A strategic website’s core purpose is to serve, support, and sell. Specific marketing goals will vary by organization. They may include sharing information, selling a product, completing a lead generation form, downloading technology, making a donation, picking up the phone, complementing advertising campaigns, building credibility, branding, and more. To accomplish these goals, effective websites come in all shapes, sizes, designs, and technologies.
By the time you read this sentence, there may be 500 million (or more!) websites on the World Wide Web. This is enough to make marketers wonder, among all that noise, how will their websites make their mark in cyberspace? The answer is to have clear marketing goals and a sound website plan. The only constant with web marketing and website management is change. Website work is never finished. While that might seem like a weakness, in fact, the fluid nature of websites is their greatest strength. They are a scalable solution (when done right) that can expand and grow to support an organization’s expansion. Websites serve an organization’s goals when they serve the people using them first.
Whether you are building a website from the ground up or optimizing an existing website, this chapter sheds light on best practices. You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint. The same philosophy needs to be applied to building a successful website.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: DOMAIN NAMES
Before a website goes into design and development, there is one important housekeeping item that needs to be addressed. Domain names (also known as URLs, or uniform resource locators) will need to be purchased. It is strongly recommended that organizations own their domain names and website hosting for ease of management. Having a third party control these elements gives them (not you) power and can incur extra charges or headaches if transitions occur.
Selecting a Domain Name
When considering a domain name, think of factors like URL length, misspellings, and company synergy. Will it be remembered easily and work on business cards? Does the name need to sound the way it is spelled for branding? Is the domain only being used for search engine optimization (by having priority key phrases in the URL)? “Search Engine Optimization.”)
When contemplating domain name selection, there are some expanded points to ponder so you can build a website using an address that will live on for the life of your organization. Well this concludes part one. Hope it was helpful.
By the time you read this sentence, there may be 500 million (or more!) websites on the World Wide Web. This is enough to make marketers wonder, among all that noise, how will their websites make their mark in cyberspace? The answer is to have clear marketing goals and a sound website plan. The only constant with web marketing and website management is change. Website work is never finished. While that might seem like a weakness, in fact, the fluid nature of websites is their greatest strength. They are a scalable solution (when done right) that can expand and grow to support an organization’s expansion. Websites serve an organization’s goals when they serve the people using them first.
Whether you are building a website from the ground up or optimizing an existing website, this chapter sheds light on best practices. You wouldn’t build a house without a blueprint. The same philosophy needs to be applied to building a successful website.
FIRST THINGS FIRST: DOMAIN NAMES
Before a website goes into design and development, there is one important housekeeping item that needs to be addressed. Domain names (also known as URLs, or uniform resource locators) will need to be purchased. It is strongly recommended that organizations own their domain names and website hosting for ease of management. Having a third party control these elements gives them (not you) power and can incur extra charges or headaches if transitions occur.
Selecting a Domain Name
When considering a domain name, think of factors like URL length, misspellings, and company synergy. Will it be remembered easily and work on business cards? Does the name need to sound the way it is spelled for branding? Is the domain only being used for search engine optimization (by having priority key phrases in the URL)? “Search Engine Optimization.”)
When contemplating domain name selection, there are some expanded points to ponder so you can build a website using an address that will live on for the life of your organization. Well this concludes part one. Hope it was helpful.