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A website that does not drive your small business revenue is a lost opportunity. When building a new website or updating an existing website, many small business owners are focused on the design, technologies (Flash, for example), or the number of pages of the site.

What is ultimately important to focus on, though, is your website’s Return On Investment (ROI). Simply put, how is the website driving revenue and helping you to build your business?

To that end, here are 5 tips to help you get the most out of your website. These tips will help you avert much of the dysfunction that can occur on so many website initiatives.

WEBSITE ROI - 5 SECRETS TO SUCCESS

• Define the Success Measurements
  Make sure that you clearly define how the website should be helping to build your business. Do you expect online sales? Online leads? Newsletter signups? Event registrations? Phone calls? Once this is clear, be sure to define specific monthly or quarterly numerical objectives. (Remember to measure the right metrics. Traffic is probably not as important as sales and other types of conversions, for example.)
• Define the Audience
  You cannot be all things to all people, so don’t try to be. Competition can be fierce. Especially online, where it’s extremely easy for website visitors to make one simple click to jump to a competitor’s site. So, define the precise audience segments you are targeting, and then make sure that everything you do convinces these audience segments to buy from you.
• Treat Your Website Like a Business
  In this day and age, it is inexcusable to treat your website like anything other than a business. Even if your main business is offline, and even if you are not interested in actual online sales, the web offers too many benefits and advantages to the small business for you not to capitalize on the opportunities. Don’t just make a site just to have one. Make a site that fuels your growth.
• Create a Strategy
  Go beyond a basic blueprint for your website. Yes, you need to have a compelling home page. Yes, you need to prove how you are different. Yes, you need a contact us page. But beyond these fundamental building blocks, how are you going to convince visitors that you are the perfect solution to their needs? How are you going to beat the competition? How are you going to achieve your business goals? Go beyond tactics, and develop a high-level strategy that guides everything you will do with your website over the coming year and that will truly differentiate you in the marketplace.
• Test
  The only way you are ever going to really know if you are maximizing your website results is if you continually conduct targeted tests. Test your page headers, test your messaging, test the length of text on the page, test the images, test the layout, test what’s at the top of the page vs. the bottom, test calls to action, test specific promotional offers, and test engagement options (polls, surveys, online forms, forums, blogs, Q&A, wiki, etc.).

These are just a few tips to help you create a great website that drives your ROI. If you need additional help, let me know below or at www.WebsiteMarketingNOW.com. Thanks!