“Do I need a website?”
This is a very common question that business owners all over Australia – and the world – ask themselves every day.
The importance of having a strong presence online has never been greater – no matter whether you are a large international retail chain, a small or medium-sized business, or a local sole trader. Understanding that the world has changed and that, to be competitive, every business really needs to be on the internet (i.e., to have a website), can be confronting for a lot of business owners.
SEOcycle is here to help you.
Website design and development is a process of many steps – but where do you start?
Like almost every other aspect of being in business, it’s about understanding exactly what is required and focusing on that before you even consider creating a website.
Your Audience…
When considering launching a website, just like when launching a new business, you first need to identify and understand your target audience…
- Who is your intended audience?
- What does your audience need/expect from your site?
- What is the purpose of your site going to be?
Answering these questions before you even consider the website itself is imperative to not only save you time but also money.
2 Basic Steps to Consider
- Understand the purpose of your website.
Will your site be showcasing products or services? Will you need several pages of content? Do you need an eCommerce facility on the site? Do you simply need a static site for prospects and leads to learn about you and access your contact information? Do you intend to undertake search engine optimisation activities to broaden your reach online?
Knowing you need a website but without truly understanding its intended purpose can result in confusion, indecision, long development times, increased costs and, ultimately, could even end up with a subpar site that doesn’t really suit your actual needs.
- Understand your site’s audience.
Once you determine your website’s purpose, you need to identify and understand the audience to whom it is targeted. Unless your business is a large company with a huge budget to create a search desire model, you are going to need to tap into existing search patterns. Creating a site without understanding how your intended users will search online is going to be ineffective and may even fail altogether.
- If nobody knows your product or service offering exists, how will online audiences search and find your website? You need to either create a search audience or tap into existing audiences that parallel your new product/concept.
Consider Uber: when they first launched in 2009 in the USA, no one really understood what ride share was. At that time, any website just about ride sharing could have ranked well for the “ride share” keyword, but if no one was searching for it, their message wouldn’t have gotten out. Uber instead would have looked at the market, discovered how people were searching for similar services i.e., taxis, transport, hire cars, etc, and tapped into that market to build awareness of the Uber site.
Everybody is now familiar with Uber and ride shares, but this is a fantastic example that shows how all businesses start small, and how it’s easier and more affordable to tap into existing search patterns than to try and create a new one.
- If you’re offering a well-known product or service (e.g., electrician, plumber, hair salon, café, pet sitting service), the search patterns are easier to define but can also present challenges…
In established niches, you need to get a foothold and expand from there. This means that you must narrow your focus (at least until the site grows and you can expand). For example, if you’re an electrician in Sydney, you would be best to target locally to your area rather than Sydney as a whole, until the site’s audience builds up and you can potentially expand on that.
- Website Elements – the final piece of the basic puzzle
Once you understand your ideal target audience and what search keywords you wish to target, then you can start to talk about the elements of the site that are needed. Don’t just launch a website and then think of the above, as you will waste valuable time and money doing adjustments on factors that should have been implemented in the initial development stages.
Or, better still, hire a professional, affordable web design company like us here at SEOcycle!
Unlike most other web design companies, we are also SEO experts. As such, all of our websites are delivered optimized towards the client’s target market – and should you wish, we can also conduct an effective SEO campaign to further enhance your online visibility.
We also have in-house Australian native-English-speaking professional writers if you need us to provide your written website content.
We will ensure you launch your website with the best chance of success!
Contact us now!
