In this article I’m going to give you some advice about to get a website that will generate business for you.

To be effective a website needs to have 3 key ingredients.

1. A strategy

Firstly decide what you want your website to do for you. Here are 3 examples of you might want from your site.

• Generate leads for you.
• Sell products or services.
• To improve the support you provide to existing customers.

And there are lots more.

Decide the shape of the site. Once you know what you want from your site you can decide, with your web developer, what the site should look like and what features it will have.

Then you can decide how to market your site. No one will come to your site until you promote it. And these days you need to do more than just getting your site listed on Google.

There are many other options for promoting your site.

• Social media.
• Posting your videos on YouTube.
• Posting your podcasts on iTunes.
• Posting images on sites such as Flickr.
• Send out newsletters.
• Email marketing

To name but a few.

2. An outstanding design.

Outstanding but not outlandish. The design that your site presents is a mirror image of your company. If you want your company to look professional then your website should have a professional looking design.

Keep the design simple but elegant. Keep it uncluttered. A screen full of what looks, at first sight to be a jumble of information will put the viewer off from the word go.

Leave out the bells and whistles and gimmicks. They will only make you look cheap.

Make the navigation clear and straightforward. There’s nothing worse than having to spend time searching for the navigation links to get to other pages.

3. Great content that will interest and impress your visitors.

Gone are the days when you could get away with a 3 page website that just lists your services and tells people how great your company is.

To be effective your site needs to contain good quality content and lots of it. What kind of content and how can you get it? Here are some examples:

• You can write about the results you’ve provided to customers.
• Provide case studies.
• Write articles relating to your business – changes and trends in your field of business for example.
• Provide testimonials from customers.
• Post on your blog about news items relating to your industry.

You don’t have to stick to just text content. Use images, podcasts, and video as well, where appropriate. This will provide variety and give your visitors the option as to how they can access your content.

And remember to add new content frequently to cause people to revisit your site continually.

In conclusion, remember these three key points I’ve explained in this podcast when you’re having your website developed or upgraded and you will end up with a website that will really start to generate business for you.