena for the right reasons. The "Me Too" motivation is a powerful force, especially if your competition is already on the Web. Yet, for your site to be successful, you need to offer fresh, compelling information (or "content"), convenience, and service. Otherwise, you're going to invest time and energy (to say nothing of money) in an Internet effort that may not reap the benefits you desire.

The Web is not magic. It takes setting goals and objectives, planning, and strategic implementation, just like any other business endeavour. But, if you go through the steps thoroughly and thoughtfully, you'll find the Internet to be a playground of opportunity unlike anything you've tried before.

Here's the first step. A test, of sorts, to help you take an honest look at your motivation and interests. This will help you define your goals for your Web site, and tell you whether or not the Web is the right move for you at this time.

1. Do you need to broaden your customer base?
2. Are you interested in reaching out to new markets? If so, what are they?
3. Is your competition already on the Web? If not, why not? And how can you turn that to your advantage? If they are on the Web, what are you going to do that is different?
4. Do you need to offer more ways for customers/vendors/employees/associates to communicate and collaborate with you? How?
5. Do you want to deliver information to a particular audience?
6. Are your customers using the Web?
7. Are your customers willing to buy products and services on the Web?
8. How much money do you spend on traditional advertising (including yellow page listings, flyers, etc.)? Could a Web site help you reduce these expenditures?
9. How much money do you have budgeted for your Web site? Start-up costs? Maintenance costs?
10. How much time have you budgeted to create your Web site?
11. Who is going to contribute to your site?
12. Who is going to maintain your site -- answer e-mails, post new content, etc.?

Building Your Web site: Pre-design Planning

Making your Web site an effective -- and great looking -- business tool doesn't have to be hard. Read through the list of questions below to help you begin designing your Web site.

1. What is the primary purpose of the Web site? (Don't pick more than one answer!)
   1. Communicate with current customers -- provide information about new offerings, etc.
   0. Attract new customers.
   0. Expand your distribution/sales channels.
   0. Beat the competition by taking advantage of new technologies.
   0. Provide support to existing customers -- answers to questions, etc.
   0. Provide general information about your company -- an on-line brochure.
   0. Community service.

   Of course you want to do all of the above. But your Web site will be more effective if you don't try to make it all things for all people. Decide what your primary business goal is for your site, and create your content and your design to support that objective. For example, if you want to sell products on-line, you may want your first page to talk about pricing deals or specials -- or highlight new reviews about the quality of your products.

   Focusing on your business goal doesn't mean you can't have other content on your site -- you can on later pages. Or, you can do what some companies have done and create two sites -- targeted at different goals. For example, the company may have one site for prospects and one site for existing customers. Each site delivers information specific to that customer base, and sites are linked together to prevent having to update the same information in two locations.

   Whatever you decide, remember that focusing on your goal will help you deliver your message quickly and efficiently -- without running the risk of confusing or losing your customers.

2. Who is the primary intended audience for your Web site?

   Before you begin designing your site, you'll want to decide who your primary audience will be. Will it be a certain demographic segment? Will it be existing customers? Will it be new prospects? Who you believe will view your site will help you determine what messages to use -- as well as what colours. Neon colours may be just the thing if you sell skateboards, but may be way off the mark if you sell accounting software.

   Who your audience is also will determine what content you offer. If your audience is existing customers, they may need to see only information about new products or services. However, if prospects are your target then you'll want plenty of good information to entice them further into the site.

   How your audience will find the site may help you decide what type of content to offer. For example, will your audience find your site from:

   • A search engine or some other Internet site?
     When people find your site from a search engine or other Internet source, you probably have never met them face to face, nor will you. Your site will be the first impression they have about you and your business.
   • A business card?
     If your business card is driving traffic to your site, then prospects have already met you and want more information. Your site should be to the point and should close the sale.
   • A catalogue?
     If your catalogue is drawing customers, then the Web site may be a great place to offer short term specials on merchandise featured in your catalogue -- especially since it can be changed more quickly and economically than a paper catalogue.
     
     

3. How will you make your site easy to use?

   1. Design the site so that navigating within your site is easy and self-explanatory. Label buttons at the bottom of your pages so customers know what is on each page. Make buttons or other navigational tools consistent throughout the site so customers don't have to find a new set on each page. Make sure customers can tell what is a navigation point and what is a graphic.

