As a business owner, or a director in a non-profit organization, you may feel a lot of anxiety about your website. Your current site may be several years old now and may not be presenting a very flattering image of your organization. As you surf around the worldwide web, you'll likely see hundreds or even thousands of exceptional (and expensive) sites, many incorporating the latest whizz-bang features. You'll likely wonder "how can I possibly compete for attention with that!" and "how can I even afford to try."

Well, I have good news for you. The measure of a good website for your business is not whether it stacks up well against apple.com, but how well it supports your marketing strategy. This may seem overly simplistic, but the fact is, your website will be an effective marketing tool for your business if it provides your customers with what they need to do business with you.

Your website doesn't have to be elaborate, or overly expensive to attract customers, it just needs to be:

Professional
As you saw in your travels around the web, the need for a professional, well-designed website is a must. You can definitely tell when you've landed on a cheesy, unprofessional site. Guess what? Your customers can too! Your website says a tremendous amount about your business. Make sure it is saying the right thing.

Easy to Use
One interesting trait about web surfers is that they get frustrated easily, especially when they can't find what they are looking for. And when they do, they simply click and move on to another site. Your site had better be intuitive and easy to navigate or visitors won't stay around long enough to read what you have to say.

Valuable
Let's face it, if your business is successful, it is because you know what you are doing—you are the expert. And if you are the expert, the content on your website should reflect that. There is a lot of talk about "Search Engine Optimization" (and I'll talk about it more in future postings), but the simple fact is, if you have great content, your customers will find you.

These are the basics. If you get this right, I can guarantee your site will start working for you. Our upcoming postings will discuss these areas in more detail, as well as other considerations and tips for creating an effective website.

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