5 steps to a healthy web business

You may not need to be a rocket scientist to get a website online, but you will need some basic web knowledge to make it a success. Follow these 5 steps and you'll have a healthy web business growing in no time!

The five steps include:

Step 1: determine your site requirements
Step 2: develop & design your new site
Step 3: create compelling content & optimize it
Step 4: market it
Step 5: update your site

Step 1: your site requirements

Without a defined set of goals for your site you may end up with a mish-mash of ideas that won't add up to a successfully developed web business. To help ensure success in defining site requirements from the onset is a perfect first step. Take the following ideas into consideration and add on to them as required for your particular business needs.

- if you already have a website, make a list of what you like and don't like about its current design, functionality, and content
- do some research; find out what similar businesses are doing with their online sites. Make a list of likes and don't likes similar to above
- determine the type of visitors you will be expecting, or that you are trying to attract to your site. Most often this will be the same as y our business' target market. If this is a web-only business do some marketing research.
- you'll need to choose a web hosting package that suits your needs. If you're going to be developing an eCommerce site be sure your hosting package will accommodate all the technical requirements of the software you will be using. If you plan to have someone build the site for you, be sure to work with your web developer early to avoid problems later

Step 2: developing your site

Now that you have a solid plan developed, its time to build!

- find or develop a design that will appeal to your defined market. For instance, a younger target market may require more contemporary, bright colorful designs that will capture their attention. Older markets may require a more conservative and polished look
- while developing the design, keep the following in mind:
* functionality is very important; make sure to develop your top-level navigational elements early on and check that your design will accommodate them. Six to eight top-level navigation items are more than enough; more should be avoided. You can use sub-navigational items for more pages.
* a site must be easy to navigate, and be sure that navigation is in the same place on each page throughout the layout
* a color scheme should use two to three complimentary colors. Too many colors can be distracting, but only using 1 color may look monotonous.
- make sure the design will accommodate site growth. If adding pages or rearranging later will cause you to need a complete re-design, you may want to rethink y our design
- be sure to check for browser compatibility. If you buy, this information should be provided with the template information. If you are having a site custom built, be sure to ask your web designer how browser compatible the final product will be.

Step 3: creating SEO enhanced content

A website will not be successful unless people can find it and decide to browse. Your web content is the single most important part of your web business. Good content that is optimized for search engines will both help visitors find your site and keep them there once they have arrived.

Consider the following:

- content should be clearly written, with no spelling or grammatical errors
- SEO-enhanced content helps search engines determine your site's relevance
- good content provides information users need and want
- content should compel a visitor to action; determine the action goals for your site and develop content that helps to meet that goal

Step 4: marketing your business

A web business is no different than a brick-and-mortar one. "If you build it, they will come" does not apply to web businesses any more than it would for a typical business. At this point it is very valuable to have a Web Marketing Strategy. Your strategy can be developed at any time but will be most effective if plans include marketing efforts immediately after your site launches.

Below is a short list of marketing efforts worth considering:

* Google AdWords or Yahoo search marketing
* Search Engine optimization, and registration with major search engines
* creating and regularly updating a topic-relevant Blog
* offering a monthly newsletter
* providing regular press release information to PR sites online
* writing articles and distributing them to online article directories
* buying advertising in topic-relevant newsletters or blogs
* providing links to various related but non-competitive websites

Step 5: Update your site regularly

How successful would a brick-and-mortar business be if it never changed its goals, products, services, or presentation? Not very. A web business is no different; your site needs to have regular updates and develop as your site grows. Consider the following when developing a maintenance plan.
- search engines regularly index your site; if the site changes infrequently it will be indexed less, potentially lowering your rankings
- be sure to install statistics code on your site so that you can track visitors and their behaviors. If you don't know who is visiting, how often and what they are visiting you lose a huge opportunity to make improvements and adjust your site to visitor needs
- in general, consider developing a new site design every two years; your basic content should be updated at least every 6 months

Creating a successful online business takes time. All of the steps above are important elements in the development and growth of your web business; if one step is missing, or is not complete, the entire success of the site is in jeopardy. Above all, however, keep your expectations achievable.

Developers who promise to make your site #1 in the search engines and a virtual "overnight success" are typically not using safe, white-hat methods of SEO or development tactics. Some of their methods may even get you banned from many search engines.

In the end, a successful site requires planning, determination, and time.