   2. Avoid scrolling on the home page. There are times when scrolling is useful and practical, and times when it is not. When a customer comes to your Web site the first time, they don't mind scrolling the first page to see what you are about and what you have to offer, but the second, third and fifth time, this may become annoying. It is better to have the home page shorter than the rest so that a customer can quickly get to the information they want. Scrolling can be beneficial when viewing an article or a large block of text. When you use "previous" and "next" buttons to read through an article, you can quickly distract the user.

   3. Make pages easy to read. To do this:

      • Avoid using too many animated GIFs and images. Although an animated GIF can draw attention to a particular point, too many can be, well, annoying.
      • Ensure that background images or colours enhance your page, rather than hamper it. While pictures of water or mountains may look great as a background, it can make the page almost impossible to read.
      • Remember that normal text, selectable links and selected links should all be different colours and all should show up against your background.
      • Limit the number of typefaces that you use. Too many typestyles and/or colours can be distracting and confusing. For highlighting words or phrases, italic and bold type work nicely.
      • Select a background and look and use this throughout your site. This will make visitors feel more comfortable than if the look changes with each page.
        
        

4. How can you make pages load quickly?

   After surfing the Web, some people try to make their site as fancy and exciting as they possibly can by adding beautiful pictures and animated GIFs. Although interesting to look at, large images and animated GIFs can significantly add to the amount of time it takes to download the page. In general, it is better to have smaller graphics. If you want the illusion of a larger graphic, break it into several small chunks to improve download time.

   The file format you use for graphics also can effect download time. Experiment with GIFs and JPEGs to see which format works best for your images.

5. Can you update your site on a regular basis - and keep it current?

   If you are going to spend the time to build an attractive and effective Web site, you also should plan on reviewing it periodically to ensure it is fresh and up to date. This can be done either daily, weekly or monthly, but you need to establish a schedule.

   Different types of sites require different schedules. If your site is an instructional site for a product, it may only need to be updated when the product changes. If your site is for generating commerce, then it needs to be updated on a regular basis. If you use the site for time-limited offers, you'll need to delete old offers as quickly as possible.

   If your audience is primarily existing customers, you may want to create a "What's New" page to highlight the changes, so customers don't have to hunt for them.

6. Will you accept criticism to make your site more effective?

   It is one thing to build a Web site that you like and feel is effective, but it is another to build a Web site that your customers like and find effective. There are different ways to critique your site.

   One way to critique the site is to ask customers (that you have a strong relationship with and that you feel are representative of those that will visit your site) to look at your site and call you with feedback.

   Another method is to solicit feedback through e-mail. This way your customers can provide you with the information you need to change your Web site to better serve them and improve your business.

   You also can evaluate your site's effectiveness by placing a "hit" counter on your home page as well as pages within your site. This way you can not only see how many people have come to your site, but also which pages are the most visited and which are not. Keep reworking the ones that are not popular until you see that they are attracting more visitors.

7. Should I include images on my Web site?

   Images can be both a help and a hindrance to your site. Remember that it takes time to download an image from your site. If the image is representative of your business, like a logo, or enhances the text descriptions of your product or services, like a picture of your product or a diagram of how it functions, it is probably a good idea to include it. If the image is only there to draw focus to your site and has nothing to do with your business or product, you may want to think seriously about whether or not to include it.

   There are different ways of obtaining images for your Web site. They include clip art libraries, digital cameras, scanners and photo processing services. You will also need a PC-based image editing tool to enhance the images and size them to fit effectively on your Web site. Remember, you will want your images smaller than 640 x 480 to prevent having to scroll to view the complete picture.

   Don't forget to change your images from time to time to keep the site fresh. Remember that it is your responsibility to obtain permission and rights to any image that you choose to use.

8. Should I include hyperlinks on my Web site?

   Hyperlinks (URL links to other sites or to an e-mail address) can be an effective way of communicating with your customer. Offering multiple E-mail links, such as sales, service and billing, provides an easy way for your customers to communicate with your staff .

   When you provide links to other Web sites, they should pertain to your business or location. For example, if you sell multiple product lines from different companies, you can highlight a different company each week or month and provide a link to that company's Web site so customers can read more information about their products. Many businesses do this by providing a monthly newsletter (Web page) on the Internet and highlight different products each month. They can then provide URL links to supporting Web sites within their newsletter.

   But before you add any links, make sure you take a look at the site carefully to make sure they are not advertising for your competitors!