Sounds like an oxymoron but is true nonetheless.

Businesses often build websites, with the intention to make money, without having carefully thought and planned the entire process. If you are in the process of building or rebuilding your website, this post is for you. For those of you who already have a website running, you could very well draw some inferences for making appropriate changes to your website or mark it for future reference.

Before jump starting your online business (or for that matter any business), you will have to define clear and concise goal(s); objectives that you wish to achieve via your website. Without a goal you are headed nowhere because you don’t know where you are going. It’s like hitting the road without actually knowing the destination. You can drive as much as your want but you would reach ‘nowhere’.

Your website goal could range from selling products/services to building your brand – whatever it is, you need to know for sure what you need to achieve. Once you are fixated on the goal(s) you want to achieve through your website, the job is half done (well begun is half done). You now need to ascertain the key performance indicators aka KPIs to measure your goal(s); the measurement part kicks in after the launch of website. The stage is all set – from here on you need to start working your way back.

It is essential that the website is designed to fulfill your goal(s). The website’s navigational structure should be designed to guide visitors to perform the desired action. It is imperative that every page is treated as a landing page - an entrance to the conversion process. If the entry doors are conspicuously absent, visitors would leave without fulfilling any of the goal(s). Please don’t expect that visitors would find these entry doors; you have to keep it wide open for them. Website content that urges visitors to perform the intended action(s) also plays a pivotal role in this entire process. Besides this, the website design should fulfill usability and readability parameters. Also, it is imperative to ensure that the website is not complex and/or cluttered – simple works fine.

If you are looking to promote your website using search engine optimization it is important that the on-page factors are incorporated during the design and development stage. Your SEO strategy will need to be ingrained into the website design. Search engine optimization should never be considered as an afterthought. If you do so you would duplicate efforts and end up redoing work (some if not all) done during the design and development cycle. It is therefore important that all these activities are carried out in tandem and are synchronized to achieve synergy. If you plan to hire an SEO agency, it is always a good idea to have them actively involved in the design and development of the website.

There are too many activities going on simultaneously and it is easy to lose sight of your goal. You would therefore need to carefully examine all activities to ensure that they are on track. Implement ‘course correction analysis’ to continuously monitor these activities and identify any deviation from the set objectives. I am not trying to scare you but it is crucial that all the pieces fit together perfectly when they are put together. It will decide whether your business is a success or a failure. ‘Going back to the drawing board’ is an option you should avoid at all costs.

In essence, every building block of your website should individually and commutatively work together to fulfill the goal. The only way of ensuring this is to work you way back to the smallest denominator with the ultimate goal in mind. Since each element will be built to fulfill the ultimate goal, the entity as a whole (website) will do exactly the same - help you achieve your goal.